Alternate History General Discussion

[Persephone]

The Amelia Earhart story mentioned in the interview with Turtledove is out.

 

[Doctor Sulemain]

I read Turtledove's new book today.

It's good.

 

[Coiler]

I read Turtledove's new book today.

The Earhart one?

 

[Doctor Sulemain]

The Earhart one?

Aye.

 

[Skinny87]

Aye.

What's the PoD? Just not crashing doing her OTL last flight?

 

[Doctor Sulemain]

What's the PoD? Just not crashing doing her OTL last flight?

Yeah pretty much-it's finding Howland Island in time.

 

[Redolegna]

It appears that former Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield has written an alternate history space thriller called The Apollo Murders which is coming out in October.

I feel an @AndyC lawsuit coming.

 

[Aznavour]

Laurent Binet, author of HHhH, has a new novel called Civilizations, in which Atahualpa conquers 1490s/1500s Europe.

Unfortunately, that’s all I can report, as I’m too broke to buy books.

 

[Coiler]

If you've seen my writings here and on my blog, you may have picked up a pattern that I've taken a liking to AH that takes an out-there premise, runs with it, and goes into detail. Draka, The Big One, and Kirov are my go-to examples, even though I'll readily agree with every single one of their plausibility (and literary) issues.

 

[Arthur_Phuxache]

The Amelia Earhart story mentioned in the interview with Turtledove is out.

Judging by the number of erroneous facts in just this short tweet, this promises to be toe-curlingly awful.

*Buys it anyway*

 

[Doctor Sulemain]

Judging by the number of erroneous facts in just this short tweet, this promises to be toe-curlingly awful.

*Buys it anyway*

It's actually quite good.

 

[Coiler]

I'm wondering if the concept of "entry-level AH to the online fandom" that used to belong to the Harry Turtledove books you'd find in the sci-fi section is now obsolete. A part of me wants to say "Paradox games" since the influence they have on online AH is undeniable. However, a bigger and growing part of me thinks that alternate history has become ubiquitous enough that people can just go straight online with just a bit of searching, which is more or less how I got into it.

 

[ChrisNuttall]

I'm wondering if the concept of "entry-level AH to the online fandom" that used to belong to the Harry Turtledove books you'd find in the sci-fi section is now obsolete. A part of me wants to say "Paradox games" since the influence they have on online AH is undeniable. However, a bigger and growing part of me thinks that alternate history has become ubiquitous enough that people can just go straight online with just a bit of searching, which is more or less how I got into it.

I got into it through alien invasion books, which led me to WorldWar. I wouldn't have started with a timeline.

 

[Skinny87]

I'm wondering if the concept of "entry-level AH to the online fandom" that used to belong to the Harry Turtledove books you'd find in the sci-fi section is now obsolete. A part of me wants to say "Paradox games" since the influence they have on online AH is undeniable. However, a bigger and growing part of me thinks that alternate history has become ubiquitous enough that people can just go straight online with just a bit of searching, which is more or less how I got into it.

I picked up a copy of Turtledove's Walk in Hell when I was wandering through my local second-hand bookshop in the very late '90's and went from there - a route that unfortunately seems dead now for a variety of reasons

 

[Stateless]

Is the modern equivalent of the Robert Cowley What If? books Brack and Dale's 'Prime Minister X And Other Things That Never Happened'?

 

[Skinny87]

Is the modern equivalent of the Robert Cowley What If? books Brack and Dale's 'Prime Minister X And Other Things That Never Happened'?

I'd say so, yes, and probably the last tranche of paperback titles like that I'd imagine

 

[RyanF]

Is the modern equivalent of the Robert Cowley What If? books Brack and Dale's 'Prime Minister X And Other Things That Never Happened'?

I reject this on the basis that nothing younger than me should be considered anything but 'modern'.

 

[Stateless]

I'd say so, yes, and probably the last tranche of paperback titles like that I'd imagine

I feel it's the sort of thing that appeals to journalists and historians every so often, so you'll periodically get an editor pulling some low effort essays together (What if the English Civil War saw the cavaliers win? Explored through the a vignette set in the aftermath of Boris Johnson's 2019 election win-type stuff) and getting it published.

 

[Charles EP M.]

You say modern version of, but Dale's last one was in 2016 with Prime Minister Corbyn.

(Checking the date showed me that Customers Who Read This Book Also Read a ton of Sea Lion books)

 

[RyanF]

You say modern version of, but Dale's last one was in 2016 with Prime Minister Corbyn.

(Checking the date showed me that Customers Who Read This Book Also Read a ton of Sea Lion books)

You're saying there's an opportunity for SLP to capture the entire market?