List of alternate history fiction

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This is a list of alternate history fiction, sorted primarily by type and then chronologically.

This is a dynamic list and may never be able to satisfy particular standards for completeness. You can help by adding missing items with reliable sources.

Standalone novels

Year Title Author Description

Pre-19th century

1490 Tirant lo Blanch Joanot Martorell A knight from Brittany stops the Turks from taking Constantinople.

19th century

1836 Napoleon and the Conquest of the World Louis Geoffroy Napoleon's First French Empire emerges victorious in the French invasion of Russia in 1811 and in an invasion of England in 1814, later unifying the world under Bonaparte's rule.
1845 P.'s Correspondence Nathaniel Hawthorne A New Englander is treated as a madman because of being able to perceive a different reality in which long-dead famous people are still alive (though not necessarily well) in 1845: the poets Burns, Byron, Shelley, and Keats, the actor Edmund Kean, the British politician George Canning and even Napoleon Bonaparte.[1]
1876 Uchronie (Uchronia) Charles Renouvier The Nerva–Antonine emperors ban Christians.
1895 Aristopia Castello Holford The earliest settlers in Virginia discover a reef made of solid gold and are able to build a Utopian society in North America.

1930s

1931 If It Had Happened Otherwise Edited by J. C. Squire A collection of alternate history essays.
1935 It Can't Happen Here Sinclair Lewis While Hitler is coming to power in Europe, a fascist candidate becomes President of the USA taking complete control as a dictator.
1939 Lest Darkness Fall L. Sprague de Camp An American archaeologist is transported to 6th century Rome (AD 535).

1950s

1952 The Sound of His Horn John William Wall A British naval lieutenant awakens in a Nazi controlled world 102 years on from World War II.
1953 Bring the Jubilee Ward Moore The South is not defeated in the American Civil War because it wins the Battle of Gettysburg.

1960s

1962 The Man in the High Castle Philip K. Dick The Axis powers win World War II.
1966 The Gate of Time Philip José Farmer An Iroquois combat pilot finds himself in a world where the New World is underwater and Native Americans settled in Eastern Europe.
1967 The Gate of Worlds Robert Silverberg The Black Death of the 14th century kills three-quarters of the European population. Seven centuries later, the main powers are Russia, Turkey, the Aztecs, the Incas, and Japan.
1968 The Last Starship from Earth John Boyd Jesus Christ becomes a revolutionary agitator and assembles an army to overthrow the Roman Empire and establish a theocracy, which has lasted until the present day.
Pavane Keith Roberts Queen Elizabeth I of England is assassinated, and in the ensuing disorder, the Spanish Armada is successful in suppressing Protestantism.
1969 The Bomb That Failed (British, The Last Year of the Old World) Ronald W. Clark The failure of the Trinity test in June 1945 leads to an American invasion of Japan.

1970s

1970 All Evil Shed Away Archie Roy Due to the assassination of Winston Churchill in 1940, Nazi Germany wins World War II and is locked in a cold war with the United States.
1971 Lighter than a Feather David Westheimer The Americans invade Japan in November 1945 as part of Operation Downfall.
1972 The Iron Dream Norman Spinrad Adolf Hitler emigrates from Germany to America and uses his modest artistic skills to become first a pulp science fiction illustrator and later a science fiction writer.
Tunnel Through the Deeps Harry Harrison Moors win the battle of Navas de Tolosa on 16 July 1212 on the Iberian peninsula. John Cabot discovers America, and George Washington is shot as a traitor.
1973 For Want of a Nail Robert N. Sobel The American Revolution fails and the British colonies become the Confederation of North America (CNA), while the defeated rebels go into exile in Spanish Tejas, eventually founding the United States of Mexico (USM).
The Ultimate Solution Eric Norden A world resulting from a total Nazi and Imperial Japanese victory in World War II and partition of the world between them.
1974 Das Königsprojekt Carl Amery The Roman Catholic Church attempts to restore the House of Stuart to the English throne by altering history through the use of a time machine invented by Leonardo da Vinci.
1975 Hitler Has Won Frederic Mullally Alternate 1942. Japan strikes north rather than south, Russia falls, Germany is unassailable in Europe. There is a plot to defeat the Roman Catholic Church and install Hitler as the new Pope.
The Female Man Joanna Russ One of the multiple fictional worlds where the novel is set is an alternative 1969 where the Great Depression never ended and World War II never started, so there were no significant feminist movements.
1976 The Alteration Kingsley Amis Martin Luther, rather than beginning the Protestant Reformation, becomes pope.
1978 And Having Writ… Donald R. Bensen Four aliens arrive on Earth in 1908 and try to advance human technology so they can return home.
Gloriana Michael Moorcock Queen Gloriana rules over "Albion", an alternative British Empire that rules over America and Asia.
SS-GB Len Deighton Detective novel set in 1941 in a Britain occupied by the Germans.

