History AlternateHistory / Literature

* ''Book/WithoutWarning'' by John Birmingham, imagines a world where AlienSpaceBats smote almost the whole of the United States dead just before the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

* Creator/NeilGaiman's short story ''Literature/AStudyInEmerald'' is a re-imagining of ''[[Literature/SherlockHolmes A Study in Scarlet]]'' in an alternate Earth where Creator/HPLovecraft's [[CthulhuMythos famous]] [[EldritchAbomination monsters]] took over centuries ago and now constitute the ruling caste.

* Guy Saville's ''The Afrika Reich'' and ''The Madagaskar Plan'' are the first two entries in a planned trilogy that take place predominantly in a Nazi-dominated Africa in the early-1950s. [[spoiler: Here the PoD is the annihilation of the British Expeditionary Force at Dunkirk. The war ended in Germany's favour and vast areas of Africa were transferred to German control. There is no Holocaust in this alternate reality, all the Jews of Europe having been sent to die of disease, hunger and overwork on Madagascar. By 1952 German military power is strained and a new war with Britain threatens.]]

* ''Pasquale's Angel'' by Paul J. [=McAuley=] is set in a 16th century Florence where, thanks to LeonardoDaVinci concentrating on technology instead of dividing his attention between science and art, [[ClockPunk the Industrial Revolution came early]] and is centered in Italy rather than Great Britain.

** Coatyls being hunted to near extinction for their vibrantly-colored feathers.

* A story by Philip Jose Farmer takes place in a world where Roger Bacon sparked an early scientific revolution under the control of the Catholic Church. The story is told from the perspective of the ''Santa Maria''s crystal radio operator who is also a monk. Unfortunately the expidition's steam engines are unable to resist the flow of the ocean's waters over the edge of the world, dooming it.

* In ''The Boy'' by Creator/RobertReed, {{Jesus}} was a woman, which caused Christianity to become a matriarchal religion rather than patriarchal. When {{Islam}} popped up in the 7th century - with a male prophet - the current Pope immediately launched UsefulNotes/TheCrusades, effectively eliminating Islam as a major force. By the time the story takes place (sometime in the 20th or 21st century), men are still essentially considered second-class citizens in the western world. Asia has no major powers, and is instead broken up into hundreds of [[BalkanizeMe feuding city-states and small nations]].

** ''A Different Flesh'' is a short story collection taking place in a world where ''Homo Erectus'' made it to the Americas instead of the predecessors of the native American peoples. Differences include the theory of evolution being discovered by SamuelPepys (since the "sims" are [[EvolutionaryLevels an obvious link]] between humans and our own great apes), a wider range of North American fauna ([[KillEmAll at least until the Jamestown settlers start cutting through the sabertooth tigers]]) and significant political differences (the [[strike:Founding]] Conscript Fathers hew closer to TheRomanRepublic when they establish Alt!USA, while the Spanish colonies in Central and South America grow more slowly without the infrastructure of [[{{Mayincatec}} earlier civilizations]] to build upon).

* Robert Conroy has written six alternate history novels, none of which, despite the similarity of the Idiosyncratic Titles, occur in the same universe:

* The starting point for the hero in Creator/RogerZelazny's ''Roadmarks'' is that he's trying to ''create'' alternate histories by changing significant events, such as by running guns to the Greeks at the battle of Marathon.

* Sergey Anisimov explores two alternate histories in his ''The "Bis" Variant'' series. The first book shows what might have happened had the Nazis joined the Allies in UsefulNotes/WorldWarII against the USSR in 1944. The second novel, titled ''The Year of the Dead Serpent'' describes an alternate UsefulNotes/KoreanWar, possibly resulting from the first novel.

* Taylor Anderson's ''Literature/{{Destroyermen}}'' series involves two WWII destroyer crews (although their ships are really old, dating back to the WWI era) slipping through to a world where dinosaurs never went extinct and humans never evolved. Instead they encounter the [[ReptilesAreAbhorrent Grik]], who evolved from raptors, and the "cat-monkey" Lemurians. In later books, it's revealed that other alternate worlds exist, which also occasionally feature the NegativeSpaceWedgie that sends people to the world of the Grik and the Lemurians. For example, the crew of the SMS ''Amerika'' comes from a world where the US never got involved in WorldWarOne. Additionally, none of the RealLife ships described in the novels actually fought in WorldWarTwo, which means that the destroyermen's original world is not ours to begin with (an intentional departure by the author, an ex-sailor).

