For Want of A Nail
- Thread starter Kidblast
- Start date
Wrong forum.......
I havn't read it, but from what I've heard, it's nothing short of amazing. There was a library in Colorado that had the book for years in the history section, instead of its fiction/sci-fi section.
I havn't read it, but from what I've heard, it's nothing short of amazing. There was a library in Colorado that had the book for years in the history section, instead of its fiction/sci-fi section.
It's a good book, although the USM's turning into a stereotypical Latin American state towards the end (charismatic Leader who puts dissidents in jail) and no real threat to the Ancien Regime in Europe for generations were a bit less than realistic (no US and no French revolutions would mean no 1848, but industrialization would generate enough instability to make things...interesting).
MP
I agree, plus the fact that so many things still got paralleled. Like the rise of a centralised militaristic Germany or the French intervention in the USM [Mexico+] in the mid-19thC. Also, as someone who has doubts about untrammeled big business I couldn't see the success of the company that virtually ran the USM later on actually being duplicated. [Too long since I read the book to remember its name].
Steve
HelloLegend
Banned
Can you tell me what's it about? Soldiers in the 19th Century? I might be interested. I spent 2 hours yesterday at the bookstore hunting for a good novel especially SF. I left with Battlestar Galactica novel because I couldn't find anything more worthy.
It's interesting in a boring sort of way, as an act of creative historigraphy, if you like it's at the opposite pole to Jean d'Ormesson's THE GLORY OF THE EMPIRE. Worth looking at- but not if your idea of AH is limited to Turtledove, Flint, Stirling, etc.
As Kidblast says, it's basically a fake history book - a history of North America written as if from a timeline where Britain put down the American Rebellion. Fantastic idea - it's time someone else wrote a book like that.
The recent paperback reprint doesn't have the map at the front, but there are maps of the timeline's N. America and Europe online somewhere. There's a summary of the timeline on Wikipedia.
York library in England also has it in the history section. But then in my experience, libraries always shelve books according to what they look like, not what their content is. Slough library has Guns of the South in their westerns section.
On the contrary: this is a neglected/underemployed form of alternate history. It's a few orders of magnitude better that the novel-style offerings because it's entirely plausible, with data to support the sequence of events and conclusions drawn.
Granted it reads like a college-level history text, but if you're going to present an alternate timeline in detail, this is the correct way to do it.
By the way, the übercorporation stevep was trying to recall was Kramer Associates.
1940LaSalle
Thanks 1940LaSalle. As I say I think its success was highly dubious but that could just be my political bias.
Steve
LaSalle- no, it's not necessarily better- it's just different. Yes, I admire it- I forget when I first read it. More years ago than I like to think. But its main problem (in my opinion) is that it covers AH in terms of centuries rather than decades. It leaves the juice out of history.
It read exactly like a high-school or college level text on North American History.
While it does leave a lot of questions unanswered, it presents the narrative in a complete fashion.
I think this is the best Alternate History book I've read, and I've read more than a few.
KB- I also have read "more than a few" works of AH. Frankly to "read exactly like a high school or college level text" is not to me terms of commendation. In the end, I'm reminded of my favourite quote from THE HORSE'S MOUTH: "It's like farting ANNIE LAURIE through a keyhole. Clever, but is it worth it?" Compared to (in their very different ways) THE IRON DREAM, BRING THE JUBILEE, LEST DARKNESS FALLS, MARCHING THROUGH GEORGIA, A DANGEROUS ENERGY, THE MAN IN THE HIGH CASTLE, THE ALTERATION, even 1632 or THE GUNS OF THE SOUTH, it just doesn't rate.
Desperate to read it. Providing I can do so without paying for it.
Which is pretty much why I haven't yet.
Which is pretty much why I haven't yet.
In the civilised world we have these big reposetories of free books.
If you guys are desperate, Our Esteemed Host seems to have created a small timeline based on the events of the book. I have it, but I've never had any opportunity (or motivation, really) to read it.