1980s

1980 The Divide William Overgard Set in 1976, thirty years after Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan have defeated the United States in World War II.
The Moscow Option David Downing The German Army conquers Moscow at the end of 1941.
1983 The Burning Mountain: A Novel of the Invasion of Japan Alfred Coppel During World War II, a lightning strike at the Trinity test postpones deployment of the atomic bomb, forcing the U.S. to invade Japan.
The Dragon Waiting: A Masque of History John M. Ford Fantasy alternate history combining vampires, the Medicis, and the convoluted English politics surrounding Edward IV and Richard III.
Kelly Country A. Bertram Chandler Australian bushranger and rebel Ned Kelly leads a successful revolution against British colonial rule. The result is that Australia becomes a world power, but the Australian Republic which Kelly founded degenerates into a hereditary dictatorship.
A Rebel in Time Harry Harrison A racist colonel wants to change history by helping the CSA win the American Civil War.
1984 The Bush Soldiers John Hooker The Japanese successfully conquer and occupy most of the coastal fringe of Australia.
Job: A Comedy of Justice Robert A. Heinlein A man is thrust on a whirlwind tour of numerous parallel universes, at least three of which have William Jennings Bryan elected to the US presidency, each time under different circumstances.
1985 The Proteus Operation James P. Hogan A group of military commandos, diplomats, and scientists travel back to 1939 and try to prevent the Axis Powers from winning World War II.
1986 The Crystal Empire L. Neil Smith The Black Death kills 85 percent of Europe's population. Like in other novels with this premise, Muslims conquer Europe in the centuries afterwards and become a dominant world power by the 20th century. Smith also postulates the plague wiping out the Mongol Empire as well, allowing the Mughal Empire to grow faster and farther in its place.
The Coming of the Quantum Cats Frederik Pohl Features the protagonist travelling across multiple different worlds. In one world, Nancy Reagan is the President of the United States and her mostly disregarded husband Ronald is known as "The First Gentleman". John F. Kennedy is a Senator from Massachusetts who is married to Marilyn Monroe. In another, America is a fascist dictatorship where Ronald Reagan remained true to his early left-wing politics and is still married to his first wife Jane Wyman, and in the past of many of the alternate worlds Joseph Stalin (who is known as Joseph Dzhugashvili) escaped from Russia to America in the 1900s, taking with him the proceeds of the 1907 Tiflis bank robbery and using the money to set himself up as a big American capitalist.
1987 Agent of Byzantium Harry Turtledove Imperial Byzantine special agent Basil Argyros is sent on various missions in an alternate universe where Muhammad became a Christian saint.
In Search of the Epitaph Bok Koh-il In 1909, Itō Hirobumi survives his assassination attempt by An Jung-geun and succeeds in a complete Japanization of Koreans, which leads to the Empire of Japan dominating Korea by 1987.
1988 Alternities Michael P. Kube-McDowell[2]
The Armor of Light Melissa Scott and Lisa A. Barnett Sir Philip Sidney and Christopher Marlowe survive their historical deaths to battle witchcraft in the courts of Elizabeth I and James VI.
A Different Flesh Harry Turtledove Homo erectus crossed into the New World instead of the ancestors of the Native Americans, leaving the Pleistocene biosphere intact at the time of the 17th century AD.
Fire on the Mountain Terry Bisson John Brown succeeds in his raid on Harpers Ferry and touches off a slave rebellion in 1859.
Gray Victory Robert Skimin The Confederacy wins its independence and places Jeb Stuart on trial for losing the Battle of Gettysburg.
The New Dinosaurs: An Alternative Evolution Dougal Dixon Non-avian dinosaurs do not die out 65 million years ago but instead keep the mammals in small rodent-like forms.

