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Can anyone suggest a book (or even tell me the proper term) for whatever the opposite of alternate-history fantasy/sci-fi is? I'm thinking that all the main historical points up to now are the same, but the details are different--Hannibal crossed the Alps on Dragons, or WWII with laser rifles, or the Apollo moon landing actually involved enlisting the aid of the god Apollo. Something that explores how the more things change, the more they stay the same, or that, at least politically, escalation would assure similar outcomes whether with atomic bombs or magical plagues. I read Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell and liked it quite a bit. I am not looking for a book where the protagonist has the magical/alien nature of our history revealed to him (all the tech advances of modern times where from the Roswell crash all along!), I want it to be general knowledge, and not "what if the conspiracy theories were true".
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Jul 24, 2009 17:53
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Isurion posted:Have you read the Temeraire series? It's the Napoleonic wars with dragons. juliuspringle posted:I don't know if this is exactly what you mean but I love Guns of the South by Harry Turtledove. I'm thinking about getting his series where the WW2 superpowers put aside their differences and join forces to fight spacelizards or something like that/ I guess I did want alternate history after all. Stupid me. I guess it's like "reverse-racism" still just being racism. I didn't know if it was supposed to be "parallel history" or something. I'll check these out.
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Jul 24, 2009 18:22
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freebooter posted:Took the words out of my mouth, except I was going to add "but it sucks." The aforementioned The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, the Unbeliever. He's a narcissistic, self-pitying leper. He rapes a girl in the first book. And he's the hero. Her Majesty's Wizard is fun, if completely stupid. Has some good poetry in it though. Good light read, should be able to devour it in a few hours. Poems are magical spells in the alternate world, and the better the poem, the more powerful the spell (no Ogden Nash that I can recall, sadly). The hero is an English major, so it's quite masturbatory. Maxwell's Demon is a supporting character, which is cool.
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Jul 25, 2009 02:36
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delicious beef posted:1. Can anybody recommend me well-written post-apocalyptic themed stuff. I'm talking about stuff similar to The Road or I am Legend. Not so much interested in Sci-fi explanations of whatever the event is, but about people surviving in the aftermath. I really loved The Road, so something like that would be wonderful.
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Jul 28, 2009 16:10
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