Lord Darcy" series presents a point of divergence: a monk systemizes magic rather than science, so the use of
foxglove
''Digitalis'' ( or ) is a genus of about 20 species of herbaceous perennial plants, shrubs, and biennials, commonly called foxgloves.
''Digitalis'' is native to Europe, western Asia, and northwestern Africa. The flowers are tubular in shap ...
to treat heart disease is regarded as
superstition
A superstition is any belief or practice considered by non-practitioners to be irrational or supernatural, attributed to fate or magic, perceived supernatural influence, or fear of that which is unknown. It is commonly applied to beliefs and ...
. Another point of divergence occurs in 1199, when
Richard the Lionheart
Richard I (8 September 1157 – 6 April 1199) was King of England from 1189 until his death in 1199. He also ruled as Duke of Normandy, Aquitaine and Gascony, Lord of Cyprus, and Count of Poitiers, Anjou, Maine, and Nantes, and was overl ...
survives the
Siege of Chaluz and returns to England and makes the
Angevin Empire
The Angevin Empire (; french: Empire Plantagenêt) describes the possessions of the House of Plantagenet during the 12th and 13th centuries, when they ruled over an area covering roughly half of France, all of England, and parts of Ireland and W ...
so strong that it survives into the 20th century.
''
Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell
''Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell'' is the debut novel by British writer Susanna Clarke. Published in 2004, it is an alternative history set in 19th-century England around the time of the Napoleonic Wars. Its premise is that magic once existed i ...
'' by
Susanna Clarke
Susanna Mary Clarke (born 1 November 1959) is an English author known for her debut novel ''Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell'' (2004), a Hugo Award-winning alternative history. Clarke began ''Jonathan Strange'' in 1993 and worked on it during her ...
takes place in an England where a separate Kingdom ruled by the Raven King and founded on magic existed in Northumbria for over 300 years. In
Patricia Wrede
Patricia Collins Wrede (; born March 27, 1953) is an American author of fantasy literature. She is known for her ''Enchanted Forest Chronicles'' series for young adults, which was voted number 84 in NPR's 100 Best-Ever Teen Novels list.
Caree ...
's Regency fantasies, Great Britain has a Royal Society of Wizards.
''
The Tales of Alvin Maker
''The Tales of Alvin Maker'' is a series of six alternate history fantasy novels written by American novelist Orson Scott Card, published from 1987 to 2003 (with one more planned), that explore the experiences of a young man, Alvin Miller, who ...
'' series by
Orson Scott Card
Orson Scott Card (born August 24, 1951) is an American writer known best for his science fiction works. He is the first and (as of 2022) only person to win both a Hugo Award and a Nebula Award in consecutive years, winning both awards for both ...
(a parallel to the life of
Joseph Smith
Joseph Smith Jr. (December 23, 1805June 27, 1844) was an American religious leader and founder of Mormonism and the Latter Day Saint movement. When he was 24, Smith published the Book of Mormon. By the time of his death, 14 years later, he ...
, founder of the
Latter Day Saint movement
The Latter Day Saint movement (also called the LDS movement, LDS restorationist movement, or Smith–Rigdon movement) is the collection of independent church groups that trace their origins to a Christian Restorationist movement founded by Jo ...
) takes place in an alternate America, beginning in the early 19th century. Prior to that time, a POD occurred: England, under the
rule
Rule or ruling may refer to:
Education
* Royal University of Law and Economics (RULE), a university in Cambodia
Human activity
* The exercise of political or personal control by someone with authority or power
* Business rule, a rule perta ...
of
Oliver Cromwell
Oliver Cromwell (25 April 15993 September 1658) was an English politician and military officer who is widely regarded as one of the most important statesmen in English history. He came to prominence during the 1639 to 1651 Wars of the Three Ki ...
