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Discuss the second part of our new panel discussion (with @SpanishSpy, @Skinny87, @Coiler, @carturo222 and Matt Mitrovich) here.
That does stand out, doesn't it? (SLP did an anthology of it so it can be done!) I wonder if the reason is that doing horror in an alternative history would mean, or is taken to mean, that the horror should have something to do with the alternative history and vice versa because of how specific that setting would be. A slasher story set in the 1990s is a period piece and likely a homage to 90s slashers. A slasher story set in an alt-90s where Ross Perot is President or the Cold War didn't end, you'd expect to have a reason why.Alternate history horror…actually yeah that is one combination you don’t see very often
Imagine a story set in a CSA wins timeline - not a war of liberation, or an insurgency, but just a constant brutal grind of what living under the CSA or Nazis or Islamic State or history's other losers really means.That does stand out, doesn't it? (SLP did an anthology of it so it can be done!) I wonder if the reason is that doing horror in an alternative history would mean, or is taken to mean, that the horror should have something to do with the alternative history and vice versa because of how specific that setting would be. A slasher story set in the 1990s is a period piece and likely a homage to 90s slashers. A slasher story set in an alt-90s where Ross Perot is President or the Cold War didn't end, you'd expect to have a reason why.
Midway through writing that, I thought: "I guess you could do an alt-90s where slasher horror villains are real and hundreds die every year since the 70s due to outlandish masked creeps, and what does the US look like in that world."
Granted, this is because of my recent nuclear kick, but the "AH horror" that popped into my mind would be Allied troops stumbling on the melted down ruins of Heisenberg's turned-on reactor.I wonder if the reason is that doing horror in an alternative history would mean, or is taken to mean, that the horror should have something to do with the alternative history and vice versa because of how specific that setting would be.
There are stories like that, but usually not done as a horror genre - which might be why you don't see it, it's hard to do a horror story in the main AH settings because the reality is nastier than ghosts, psychos, and monsters. Unless the horror is something vengeful coming for people in charge but that doesn't necessarily need a AH setting, it could come for aging Nazis who escaped justiceImagine a story set in a CSA wins timeline - not a war of liberation, or an insurgency, but just a constant brutal grind of what living under the CSA or Nazis or Islamic State or history's other losers really means.
Having written a "haunted aging Nazi who escaped justice story" as my first-ever published fiction, I can concur that you don't need it to be AH to do it. The danger, as I see it, of doing that sort of story in any setting is being on the fine line of exploiting genuine human tragedies/genocides to tell a horror story. I desperately wanted to keep things vague in my story for that reason, only for the editor to want things to be made implicitly clear. I think we found something of a compromise, but it's something that bugs me about that story to this day.There are stories like that, but usually not done as a horror genre - which might be why you don't see it, it's hard to do a horror story in the main AH settings because the reality is nastier than ghosts, psychos, and monsters. Unless the horror is something vengeful coming for people in charge but that doesn't necessarily need a AH setting, it could come for aging Nazis who escaped justice
This I would read!Granted, this is because of my recent nuclear kick, but the "AH horror" that popped into my mind would be Allied troops stumbling on the melted down ruins of Heisenberg's turned-on reactor.
The Cold War doesn't end, but the Soviets realize they can't afford to compete with the US military. So instead they decide to undermine the US from within by giving invincibility pills to a family of inbred redneck cannibals. Suddenly no one in Kentucky is safe from The Hillbilly Slashers.That does stand out, doesn't it? (SLP did an anthology of it so it can be done!) I wonder if the reason is that doing horror in an alternative history would mean, or is taken to mean, that the horror should have something to do with the alternative history and vice versa because of how specific that setting would be. A slasher story set in the 1990s is a period piece and likely a homage to 90s slashers. A slasher story set in an alt-90s where Ross Perot is President or the Cold War didn't end, you'd expect to have a reason why.
