Wikipedia: Alternate history/Talk

Turtledove looks interesting (+wishlist), but it's not Alternate History, it's common SF placed in the future, while Alternate History may or may not be placed in the past. A key element of Alternate History is that only a small thing happens which changes everything. An alien invasion is not a small thing.

Why must it be a small thing? "The Man In The High Castle" is premised on the Axis powers winning WWII, not a small thing but undeniably an Alternate history novel -- GWO

"Undeniably"? Please.

For practical reasons: What other qualifier is there? Any SF story is Alternate History, I'd even say any story is alternate history.

The thing must only be small at the very beginning. There are several points in the history that could have changed the war's outcome. Just kill Hitler at age 25, as Yulsman did.

Most SF stories take place in the future -alternate history have to involve a change in the known story we call history. Some may be set in the present or future but they must involve a change in the past. I agree that the "World war" books combine alternate history and standard scifi. Turtledove's Civil War books are better examples. -rmhermen

There are lots of SF stories requiring change in our past, because they were written decades ago. Have they transmogrified into Alternate History?

The key feature of AH is IMHO that any random piece of trivia would modify our world. What if Helium would not be found in Kansas, but in Sachsen? Lots of Zeppelins in the air. What if some unknown Austrian artist died at age 25? No WWII. What if aliens invade the earth? An invaded earth.

Turtledove's WWII series looks interesting and has something AHish about it, it's only not a prime example, TMITHC is, and the Civil War series probably too.

I cannot find details about J. C. Squire's collection. Someone? --Yooden

Now that I think of it, Darcy doesn't qualify. The stories are about crime and magic, not about alternate history. --Yooden

All SF is not alternate history. Alternate history is based on known ahistorical events that took place in the past. Any number of SF stories put their change in the future.

The size of the event is irrelevant. Consider Harry Harrison's "Eden" novels. There the event is the lack of a 100 km diameter asteroid slamming into the Earth 65 million years ago. It doesn't get much bigger than that.

There's a decent discussion of what is/is not AH at http://www.uchronia.net/intro.html --Paul Drye

The asteroid was (not) long ago. Is the movie Armageddon alternate history?

Fatherland is not the best AH book, but it may be the most archetypical.

On the other hand -is all alternate history sci fi? All that I have read was classed as such but why would it need to be. ---rmhermen

No, Fatherland, for example, is mainstream fiction. Len Deighton's XPD is another example of mainstream alternate history. Also, Robert Musil's Viennese epic, Man Without Qualities, plays with alternate outcomes and historical actualities. sjc

It should be important whether AH is SF. SF is often categorized wrong.

Fatherland is no SF because of what? No time machine? Success?

--Yooden

Success, mainly, but it is mainstream principally because it deals with the alternate nature of history without implying any major technological differences, and was marketed as a mainstream novel. Certainly there was an acute shortage of time-machines...sjc