I’ll throw in an almost useless “me, too” for the Drake/Flint “Belisarius” series, though there is (or at least was) a hardcover-only book smack dab in the middle of the series that might throw you off, although by now even the hardcover price has probably dropped, or it may even be at a local used book store.
And yet another lame “me, too” on Stirling’s Peshawar Lancers and Conquistador. Both are standalone novels, but with some good sequel potential.
I can take or leave the Nantucket series, and the Emberverse goes downhill quickly after A Meeting At Corvallis, IMO.
I’m rather the same as magnusblitz re “Temeraire”: discovered the series a few years ago, read it keenly, in sequence, for a while; then went somewhat cool on it. In part, for the reasons which magnusblitz cites; also, the consideration that surely in a world which featured intelligent, tameable dragons – that circumstance would have had a lot of influence on history, which would likely have run very differently from “our time-line”. Yet in Novick’s novels, the Napoleonic Wars seem to go exactly as in our time-line; except with dragon “air forces”.
I have just become aware that Novick has lately had published another novel – Uprooted. Again, concerns dragons – but, at any rate, not participating in the Napoleonic conflict. This book is set, one gathers, in a fantasy version of Poland. Reckon I might perhaps give it a try.
Another Turtledove, brought to mind by Bridget Burke’s “Alternate Solar System” reference: his stand-alone novel A World of Difference. Its premise is that Mars’s position in the solar system, is occupied by a different planet: fertile and life-friendly in an Earth-like way, home to numerous and varied oddly-constructed species, including one with human-level intelligence. Novel recounts the experiences of human manned missions from Earth to the planet, and their interactions with what lives there. I found it a delight; others’ mileages may vary.
I agree, Turtledove’s stand-alones tend to be higher-quality, and more original, than his series; and give less scope for his tendency to “literary bloat”, than the series do.
I like George R.R. Martin’s shared universe Wild Cards series, which supposes that, after an alien ship is accidentally destroyed by a well-meaning heroic type right around WWII, a virus is released that causes various mutations-most deadly, a small percentage of those unbeneficial or mostly useless, and a small percentage of those of great value. Alternate history-wise, it gets into the House UnAmerican Committee, the Viet Nam Conflict, various elections, The Cuban Conflict(never happens because Castro sticks with baseball), and various real politicians and celebrities(Jim Morrison-a real Lizard King!).
I liked Scott Westerfeld’s Leviathan series. It is an Alternate WWI where one side uses Steampunk technology and the other uses Genetic engineering. It was a fun read.
The most recent arc in the Dies the Fire series (The Golden Princess, The Desert and the Blade, and the preview chapters for the not-yet-released Prince of Outcasts) are, imho, quite a bit better than the last few books that came before them, where it was pretty clear, I think, that SM Stirling had kind of lost his passion for what was going on.
Well, it helps that he’s stealing a lot of ideas from the people who wrote stories in his shared universe. Especially the California and Northern Australian cultures.
Sealion Press is an ebook publisher of Alternate Histories, several of which got their start (and/or are still available) on alternatehistory.com. Festung Europa: The Anglo-American Nazi War is one of my favorites, although the style, written as excerpts from history books, might not be your thing. It’s also slightly bloody.
Dislocated to Success, the memoirs of the British Foreign Minister from after the UK from 1980 was “ISOTed” back to 1730, is excerpted from an ongoing althist.com story which I follow, but which might also be a bit of an acquired taste. Both from format, politics (not just political slant, but by the amount of time spent on political nitty gritty. Like, many chapters on elections, upper-level meetings on Conservative Party official manifesto, polling…the political equivalent of hard science fiction/techno thrillers, I think. I can recognize a fellow rivet-counter when I see one. ), and the linguistic Britishisms from some characters are occasionally so thick that I have trouble making out the dialogue.
I’ve seen good things about Superpower China. Decisive Darkness is as dry or dryer than The Anglo-American Nazi War, but more bleak and gruesome.
I did notice the sudden mass death of the bad guys, yes.
But seriously, the reasoning behind it made sense, and those particular bad guys had defied the odds by surviving previous events that should have ended them… no reason that their supranatural luck had to continue. They died prosaically, not in heroic single combat… but so what? Narratively abrupt but not jarringly impossible.
I don’t have a problem with the ending of the Nantucket trilogy. I actually feel it worked pretty well. It was based on a point that Sterling had been making throughout the series; the Nantucket government was a stabler institution that Walker’s regime. I liked the idea that the Nantucketers would exploit this weakness and cause Walker’s regime to collapse from infighting rather than defeating it on a battlefield. And the idea that the war would come to an abrupt end with Walker’s death also seems believable to me; Walker was the driving force behind his empire building - when he died, whoever his successor turned out to be was going to be more concerned with consolidating his power domestically than continuing Walker’s conquests.
Yeah, the ending worked, it just wasn’t what he was heading for. Lord only knows how long it would have taken for him to get wherever that was. And he did leave an opening for a sequel, he had just never used it.
Just a quick post to point out that I’m now in the first book of this series and chuckled at the three Secret Service agents assigned to protect some of the 2020 Naval personnel in 1942: Agents Turtledove, Stirling, and Flint.
), and the linguistic Britishisms from some characters are occasionally so thick that I have trouble making out the dialogue.