1990s

1990 The Difference Engine William Gibson and Bruce Sterling Charles Babbage's Analytical Engine takes on the roles of modern computers a century earlier.
The World Next Door Brad Ferguson People from a world that experienced a nuclear war in 1962 interact with people from a world that did not.
A World of Difference Harry Turtledove The 4th planet of the Solar System, named Minerva instead of Mars, is larger and contains intelligent alien life. The only stated change in Earth history is that Mikhail Gorbachev died shortly after taking leadership of the Soviet Union in 1985, and was succeeded by a hardline government so that Glasnost never happened.
1992 Fatherland Robert Harris Set in the 1960s in a Germany which won World War II.
The Guns of the South Harry Turtledove The Confederate Army is supplied with AK-47s by early-21st century white supremacist South African time-travelers.
Konpeki no Kantai Yoshio Aramaki World War II lasts ten years, Japan becomes a stronger naval power thanks to Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto who appears several years in the past despite dying in the actual World War II. It is later adapted into two OVA series, in which at first Japan defeats the Western Allies in the Pacific but eventually teams up with them to fight Nazi Germany.
Resurrections from the Dustbin of History Simon Louvish Following Rosa Luxemburg's successful 1918 revolution in Germany, Hitler flees to the USA. He becomes a senator for Illinois, and his son Rudolph runs for president in 1968 on a racist platform. Trotsky defeats Stalin in Russia, while Mussolini hangs on to power in Italy.
1993 Anti-Ice Stephen Baxter Explosive scientific discovery made in the 1850s advances technology.
Aztec Century Christopher Evans Cortez changes sides at the onset of the Conquistador era in the early 16th century, leading to the repulsion of Spanish invasion and occupation of Central America.
Down in the Bottomlands Harry Turtledove At the end of the Miocene period, the Mediterranean stays dry to the present day.
Elvissey Jack Womack A dystopian 2033 where a Machiavellian multinational corporation has plans for world domination.
The Case of the Toxic Spell Dump Harry Turtledove Fantasy with an alternate history undercurrent. History unfolded much as it did in our world, except that magic took the place of science. For example, Adolf Hitler waged a brutal war in the 20th century with magic weapons, Werner Heisenberg defined the uncertainty principle of thaumaturgy, and flying carpets take the place of automobiles. However, there are some fundamental differences, e.g., the United States and Mexico are both ruled by hereditary monarchies. Most importantly, the gods of all mythologies and religions are literal, proven beings, who coexist in a henotheistic world in relative harmony – a breach in this latter harmony is central to the novel's main conflict.
1995 1901 Robert Conroy Depicts a hypothetical war between Germany and the United States at the start of William McKinley's second term as president.
1945 Newt Gingrich and William R. Forstchen Germans perfect long-range jet aircraft by the end of World War II and conduct successful raids in North America against the US nuclear program.
Dead, Mr. Mozart Bernard Bastable Wolfgang Mozart settles in England as a young man and never returns to his native Austria. As a respected but fairly impoverished composer and piano teacher in the 1820s (30 years after his death in our timeline), he is unwillingly pulled into a scandalous intrigue involving close relatives of King George IV. It is later followed by a sequel, Too Many Notes, Mr. Mozart.
The Two Georges Harry Turtledove and Richard Dreyfuss King George III of Great Britain and George Washington reach a settlement where the Thirteen Colonies remain within the British Empire with increased autonomy and virtually all of their grievances redressed.
1996 Attentatet i Pålsjö skog Hans Alfredson Swedish communists blow up a German train passing through Sweden, killing Eva Braun, who was on board.
Celestial Matters Richard Garfinkle The physics of this world and its surrounding cosmos are based on the physics of Aristotle and ancient Chinese Taoist alchemy.
Pastwatch: The Redemption of Christopher Columbus Orson Scott Card Scientists from the future travel back to the 15th century to prevent the European colonization of the Americas.
Voyage Stephen Baxter The United States conducts a Mars landing in 1986 as a result of inspiration by John F. Kennedy, who survived the assassination attempt on him in 1963.
1997 Back in the USSA Eugene Byrne and Kim Newman The United States experiences a communist revolution in 1917 and becomes a communist superpower, while Russia does not.
Xavras Wyżryn Jacek Dukaj Poland falls to the Red Army and becomes a Soviet republic in 1920. In an alternate 1996, Polish partisans fight the Soviet army.
K is for Killing Daniel Easterman Charles Lindbergh is elected president rather than Franklin Delano Roosevelt and a fascist organization calling itself the Amero-Aryan Alliance is brought to power and turns the country into a police state, complete with slavery concentration camps, and ghettos.
Making History Stephen Fry A time traveler creates a history in which Hitler was never conceived, let alone born.
1998 Darwinia Robert Charles Wilson In March 1912, an event some called the "Miracle" causes Europe and parts of Asia and Africa to completely disappear along with all its inhabitants, replacing it with a slice of an alien planet, roughly equal in outline and terrain features, but with strange flora and fauna that have evolved differently to anything on Earth. America becomes involved in an effort to re-settle and colonise the new Europe, with historical figures such as Lord Kitchener (having survived past 1916 due to the absence of WW1) trying to preserve the British Empire and re-settle Britain.
1999 Battle Royale Koushun Takami Japan wins World War II and over 50 years later, children are pitted against each other in a game to the death.
Resurrection Day Brendan DuBois The Cuban Missile Crisis ends in a brief nuclear exchange between the U.S. and Soviet Union that wiped out several cities and has led to America being under military rule.
The Intuitionist Colson Whitehead In a city heavily implied to be an alternate New York in an unspecified time, huge skyscrapers litter the landscape and require vertical transportation in the form of elevators. Black people are referred to as 'coloured' and integration is a current topic. Elevator maintenance is divided between 'Intuitionists' who prefer to ride in an elevator and intuit the state of the elevator based on their own personal feelings, and the 'Empiricists', who insist on traditional instrument-based verification methods to assess the condition of the elevator.
Die Mauer steht am Rhein ("The Wall Stands on the Rhine") Christian von Ditfurth The Cold War ends with Germany being reunified under the government of the communist German Democratic Republic.