Midway through writing that, I thought: "I guess you could do an alt-90s where slasher horror villains are real and hundreds die every year since the 70s due to outlandish masked creeps, and what does the US look like in that world."
Imagine a story set in a CSA wins timeline - not a war of liberation, or an insurgency, but just a constant brutal grind of what living under the CSA or Nazis or Islamic State or history's other losers really means.
The author of Gone With the Wind from the SLP Horror Anthology wants a word.There are stories like that, but usually not done as a horror genre - which might be why you don't see it
That'd be why I said usually, that was the only one I could think ofThe author of Gone With the Wind from the SLP Horror Anthology wants a word.
Oh, they're out there. Often in disguise. GRR Martin's Fevre Dream springs to mind.That'd be why I said usually, that was the only one I could think of
Stories which use horror elements to talk about human historical horrors are quite common. Fevre Dream is a great example of that with the hero being a white southerner who becomes an abolitionist and fights for the union after encountering vampires who view him as less than human and only to be used.Oh, they're out there. Often in disguise. GRR Martin's Fevre Dream springs to mind.
That's true, unless you want to get into ASB territory like Uber.Stories which use horror elements to talk about human historical horrors are quite common. Fevre Dream is a great example of that with the hero being a white southerner who becomes an abolitionist and fights for the union after encountering vampires who view him as less than human and only to be used.
But like its not AH.
I think with most speculative fiction, you get one twist. Its WW2 but vampires exist is one twist. Its WW2 but the germans won is one twist. Its WW2 but the germans won and vampires are real is overloading your story with high concept and thats harder to do
This is why I was never attracted to those "AH" stories which are like "England won the Hundred Years' War and there's an Angevin Empire AND ALSO MAGIC WORKS", although I've been told that specific case is more of an unhelpful Uchronia summary than a fair description of the Lord Darcy stories.I think with most speculative fiction, you get one twist. Its WW2 but vampires exist is one twist. Its WW2 but the germans won is one twist. Its WW2 but the germans won and vampires are real is overloading your story with high concept and thats harder to do
Interestingly, I think a lot of that kind of stuff falls into the "it could be easily considered AH but isn't really marketed or formally categorized as it" category.This is why I was never attracted to those "AH" stories which are like "England won the Hundred Years' War and there's an Angevin Empire AND ALSO MAGIC WORKS", although I've been told that specific case is more of an unhelpful Uchronia summary than a fair description of the Lord Darcy stories.
It's been a while since I read the Lord Darcy stories, so I can't remember the POD, but I suppose you could use the magic as the trigger that creates the AH. I have a few posts here based on the premise that in 1956 people acquire, overnight, the ability to understand others emotions much more deeply than now, in extreme cases changing those emotions. The POD is the event, but a very different history emerges.This is why I was never attracted to those "AH" stories which are like "England won the Hundred Years' War and there's an Angevin Empire AND ALSO MAGIC WORKS", although I've been told that specific case is more of an unhelpful Uchronia summary than a fair description of the Lord Darcy stories.
It's very unhelpful <grin>. Basically, if you like fantasy detective fiction, you'll like them.This is why I was never attracted to those "AH" stories which are like "England won the Hundred Years' War and there's an Angevin Empire AND ALSO MAGIC WORKS", although I've been told that specific case is more of an unhelpful Uchronia summary than a fair description of the Lord Darcy stories.
Lord Darcy is confusing because it would absolutely make sense if Richard the Lionheart surviving his OTL death was due to magic working, but IIRC it's explicitly in the reign of Good King Arthur afterwards that they get magic to work (although of course this is not actually magic, it's Highly Advanced Science they stumble on and describe as magic, because John W Campbell would not have printed stories involving magic in his science fiction magazine).It's been a while since I read the Lord Darcy stories, so I can't remember the POD, but I suppose you could use the magic as the trigger that creates the AH. I have a few posts here based on the premise that in 1956 people acquire, overnight, the ability to understand others emotions much more deeply than now, in extreme cases changing those emotions. The POD is the event, but a very different history emerges.