, had banished "makers", or anyone else demonstrating "knacks" (an ability to perform seemingly supernatural feats) to the North American continent. Thus the early American colonists embraced as perfectly ordinary these gifts, and counted on them as a part of their daily lives. The political division of the continent is considerably altered, with two large English colonies bookending a smaller "American" nation, one aligned with England, and the other governed by exiled
Cavaliers
The term Cavalier () was first used by Roundheads as a term of abuse for the wealthier royalist supporters of King Charles I and his son Charles II of England during the English Civil War, the Interregnum, and the Restoration (1642 – ). It ...
. Actual historical figures are seen in a much different light: Ben Franklin is revered as the continent's finest "maker", George Washington was executed after being captured, and
"Tom" Jefferson is the first president of "Appalachia", the result of a compromise between the Continentals and the
British Crown
The Crown is the state (polity), state in all its aspects within the jurisprudence of the Commonwealth realms and their subdivisions (such as the Crown Dependencies, British Overseas Territories, overseas territories, Provinces and territorie ...
.
On the other hand, when the "Old Ones" (fairies) still manifest themselves in England in
Keith Roberts
Keith John Kingston Roberts (20 September 1935 – 5 October 2000) was an English science fiction author. He began publishing with two stories in the September 1964 issue of ''Science Fantasy'' magazine, "Anita" (the first of a series of stor ...
's ''
Pavane
The ''pavane'' ( ; it, pavana, ''padovana''; german: Paduana) is a slow processional dance common in Europe during the 16th century (Renaissance).
The pavane, the earliest-known music for which was published in Venice by Ottaviano Petrucci, ...
'', which takes place in a technologically backward world after a Spanish assassination of
Elizabeth I
Elizabeth I (7 September 153324 March 1603) was Queen of England and Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death in 1603. Elizabeth was the last of the five House of Tudor monarchs and is sometimes referred to as the "Virgin Queen".
El ...
allowed the
Spanish Armada
The Spanish Armada (a.k.a. the Enterprise of England, es, Grande y Felicísima Armada, links=no, lit=Great and Most Fortunate Navy) was a Spanish fleet that sailed from Lisbon in late May 1588, commanded by the Duke of Medina Sidonia, an aris ...
to conquer England, the possibility that the fairies were real but retreated from modern advances makes the POD possible: the fairies really were present all along, in a secret history.
Again, in the English Renaissance fantasy ''Armor of Light'' by
Melissa Scott
Melissa Scott (born 1960, in Little Rock, Arkansas) is an American science fiction and fantasy author noted for her science fiction novels featuring LGBT characters and elaborate settings.
Biography
Scott studied history at Harvard College and B ...
and Lisa A. Barnett, the magic used in the book, by Dr.
John Dee
John Dee (13 July 1527 – 1608 or 1609) was an English mathematician, astronomer, astrologer, teacher, occultist, and alchemist. He was the court astronomer for, and advisor to, Elizabeth I, and spent much of his time on alchemy, divinatio ...
and others, actually was practiced in the Renaissance; positing a secret history of effective magic makes this an alternate history with a point of departure. Sir
Philip Sidney
Philip, also Phillip, is a male given name, derived from the Greek language, Greek (''Philippos'', lit. "horse-loving" or "fond of horses"), from a compound of (''philos'', "dear", "loved", "loving") and (''hippos'', "horse"). Prominent Philip ...
survives the
Battle of Zutphen
The Battle of Zutphen was fought on 22 September 1586, near the village of Warnsveld and the town of Zutphen, the Netherlands, during the Eighty Years' War. It was fought between the forces of the United Provinces of the Netherlands, aided ...
in 1586, and shortly thereafter saving the life of
Christopher Marlowe
Christopher Marlowe, also known as Kit Marlowe (; baptised 26 February 156430 May 1593), was an English playwright, poet and translator of the Elizabethan era. Marlowe is among the most famous of the Elizabethan playwrights. Based upon the ...
.
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
Contemporary fantasy, also known as modern fantasy, is a subgenre of fantasy, set in the present day or, more accurately, the time period of the maker. It is perhaps most popular for its subgenre, urban fantasy.
Strictly, supernatural fiction c ...
