I like The Years of Rice and Salt very much, for alternate history. Robin McKinley’s Sunshine is sort of alt history, too.
I thought Darwinia was good, but I was a little disappointed by the ending.
All good recommendations! My list is growing big.
Any Alternate world / non-time travel themed ones? ala Rogue Wizard, Spell Singer?
The Rift War Saga by Raymond Feist , plus his copious other novels that followed also set in his universe.
Tigana by Guy Gavriel Kay.
The Black Jewels Trilogy by Anne Bishop (almost to the bottom of the linked page). There’s also an in-depth wikipedia page about her books.
:smack:
I just re-read your OP and the recommendations in my last post don’t apply. They’re just straight-up fantasy books.
If you haven’t yet read The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, they sound like they might be up your alley. I enjoyed reading the first two trilogies, but there are dopers who did not consider the reading experience as all that pleasurable.
Job and The Number of the Beast, both by Heinlein.
west of Eden, Winter in Eden and the thirs one, Whateverin Eden by Harry Harrison. An alternate world where intelligent dinosaurs survive into the time of huimans, and have a non-mechanical civilization. Very interesting and weird stuff. The m,ost ambitious use of artificial language I’ve seen (the dinosaur’s language is philosophically very different from human languages)
Moonheart by Charles de Lint (and indeed, several others by him) bounce back and forth between worlds. Straight-up fantasy, and one of my favorites. Wizards and shamans and mounties, oh my!
I second Thomas Covenant series, but I think it’s a love it or hate it series.
Agreed. I really enjoyed these books and I’m not a huge fan of science fiction. What I really liked was how the reptiles’ technology is organic and is a result of genetically manipulating plants and animals to perform particular tasks. Harrison does a great job of descrbing how it works.
I also liked several of the Harry Turtledove series as well as his stand-alone novels like Guns of the South.
One of my favorites : Lord Kalvan of Otherwhen. A police officer and veteran from our world is transported into an alternate North America dominated by a nasty church, the Temple of Styphon. Styphon maintains it’s power by being the sole source of the “miracle” of fireseed - gunpowder. And guess who knows how to make gunpowder . . .
I assume you’re aware of A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court?
And, in somewhat the same vein, Lest Darkness Fall?
Oh, no, Fantasy is fine, I meant my OP to mean Sci-Fi and or Fantasy, or a combination of both, I guess I wasn’t clear enough, sorry!
Anyway, great suggestions. I read some of TCOTC and didn’t much care for it, though it is definately good writing.
Grr, stoopid hamsters ate my post…
Try Barbara Hambly’s Time of the Dark series or her The Silent Tower series – modern Earth persons transported to magical worlds.
Also, one of MZ Bradley’s Darkover books – Two to Conquer – would fit.
Absolutely. I continue to believe that Beam Piper could have been one of the all time best if he hadn’t killed himself. Also worth reading in this vein is his collection of short stories called ‘Paratime!’ which chronicles an alternate-hopping civilization.
Also, of course, check out ‘Guns of the South’ by Harry Turtledove. Imagine a Confederacy armed with 150,000 AK-47s…
The Anubis Gates is absolutely brilliant, and sounds right up your alley.
My apologies. I confess, I did not read the original post. Having done so, here are a few recommendations:
Alan Dean Foster’s Spellsinger series. (Hit or miss, most of the early ones were good.)
Rick Cook’s Wizard series (Wizard’s Bane is the first. Especially good if you are a software geek like me.)
I know I can think of few others as well, but they aren’t coming to me right now.
TimeShips by Stephen Baxter. Written as a sequel to Wells’ Time Machine.
and
Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Charles Sheffield. Not a traditional time travel book, but you’ll never find one that ranges farther.
The Time of the Dark is the first novel in the Darwath series, and The Silent Tower is the first book of the chronicles of Antryg Windrose. I’ve never really been able to get into either the Darkover or the Witch World series, so I won’t comment on them. But Hambly is very good.
I can’t believe I forgot the Darwath books :smack:
Ingold Inglorian is the second coolest wizard ever.
A similar thread that has some good suggestions: Your Favorite "Time Travel" Novel? - Cafe Society - Straight Dope Message Board
Only in the sense that it’s the best time travel story EVER!!!
The best alternate worlds story in visual media ever just aired on the SciFi Channel – “The Lost Room.” It’s so good I can hardly believe it’s not a TV miniseries. Only written SF is incredibly good, with very rare exceptions. The Lost Room is one of them.