Talk:List of alternate history fiction

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Needs work[edit]

This is a pretty sloppy list, even if it's meant to be "random." Is there a standard format for book lists like this when there's no actual article? I'll go in and regularize it and tidy it up when I get caught up on Real World work. And probably add a number of titles, since I can think of at least a dozen classics just off-hand.

Also, I don't think supplements to a role-playing game qualify as "fiction." --Michael K. Smith 18:49, 27 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

"Following is a somewhat random sampling:"[edit]

What a self-damning statement! Can this page possibly be made into either a meaningfully complete or a meaningfully exclusive list?

Can some kind of externally-sourced criteria be established? Recently, List of major opera composers struggled with a similar who-to-include problem, and went with a list of composers mentioned in a majority of overviews of the art in reputable music encyclopedias.

Could a similar standard be established here? What are some reputable science-fiction publications that could be used as the basis for inclusion?

Dybryd 19:29, 25 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I've reduced the article to about half it's length, based on my own feeling of what "the most critically and commercially successful examples" of the genre are. Obviously that's not objective, but I think it would be very hard work to apply entirely objective criteria. The works I've deleted have been those that I've rarely or never seen discussed in forums or cited in bibliographies.

The website Uchronia attempts to maintain a complete list of all published alternate histories, so I think it's proper that this list should only be of "notable" alternate histories. Akiyama (talk) 23:32, 5 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]

I was thinking this morning about what objective criteria one could use. How about this: books that have been reprinted ten years or more after their original publication (check Amazon or Uchronia), plus books that have won any kind of award, plus the top twenty books tagged "alternate history" on LibraryThing (as a reasonable approximation of the "most owned" AH books) (go here and click on "see raw count"). This would create a list quite different from the original random list, and would hopefully be helpful to people wanting to decide which of the hundreds of published AH books they should read. Akiyama (talk) 11:03, 6 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Proposed merge with Alternate history[edit]

  • Oppose. This was apparently separated from Alternate history for the very good reason that two large articles are better than one huge article.--Kineticman 07:44, 28 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]
  • Oppose - for the same reasons. Both articles are already very big and the article would be too big with those 2 merged. --Maxl 23:33, 3 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]
  • Oppose - Not only was this article seperated from Alternate History because that article was becoming too large, but this is the second time this has happened! I previously seperated out the section on published AHs into its own article - a few months later it was deleted - shortly afterwards the section reappeared in the main article - eventually it became too large and was seperated out again - and here we are discussing it being deleted again! Akiyama (talk) 23:18, 5 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Cleanup[edit]

I was thinking of cleaning this article up so that it only lists published alternate histories that are award winner and/or very popular. Does anyone have any suggestions? Zombie Hunter Smurf (talk) 13:34, 11 June 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Appropriate for fiction article[edit]

I would not think an active blog would be appropriate for a fiction article. I have removed the link below for discussion. Thanks. GwenW (talk) 06:34, 31 August 2009 (UTC)[reply]

  • Today in Alternate History, a daily-updated blog, featuring "Important Events In History That Never Occurred Today" in several recurring timelines.
Certainly not. A number of well-meaning enthusiasts have added it in over the years, but the consensus is that it is not encyclopedic content, with problems of reliability, original research, favoritism, conflict of interest, undue emphasis, etc. --Orange Mike | Talk 15:16, 31 August 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Suggested Novels to the List[edit]

I propose these novels to the list: For novels published in the year 2010: DREADNOUGHT by Cherie Priest, a Steampunk novel taking place in a alternative American Civil War. Also, BEHEMOTH, occuring during in an alternative World War I with steampunk elements. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 74.61.168.150 (talk) 21:29, 31 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Why the hyphen?[edit]

I am curious as to the reason for adding a hyphen between alternate history. I have never seen the term "alternate history" ever presented like that. Even the alternate history article is not hyphenated. Zombie Hunter Smurf (talk) 18:35, 29 March 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Der Tunnel[edit]

It isn't alt-history, BTW It was released before WW1. --82.139.5.13 (talk) 17:58, 9 July 2012 (UTC)[reply]

by POD[edit]

is there a version of this article sorted by point of divergence? or would it be possible to change it from a list into a sortable table? idrk how the software works — Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.181.232.193 (talk) 08:43, 11 January 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Comics[edit]

There are two entries in the comics list that I don't see as being alternate history. Can anyone clarify whether or not they belong here?

  • V for Vendetta was set in the future, with the point of divergence being a nuclear war at about the time for first issues were published.
  • Y: The Last Man wasn't set in any specific time and I always assumed that it took place "the day after tommorrow". Is there anything in there that makes it an alternate history?

