Also consider S.M. Sterling’s Conquistidor. Sort of an alternate reality, but not quite.
Fantasy: Joel Rosenberg, The Guardians of the Flame series starting with The Sleeping Dragon is one of the first “people becoming their D&D characters” stories I’m aware of. Much better than the simple boiled-down concept makes it sound since Rosenberg does a very good job of creating characters who feel like real people and has lasting consequences for them based on what happens in the plot. I also like his hard, practical sense of world building.
SF: The Cross-Time Engineer was pretty interesting. I’ve had problems finding the next books until recently, so I actually have only read the first one. Liked it, though as a medieval warfare enthusiast I have some problems with some of his assertions about the superiority of modern fencing techniques, armor descriptions, etc. Not a biggie if you’re not really into that, can get around it if you are.
Second the Stirling recommendation and the Farmer one. Also, if you like alternate history, Harry Turtledove writes a metric buttload of it.
If you haven’t read Doomsday Book by Connie Willis, you absolutely should. A 21st-century woman gets sent back to medieval England via a time machine, and . . . I’ll say no more. I love that book. The sequel-ish To Say Nothing of the Dog is very good too, but in a different way – much lighter and very funny.
Another vote for SM Stirling’s Island in the Sea of Time trilogy. Wish he’d write some more tales from that setting.
I don’t read much time travel or alternate universe stuff, so take these two suggestions with a grain of salt:
Time travel, sort of: Kage Baker’s “Company” novels, starting with In the Garden of Iden.
Alternate worlds: Charles Stross’s “Merchant Prince” novels, starting with The Family Trade.
Merchant Princes was a good series. I’m still waiting for another book to come out.
Connie Willis: Pretty much have read everything by her. Great author.
Guardians of the Flame: Wow, I loved that series, haven’t read it in awhile, so I may have to pick it up again. The Time Crossed Engineer sounds pretty interesting, I may have to check it out. I really like the books where people go back in time and change something, which alters the “present” drastically.
The Lost Room: I watched that mini-series. I loved it and hope there is a series about it. It has potential for good (or a potential for an early death if the writers don’t do it right).
Just out of curiosity, by how much does a metric buttload differ from other buttloads?
Back to the OP:
You will like The Weapon Shops stories by A. E. van Vogt.
He did: Dies The Fire, The Protector’s War, and A Meeting At Corvallis.
metric buttload (n.)
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2.4710439 English buttloads.
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the capacity of the platinum-iridium International Standard butt, which is housed in Sevres, France, along with the platinum-iridium kilogram and the old bar with the scratches that used to be the standard meter.
Dies the Fire looks more Post Apocalyptic(ish) than anything. I know in the reviews it says “alternate timeline” but seems a stretch, any book that takes place today could be considered “alternate timeline” if it isn’t based exactly on true happenings.
I thought of a couple more.
Millenium by John Varley. It’s kind of cool seeing the same scene from two different points of view on two different time lines.
A Transatlantic Tunnel Hurrah! by Harry Harrison. In this one, England won the Revolutionary War so America is still a colony of England. The main character is a decendent of George Washington trying to distance himself from his ancestors infamous reputation.
Agreed, but the books specifically take place in the same universe that the Nantucket books do, because the whole McGuffin of these three is the same thing that caused the Island to be cast back in Time. Just from the other end is all.
May not be exactly what you’re looking for, but I thought of two more books involving time travel. The Man Who Folded Himself by David Gerrold. It’s not a long book, 160 pages of medium print (I’ve got the copy featured here). I got it because of recommendations from people with similar tastes to mine. He packs a lot of ideas into this story, just about every idea about time travel you’ve probably heard of, yet does it in a way that’s not cliched.
The other is Wildside by Steven Gould (not the same guy as the linguist with the middle initial of J.) It’s a fun, but grounded, adventure story about a young man who finds a doorway into the past, or to an alternate Earth. Gould doesn’t dwell on the mechanism of the portal, instead focusing on Charlie, the main character, and what he does with it. While the premise sounds like your usual coming-of-age adventure, it’s a bit more than that. There are some solid details about what would go into planning an expedition into a place where there are no people, no supplies other than what you bring with you, and no backup support other than what you set up before hand. Charlie is competent but by no means omnipotent, and has a personality quite a bit different from your usual impulsive hero-type.
I recommend Helm, Blind Waves, and Jumper by him also. They’re usually marketed as young-adult, but I think they’re solid adventure stories. Not flashy, not groundbreaking, but decent, thoughtful writing.
Oh, I’d also like to throw in another vote for Hambly. Most of everything I’ve read by her is good stuff. She has a degree in medieval history and that real-world knowledge shows in a lot of ways. She puts her characters through hell too, and they often end up the worse for wear even if they make it. I like that in my fiction.
Wildside looks good. I read the Jumper book, and almost bought the sequel at B&N the other day. I ended up getting Artemis Fowl. I really enjoyed the first book and might look into the others. I’t didn’t satisfy my hankering for an Alternate world or time travel book, but this thread has given me a whole lot of pointers! Thanks.
Another Stephen Donaldson recommendation: The Mirror of Her Dreams / A Man Rides Through. They are pretty good fantasy, though not usually as loved or as hated as the Thomas Covenant books. Protagonist from our world has to deal with transport to a fantasy world, and they can reach other worlds as well.
Another of my favorites: Gene Wolfe’s The Wizard Knight (two volumes, The Knight, and The Wizard).
Gene Wolfe’s lastests series meets the criteria although there’s not a great deal to be made of the fact that the protagonist was once a part of the contemporary world.
His other works, Book of the New Sun, Book of the Long Sun and Book of the Short Sun which are all interelated and total 13 novels are some of the best ever written.
I read those, back near the time they first came out. As I recall, it took me a long time (like, a couple hundred pages) to get into the first one, but eventually they got good and I wound up liking them a great deal.
I forced myself through The Knight, but it never really grabbed me. I can see why some people might like it, but I didn’t.
Strongly seconded (thirded?). Connie Willis is great and those are two of her best. They are quite different: Doomsday Book is pretty depressing, while To Say Nothing of the Dog is a comedy (and my favorite science fiction novel ever).
JRB