2000s

2000 Fox on the Rhine Douglas Niles and Michael Dobson Heinrich Himmler takes over as leader after Hitler is assassinated in 1944 and arranges a cease-fire with the Soviet Union to free German forces. He then appoints Erwin Rommel to command over the German forces in Western Europe.
2001 After Dachau Daniel Quinn Germany wins World War II and eventually all non-whites are killed off.
The Children's War J. N. Stroyar In World War II, Germany does not attack the Soviet Union and develops a nuclear weapons program. There is a 2004 sequel, A Change of Regime.
The Haunting of Alaizabel Cray Chris Wooding Victorian London is overrun by the wych-kin, demonic creatures that have rendered the city uninhabitable south of the river, and which stalk the streets after dark.
2002 Lion's Blood Steven Barnes The novel presents an alternate world where an Islamic Africa is the center of technological progress and learning while Europe remains largely tribal and backward. The story begins with Aidan O'Dere, a White European child growing up in a primitive 19th century Ireland with his pagan father, Christian mother, and his twin sister. Their village is attacked by Vikings and Aidan and the surviving members of his family are taken as slaves.
Ice Shane Johnson The Apollo 19 mission suffers a major system failure, forcing its crew to strike out on their own.
The Peshawar Lancers S. M. Stirling In 1878, a meteor shower devastates Europe and North America, forcing the European empires to relocate their populations to their colonies.
Ruled Britannia Harry Turtledove The Spanish Armada conquers England and forces Shakespeare to write a play about Philip II. At the same time he is secretly writing a play for the English underground resistance.
Uncle Alf Harry Turtledove The German Empire triumphs over its enemies in the World War I in 1914, when Alfred von Schlieffen personally oversees the implementation of his plan for a two-front war. It occupies Belgium and France after the war. Two years later, Germany helps Russia put down a communist revolution in 1916.
The Years of Rice and Salt Kim Stanley Robinson The Black Death of the 14th century kills 99 percent of the people in Europe and over the next seven centuries, India, China and the Islamic world come to dominate the planet.
2003 Fox at the Front Douglas Niles and Michael Dobson A sequel to Fox on the Rhine, taking place immediately after it. Rommel and George Patton work together to get the Allies to Berlin ahead of the Soviets.
Cold War Hot: Alternate Decisions of the Cold War Peter G. Tsouras A collection of alternate history scenarios in the Cold War.
Collaborator Murray Davies Set in a Nazi-occupied Great Britain centering on a former prisoner of war and life in occupied Britain.
Conquistador S. M. Stirling An inter-dimensional gateway is discovered in California, which gives access to an alternate Earth in which the empire of Alexander the Great flourishes, and where Europeans never discovered America.
In the Presence of Mine Enemies Harry Turtledove A family of secret Jews hide in Berlin two or three generations after a Nazi victory in World War II.
Roma Eterna Robert Silverberg The Red Sea does not part before Moses and, as a result, the Roman Empire grows and prospers without the influence of Christianity.
2004 Airborn Kenneth Oppel Airships, rather than airplanes, are used extensively for world travel.
Curious Notions Harry Turtledove Central Powers win World War I.
The Plot Against America Philip Roth Charles Lindbergh is elected President of the United States in 1940 and collaborates with Nazi Germany.
2005 In High Places Harry Turtledove Presents two alternative worlds. In the first one, the Black Death is deadlier, and while the remaining Europeans are able to limit the extent of Muslim colonization, European colonial empires never rise and England remains a backwater. The second is set in a Spain where the Roman Empire fell apart early and as a result is divided between Carthaginian colonies on the coasts and Basque settlements in the interior.
Never Let Me Go Kazuo Ishiguro Sterile clones are bred for their organs in what appears to be an alternate version of the 1990s.
2006 1862 Robert Conroy England enters the American Civil War on the side of the Confederacy due to the RMS Trent incident.
Half Life Shelley Jackson The atomic bomb resulted in a genetic preponderance of conjoined twins, who eventually become a minority subculture.
2007 1945 Robert Conroy The United States invades Japan in World War II despite using the atomic bomb.
Ice Jacek Dukaj The First World War never occurs and Poland is still under Russian rule.
Mainspring Jay Lake A young clockmaker's apprentice, who is visited by the Archangel Gabriel, is told that he must take the Key Perilous and rewind the Mainspring of the Earth.
Russian Amerika Stoney Compton Alaska is still owned by Russia.
The Yiddish Policemen's Union Michael Chabon During World War II, a temporary Yiddish-speaking settlement for Jewish refugees was established in Alaska in 1941.
Macarthur's War Douglas Niles and Michael Dobson The US defeat in Midway forces Douglas MacArthur to take over the Allied command in the Pacific and later launch the invasion of Japan. Isoroku Yamamoto also serves as Japan's war minister.
2008 The Execution Channel Ken MacLeod Al Gore is elected president in 2000 and the 9/11 attacks involved different targets.
The Man with the Iron Heart Harry Turtledove A German insurgency at the end of World War II occurs.
Without Warning John Birmingham On the eve of the Iraq War in March 2003, an energy field appears in North America, wiping out all human and animal life within it.
2009 1942 Robert Conroy A third wave of airstrikes on Pearl Harbor forces the American fleet to abandon the base, opening up the Hawaiian islands to Japanese invasion.
The Infinities John Banville In one of an infinite number of universes, Mary, Queen of Scots, executed her cousin Elizabeth, England is a Catholic nation, Sweden is bellicose, Wallace's theory of evolution has been discredited, and cold fusion is the principal source of energy.
The Age of Ra James Lovegrove The Ancient Egyptian gods have defeated all other pantheons and now rule over the world.

