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Monday, June 22, 2020

Alternative Universe - some spec fic that isn't quite spec fic



Today, I am going to talk about alternative universe. 


Strictly speaking, all fiction is alternative universe, when you think about it. The characters are people who never existed in our world and often they are in places that also don’t exist here and now, or at least a version of a real place that doesn’t exist in that way here and now. 


Mostly, though, what we call alternative universe is about “what if...?” , as in “what if this or that event in history had gone differently?” Sometimes it has elements of speculative fiction in it, such as “what if aliens invaded in the middle of World War II?” (US author Harry Turtledove’s Worldwar series) or “what if racist time travellers gave Robert E Lee’s army AK 47s?” (Also Turtledove’s stand-alone novel The Guns Of The South.)


My favourite alternative universe fiction is written by Harry Turtledove. Most of it would make perfectly good historical fiction except that it didn’t happen that way in our world. This sort of AU might appeal more to readers who don’t really enjoy SF or fantasy, but are prepared to try something a little different. 


Turtledove’s Ruled Britannia, for example, asks “what if the Spanish Armada had succeeded in conquering England?” It could have happened. The weather was a factor in the English victory. It could have gone so very differently! However, Turtledove sets his novel nine years after the Armada  victory, without going into much detail, and tells his story from two different viewpoints; one of his heroes is William Shakespeare, the other is Spain’s answer to Shakespeare, Lope de Vega. Lope de Vega was a real person, who wrote a lot more plays than Shakespeare ever did; I’ve bought some in ebook - translated, of course. He did set off with the real world Armada, but never got to England. In this novel, he is with the occupying forces. He speaks good English and admires Shakespeare’s work. This makes him a nuisance, because he keeps turning up at rehearsals - and Shakespeare has been commissioned to write two plays, one of them celebrating the life of a King Phillip of Spain, the other intended to encourage the English to rebel. It has not a touch of fantasy in it, just “what if...?”. 


When I first read it, it reminded me of another alternative universe story, a TV miniseries called An Englishman’s Castle, which was about “What if the Nazis had succeeded in conquering Britain?” centred around the cast of a TV soapie intended to encourage the locals to put up with the occupiers, and it had a similar ending. 


“What if the South had won the civil war?” is a fairly frequent theme of AU, along with “what if the Nazis had won World War II?”  


Apart from The Guns Of The South, which had time travel in it, the same author has done some straight fiction about the South winning the war, plain historical, except that it never happened. Yet again, in How Few Remain, we see how easily it could have happened differently. You know the old proverb “For want of a nail, the shoe was lost...”? Well, it might have happened! In real history, an order from Robert E. Lee was lost in 1862, one planning an invasion of the North, and picked up by union soldiers. In this world, the messenger has the dropped order handed back to him. Invasion successful, history changes.


Guy Gavriel Kay’s alternative universe is not quite alternative universe as we think of it, but his world, with its three religions based on worship of the sun, the moon and the stars, is fairly recognisable as ours, although it does have magic. 


My favourite in this universe is The Lions Of Al Rassan, set in an alternative Spain, during the time of El Cid, though the El Cid character has a different name. 


There is also A Song For Arbonne(Provence), Tigana(Tuscany) and the Sarantine Mosaic duology(Byzantium).


Well, sort of AU. 


In YA novel Timeless Love by Judith O’Brien, a New York girl time travels via a magical necklace and finds herself in the chamber of Edward VI. She soon figures out that he is suffering from allergies which will kill him. He thinks she is a messenger from his late mother and takes her advice. But this changes history dramatically; when she returns to her home everyone is speaking Spanish! Elizabeth Tudor never became Queen; Edward survived and turned out to be every bit as bad tempered as his father. The Spanish got parts of the New World the English took in our world. Apart from the magical time travel, it’s a straight “what if...?” 


The thing is, history can turn on so many small things. I read once about the White Ship disaster in which the heir to the English throne(Henry I’s son) and a lot of other young aristocrats drowned when their ship crashed on the rocks on the way home from France. According to my source, a history of tourism, this happened after the sailors got drunk on wine sent to them from a last-night party. As a result, there was a war between cousins Matilda, daughter of Henry I, and Stephen, which Matilda sort of won. After a few years of fighting over the throne, they did a compromise: Stephen got to keep the throne, but Matilda’s son inherited after him. That son was Henry II, father of Richard Lionheart. 


So, the history of England and possibly the rest of Europe might have happened the way it did because a bunch of sailors got drunk one night in the 12th century... 


If anyone has written a novel about this, I haven’t come across it, but have a think about how very different things might have been, without aliens invading or time travellers or magical objects. It’s one of the ideas that have been spinning in my head for years. 


