Steve Brinson
The possum is not OK. Neither are we.
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- Brooklyn (originally Houston)
- Pronouns
- he/him
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Alternate History General Discussion
- Thread starter Elektronaut
- Start date
- Pronouns
- he/him
Ngl, the article feels only tangibly related to alternate history and seems more of a “Oh why have things gone so horribly wrong” kind of article, asking how a man with so many good intentions could have failed so horribly in the long run.
- Location
- North Alabama
Commiserations to @M_Kresal.
If I'm honest, I didn't have much expectation of winning. Hitchcock's Titanic took a long time to find a home, after all, and was turned down more times than I can count. Ironically, the very first place that turned it down (and for which it was written for) was Steve Silver's own Alternate Peace anthology. Hence my utter surprise that it had been even nominated! Plus no one has ever won in consecutive years, based on a scanning of the Wikipedia page.
Alan Smale is a good writer and I'm thrilled that another story from the same anthology won. It's a good sign of how well our little neck of the woods is doing, especially on the smaller/indie publisher front.
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- he/him
Alan Smale is a good writer and I'm thrilled that another story from the same anthology won. It's a good sign of how well our little neck of the woods is doing, especially on the smaller/indie publisher front.
The short stories noms being dominated by indie press tales from Inklings/slp over the last few years has been both interesting and heartening. It's not like there hasn't been mainstream AH stories in the more mainstream magazines at the same time.
If I'm honest, I didn't have much expectation of winning. Hitchcock's Titanic took a long time to find a home, after all, and was turned down more times than I can count. Ironically, the very first place that turned it down (and for which it was written for) was Steve Silver's own Alternate Peace anthology. Hence my utter surprise that it had been even nominated!
It's like a small/low tier country that qualifies for the World Cup. Yes, they'll get (literally) kicked out with ease in the group stage, but its citizens are always ecstatic just to be there.
Say,remember that AH short story I talked about before about FOOTBALLOCRACY and what not?
Well I just recently found out that technically someone else did this before Liviu Radu-Reginald Hill,in his 1974 novel Albion! Albion!, set in the 1990’s where Britain has devolved into anarchy due to football huliganism,Parliament is dissolved and the nation is divided between four clubs and their rabid supporters-City,United,Wanderers and Charlton Athletic-all run by the Club Managers of said clubs and their tyrannical regime.
I say technically because Britain hasn’t become a footballocracy,just a football hooligan junta. Like 1970’s Argentina but with football hooligans and Sir Alec Ferguson instead of the armed forces.
Well I just recently found out that technically someone else did this before Liviu Radu-Reginald Hill,in his 1974 novel Albion! Albion!, set in the 1990’s where Britain has devolved into anarchy due to football huliganism,Parliament is dissolved and the nation is divided between four clubs and their rabid supporters-City,United,Wanderers and Charlton Athletic-all run by the Club Managers of said clubs and their tyrannical regime.
I say technically because Britain hasn’t become a footballocracy,just a football hooligan junta. Like 1970’s Argentina but with football hooligans and Sir Alec Ferguson instead of the armed forces.
While it's American Football instead of the international kind, Mack Maloney in the Wingman series of post-apocalyptic military novels (where the protagonist can shoot down a hundred planes in a single flight-it's very silly) made a "Football City" with an economy and society centered around the game.
Talwar
Well-Known Sword
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- he/him
I invoked a Hockey City in a post-zombie scenario, though that was more about delivering quality hockey broadcasts to the nation while maintaining quarantine.While it's American Football instead of the international kind, Mack Maloney in the Wingman series of post-apocalyptic military novels (where the protagonist can shoot down a hundred planes in a single flight-it's very silly) made a "Football City" with an economy and society centered around the game.
There's a vintage Fighting Fantasy book, Star Strider, in which the title character is sent on a mission to a backwater planet called Earth, whose civilization slowly collapsed centuries earlier. In the city of London, they are warned that people may attack them on sight for wearing a scarf with the wrong colours.While it's American Football instead of the international kind, Mack Maloney in the Wingman series of post-apocalyptic military novels (where the protagonist can shoot down a hundred planes in a single flight-it's very silly) made a "Football City" with an economy and society centered around the game.
- Location
- Albany, NY
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- She/Her
I remeber that story. It was good.I invoked a Hockey City in a post-zombie scenario, though that was more about delivering quality hockey broadcasts to the nation while maintaining quarantine.
