- Location
- Western New York
I think I read that. Not exactly, I mean, but an AH where the US used the bomb to devastate the Draka citizen armies while they were concentrated for the invasion of Spain.
Proof Through the Night. That's a good read.
I think I read that. Not exactly, I mean, but an AH where the US used the bomb to devastate the Draka citizen armies while they were concentrated for the invasion of Spain.
If there's one good lesson to learn from the Draka series, it's that it's the hyperexample of a work set in Africa that has no interest whatsoever in Africa or Africans. For that matter, it doesn't even have any real interest in Afrikaaners either- even if you're just going to be using the Evil Seef Effreekans who hate Bleck Peeple, Paul Kruger and Jan Smuts both would make far more interesting antagonists in a timeline than Sterling's lot.
I would respectfully disagree with regards to Peshawar Lancers and its novella tie-in Shikari in Galveston. As to Draka, I agree wholeheartedly; that series is among the best examples of how not to write AH, in my view, dystopian or otherwise. Conquistador was "Ehhh" in general, though with an interesting idea, and ISOT/Emberverse had a great starting premise and good description(s), yet cratered in story and character quality almost right off the bat in the former case, and after the third book in the latter.Let’s all be honest and admit to ourselves Stirling’s AH is terrible(hell, all of his writing for that matter) and has no redeeming value whatsoever.
Even his Nantucket series.Let’s all be honest and admit to ourselves Stirling’s AH is terrible(hell, all of his writing for that matter) and has no redeeming value whatsoever.
Proof Through the Night. That's a good read.
It’s funny because it does arguably fall into that trope where the Allies have basically won by the end of the first act but the dramatic tension only gets stronger until the end, it’s a testament to the quality of the writing I guess. As the writer points out it’s one of many fanfics about screwing over the Draka but it stands out as the best.
The sequel’s good as well although I found the world building around the quarantine zone to be more interesting than a lot of the action and I wish there’d been more focus on that.
It really is. There's several scenes I remember even though I've only read it a few times - FDR mercilessly needling the defeated von Shrakenburg over the telephone, the Draka officer realizing they're under atomic attack about 30 seconds too late to warn higher command, FDR's death, Admiral Yamamoto making a slightly snide reference to FDR's "A day that will live in infamy" and FDR taking it in stride, the Charles Lindbergh expy's inner monologue about how he realized he'd been duped and used by the Draka...
There were two sequels, weren't there? One set a generation later and then another one set far in the future that went hard into weird sci-fi territory? Or am I confusing two different series?
Roosevelt was a joy to read, you don't usually get portrayals of him where he's happy to be a bastard if it suits his plans despite the fact it was very much an aspect of his personality IOTL.
I'm not sure, I was thinking of Breaking Strain but wasn't aware of any further sequels?
I would respectfully disagree with regards to Peshawar Lancers and its novella tie-in Shikari in Galveston.
The whole sub-genre of 'Nazis win because logistics don't exist' is rather grating. Especially when they have the Allies act as blocks of cement with no intellect throughout rather than human beings.
It's why a lot of the best Axis victory AH stories don't go into detail on just how they won beyond basic handwaves.
And the ones that do tend to be written by people who show that they don't know much about the details and show little indication to learn.
How that Axis could win WWII isn't interesting to me at all. What would happen if they did is.
I don't find either interesting, tbh and I'm mostly just hoping that eventually mainstream AH comes up with a second possible scenario as to how things could have gone differently over the million years of human history.
Mainstream AH relies on people's actual knowledge of history. When dealing with English-speakers, the majority of people's knowledge of history can be summed up as "WW2 pus what happened during my lifetime", with (for Americans) a side-order of the Let Us Keep Slavery War. Maybe, if you're very lucky, something of WW1 as well.I don't find either interesting, tbh and I'm mostly just hoping that eventually mainstream AH comes up with a second possible scenario as to how things could have gone differently over the million years of human history.
Maybe something about the 1861 Slaver Rebellion?