2010s

2010 After America John Birmingham Sequel to Without Warning.
Red Inferno: 1945 Robert Conroy The Allied advance on Berlin causes a paranoid Stalin to attack the American troops, forcing the Allies and a semi-rehabilitated Germany to work together to fight off the Soviet threat.
2011 The Afrika Reich Guy Saville The British are defeated at the Battle of Dunkirk, allowing the Nazis to conquer Europe and then Africa.
Osama Lavie Tidhar Set in an alternate world where Osama bin Laden is a fictional character in a pulp detective novel.
Castro's Bomb Robert Conroy Fidel Castro seizes control of Soviet nuclear bombs during the Cuban Missile Crisis.
11/22/63 Stephen King A time traveler stops John F. Kennedy's assassination only to create an even worse late 20th century for America.
2012 Age of Aztec James Lovegrove The Aztec Empire conquers the globe, beginning with the defeat of Hernán Cortés by Montezuma II.
Dominion C. J. Sansom Lord Halifax, rather than Winston Churchill, takes over the war effort in 1940, surrendering Britain to be a satellite state of Nazi Germany.
Faultline 49 David M. Danson (pseudonym of Joe MacKinnon) Reporter David Danson travels through U.S.-occupied Canada in search of the principal provocateur in the Canadian-American War (a conflict instigated by the 11 September 2001 World Trade Center bombing in Edmonton, Alberta).
Himmler's War Robert Conroy Hitler is killed by a random Allied bombing in 1944, allowing Heinrich Himmler to become the leader of Germany and push new advances on the Allies.
The Impeachment of Abraham Lincoln Stephen L. Carter Abraham Lincoln survives his assassination attempt and, two years later, faces an impeachment trial.
The Mirage Matt Ruff Christian fundamentalists hijack airplanes and fly them into buildings in Iraq and Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab States declares a War on Terror and invades the U.S.
Rising Sun Robert Conroy The Battle of Midway is a defeat for the U.S. Navy, paving the way for Japan to attack the West Coast of the United States.
Pact Ribbentrop - Beck Piotr Zychowicz Hitler makes a pact with Poland rather than invading it, so after conquering Western Europe the Poles join him in his 1941 attack on the Soviet Union and defeat it together, dividing its territory.
North Reich Robert Conroy Britain surrenders to Nazi Germany and has a fascist regime installed across the Commonwealth and Empire, with Canada becoming a base from which Germany prepares to launch a war against the United States.
2013 Fallout Todd Strasser The Cuban Missile Crisis leads to World War III. Twelve-year-old Scott and his family must squeeze into a small fallout shelter with six uninvited neighbors and somehow survive without enough food or water for the next two weeks.
2014 Unholy Land Lavie Tidhar In this world the Uganda Scheme succeeded in the early 20th century, and the Jewish state is in Uganda, called Palestina, with Arafat City as its capital. By the book's present day tensions are rising, with Palestina putting up walls to keep out African refugees
2016 Underground Airlines Ben Winters The American Civil War never happens, with the Crittenden Compromise being adopted instead, and slavery remains legal in the Hard Four states of Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, and a united Carolina.
Everfair Nisi Shawl African-American missionaries join forces with Africans, East Asians, Europeans, and socialists from the British Fabian Society to buy the Congo Free State from Leopold II of Belgium. Freeing it from becoming a site of colonial atrocities, they rename it 'Everfair', and make it a safe haven for the people of the Congo, former slaves returning from America, and other places where African natives and their descendants are being mistreated.
2017 River of Teeth Sarah Gailey As one of his last acts of his presidency in early 1861, President James Buchanan approved the Hippo Act, a plan to import hippopotamuses into the United States as livestock. Decades later, the lawless swamps of Louisiana are infested with murderous feral hippos.
The Underground Railroad Colson Whitehead The Underground Railroad was a literal railroad, and not just a metaphor.
Jak zawsze [pl] Zygmunt Miłoszewski In 1963, instead of communists, Poland is ruled by a social democratic-peasant alliance led by President Eugeniusz Kwiatkowski, and the country stands under the strong influence of France.
The Berlin Project Gregory Benford During World War II the American atomic program completes the atomic bomb a year earlier than in reality, enabling it to be deployed against Germany and bring about a premature end to the war.
2018 My Real Children Jo Walton Presents a world where the protagonist has two, mutually incompatible memories of history. In one world Kennedy is assassinated by a bomb in 1963, which leads to accelerated nuclear disarmament. The Soviet Union liberalises sooner and does not crush the Hungarian and Czechoslovakian revolution. The USSR also reaches the moon first in 1967, and the USA is struggling to catch up to develop its own space and moonbase technology. In another timeline, the Cuban Missile Crisis escalates into full-scale nuclear war, and Miami, Kyiv, Delhi, Tel Aviv and various unspecified Chinese cities are destroyed over the process of 50 years, creating a world where anaplastic thyroid cancer is common. The USA becomes isolationist, not getting involved in Vietnam, the EU consolidates much earlier and decolonisation does not occur as swiftly.
A Man Lies Dreaming Lavie Tidhar Using a story-within-a-story narrative, it recounts a Jewish man in Auschwitz imagining an alternate history. In this alternate history, the Nazis failed to take power in 1933, with communists taking power and purging the high ranking Nazi leadership. Hitler, called 'Wolf' in the novel, fled to England, which became fascist, and now works as a private detective for hire.
Through Darkest Europe Harry Turtledove Alternate medieval philosophies in both Christianity and Islam lead to a modern world where Islamic countries are the richest and most developed in the world, while European Christian countries are backward and violent.
The Only Harmless Great Thing Brooke Bolander Sign language communication with elephants became possible in the 1880s, but they were still considered animals for several decades more. US Radium purchased several (including Topsy the Elephant) to replace their litigious human employees from the Radium Girls scandal, because elephants can tolerate higher doses of radiation. Decades in the future, a scientist tries to persuade the elephant community to allow themselves to become long-term nuclear waste warning messages.
Summerland Hannu Rajaniemi In 1938 humanity discovers a realm to the afterlife called 'Summerland', a metropolis for the recently deceased, and the British Empire and the Soviet Union are vying for control over it.
2019 Machines Like Me Ian McEwan Alan Turing lived well past WW2, and technology overall is more advanced than in our time, so by the time of the 80s the Internet, social media, and self-driving cars already exist. Robots are available to a select rich few. Thatcher lost the Falklands War and is battling Tony Benn in UK politics.
Civilisations Laurent Binet The Vikings in c.1000 ad, travel to the Americas and make contact with native American peoples, specifically the Incas and the Aztecs, sharing cultural ideas with them and iron smelting techniques, but cause a pandemic by bringing diseases from Europe with them. This, however, leads to Native Americans gaining immunity to European diseases, so are in a stronger position against European colonisation. Christopher Columbus is kidnapped and his men killed, and the Americas remain unconquered. In 1531 the Incas invade Europe.
This Is How You Lose the Time War Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone Book features two agents from two warring factions (called 'Red' and 'Blue'), who traverse multiple different timelines in a form of time war. One timeline they encounter features a world where the Aztecs were not colonised, multiple worlds where Atlantis exists and falls, and one where the Earth was destroyed in a nuclear holocaust.

