Alternative History/ Alternate Worlds?

[Cli-Fi]

Please forgive me if this is in the wrong section. Wasn't quite sure where to put it.

How easy would it be to publish something within this realm? I have two AH ideas. One I have way more developed and am constantly working on. The other popped into my head on the way home today.

Basically, my AH ideas start out with the old, "let's kill Hitler" subplot. What if [insert well known event here] didn't happen or happened differently in history? How would the world be different?Indeed would it be?

I have always wanted to tackle this question with the big issues of the day. The idea I am now working on has something to do with slavery and the slave trade. Stephen King has tipped his toe into this topic with his book 11/22/63. The whole concept of the Sliders TV show is built around it. I have always felt that some of my favorite Slider Worlds could be whole novels themselves. So it does seem to have a market within sci-fi. Even if it's not too hard sci-fi. Thoughts?

I know that there is a fine line between Dystopian and Alternative but my novels are generally optimistic in nature.

 

[Toby Frost]

Well, it’s a very established subgenre as it is. Several episodes of Sliders either used similar concepts to existing books. Before going any further, I’d suggest reading The Man in the High Castle by Philip K Dick and Fatherland by Robert Harris, which are two very different takes on the same basic concept, and perhaps The Difference Engine by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling (which is an interesting mess). West of Eden by Harry Harrison is pretty entertaining, and one of the most drastic alternate histories I’ve ever read. It’s probably worth reading around the field, as a lot of ideas have been done almost to death.

In terms of publishing and genre, it seems to depend on how different your setting actually is to the present. Books like Fatherland and Resistance by Owen Sheers tend to be sold as literary novels or thrillers rather than SF. However, if it goes for the wackier, less feasible end of the spectrum, with the Germans landing on Venus or Queen Victoria living 200 years, you’re firmly in SFF territory. It seems to depend on the book and its style – in particular, whether the tone is “pulpy” and whether the technology is about the same as today, although the politics might be different.

 

[Cli-Fi]

Well, it’s a very established subgenre as it is. Several episodes of Sliders either used similar concepts to existing books. Before going any further, I’d suggest reading The Man in the High Castle by Philip K Dick and Fatherland by Robert Harris, which are two very different takes on the same basic concept, and perhaps The Difference Engine by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling (which is an interesting mess). West of Eden by Harry Harrison is pretty entertaining, and one of the most drastic alternate histories I’ve ever read. It’s probably worth reading around the field, as a lot of ideas have been done almost to death.

In terms of publishing and genre, it seems to depend on how different your setting actually is to the present. Books like Fatherland and Resistance by Owen Sheers tend to be sold as literary novels or thrillers rather than SF. However, if it goes for the wackier, less feasible end of the spectrum, with the Germans landing on Venus or Queen Victoria living 200 years, you’re firmly in SFF territory. It seems to depend on the book and its style – in particular, whether the tone is “pulpy” and whether the technology is about the same as today, although the politics might be different.

Thanks I watched Amazon's version of The Man in the High Castle thought it was interesting. It's something I would watch but not read. I'm not particularly fond of that specific idea, it's just the most basic idea of AH. That and I guess Kennedy. Do you have any other suggestions in regards to the Sliders inspirations?

 

[ralphkern]

Stephen Baxter has several alternative history stories.

Voyage - an alternative space program where instead of developing a space shuttle, NASA went all out for a Mars mission. Super hard Sci Fi though, it's less a novel and more a document for progressing Apollo to Mars.

Manifold series - 3 novels, with the same characters but set in different universes ( one where aliens exist, one where they don't and one a bit more metaphysical)

 

[Venusian Broon]

(The Man in the High Castle) I'm not particularly fond of that specific idea, it's just the most basic idea of AH. That and I guess Kennedy.

The Man in the High Castle basic?! Sounds like you need an overview of alternative history novels.

This has a few listed chronologically, I'm sure it is in no way a complete list:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_alternate_history_fiction

It's true that the Germans winning world war 2 is one of the most hackneyed and clichéd of plots, but then Dick's book was published in 1962 way before most of the rest of the 'Hitler won' AH (and also before the Kennedy assassination.)