, using in effect a form of secret history (as when
Josepha Sherman
Josepha Sherman (December 12, 1946 – August 23, 2012) was an American author, folklorist, and anthologist. In 1990 she won the Compton Crook Award for the novel ''The Shining Falcon''.
Works
Series
Buffyverse
*'' Visitors'' (1999) (wit ...
's ''Son of Darkness'' has an elf living in New York City, in disguise) on the other. In works such as
Robert A. Heinlein
Robert Anson Heinlein (; July 7, 1907 – May 8, 1988) was an American science fiction author, aeronautical engineer, and naval officer. Sometimes called the "dean of science fiction writers", he was among the first to emphasize scientific accu ...
's ''Magic, Incorporated'' where a construction company can use magic to rig up stands at a sporting event and Poul Anderson's ''
Operation Chaos
Operation CHAOS or Operation MHCHAOS was a Central Intelligence Agency domestic espionage project targeting the American people from 1967 to 1974, established by President Lyndon B. Johnson and expanded under President Richard Nixon, whose mission ...
'' and its sequel ''
Operation Luna'', where djinns are serious weapons of war—with atomic bombs—the use of magic throughout the United States and other modern countries makes it clear that this is not secret history—although references in ''Operation Chaos'' to
degaussing
Degaussing is the process of decreasing or eliminating a remnant magnetic field. It is named after the gauss, a unit of magnetism, which in turn was named after Carl Friedrich Gauss. Due to magnetic hysteresis, it is generally not possible to redu ...
the effects of cold iron make it possible that it is the result of a POD. The sequel clarifies this as the result of a collaboration of Einstein and Planck in 1901, resulting in the theory of "rhea tics".
Henry Moseley
Henry Gwyn Jeffreys Moseley (; 23 November 1887 – 10 August 1915) was an English physicist, whose contribution to the science of physics was the justification from physical laws of the previous empirical and chemical concept of the atomic num ...
applies this theory to "degauss the effects of cold iron and release the goetic forces." This results in the suppression of
ferromagnetism
Ferromagnetism is a property of certain materials (such as iron) which results in a large observed magnetic permeability, and in many cases a large magnetic coercivity allowing the material to form a permanent magnet. Ferromagnetic materials ...
and the re-emergence of magic and magical creatures.
Alternate history shades off into other
fantasy subgenres
Writing genres (more commonly known as literary genres) are categories that distinguish literature (including works of prose, poetry, drama, hybrid forms, etc.) based on some set of stylistic criteria. Sharing literary conventions, they typic ...
when the use of actual, though altered, history and geography decreases, although a culture may still be clearly the original source;
Barry Hughart
Barry Hughart (March 13, 1934 – August 1, 2019) was an American author of fantasy novels.
Background
Hughart was born in Peoria, Illinois on March 13, 1934. His father, John Harding Page, served as a naval officer. His mother, Veronica ...
's ''
Bridge of Birds
''Bridge of Birds'' is a fantasy novel by Barry Hughart, first published in 1984. It is the first of three novels in ''The Chronicles of Master Li and Number Ten Ox'' series. The original draft of ''Bridge of Birds'' is included in a special slip ...
'' and its sequels take place in a
fantasy world
A fantasy world is a world created for/from fictional media, such as literature, film or games. Typical fantasy worlds involve magic or magical abilities, nonexistent technology and, sometimes, either a historical or futuristic theme. Some wor ...
, albeit one clearly based on China, and with allusions to actual Chinese history, such as
the Empress Wu.
Richard Garfinkle's ''
Celestial Matters'' incorporates ancient Chinese physics and Greek
Aristotelian physics
Aristotelian physics is the form of natural science described in the works of the Greek philosopher Aristotle (384–322 BC). In his work ''Physics'', Aristotle intended to establish general principles of change that govern all natural bodies, b ...
, using them as if factual.
Alternate history has long been a staple of Japanese speculative fiction with such authors as
Futaro Yamada
was the pen name of , a Japanese author.
He was born in Yabu, Hyogo.
In 1947, he wrote a mystery short story and was awarded a prize by the magazine .