2020s

2020 The Once and Future Witches Alix E. Harrow Witches exist, and in New Salem in 1893 witches join the Suffragette movement. Witchcraft exists in this world and is somewhat accepted, but witches are fighting for the right to practice witchcraft openly and more boldly.
Ring Shout; or, Hunting Ku Kluxes in the End Times P. Djeli Clark Set in an alternate historical world of Macon, Georgia in 1922, the story is told from the perspective of Maryse Boudreaux. At this time, Prohibition is occurring and the town of Macon is known for having Ku Klux Klan marches with many white men, women, and children. Before the beginning of the story, the Second Klan came to be on November 25, 1915, on the day the trio refers to as "D-Day" or "Devil's Night", when an old witch summoned the "Ku Kluxes" at the Stone Mountain in Atlanta. Despite the efforts of formerly enslaved persons such as Robert Smalls to disband the first Klan, they were not able to wipe out the monsters that feed off the hatred and killing of innocent African-Americans in the United States. Due to the release of The Birth of a Nation, a product of dark magic, many white people were swayed into believing the narrative of the Ku Klux Klan as saviors and African-Americans as evil.
Elatsoe Darcie Little Badger Magic exists in America, and the magic, monsters, knowledge, and legends of all its peoples, native or not, exist. Magic includes the ability to make an orb of light appear or travel across the world through rings of fungi. Elatsoe, the protagonist, practises magic from her native Lipan Apache family, and can raise the ghosts of dead animals.
Rodham Curtis Sittenfeld Hillary Clinton never married Bill Clinton, and instead pursues a career in law. In 2015 she runs successfully for president with endorsements from Donald Trump.
Agency William Gibson In an alternate 2017 Brexit did not happen and Hillary Clinton is president, and Turkey and Syria are at the brink of war. Experimental military AI technology is created that allows people to use as proxies and enter alternate timelines where apocalyptic events did not happen
The Oppenheimer Alternative Robert J. Sawyer After J. Robert Oppenheimer heads the Manhattan Project and the development of the atomic bomb, he directs a secret project to save humanity after it is discovered that the Sun's core is unstable and will shed its outer layer in the late-2020s, engulfing the inner Solar System, including Earth.
2021 Outlawed Anna North The United States experienced a devastating flu pandemic in the 1830s. Among other implications, this pandemic resulted in strict fertility laws, and gender nonconformist women rebels hold out in the Hole-in-the-Wall as outlaws in the American frontier.
The Kingdoms Natasha Pulley Napoleon won the Battle of Trafalgar, and, the English were enslaved.
2022 All the White Spaces Ally Wilkes A 1920 British expedition to Antarctica takes place in an alternate history to the one in which Ernest Shackleton and others explored the continent.
To Paradise Hanya Yanagihara
2023 Babel, or the Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translator's Revolution R.F. Kuang In an alternate Oxford set in the Victorian Age, the British Empire is established and maintained through the magical use of silver, which when engraved with certain words release magical powers. The magical power specifically comes from when two etymologically linked pair of words from both English and another language are matched.
Cahokia Jazz[3] Francis Spufford The variant of smallpox that arrived with European settlers was variola minor, both dramatically less fatal than variola major and conferring immunity on those who contracted it. Far from the Indigenous peoples in North America from being almost entirely wiped out, there is instead a huge and thriving Native American population in the US in 1922 located in the fictional state of Deseret.

Novel series

Title Author Description Installments
Paratime series H. Beam Piper and John F. Carr Consists of several short stories, one novella, and one novel. The series deals with an advanced civilization that is able to travel between parallel universes with alternate histories, and uses that ability to trade for goods and services that its own, exhausted Earth cannot provide. The protagonists of the stories are the Paratime Police, the organization that protects the secret of paratime travel.

Sequels not written by Piper and mainly written by John F. Carr:

