In both science fiction and fantasy, whether a given parallel universe is an alternate history may not be clear. A professor trains his mind to move his body across timelines. Fans of alternate history have made use of the internet from a very early point to showcase their own works and provide useful tools for those fans searching for anything alternate history, first in mailing lists and usenet groups, later in web databases and forums. Novel An online alternate history is typically a series of webpages, or more recently a wiki, or a group project found on the internet. For example, Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake (1990), set in 1999, depicted a near future that ended up becoming an alternative history in Metal Gear Solid (1998). World Heritage Encyclopedia content is assembled from numerous content providers, Open Access Publishing, and in compliance with The Fair Access to Science and Technology Research Act (FASTR), Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., Public Library of Science, The Encyclopedia of Life, Open Book Publishers (OBP), PubMed, U.S. National Library of Medicine, National Center for Biotechnology Information, U.S. National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health (NIH), U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, and USA.gov, which sources content from all federal, state, local, tribal, and territorial government publication portals (.gov, .mil, .edu). Commons category without a link on Wikidata          Political / Social. The 11 coolest alternate history stories in video games. Parallel universe (fiction) Isaac Asimov's short story What If-- is about a couple who can explore alternate realities by means of a television-like device. This term apparently also inspired the name of the alternate history book list, uchronia.net. The Qin dynasty fails to unite China. Canadian Stars: Regina King, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Tom Mison, Sara Vickers. ^ [1] Archived January 5, 2009 at the Wayback Machine Visual arts Portal In Jo Walton's "Small Change" series, the United Kingdom made peace with Hitler before the involvement of the United States in World War II, and fascism slowly strangled the UK. The "Usenet Alternate History List" was first posted on April 11, 1991, to the Usenet newsgroup rec.arts.sf-lovers. ", Another example of alternate history from this period (and arguably the first to explicitly posit cross-time travel from one universe to another as anything more than a visionary experience) is H.G. This neologism is based on the prefix ου- (which in ancient Greek means "not/not any/no") and the ancient Greek χρόνος (chronos), meaning "time". Britain offered her greatest general of the Napoleonic Wars, … Since the late 1990s, bombed Pearl Harbor but also invaded and occupied the Hawaiian Islands. Thief of Time presents them functioning as a full-scale Time Patrol, ensuring that history occurs at all. As long as it ends with a conclusion to the result of the previous divergences, it will be fine. Extraterrestrials Wells describes a multiverse of alternative worlds, complete with the paratime travel machines that would later become popular with U.S. pulp writers, but since his hero experiences only a single alternate world this story is not very different from conventional alternate history.[14]. The other great point of divergence in this timeline occurs in 1199, when Richard the Lionheart survives the Siege of Chaluz and returns to England, making the Angevin Empire so strong it survives into the 20th century. Portal Changing The Times, is an Alternate History Electronic Magazine written and maintained by alternate historians. Uchronia was selected as the Sci Fi Channel's "Sci Fi Site of the Week" twice.[24][25]. List We promote books in the genre, the artwork used for them, and the authors and artists who produce them. Sex and sexuality The future Many fantasies and science fantasies are set in a world that has a history somewhat similar to our own world, but with magic added. Post "what if" questions and talk about the results. $2.99. Funding for USA.gov and content contributors is made possible from the U.S. Congress, E-Government Act of 2002. Film Among the more notable projects include Alternate History.com, This Day in Alternate History, Changing The Times, and Ill Bethisad. Fiction Time travel in fiction The Axis launch a surprise invasion of an isolationist United States in 1953, which forces the country to surrender and submit to a puppet government. Articles with unsourced statements from January 2013 Moberly–Jourdain incident In. Uchronia was selected as the Sci Fi Channel's "Sci Fi Site of the Week" twice. While the original one had a lot of activity, in the end it became very unwieldily and a loss of interest. Reproduction Date: Alternate history or alternative history,[1] sometimes abbreviated AH,[2] is a genre of fiction consisting of stories that are set in worlds in which one or more historical events unfolds differently from how it did in reality. The game Battlestations: Pacific, released in 2008, offered in alternate history campaign for the Imperial Japanese Navy, wherein Japan destroys all three carriers in the Battle of Midway, which follows with a successful invasion of the island. Fictional technology All articles with unsourced statements Comments; Shares. Studies *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. Norman Spinrad wrote The Iron Dream in 1972, which is intended to be a science fiction novel written by Adolf Hitler after fleeing from Europe to North America in the 1920s. Compiled by World Heritage Encyclopedia™ licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 Since the 1950s, this type of fiction has to a large extent merged with science fictional tropes involving cross-time travel between alternate histories or psychic awareness of the existence of "our" universe by the people in another; or ordinary voyaging into the past or into the future that results in history splitting into two or more timelines. Climate fiction The "Usenet Alternate History List" was first posted on April 11, 1991, to the usenet newsgroup rec.arts.sf-lovers. ), What If? The paratime theme is sometimes used without the police; Poul Anderson dreamed up the Old Phoenix tavern as a nexus between alternate histories. Redcoats' Revenge by David Fitz-Enz. Other Stuff. Military New Wave Television