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My go-to recommendation for alternate history novels is Stephen Fry's Making History. The POD isn't the old classic "what if Hitler lost" but "what if Hitler was never even born", as his home town has its water supply sterilised. The result (told through some pretty great WWI vignettes before the full alt-present is revealed) is a different and much more dangerous man rises to lead a significantly more successful Nazi Germany. Like a lot of Fry's novels the actual narrative is smaller, focused mainly on the protagonist discovering himself against the backdrop of OTL and ATL society. Great sense of humour, and you can tell from the occasional lyricism of the prose that Stephen Fry just loves the English language. On the subject of "counterfactuals" I recently read a really interesting analysis by Richard J. Evans called Altered Pasts: Counterfactuals In History. A collection of longform essays, the book covers everything: the history of the genre, the ideologies behind creating these narratives, the pitfalls and clichés, and the historical basis for their credibility. He covers everyone from Niall Ferguson to Robert Harris, and it's a great read for anyone interested in some of the political/historical contexts for alt-history.
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Jun 18, 2014 18:56
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| # ¿ Apr 18, 2024 01:17 |
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