* Sergey Anisimov explores two alternate histories in his ''The "Bis" Variant'' series. The first book shows what might have happened had the Nazis joined the Allies in UsefulNotes/WorldWarTwo against the USSR in 1944. The second novel, titled ''The Year of the Dead Serpent'' describes an alternate UsefulNotes/KoreanWar, possibly resulting from the first novel.

* Creator/HarryTurtledove has written dozens of alternate history novels. His best known include the "Literature/{{Timeline 191}}" (or ''How Few Remain'') series, which begins with the South winning the American Civil War in 1862, and follows this timeline through World War II and beyond; and the "Literature/{{Worldwar}}" series, wherein World War II is interrupted by an alien invasion by an empire of reptilians who have never before encountered mammals, and whose technology progresses so slowly that they're shocked to find that humans aren't using the same technology as their probe showed them using 1,000 years ago.
** Turtledove's first major forays into Sci-Fi and Alternate History involved a Byzantine Imperial Agent in the 1300s, in a world where Muhammad converted to Christianity instead of founding Islam.
** Two other early Alternate History novels by Turtledove are ''A World of Difference'', in which Mars (called Minerva in the book) is a habitable (and inhabited) world, and ''The Case of the Toxic Waste Spell Dump'', set in a world in which magic actually works.
** The novel that made Turtledove's reputation is ''Literature/TheGunsOfTheSouth'', in which South African white supremacists have stolen a time machine and, looking for a future ally, supply the American Confederacy with thousands of [=AK47s=], [[TimelineAlteringMacGuffin superior tactical knowledge about the Union's deployments]] and nitroglycerin pills for General Lee's heart condition.

** ''In the Presence of Mine Enemies'' posits a world in which the U.S. remained isolationist throughout WWII, and Germany defeated all the major European powers. World War III ends with the [[NoKillLikeOverkill nuclear pacification of the US]]. Set in the year [[TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture 2009]], the book follows a sect of hidden Jews as they struggle to survive during a time of political upheaval. Scenery includes: a Japanese empire, the radioactive remains of the Liberty Bell in a German Museum, and a Nazi version of "Film/TheProducers" that involves a horrible play about Stalin, Roosevelt, and Churchill. Notable for its realistic presentation of these, alternative-universe, modern Nazis as being good people with a bad upbringing. And the ending [[spoiler: bears no resemblance at all to the fall of the Soviet Union. Really, honest. Well, maybe a little]]
*** This seems to be another example of Turtledove's fondness of RubberBandHistory. (in the [[spoiler:''Timeline-191'' series the South turns into an analogue of Nazi Germany after defeat in WWI.]])

** ''A Different Flesh'', a short story collection taking place in a world where ''Homo Erectus'' made it to the Americas instead of the predecessors of the native American peoples. Differences include the theory of evolution being discovered by SamuelPepys (since the "sims" are [[EvolutionaryLevels an obvious link]] between humans and our own great apes), a wider range of North American fauna ([[KillEmAll at least until the Jamestown settlers start cutting through the sabertooth tigers]]) and significant political differences (the [[strike:Founding]] Conscript Fathers hew closer to TheRomanRepublic when they establish Alt!USA, while the Spanish colonies in Central and South America grow more slowly without the infrastructure of [[{{Mayincatec}} earlier civilizations]] to build upon).

* ''Joe Steele'' where Stalin's family immigrated to the US, he was born and raised here and becomes President.

* ''Prošlost u ogledalu'' (''The past in a mirror'') is a novel by Serbian writer Danijel Milutinović. Soviet Union won the Cold War, and TheYugoslavWars never happened. Instead of Yugoslavia, it's the ''United Kingdom'' that faces a violent break-up. Much like a mirror of events in Yugoslavia, England engages in a series of bloody conflicts to stop the secession of Northern Ireland and Scotland, which in turn provokes the WarsawPact to intervene militarily.

