Thread #25208621
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Why /lit/ hate alternate history books?
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>>25208621
I think they could be interesting if the author has the discipline to work out the new flow of history with sufficient depth and texture to make the world come alive in all its contradictions and still have some kind of meaningful analysis of what this new world has to tell us. But in practice i think it is almost always shallow wish fulfillment.
I wonder if its a bit of an awkward inbetween genre. It does not have the commitment to historical fidelity that the historical novel has (where, if written well, the historical period kind of forces itself to be expressed in the characters), and it does not have the absolute freedom of fantasy, which is given a truly blank canvas to create and explore new conceptions of history, fate, meaning, etc. It is both too constrained and too free at the same time.
If any anons got good recs with genuine literary merit i would love to know though.
I haven't read it but heard at least some good things about The man in the high castle?
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