He was discovered by Edogawa Rampo and became a novelist.
He wrote many ninja (忍法帖 ''Ni ...
and
Ryō Hanmura
was a Japanese science fiction, fantasy, and Horror fiction, horror author. His name is alternatively transliterated as Ryō Hammura. While he wrote books as Ryō Hanmura his real name was .
He won the first Izumi Kyōka Prize for Literature for ...
writing novels set in recognizable historical settings with added supernatural or science fiction elements. Ryō Hanmura's 1973 ''
Musubi no Yama Hiroku
''Musubi no Yama Hiroku'' (産霊山秘録 ''The Secret History of Mt. Musubi'') is an epic historical fantasy novel by Ryō Hanmura. It is a multi-generational saga reinterpreting 400 years of Japan's history through the perspective of a secret ...
'' which recreated 400 years of Japan's history from the perspective of a secret magical family with psychic abilities. The novel has since come to be recognized as a masterpiece of Japanese speculative fiction. Twelve years later, author
Hiroshi Aramata
is a Japanese author, polymath, critic, translator and specialist in natural history, iconography and cartography. His most popular novel was ''Teito Monogatari'' (''Tale of the Capitol''), which has sold over 5 million copies in Japan alone.
...
wrote the groundbreaking ''
Teito Monogatari
is an epic historical dark fantasy/science fiction work; the debut novel of natural history researcher and polymath Hiroshi Aramata. It began circulation in the literary magazine ''Monthly King Novel'' owned by Kadokawa Shoten in 1983, and w ...
'' which reimagined the history of
Tokyo
Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 ...
across the 20th century in a world heavily influenced by the supernatural.
Television
The TV show ''
Sliders
Slider or Sliders may refer to:
Arts
* K.K. Slider, a fictional character within the ''Animal Crossing'' franchise
* '' The Slider'', a 1972 album by T. Rex
* ''Sliders'' (TV series), an American science fiction and fantasy television series
* ...
'' explores different possible alternate realities by having the protagonist "slide" into different parallel dimensions of the same planet Earth. Another TV show ''
Motherland: Fort Salem'' explores a female-dominated world in which witchcraft is real. Its world diverged from our timeline when the
Salem witch trials
The Salem witch trials were a series of hearings and prosecutions of people accused of witchcraft in colonial Massachusetts between February 1692 and May 1693. More than 200 people were accused. Thirty people were found guilty, 19 of whom w ...
are resolved by an agreement between witches and ungifted humans.
The anime ''
Fena: Pirate Princess'' featured an alternate 18th century.
The TV show ''
The Man in the High Castle
''The Man in the High Castle'' (1962), by Philip K. Dick, is an alternative history novel wherein the Axis Powers won World War II. The story occurs in 1962, fifteen years after the end of the war in 1947, and depicts the political intrigues b ...
'' is an adaptation of the novel with the same name that ran for four seasons.
''
For All Mankind'' depicts an alternate timeline in which the
Soviet crewed lunar program successfully lands on the Moon before the US
Apollo program, resulting in a continued and intensified
Space Race
The Space Race was a 20th-century competition between two Cold War rivals, the United States and the Soviet Union, to achieve superior spaceflight capability. It had its origins in the ballistic missile-based nuclear arms race between the tw ...
.
Online
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
Usenet () is a worldwide distributed discussion system available on computers. It was developed from the general-purpose Unix-to-Unix Copy (UUCP) dial-up network architecture. Tom Truscott and Jim Ellis conceived the idea in 1979, and it was ...
groups, later in web databases and forums. The "Usenet Alternate History List" was first posted on 11 April 1991, to the Usenet newsgroup rec.arts.sf-lovers. In May 1995, the dedicated newsgroup ''soc.history.what-if'' was created for showcasing and discussing alternate histories. Its prominence declined with the general migration from unmoderated usenet to moderated web forums, most prominently
AlternateHistory.com
AlternateHistory.com is a Internet forum, web forum dedicated to the discussion of alternate history. The forum was founded in September 2000 by Ian Montgomerie, a Canadian immigrant residing in New York, as a split-off from a Usenet newsgroup. ...