** "Alternate Major" is a literary diptych describing two alternate versions of UsefulNotes/JohnMajor (a {{Dystopia}} where Major is the leader of Nazi Britain, and a {{Utopia}} where he cheerfully remains a bus conductor).

* Creator/KimNewman's ''Literature/AnnoDracula'' novels are a sort of Alternate Fiction; What if {{Dracula}} was real ... and more competent than Creator/BramStoker's version? It gets meta when he establishes that in the AD universe, Stoker invented alternate history with his wish-fulfillment novel of Dracula getting distracted by Mina Harker and killed by van Helsing and his RagtagBandOfMisfits.
* Newman is also co-writer of ''BackInTheUSSA'' with Creator/EugeneByrne, in which the Communist revolution happens in America instead of Russia, with Al Capone in the role of Stalin. Newman being Newman, ''USSA'' is Alternate Fiction too to an extent; the counterpart to the Tsar is [[Film/CitizenKane Charles Foster Kane]]. Not to mention alternates of [[Literature/TheGrapesOfWrath Tom Joad]] and [[Series/TheLikelyLads Terry Collier and Bob Ferris]], among others.
* Newman also wrote the two "Alternate Major" stories (a {{Dystopia}} where UsefulNotes/JohnMajor is the leader of Nazi Britain, and a {{Utopia}} where he cheerfully remains a bus conductor).

* Creator/KimNewman (again)'s ''Literature/DarkFuture'' novels as Jack Yeovil are set in an alternate timeline where Kennedy's extra-marital affairs led to him losing the election to Nixon; the Cuban Missile Crisis never happened, Reagan carried on acting, the UsefulNotes/BayOfPigsInvasion worked for America and UsefulNotes/TheVietnamWar superpowers were the USSR and China. Russia never completed its manned space programme and the world is wracked by environmental collapse. Oh, and [[ElvisLives The King is still alive]].

** Newman is also co-writer of ''Back in the USSA'' with Creator/EugeneByrne, in which the Communist revolution happens in America instead of Russia, and wrote the two "Alternate Major" stories (a {{Dystopia}} where UsefulNotes/JohnMajor is the leader of Nazi Britain, and a {{Utopia}} where he cheerfully remains a bus conductor).
*** Newman being Newman, ''USSA'' is Alternate Fiction too to an extent; the counterpart to the Tsar is [[Film/CitizenKane Charles Foster Kane]]. Not to mention alternates of [[Literature/TheGrapesOfWrath Tom Joad]] and [[Series/TheLikelyLads Terry Collier and Bob Ferris]], among others.

* E2 in Alastair Reynolds ''Century Rain'' is an artificial world identical to Earth in 1959 except that the Germans offensive through the Ardennes bogged down, the invasion of France failed, the Nazi party fell apart through infighting and were overthrown in a coup by von Stauffenburg and Rommel. Hitler is still alive but crippled and broken due to an assassination attempt and living in exile, ironically, in Paris. Also due to WWII being aborted the world is socially and technologically behind where our world was at the time. No computers, nuclear weapons or rockets, Television is about where it was in the late forties and there is no rock and roll.

** Soldiers in World War I being trained to [[DragonRider ride small domesticated dragons]] and use {{Shoulder-Sized Dragon}}s to [[InstantMessengerPigeon carry messages]].

** Soldiers in World War I being trained to [[DragonRider ride small domesticated dragons]] and use ShoulderSizedDragons to [[InstantMessengerPigeon carry messages]].

* In ''The Boy'' by Creator/RobertReed, {{Jesus}} was a woman, which caused Christianity to become a matriarchal religion rather than patriarchal. When {{Islam}} popped up in the 7th century - with a male prophet - the current Pope immediately launched TheCrusades, effectively eliminating Islam as a major force. By the time the story takes place (sometime in the 20th or 21st century), men are still essentially considered second-class citizens in the western world. Asia has no major powers, and is instead broken up into hundreds of [[BalkanizeMe feuding city-states and small nations]].