Do you have any “what if” thoughts? Do share! 


 






10 comments:

Melanie said...

I find these sorts of stories fascinating. Recently, I've seen a lot videos theorising what would have happened if the Black Death had wiped out Europe (can't imagine why the topic is so popular recently...) and it's real excise in imagination to figure out what the world would have looked like.

I'm a steampunk nut, as you probably know, so alternative Victorian Englands with Tesla guns and airships are totally my thing XD What if Nikola Tesla had won the Current War, that's what I want to read about!

Debra She Who Seeks said...

I like reading a good AU from time to time, but I usually read them in fanfiction form.

Brian Joseph said...

Though they seen to be a little overused these days, alternate realities are fascinating. Though it was not exactly the first, I think that Philip K. Dick’s Man in the High Castle put this type of book on the map.

I am actually reading an alternate reality book now, A Brother’s Price. It takes place in a world where one man is born for every ten women. It is a really interesting exploration of gender and society.

Sue Bursztynski said...

Melanie - We can only wonder what would have happened if the Black Death had wiped out Europe, no doubt other people would have moved in and the world would be very different, indeed! What DID happen is interesting enough, because there were enough deaths that surviving workers got better pay and conditions. What if FEWER people had died? Would the feudal system have gone on for much longer, perhaps? I’m a fellow steampunk fan. I recommend Michael Pryor’s Laws Of Magic series, which is steampunk with magic(but the magic is effectively science, with its own laws, like the laws of physics)

Hi Debra! What fan fiction universe do you read? I used to write it myself. Star Trek, Blake’s 7, Robin Of Sherwood...

Hi Brian! What I liked about The Man In The High Castle, set in a world in which the Axis won the war, is that the titular character had written an alternative universe book in which the Allies won the war! But no, it wasn’t the first AU novel by any means. Do review that book you are reading! There is another novel I’ve read, The Rainbow Cantata, in which it’s the women who are the minority, but far from getting male harems, women are drafted into the army and service as many men as required, to keep some control over the situation.

AJ Blythe said...

I prefer speculative fiction to alternative universe. And as for What if...? I guess the big one that is on everyone's lips fall somewhere along the line of "what if covid didn't exist?" to "what if the Chinese had reported the outbreak sooner?"

Sue Bursztynski said...

I tend to think of AU as a form of spec fic.

As for the other questions, I expect they will be the subject of future AU novels, when this is all history and the world is set up accordingly. A bit early to be wondering about it now!

Guillaume said...

I only read one alternative universe novel and that was The Man in the High Castle. Quite good, although marred I think with too many extraneous scifi elements. Otherwise, I think Alternative Universes stories and Philip K. Dick's novel is no exception, suffer from one great flaw: they are often arbitrary and based on too many contrivenses. For instance, it is very debatable among historians whether the Nazis could have won WWII. It is highly unlikely that they could have won by 1947, the way Dick depicts it in his novel. For history to be different than what we know, a high number of factors would theoritically need to be changed.

The Star Trek episode The City on the Edge of Forever is one of the most intelligent example of a great alternate history story, but it is brilliant in spite of being alternate history. The premisse that the death of a single person can determine the outcome of WWII was pretty ridiculous, but this was an excuse to set a great moral dilemma about actions and intent.

Sue Bursztynski said...

Hi Guillaume! Yes, City On The Edge Of Forever was very special. I guess it depends on WHO the one person is. One book I forgot to mention is Philip Roth’s The Plot Against America, in which things turn out very differently because Franklin D Roosevelt loses the election to Charles Lindbergh, who keeps America out of the war. However, Lindbergh eventually gets int his plane and disappears and everything goes back to normal.

Terry Pratchett called it “the trousers of time” in which you go into one leg or the other.

Clearly you are not going to be interested in AU, but if you do decide to give it a try, I recommend Harry Turtledove. His degree was in Byzantine history and he knows how to do his research and come to conclusions. He doesn’t say it HAS to be this way or that, but his novels are well thought out,

Hilary Melton-Butcher said...

Hi Sue - interesting ... and I'll look into some of your ideas at some stage - I've made a note. I wouldn't have thought I'd be interested in your ideas - but a book I bought after I met one of the authors locally - which bemused me ... and I found exceedingly interesting. I haven't been able to write about it - because who would believe that there wasn't a Shakespeare ... the book is 'Shakespeare Unravelled' by Michael and Pauline Black - very knowledgeable Shakespearians ... there's a website and it's on the dreaded A ....

I'll email you with a bit more information ... take care - Hilary

Sue Bursztynski said...

Thanks, Hilary!I’m sure it will be a very interesting book! Who does this one say wrote Shakespeare’s plays?