Von Callay
Getting Grilled by Special Agent Nixon
That series is incredible. I mean literally incredible, I did not believe it existed or could exist until it was proved to me.While it's American Football instead of the international kind, Mack Maloney in the Wingman series of post-apocalyptic military novels (where the protagonist can shoot down a hundred planes in a single flight-it's very silly) made a "Football City" with an economy and society centered around the game.
Every Liverpool fan’s worst nightmare. They don’t even get a slice of the pie and Fergie runs a part of the country? Horrifying.Say,remember that AH short story I talked about before about FOOTBALLOCRACY and what not?
Well I just recently found out that technically someone else did this before Liviu Radu-Reginald Hill,in his 1974 novel Albion! Albion!, set in the 1990’s where Britain has devolved into anarchy due to football huliganism,Parliament is dissolved and the nation is divided between four clubs and their rabid supporters-City,United,Wanderers and Charlton Athletic-all run by the Club Managers of said clubs and their tyrannical regime.
I say technically because Britain hasn’t become a footballocracy,just a football hooligan junta. Like 1970’s Argentina but with football hooligans and Sir Alec Ferguson instead of the armed forces.
Every Liverpool fan’s worst nightmare. They don’t even get a slice of the pie and Fergie runs a part of the country? Horrifying.
I mean,they’d be more horrified by there being no real laws and Britain being Fallout New Vegas without the nuclear fallout basically. Outside of Scotland,Wales and the West Country,Britain is run like a war lord nation by the Four Clubs,whom,in the areas they run, act like General Butt Naked fused with Tommy Robinson and Beria. All universities have been banned or turned into Club Branches where the youth are indoctrinated into being yobs and hating minorities and everyone not wearing the official team shirts/colors risk being lynched.
Yeah.
Also I’m pretty sure all non Man United/City,Wanderers and Charlton Athletic fans have been killed and Liverpool is now a mass grave. Being a Rangers means being brought before a militia and executed.
There’s no real ideology guiding the Four Clubs regime beyond “yobism“ and a National Front like junta. London is just Naples on steroids,half of the city is abandoned and people are literally drowning in garbage. The only reason no one puts up an uprising is because the Charlton Athletic hooligan secret police killed almost everyone who looked funny at them.
- Location
- Albany, NY
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- She/Her
I mean,they’d be more horrified by there being no real laws and Britain being Fallout New Vegas without the nuclear fallout basically.
Who would be able to notice? Yuck Yuck I'll see myself out.
All jokes aside from me, why were those clubs chosen to rule the British wasteland instead of, say, Liverpool; Chelsea; Arsenal or even the Tottenham Hotspurs? Were they just chosen at random or am I missing something?I mean,they’d be more horrified by there being no real laws and Britain being Fallout New Vegas without the nuclear fallout basically. Outside of Scotland,Wales and the West Country,Britain is run like a war lord nation by the Four Clubs,whom,in the areas they run, act like General Butt Naked fused with Tommy Robinson and Beria. All universities have been banned or turned into Club Branches where the youth are indoctrinated into being yobs and hating minorities and everyone not wearing the official team shirts/colors risk being lynched.
Yeah.
Also I’m pretty sure all non Man United/City,Wanderers and Charlton Athletic fans have been killed and Liverpool is now a mass grave. Being a Rangers means being brought before a militia and executed.
There’s no real ideology guiding the Four Clubs regime beyond “yobism“ and a National Front like junta. London is just Naples on steroids,half of the city is abandoned and people are literally drowning in garbage. The only reason no one puts up an uprising is because the Charlton Athletic hooligan secret police killed almost everyone who looked funny at them.
I genuinely don’t know.All jokes aside from me, why were those clubs chosen to rule the British wasteland instead of, say, Liverpool; Chelsea; Arsenal or even the Tottenham Hotspurs? Were they just chosen at random or am I missing something?
Isn't it just taking the end parts of what was then First Division football team names.I genuinely don’t know.
City and United are the most common (Manchester, Birmingham, Leicester - City) (Manchester, West Ham, Sheffield - United)
Wanderers has a few (Bolton, Wolves)
And Athletic just has the one Charlton - although is that just a typo in the first post here. Did the story actually say Charlton?
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Yes actually,Charlton is mentioned more or less.Isn't it just taking the end parts of what was then First Division football team names.
City and United are the most common (Manchester, Birmingham, Leicester - City) (Manchester, West Ham, Sheffield - United)
Wanderers has a few (Bolton, Wolves)
And Athletic just has the one Charlton - although is that just a typo in the first post here. Did the story actually say Charlton?
- Location
- Arlington, Virginia