Crosstime series Andre Norton The story takes its protagonist through several versions of Earth as it might have been if history had gone differently.
  • The Crossroads of Time (1956): Features a world in which Nazi Germany won the Battle of Britain, Operation Sea Lion went ahead in May 1940 and the Axis subsequently launched an invasion of the United States. As a consequence of this sequence of events, civilization has collapsed and New York has been bombed into ruins.
  • Quest Crosstime (1965): Features a world where Richard III won the Battle of Bosworth in 1485 and Cortez and Pizarro failed to subdue the Mesoamerican civilizations in the New World. In its twentieth century, the postcolonial Nation of New Britain and the Toltec Empire are engaged in cold war with each other across the Mississippi River.
Imperium series Keith Laumer Series featuring a continuum of parallel worlds policed by the Imperium, formed in an alternate history where the American Revolution did not occur, and the British Empire and Germany merged into a unified empire in 1900, with a government based in an alternate Stockholm. American diplomat Brion Bayard is the protagonist, having been kidnapped by the Imperium because the Brion Bayard in a third parallel Earth is apparently waging war against the Imperium. Further adventures follow after Bayard decides to remain in the service of the Imperium. Includes three novels and two omnibus collections (Beyond the Imperium (1981) and Imperium (2005))
Lord Darcy Randall Garrett A number of short stories and one novel (Too Many Magicians) based on the premise that King Richard I of England returned safely from France and that Roger Bacon had codified the laws of magic.
A Nomad of the Time Streams Michael Moorcock A series of novels featuring a grown-up version of E. Nesbit's Oswald Bastable (from The Story of the Treasure Seekers and other books) who experiences a variety of alternate realities that have diverged from his own timeline.
Operation Otherworld Poul Anderson The existence of God has been scientifically proven and magic has been harnessed for the practical needs of the adept by the degaussing of cold iron, while the United States is part of an alternate Second World War against the Islamic Khalifate, which has invaded the United States.
North American Confederacy series L. Neil Smith A single word in the Declaration of Independence differs and Albert Gallatin joins the Whiskey Rebellion in 1794 to the benefit of the farmers, rather than the fledgling United States government. This results in the rebellion to become a Second American Revolution. This eventually leads to George Washington being overthrown and executed by firing squad for treason, Gallatin being declared the second president, the U.S. Constitution being declared null and void, and a revised version of the Articles of Confederation being ratified, but with a much greater emphasis on individual and economic freedom. These actions eventually lead to the US merging with its neighbors as the North American Confederacy, a libertarian society in the 1890s.
Fireball trilogy John Christopher Two cousins are transported into an alternate history Earth through a mysterious fireball where the Roman Empire never fell.
The Dark Tower Stephen King Although this is primarily a fantasy and time travel series with elements of steampunk, there are interludes of alternate history. For example, in one scene, the characters enter a world where Spiro Agnew became the 38th US president, in another they visit a world where Gary Hart was president in the 1980s and Ronald Reagan never entered politics.
Eden trilogy Harry Harrison The K–T extinction never happens. Mammals evolve into human-like creatures who are a persecuted minority in a world ruled by bipedal reptilians.
Germanicus trilogy Kirk Mitchell Rome never fell, after Pontius Pilate pardons Joshua bar-Joseph (Christ), and the Romans win a decisive victory at Teutoberg Forest and Latinize Greater Germania.
The Tales of Alvin Maker Orson Scott Card A North America where people wield magic, or knacks, and the revolution was only partly successful.
The Hammer and the Cross series Harry Harrison Vikings rebel against the harsh rule of the Catholic Church.
The Domination S.M. Stirling The early entry of the Netherlands on the American side of the American Revolution causes them to lose the Cape Colony to Britain, which renames it the Crown Colony of Drakia after Sir Francis Drake and settles Loyalists and Hessians there, who absorb the Boers to set up a slavery-based empire called the Domination of the Draka.
Anno Dracula series Kim Newman The heroes of Bram Stoker's 1897 novel Dracula fail to stop Count Dracula's conquest of Great Britain, resulting in a world where vampires are common and increasingly dominant in society.
Worldwar and Colonization series Harry Turtledove Aliens with a feudal caste system and 1990s style technology calling themselves the "Race" invade Earth in the middle of World War II, forcing the Allied and Axis Forces to put aside their differences and battle this new threat.
The Southern Victory series Harry Turtledove The South won the American Civil War in 1862 due to not losing the copy of Special Order 191, resulting in the US and CSA continuing to exist and battling through this timeline's versions of the Franco-Prussian War, the First World War and the Second World War.
Stars and Stripes trilogy Harry Harrison Prince Albert dies prematurely and Britain becomes involved in the American Civil War.
  • Stars and Stripes Forever (1998)
  • Stars and Stripes in Peril (2000)
  • Stars and Stripes Triumphant (2002)
Belisarius David Drake and Eric Flint Opposing factions from the future influence early times through intermediaries for their own purposes: the "good" side operating through the Byzantine general Belisarius and the "evil" side operating through the Indian state of Malwa.
  • An Oblique Approach (1998)
  • In the Heart of Darkness (1998)
  • Destiny's Shield (1999)
  • Fortune's Stroke (2000)
  • The Tide of Victory (2001)
  • The Dance of Time (2006)
The Age of Unreason Gregory Keyes Alchemy really works thanks to Isaac Newton.
Nantucket series S. M. Stirling The island of Nantucket is sent back in time to the Bronze Age circa 1250 BC.
1632 series Eric Flint An entire modern West Virginia town is transported in time and space to Germany during the Thirty Years' War.
Arabesk trilogy Jon Courtenay Grimwood Woodrow Wilson brokered an earlier peace to World War I so that it never expanded outside of the Balkans. The books are set in a liberal Islamic Ottoman North Africa in the 21st century, mainly centring on Alexandria, referred to as El Iskandriyah.
