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797 books · 1,378 voters · list created July 16th, 2008 by Steven Harbin (votes) .
407 likes · 
Lists are re-scored approximately every 5 minutes.


Steven 4522 books
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Jessica 11766 books
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Susanna - Censored by GoodReads 3388 books
848 friends
Alexandra 7798 books
411 friends
JG (Introverted Reader) 4445 books
436 friends
Rachael 1347 books
54 friends
Debbie is on Storygraph 2614 books
101 friends
Susan 1679 books
58 friends

More voters…


Comments Showing 1-23 of 23 (23 new)

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message 1: by Jim (new)

Jim Harry Harrison had a terrific pb original in the late 70s(?) about the south getting machine guns. and there was Will Shetterly's Captain Confederacy comic book series. the letter cols had great speculations of a several nation n. america.
currently there is Rex Mundi.


message 2: by [deleted user] (new)

Hooray for alternate history! Does anybody know of any alternate history novels set in/around the Revolutionary War period? I can't be the only person that's written some. ;) I'd really love to read another author's "alternate" take on the era, but I haven't found any other titles yet.


message 3: by Gabriel (new)

Gabriel Cooper Try Harry Turtledove's Atlantis series. It starts with the age of colonization, but the east coast of North America was separated from the rest before the Europeans discovered it. The books are Opening Atlantis(discovery, colonization, and Alternate version of French-Indian War , The United States of Atlantis(Revolutionary War), and Liberating Atlantis(Civil War). Maybe not quite what your thinking of but in the same ballpark.


message 4: by [deleted user] (new)

That sounds like just my style, yes! Funny, other people already recommended two of Turtledove's other titles to me--maybe I should just read everything he's written, lol. Thank you!


message 5: by Tim (new)

Tim Koszyk The Two Georges, Aubrey.


message 6: by Tim (new)


Susanna - Censored by GoodReads You add books to the list a the top of the list, at the tab next to "all votes."


message 8: by Tim (new)

Tim Koszyk sorry. Thought it would place it automatically.


Susanna - Censored by GoodReads Not yet, anyway!


message 10: by Johan (new)

Johan Ljung Great list - I've found many good suggested future reads (as well as some old favorites) here. Thanks, Steven, for creating it! The reason I didn't vote for 1984 is that I don't think it really belongs here. Sure, one could argue that it has become alternate history "after the fact", but when it was written in 1948, it was a dystopian novel set in the (then) near future.


message 11: by Ron (new)

Ron Johan wrote: "Great list - I've found many good suggested future reads (as well as some old favorites) here. Thanks, Steven, for creating it! The reason I didn't vote for 1984 is that I don't think i..."

According to that reasoning Margaret Atwood ought to be struck off as well, if I understand you correctly. Or would they still qualify because they haven't yet been proven wrong?

Personally the popularity of dystopian fiction bothers me a little; we've been headed to hell in a handbasket for centuries now & it seems to be taking far longer than we were promised/warned!


message 12: by Hayley (new)

Hayley Bitter Seeds by Ian Tregillis is a great read. What's not to like about a reimagining of the second world war where the Nazis had superpowered beings and the British had warlocks?


message 13: by Kelley (new)

Kelley Stoneking I agree with Johan and Ron; The Handmaid's Tale and 1984 are set in a dystopian future world. Likewise, so is On the Beach. Therefore, none of these really fit on this list.

Also, Pillars of the Earth is purely historical fiction and should be removed from the list.


message 14: by Vonia (new)

Vonia Another stupid list. Alternate History is very specialized. More than 3/4 of these are merely science fiction, apocalyptic, dystopian.


message 15: by BookLovingLady (deceased Jan. 25, 2023...) (last edited Jan 17, 2017 01:03AM) (new)

BookLovingLady (deceased Jan. 25, 2023...) The title of this Listopia says "Best Alternate History Novels and Stories", yet Oryx and Crake, The Year of the Flood, The Handmaid's Tale and 1984, which was written in 1949, are all set in the future....

Due to this, and as earlier comments agree with me, I've removed these titles from this list. I've also removed On the Beach for the same reason. There are separate lists for dystopian novels, by the way, should anyone be interested.


message 16: by Jeffrey (new)

Jeffrey Gao Timeline 191 and other Turtledove books definitely belong here.
The Draka franchise by S&M Stirling however, does not.


message 17: by Elspeth (new)

Elspeth I'm curious how The Stand fits in here? If it does, great, but I'm missing the connection.


message 18: by Jon. (new)

Jon. Bacigalupi's books (Ship Breaker, The Drowned Cities) are great, but they're definitely futuristic, not alternate history. Also not AH: All Our Wrong Todays, The Peripheral, The Last Days Of New Paris


message 19: by Andrea (new)

Andrea Perhaps there should be a definition of "alternate history" in the description?

I don't think Never Let Me Go belongs here. And the "What if" books are collections of essays by historians, not novels.


message 20: by Steve (new)

Steve LaForest I see I'm not the first one to quibble with which books are on a given list! On to my two cents worth (which now refers to an alternate reality where pennies were not disintegrated) - I don't really think the Red Mars, and the rest of the mars trilogy belong here. These books are first and foremost about the terraforming of mars. There is a war with earth, but that is in the future (unless I missed it, we can't even maintain a proper space station, let alone a lunar colony, let alone a mars colony).


message 21: by Mitchell (last edited Jul 20, 2024 11:14PM) (new)

Mitchell Friedman So if you write about an alternate past it could be alternate history, but if you write about the future it can not be alternate history? So if I write a book right now set in 2023 it could be alternate history but if I write a book right now set in 2025 it can't be? That kind of makes sense to me.


message 22: by Sally (new)

Sally 2 duplicates found and removed


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