Alternative Reality books

[Oblomov]

I have a weakness for fantasy stories dealing with alternative reality involving "what if" conjecture of some major event if it did not take place as per known history. For example "what if the Germans had won the war?" or "What if JFK had not been assassinated?" and the author's imganation of how the world would have been from that point. In good hands, such conjectures can produce very good stories.

 

1. The best example that I have come across (and my all time favourite book) is Robert Harris' masterpiece "Fatherland". Set in 1964, it assumes that the Germans negotiated a unilateral peace treaty with the USA and won the European War. Almost all Europe is ruled by Fascists, Joseph Kennedy (JFK's father) is the US president and no one outside the occupied countries has heard of the holocaust.

 

2. Another great book is "The Consort" by Anthony Heckstall-Smith. Set in the early 1950s, it is a conjecture of what would have happened if the Consort of a certain newly crowned Queen of a European country had decided to quit his post and wife for a dusky South Pacific maiden that he meets on a goodwill tour. The characters and situation are very thinly veiled from you-know-who and there are some shocking parallels to real-life events that took place decades later.

 

I would like to know if there are other good books in the genre.

[Kell]

The Separation by Christopher Priest features a very slightly altered version of events during WWII and is rather good.

 

My review is HERE if you're interested.

[Fiona]

Actually, I've just bought a book that takes on what might have happened if we were taken over by the Nazis... it's called Against the Day. I haven't read anything like these 'what ifs' before as I can't say I'm overly interested as such, but we'll see...

[Icecream]

This sounds like a great genre. I would love to read some.

[maclsj]

I suppose the Merchant Princes' series by Charles Stross would fall into this category but it has alternate realities and this reality intertwined. The first one (The Family Trade) I found gripping, but I've not found the next two as gripping.

[Freewheeling Andy]

I really enjoy this style of book. A couple of note are Philip K Dick's masterpiece, The Man In The High Castle - one of the "If Germany had won the second world war" books; and Pashazade by Jon Grimwood, set in a world where World War I ended differently. It's a sort-of-cyberpunk thriller set in a world still dominated by Ottoman values.

[Oblomov]

I really enjoy this style of book. A couple of note are Philip K Dick's masterpiece, The Man In The High Castle - one of the "If Germany had won the second world war" books;

 

I had heard about this book but somehow never got around to reading it so far. Along with Fatherland (written 30 years later), The Man in the High Castle is considered as the definitive alternative history book dealing with the "what if the Germans had won WW2" theme. I have ordered it at last, along with the similarly themed The Plot against America by Philip Roth and The Proteus Operation by James P Hogan.