, the self-described "largest gathering of alternate history fans on the internet" with over 10,000 active members.
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. Uchronia was selected as the
Sci Fi Channel
Syfy (formerly Sci-Fi Channel, later shortened to Sci Fi; stylized as SYFY) is an American basic cable channel owned by the NBCUniversal Television and Streaming division of Comcast's NBCUniversal through NBCUniversal Cable Entertainment. Lau ...
's "Sci Fi Site of the Week" twice.
See also
*
20th century in science fiction
*
Alien space bats
*
Alternate ending
An alternate ending (or alternative ending) is an ending of a story that was considered, or even written or produced, but ultimately discarded in favour of another resolution. Generally, alternative endings are considered to have no bearing on t ...
*
Alternative future
Time travel is a common theme in fiction, mainly since the late 19th century, and has been depicted in a variety of media, such as literature, television, film, and advertisements.
The concept of time travel by mechanical means was popularized ...
*
American Civil War alternate histories
American Civil War alternate histories are alternate history fiction that focuses on the Civil War ending differently or not occurring. The American Civil War is a popular point of divergence in English-language alternate history fiction. The m ...
*
Dieselpunk
Dieselpunk is a retrofuturistic subgenre of science fiction similar to steampunk or cyberpunk that combines the aesthetics of the diesel-based technology of the interwar period through to the 1950s with retro-futuristic technology and postmodern ...
*
Dystopian
A dystopia (from Ancient Greek δυσ- "bad, hard" and τόπος "place"; alternatively cacotopiaCacotopia (from κακός ''kakos'' "bad") was the term used by Jeremy Bentham in his 1818 Plan of Parliamentary Reform (Works, vol. 3, p. 493). ...
*
Fictional universe
A fictional universe, or fictional world, is a self-consistent setting with events, and often other elements, that differ from the real world. It may also be called an imagined, constructed, or fictional realm (or world). Fictional universes may ...
*
Future history
A future history is a postulated history of the future and is used by authors of science fiction and other speculative fiction to construct a common background for fiction. Sometimes the author publishes a timeline of events in the history, whi ...
* ''
The Garden of Forking Paths
"The Garden of Forking Paths" (original Spanish title: "El jardín de senderos que se bifurcan") is a 1941 short story by Argentine writer and poet Jorge Luis Borges. It is the title story in the collection ''El jardín de senderos que se bifurc ...
''
*
Historical revisionism
In historiography, historical revisionism is the reinterpretation of a historical account. It usually involves challenging the orthodox (established, accepted or traditional) views held by professional scholars about a historical event or times ...
*
Hypothetical Axis victory in World War II
A hypothetical military victory of the Axis powers over the Allies of World War II (1939–1945) is a common topic in speculative literature. Works of alternative history (fiction) and of counterfactual history (non-fiction), including stories ...
*
Invasion literature
Invasion literature (also the invasion novel) is a literary genre that was popular in the period between 1871 and the First World War (1914–1918). The invasion novel first was recognized as a literary genre in the UK, with the novella '' The ...
*
Jonbar hinge
*
List of alternate history fiction
This is a list of alternate history fiction, sorted primarily by type and then chronologically.
Standalone novels
Novel series
Anthologies
Short stories and novellas
Role-playing/board games
Comics
Films
TV shows
Plays
Video g ...
*
Possible worlds Possible Worlds may refer to:
* Possible worlds, concept in philosophy
* ''Possible Worlds'' (play), 1990 play by John Mighton
** ''Possible Worlds'' (film), 2000 film by Robert Lepage, based on the play
* Possible Worlds (studio)
* ''Possible Wo ...
*
Pulp novels
Pulp magazines (also referred to as "the pulps") were inexpensive fiction magazines that were published from 1896 to the late 1950s. The term "pulp" derives from the cheap wood pulp paper on which the magazines were printed. In contrast, magazine ...