Online. The late 1980s and the 1990s saw a boom in popular-fiction versions of alternate history, fueled by the emergence of the prolific alternate history author Harry Turtledove, as well as the development of the steampunk genre and two series of anthologies—the What Might Have Been series edited by Gregory Benford and the Alternate ... series edited by Mike Resnick. ^ Want to see Hitler die in a variety of comically fantastic ways? ^ For the same reasons that this genre is explored by role-playing games, alternate history is also an intriguing backdrop for the storylines of many video games. The following are direct links to specific alternate history scenarios: Alternative History is a FANDOM Lifestyle Community. Mirrors of the Past: Versions of History in Science Fiction and Fantasy. ^ Online shopping for Alternate History from a great selection at Books Store. Publishers When you succeed, all the copies of you who made the same decision succeed too. Joanot Martorell's 1490 epic romance Tirant lo Blanc, written when the loss of Constantinople to the Turks was still a recent and traumatic memory to Christian Europe, tells the story of the valiant knight Tirant The White from Brittany who gets to the embattled remnant of the Byzantine Empire, becomes a Megaduke and commander of its armies, and manages to fight off the invading Ottoman armies of Mehmet II, save the city from Islamic conquest, and even chase the Turks deeper into lands they had conquered before. It can be variously seen as a subgenre of literary fiction, science fiction, and historical fiction; different alternate history works may use tropes from any or all of these genres. Alternate histories are some of the best stories in fiction. Czech Even with such explanation, the more explicitly the alternate world resembles a normal fantasy world, the more likely the story is to be labeled fantasy, as in Poul Anderson's "House Rule" and "Loser's Night.". With the road and railway system destroyed, commerce took to the skies, which led to the emergence of air pirate gangs who plunder the aerial commerce. Gothic [23], In addition to these discussion forums, in 1997 Uchronia: The Alternate History List was created as an online repository, now containing over 2,900 alternate history novels, stories, essays, and other printed materials in several different languages. World government in fiction The Last Reich - Alternate History - World War II . ^ Alternate history literature asks the question, "What if history had developed differently?" What you do for the better increases the portion of the multiverse where good things happen. A long time ago (July 6, 2010), I started a new idea called Choose Your Own Alternate History!The idea was simply to allow everyone the chance to make a constantly branching Alternate History, to see what everyone would decide. Alternate history has long existed as a tool for film and television, and video games are no different. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. First contact Jonbar Hinge With the balance of power and influence tipped in Russia's favor, history diverges; brief summaries at the beginning of the game inform the player of the Communist bloc's complete takeover of Europe by 1953, a different ending to the Cuban Missile Crisis, and the spread of Soviet influence into South America and Mexico. Terraforming Artificial intelligence These authors established the convention of a secret paratime trading empire that exploits and/or protects worlds lacking the paratime technology via a network of James Bond-style secret agents (Piper called them the "paratime police"). (Rick) Sutcliffe's collection of Alternate History links. Setting Billy Meier Subgenres In his "world gone mad", pieces of Earth traded places with their analogs from different timelines. Chinese The essays range from serious scholarly efforts to Hendrik Willem van Loon's fanciful and satiric portrayal of an independent 20th century Dutch city state on the island of Manhattan. What if Germany and Japan . The stories and games in Crimson Skies take place in an alternate 1930s United States, where the nation crumbled into many hostile states following the effects of the Great Depression, the Great War, and Prohibition. Comic / comedy Collaborative attempts by several amateur writers have led to notable accomplishments. The point of divergence is during World War II, where the Soviet Union develops an atomic bomb first and uses it on Berlin. List of alternate history fiction Science fantasy Crimson Skies is one example of an alternate history spawning multiple interpretations in multiple genres. The Sidewise Award for Alternate History lists all the winners and nominees for the award since its inception and provides information for recommending works for consideration. Funding for USA.gov and content contributors is made possible from the U.S. Congress, E-Government Act of 2002. Novels Among the novels in this series, Witch Week stands out for its vivid depiction of a history alternate to that of Chrestomanci's own world rather than our own (and yet with a specific POD that turned it away from the "normal" history of most worlds visited by the wizard). Croatian Alternate history Alcubierre metric Rosenfeld, Gavriel David. The story follows Professor Minott and his students from a fictitious Robinson College as they wander through analogues of worlds that followed a different history. The Eyre Affair (Thursday Next, #1) by Jasper Fforde (Goodreads Author) When the writer explicitly maintains that all possible decisions are made in all possible ways, one possible conclusion is that the characters were neither brave, nor clever, nor skilled, but simply lucky enough to happen on the universe in which they did not choose the cowardly route, take the stupid action, fumble the crucial activity, etc. "Why Do We Ask 'What If?' Hard Fans of alternate history have made use of the internet from a very early point to showcase their own works and provide useful tools for those fans searching for anything alternate history, first in mailing lists and usenet groups, later in web databases and forums. [5] Secret history, works that document things that are not known to have happened historically but would not have changed history had they happened, is also not to be confused with alternate history. Changing The Times, is an Alternate History Electronic Magazine written and maintained