Alternative History

[TSG]

I subject that has interested me for sometime is alternative history: where people write or act out history in a way with different events than what happened-with totally different consequences and life today.

So, this thread is all about it. What is your favorite version of it? Do you have a favorite author in the writing genre? Do you have any ideas yourself on what could've happened if something changed? Do you have any fantasies about what you wish happened? Any other things about Alternative History you want to cover? Shoot.

 

[The Doctor]

I love alternative history. Specifically, I love Steampunk. I love how different and exciting everything feels! When I read about airships or steam powered robots, everything seems so bright, yet so gritty. It feels like people in Steampunk timelines are more creative and individualistic.

My favorite Steampunk books would have to be Airborne by Kenneth Oppel and Boneshaker by Cherie Priest. Two totally different books that show two different sides of Steampunk - The shiny and the dirty, respectively. They both show adventure and exploration but one holds a sense of wonder and the other a sense of danger. Two great pieces of work.

I also like Steampunk bands, specifically Abney Park. They create music unlike any other I've ever heard.

Sometimes I wish life was like that. Don't get me wrong, I like all the technological innovations we have here today, especially the internet, but I look at how free everyone seems in these books, free to dream, live, wonder, fly, and I think about how awesome it all sounds.

It's really something.

 

[lenguy]

Alternative history is always neat to think about because we have already been through so much in the last 5 or so thousand years and to think what would happen if you just change one thing. Like, what if there was no Jesus? Imagine a world with out Christianity or religion in fact. With out the oppression of the scientific endeavors then we could possibly be hundreds of years more advanced in society. What If American had lost the revolutionary war and never got its independence from Britain? Hell, what if Hitler at won in W.W II? It would be a very different place. What if that meteor had never crashed on earth and killed off the dinosaurs? Its always interesting to ponder about these things, cool stuff.

 

[Amarillo del Bosque Verde]

I love Alternative History. I'm a huge Cyberpunk fan and have been for years. I've watched a shitload of Cyberpunk anime (Mostly random things my cousin showed me. I've yet to know their names. >.<). I also write Cyberpunk stories to the best of my ability. I'd love to see how something like the Civil War or WWI wouldv'e ended up in a Cyberpunk world...maybe I should try writing one.

 

[Spidey Revivey]

I'm hardcore about some alternative history. Specifically of the Steampunk variety, like DDP over there. To think what the world would look like if we had kept to our industrial prospects of using steam...it's baffling. I love bands like Abney Park and Dr. Steel that have been heavily influenced with the idea.

What if Pontius Pilate pardoned Jesus Christ? Would we be looking at things differently if Great Britain had won the American Revolution? It's definitely worth talking about, and would love to go into discussion with anybody that has theories and such over how things would be if "so-and-so" didn't happen.