*
Ruritanian romance
Ruritanian romance is a genre of literature, film and theatre comprising novels, stories, plays and films set in a fictional country, usually in Central or Eastern Europe, such as the "Ruritania" that gave the genre its name.
Such stories are typ ...
References
Further reading
* Chapman, Edgar L., and Carl B. Yoke (eds.). ''Classic and Iconoclastic Alternate History Science Fiction''. Mellen, 2003.
* Collins, William Joseph. ''Paths Not Taken: The Development, Structure, and Aesthetics of the Alternative History''.
University of California
The University of California (UC) is a public land-grant research university system in the U.S. state of California. The system is composed of the campuses at Berkeley, Davis, Irvine, Los Angeles, Merced, Riverside, San Diego, San Francisco, ...
at Davis 1990.
* Darius, Julian. "58 Varieties: Watchmen and Revisionism". In
Minutes to Midnight: Twelve Essays on Watchmen'. Sequart Research & Literacy Organization, 2010. Focuses on Watchmen as alternate history.
* Cowley, Robert, ed., ''
What If? Military Historians Imagine What Might Have Been''.
Pan Books
Pan Books is a publishing imprint that first became active in the 1940s and is now part of the British-based Macmillan Publishers, owned by the Georg von Holtzbrinck Publishing Group of Germany.
Pan Books began as an independent publisher, est ...
, 1999.
* Gevers, Nicholas. ''Mirrors of the Past: Versions of History in Science Fiction and Fantasy''.
University of Cape Town
The University of Cape Town (UCT) ( af, Universiteit van Kaapstad, xh, Yunibesithi ya yaseKapa) is a public research university in Cape Town, South Africa. Established in 1829 as the South African College, it was granted full university statu ...
, 1997
*
Hellekson, Karen. ''The Alternate History: Refiguring Historical Time''.
Kent State University
Kent State University (KSU) is a public research university in Kent, Ohio. The university also includes seven regional campuses in Northeast Ohio and additional facilities in the region and internationally. Regional campuses are located in As ...
Press, 2001
* Keen, Antony G. "Alternate Histories of the Roman Empire in Stephen Baxter, Robert Silverberg and Sophia McDougall". ''
Foundation: The International Review of Science Fiction'' 102, Spring 2008.
* McKnight, Edgar Vernon, Jr. ''Alternative History: The Development of a Literary Genre''.
University of North Carolina
The University of North Carolina is the multi-campus public university system for the state of North Carolina. Overseeing the state's 16 public universities and the NC School of Science and Mathematics, it is commonly referred to as the UNC Sy ...
at Chapel Hill, 1994.
* Morgan, Glyn, and C. Palmer-Patel (eds.). ''Sideways in Time: Critical Essays on Alternate History Fiction''. Liverpool University Press, 2019.
* Nedelkovh, Aleksandar B. ''British and American Science Fiction Novel 1950–1980 with the Theme of Alternative History (an Axiological Approach)''. 1994 , 1999 .
*
Rosenfeld, Gavriel David. ''The World Hitler Never Made: Alternate History and the Memory of Nazism''. 2005
* Rosenfeld, Gavriel David. "Why Do We Ask 'What If?' Reflections on the Function of Alternate History." ''History and Theory'' 41, Theme Issue 41: Unconventional History (December 2002), 90–103. .
* Schneider-Mayerson, Matthew.
What Almost Was: The Politics of the Contemporary Alternate History Novel. ''
American Studies
American studies or American civilization is an interdisciplinary field of scholarship that examines American literature, history, society, and culture. It traditionally incorporates literary criticism, historiography and critical theory.
Sch ...
'' 30, 3–4 (Summer 2009), 63–83.
* Singles, Kathleen. ''Alternate History: Playing with Contingency and Necessity''.
De Gruyter
Walter de Gruyter GmbH, known as De Gruyter (), is a German scholarly publishing house specializing in academic literature.
History
The roots of the company go back to 1749 when Frederick the Great granted the Königliche Realschule in Be ...
, 2013.
External links
{{Authority control
Historical novels subgenres