Least favorite alt-history story?

[The Lone Centurion]

"Mr Hughes Goes To War" on SHWI and it's hard on for the Hapsburg monarchy.

 

[Japhy]

"Mr Hughes Goes To War" on SHWI and it's hard on for the Hapsburg monarchy.

I actually would cite it as one of my favorites. I wouldn't say it's a hard on, just a low probability outcome for Karl.

I would be interested to hear your thoughts on it if you could offer them in any detail.

 

[The Lone Centurion]

For a start, I don't share its author's implicit optimism that Poland grabbing even more territory in Belorussia and Ukraine will work out any better than OTL, despite alt-Poland having a Bourbon as monarch, as the same politicians are likely to be in charge and will have the same as OTL policies of trying to forcibly Polonise the country's minorities.

 

[Japhy]

For a start, I don't share its author's implicit optimism that Poland grabbing even more territory in Belorussia and Ukraine will work out any better than OTL, despite alt-Poland having a Bourbon as monarch, as the same politicians are likely to be in charge and will have the same as OTL policies of trying to forcibly Polonise the country's minorities.

Lots of timelines have flawed ancillary bits? I feel like the main timeline centered on Hughes and his action and Karl and his is interesting.

 

[Coiler]

Marching through Georgia possibly just because of how wanked the Draka are. I never read the later books and I don't know if I want to.

I've heard that they have a good literary reason to be-it's a sort of "what if the villains got all the (however unrealistic) breaks?" Heard, haven't actually read it.

 

[Skinny87]

I need to reread Stirling's The Peshawar Lancers because I loved it as a kid, but now I only ever seem to hear criticism of it, not to mention how shit Stirling himself is

 

[Gary Oswald]

I've heard that they have a good literary reason to be-it's a sort of "what if the villains got all the (however unrealistic) breaks?" Heard, haven't actually read it.

Yeah, the concept is 'what if there was a bunch of really really evil bastards who also kept winning even when they shouldn't'.

Only it's difficult to think of a concept I'm less interested in then that.

 

[EnglishCanuck]

Marching through Georgia possibly just because of how wanked the Draka are. I never read the later books and I don't know if I want to.

Also in making sure I had the title right I've just noticed Stirling looks like "WI Salman Rushdie had hair "

I'm going to pick on Stirling too and say his recent novel The Black Chamber wasn't very inspired. The prologue is actually rather nice, but as it goes on the sheer density of the prose and the fact that his heroine has an completely unpronounceable name makes it harder and harder to read. The Germans aren't badly portrayed, but the book almost reads like he got the script to Wonder Woman and made that movie but without any superpowers.

 

[Japhy]

Sterling is always pretty shit.

I still enjoy Lancers if I ever reread it but that's because it's essentially pulp that's very full of itself.

 

[Lemon flavoured]

Shit you not. This is the wiki entry for it.

Fallout: New Vegas intensifies.

 

[Coiler]

Yeah, the concept is 'what if there was a bunch of really really evil bastards who also kept winning even when they shouldn't'.

Only it's difficult to think of a concept I'm less interested in then that.

I also think (and this is even more speculative so I'm hedging like crazy-I have no direct evidence), it might (emphasis on might) have gotten notoriety by being something of an NDCR of its day. Which is to say, it's a deserving target, it has many, many legitimate issues, but it probably wasn't written for EXACT PLAUSIBILITY[1] and, most "importantly", it was an increasingly safe, easy target.

[1]Again, it's unfair to it (or most stories) to compare them to NDCR. This could have that literary theme, while NDCR was obviously just a "make wikiboxes lol".

 

[Meadow]

"It was widely known that the Soviet Union had for a long time pursued hyper-liberal economics" is probably my least favourite line from a TL. Or maybe it's my favourite.

 

[napoleon IV]

"It was widely known that the Soviet Union had for a long time pursued hyper-liberal economics" is probably my least favourite line from a TL. Or maybe it's my favourite.

Which TL was this?

 

[Meadow]

Which TL was this?

Can't remember. 1970s setting I think.

 

[Coiler]

After rereading it for a Fuldapocalypse review, I have to nominate William Stroock's World War 1990: Operation Arctic Storm. Not the absolute worst (I'm reluctant to call anything that), but still "dubious". First, it's written much later so it unambiguously counts as alternate history.

Second, it's very bad and makes one yearn for the evenhandedness and thoughtful Soviet portrayals of Tom Clancy.

Third, it has Soviet paratroopers landing in Alaska, playing Tecmo Super Bowl on an NES they found, and then losing to armed civilians.

 

[Bolt451]

"It was widely known that the Soviet Union had for a long time pursued hyper-liberal economics"

This makes it sound like this line was written by the tankiest of Tankies. Someone so left wing they make Khruschev look like Ayn Rand

 

[Meadow]

This makes it sound like this line was written by the tankiest of Tankies. Someone so left wing they make Khruschev look like Ayn Rand

It... was not.

 

[The Red]

Can't remember. 1970s setting I think.

Was it something to do with the Iranian Embassy Crisis going differently?

 

[LordInsane]

It honestly sounds like it could fit in a 1990-based retrofuture (the USSR is around, but the Cold War is over because the Soviet Union is just Another US). I'm suspecting it is using a different definition of liberal, though.

 

[zaffre]

I am not exactly a fan of CSA: The Mockumentary (doesn't really count as a story but w/e) - I dislike it as a way to repent of my youthful fondness for bad AH, but also because it is so astoundingly unsubtle that the satire kind of sucks.