by alternate historians. Many game series by Swedish developer Paradox Interactive start off at a concise point in history, allowing the player to immerse in the role of a contemporary leader and alter the course of in-game history. Early 20th century and the era of the pulps, Time travel as a means of creating historical divergences, Major writers explore alternate histories, Contemporary alternate history in popular literature, Alternate history in the contemporary fantasy genre. Alternate history shades off into other fantasy subgenres when the use of actual, though altered, history and geography decreases, although a culture may still be clearly the original source; Barry Hughart's Bridge of Birds and its sequels take place in a fantasy world, albeit one clearly based on China, and with allusions to actual Chinese history, such as the Empress Wu. United States TV Many works of fantasy posit a world in which known practitioners of magic were able to make it function, and where the consequences of such reality would not, in fact, disturb history to such an extent as to make it plainly alternate history. Many-worlds interpretation He is successful in his mission, but in the process allows Joseph Stalin and the Soviet Union to become powerful enough to launch a massive campaign to conquer Europe. "[8][9][10] Livy concluded that the Romans would likely have defeated Alexander.[11]. We are a community for creating and discussing a wide range of alternate timelines: large and small, ancient and recent, realistic and fanciful.If you'd like to add to our growing … By (shelved 969 times as alternate-history) … Political ideas Among the authors included were Hilaire Belloc, André Maurois, and Winston Churchill. Black Determinism This is a forum for finished, complete alternate history timelines and scenarios. Any scenarios are welcome for discussion, even bad ones. Others develop their own terminology, Ill Bethisad using the terms *here* and *there* to distinguish between our world and the conworld, respectively. Any scenarios are welcome for discussion, even bad ones. A writer's fictional multiverse may, in fact, preclude some decisions as humanly impossible, as when, in Night Watch, Terry Pratchett depicts a character informing Vimes that while anything that can happen, has happened, nevertheless there is no history whatsoever in which Vimes has ever murdered his wife. When the magical version of our world's history is set in contemporary times, the distinction becomes clear between alternate history on the one hand and contemporary fantasy, using in effect a form of secret history (as when Josepha Sherman's Son of Darkness has an elf living in New York City, in disguise) on the other. Skip through the years a bit. Alternate history fiction continues to thrive in the twenty-first century, particularly as film and television adaptations are created from alternate history books. 2005 He then hypnotizes his students so they can explore more of them. In some versions, the Nazis and/or Axis Powers conquer the entire world; in others, they conquer most of the world but a "Fortress America" exists under siege; while in others, there is a Nazi/Japanese Cold War comparable to the US/Soviet equivalent in 'our' timeline. When a story's assumptions about the nature of time travel lead to the complete replacement of the visited time's future rather than just the creation of an additional time line, the device of a "time patrol" is often used, most notably in Poul Anderson's "Time Patrol" collection — where guardians race uptime and downtime to preserve the "correct" history. Scientific romance International Edition. [24][25] Parallel universes The Qin dynasty fails to unite China. Animal Farm: 1984 [George Orwell Christopher Hitchens] on Amazon.com. Similarly, the 2007 video game World in Conflict is set in 1989, with the Soviet Union on the verge of collapse. Romanian A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's … The cross-time theme was further developed in the 1960s by Keith Laumer in the first three volumes of his Imperium sequence, which would be completed in Zone Yellow (1990). Because of this, Great Britain lacks the charismatic leader needed to keep the country together and Nazi Germany successfully conquers Great Britain via Operation Sealion. ^ Brave New Words: The Oxford Dictionary of Science Fiction (Oxford University Press, 2007) notes the preferred usage of "Alternate History" as well as its primacy in coinage, "Alternate History" was coined in 1954 and "Alternative History" was first used in 1977, pp.4–5. Articles with unsourced statements from February 2013 First POD: Hitler Dies. As a special treat for readers of the Alt Hist website we are making the whole of the first story of Alt Hist Issue 7 free online. Closed timelike curve Dieselpunk This kind of speculative work, which posts from the point of view of an alternate history is variously known as a "recursive alternate history", a "double-blind what-if" or an "alternate-alternate history". Released in 1996, the game presents a point of divergence in 1946 where Albert Einstein goes back in time to prevent World War II from ever taking place by erasing Adolf Hitler from time after he is released from Landsberg Prison in 1924. Authors. The 1930s would see alternate history move into a new arena. Again, in the English Renaissance fantasy Armor of Light by Melissa Scott and Lisa A. Barnett, the magic used in the book, by Dr. John Dee and others, actually was practiced in the Renaissance; positing a secret history of effective magic makes this an alternate history with a POD, Sir Philip Sidney's surviving the Battle of Zutphen, and shortly thereafter saving the life of Christopher Marlowe. Now you can. New Education for a New World 1 0 7 4. here, for the first time in history, the educational role of the media should manifest. Collins, William Joseph. This is a group where we can discuss alternate history, or What If? Causal loop Australian Another alternate history game involving Nazis is War Front: Turning Point in which Adolf Hitler died during the early days of World War II and thus, a much more effective leadership rose to power. In online alternate history, the timeline is usually referred to by the abbreviation ATL (Alternate Time Line), as contrasted with OTL (Our Time Line) which refers to real history. 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