Does a near-future work become alternate history just because a few years pass, and the events it describes fail to occur? wintermute (talk) 13:46, 20 February 2014 (UTC)[reply]

  • I'm not a comic reader, but I see your point. Delete them, citing this discussion, and see if anyone complains.--Jim in Georgia Contribs Talk 14:00, 20 February 2014 (UTC)[reply]
    • The essay "What is alternate history?" at http://www.uchronia.net/intro.html argues well that near-future science fiction should not be considered alternate history, either before or after the dates pass by. --doncram 17:58, 21 November 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Update in 2015-2016[edit]

This list-article is currently out-of-date and seems to have been composed mostly in 2008-2009. I am pretty sure it omits lots of major alternate history works while it includes some lesser ones. While standards for list-item inclusion were discussed, above, before 2010 when article size was more of a concern, it is not clear now what the standards should be. I just added an item for the self-published Red Gambit series which is among the lesser ones. For guidance on list-item notability, see WP:Source list and WP:LISTN (as mentioned by Coolabahapple at Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Red Gambit, where I have argued for a redirect to this list). Interesting to me is the fact that the Uchronia.net website in 2015 covers about 3,200 alternate history works. It is a finite "universe"; it seems possible to list all of them perhaps, if there would not be copyright infringement. --doncram 17:55, 21 November 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Ha????[edit]

"1989 Back to the Future Part II, a time travelling teenager arrives in an altered 1985 where Richard Nixon is still the US President"...

Ha????

Who the fuck mentioned nixon there???

What does that retard (who wrote this bullshit of a list) talk about????

I know, that wikipedia, is for the most part, inferior garbage - but that's a record even for you!!

Songs[edit]

A good example of alternate history fiction is a song "99 Red Balloons" (originally "99 Luftballons") by German singer Nena. It's a story about the faulty warning system reacting to the balloons and causing an all out war.

Or is it alternate present/near future fiction?

Heimdall 21:11, 10 September 2017 (UTC) — Preceding unsigned comment added by Heimdall1973 (talk • contribs)

I would characterize the song somewhere between speculative and cautionary tale with the 1983 Soviet nuclear false alarm incident potentially influencing some of the basis.MartinezMD (talk) 23:17, 10 September 2017 (UTC)[reply]

External links modified[edit]

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May have incorrectly changed something[edit]

In the entry for the 2017 work House of the Proud: A Shattered Nation Novel, I changed the following:

"It is 1867 and the Confederacy under John C. Breckinridge takes on political extremists in the country, Northern abolitionists plot to aid a slave revolt in Louisiana led by Sam while Confederate diplomats hope to get France into a treaty of friendship and a war is looming between the United States and the British Empire."

to:

"It is 1867 and the Confederacy under John C. Breckinridge takes on political extremists in the country, Northern abolitionists plot to aid a slave revolt in Louisiana, while Confederate diplomats hope to get France into a treaty of friendship and a war is looming between the United States and the British Empire."

I did this on the basis of its description at Amazon, which identifies the leader of the rebellion as a character named "Saul, an enigmatic renegade", but not having read the book myself, wasn't entirely sure if this identified him as a renegade slave or not. (Edit: Inserted link, changed terminology a bit.)--Thylacine24 (talk) 20:45, 17 October 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Rephrased sentence[edit]

I changed the following summary of the setting of Harry Turtledove's A Different Flesh, from:

Ancestors of the Native Americans never cross into the New World, leaving the Pleistocene biosphere intact at the time of the 17th century AD.

to:

Homo erectus crossed into the New World instead of the ancestors of the Native Americans, leaving the Pleistocene biosphere intact at the time of the 17th century AD.

Sorry if this was an unnecessary amount of detail and insulting to whoever originally wrote it. Could anyone please tell me if I made the right edit here?--Thylacine24 (talk) 21:53, 15 March 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Songbird (2020 film)[edit]

Not sure if this would be a consideration to add under the "Films" section of the article, as that deals with alternate history too (although it dealt with the COVID-19 pandemic while the event itself was still in its worst stages, and was criticised for "cashing in on human suffering". I'd add this myself but just want everyone's opinion on this first. Bryn89 (talk) 18:32, 12 October 2022 (UTC)[reply]

It's alternate history only if it depicts past events in a different way, which can lead to a different present. If it is set in a time after it was produced, it is future history, and a better place for it would be List of stories set in a future now past, particularly if the differences depicted are technological. - Munmula (talk · contribs) 19:36, 15 October 2022 (UTC)[reply]
We also have List of films set in the future, which lists all films set after they were released, regardless of it being science fiction or not. - Munmula (talk · contribs) 19:39, 15 October 2022 (UTC)[reply]
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