  • Pashazade (2001)
  • Effendi (2002)
  • Felaheen (2003)
Elemental Masters Mercedes Lackey An alternate Edwardian Earth is home to magicians who have control over the four elements.
The Neanderthal Parallax series Robert J. Sawyer A Neanderthal visitor from a parallel world where Homo sapiens became extinct and Neanderthals became the dominant species arrives on our world. The Neanderthal society is sexually segregated, with men and women interacting for only a few days each month, and reproduction being consciously limited to ten-year intervals.
  • Hominids (2002)
  • Humans (2003)
  • Hybrids (2003)
Hannibal series John Maddox Roberts The Carthaginians won the Second Punic War against the Romans.
Heirs of Alexandria series Mercedes Lackey, Eric Flint and Dave Freer Set in a renaissance Europe where the Library of Alexandria was not destroyed by a Christian mob and the now sainted Hypatia of Alexandria and John Chrysostom shaped religious thought, significantly altering how the Church developed.
Civil War series Newt Gingrich and William R. Forstchen Robert E. Lee wins the Battle of Gettysburg.
Crosstime Traffic Harry Turtledove Travel between parallel universes is possible.
  • Gunpowder Empire (2003) – A world where the Roman Empire never fell and has technology equal to that of the age of Napoleon.
  • Curious Notions (2004) – The Central Powers of WW1 won prior to American entry into the conflict and conquered the isolationist USA in the 1950s.
  • In High Places (2006) – The Black Death was far more virulent across Europe, leading to a world dominated by Muslims.
  • The Disunited States of America (2006) – The USA was unable to agree to a full constitution following victory in the War of Independence, leading to every state becoming a different country by the early 1800s.
  • The Gladiator (2007) – The Soviet Union was able to win the Cold War and remake the entire world in their image.
  • The Valley-Westside War (2008) – Nuclear War in 1967 lead to the collapse of society.
  • Days of Infamy series (2004) by Harry Turtledove – Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor extends to capture Hawaii
Insh'Allah series Steven Barnes Shows an alternate world in which Carthage destroyed Rome, with Europe remaining tribal and an Islamic-dominated Africa colonizing the New World.
The Merchant Princes series Charles Stross Series of nine novels. In the series, there exists a number of parallel worlds all of which are on the same geographical Earth, but with different societies at different points of development. Members of a certain bloodline can travel between these worlds along with their immediate possessions.
Axis of Time series John Birmingham An American-led UN Multinational Force arrives uptime from 2021 via a wormhole that was accidentally generated as a byproduct of a scientific experiment to the year 1942.
The Emberverse series S. M. Stirling An event called "The Change" in 1998 causes electricity, guns, explosives, internal combustion engines and steam power to stop working.
The Sky Crawlers Hiroshi Mori Follows the journeys and tribulations of a group of young fighter pilots involved in dogfight warfare, and is set during an alternate historical period.
  • None But Air (2004)
  • Down to Heaven (2005)
  • Flutter into Life (2006)
  • Cradle the Sky (2007)
  • The Sky Crawlers (2001)
  • Sky Eclipse (TBA)
Romanitas Trilogy Sophia McDougall The Roman Empire survived to contemporary times.
Trail of Glory series Eric Flint Sam Houston was not injured at the beginning of the War of 1812, and substantially revises the history of the Trail of Tears.
The Lords of Creation S. M. Stirling An ancient alien civilization makes Mars and Venus habitable and seeds them with Earth life.
Temeraire Naomi Novik The Napoleonic Wars are fought with an Air Force of dragons.
The Small Change trilogy Jo Walton The United Kingdom made peace with Nazi Germany (against Winston Churchill's wishes).
Pacific War series Newt Gingrich and William R. Forstchen Alternate Pacific War.
Destroyermen series Taylor Anderson In the midst of World War II, an old battered four stacker and its Japanese enemy is swept through a storm and finds itself on a version of Earth where humans had never evolved.
Leviathan Trilogy Scott Westerfeld
The Pantheon series James Lovegrove Alternate Earths where the gods of ancient myth and legend are real and play an active role in human affairs.
  • The Age of Ra (2009)
  • The Age of Zeus (2010)
  • The Age of Odin (2011)
  • The Age of Aztec (2012)
  • The Age of Voodoo (2013)
  • The Age of Godpunk (2013)
  • The Age of Shiva (2014)
  • The Age of Heroes (2016)
  • The Age of Legends (2019)
  • The Age of Anansi (2012)
TimeRiders Alex Scarrow Three people who have been rescued moments before death are recruited into a secret agency in order to prevent time travel from unraveling history.
The Hot War series Harry Turtledove In response to Chinese intervention in the Korean War, President Harry S. Truman orders the use of atomic weapons against Manchuria in 1951 leading to a full-scale nuclear war between NATO and the Warsaw Pact.
  • Bombs Away (2015)
  • Fallout (2016)
  • Armistice (2017)
Noughts and Crosses series Malorie Blackman In an alternative history, Africa became a unified empire and invaded, occupied and colonised Europe instead of Europe colonising Africa. At the time of the series, slavery had been abolished for some time, but segregation, similar to the Jim Crow Laws, continues to operate to keep the "Crosses" (dark-skinned people) in control of the "noughts" (lighter-skinned people). An international organisation, the Pangaean Economic Community, exists. Seeming to be similar to the United Nations in scope but similar to the European Union in powers, it is playing a role in forcing change by directives and boycotts.
  • Noughts and Crosses (2001)
  • An Eye For an Eye (2003)
  • Knife Edge (2004)
  • Checkmate (2005)
  • Double Cross (2008)
  • Crossfire (2019)
  • Nought Forever (2019)
  • Endgame (2021)
  • Callum (2012)
His Dark Materials Philip Pullman The series features the multiverse, and characters cross between different worlds. Lyra Belacqua, the series' protagonist, comes from an alternate Earth where John Calvin, instead of forming a new breakaway church, instead became the Pope, moved the Church to Geneva, and so by the time of the first book the Church (named "the Magisterium") is far more dominant, aggressive and interferes in society's affairs. Much of the dress code and social mores are still from the 18th century (women are not allowed to teach at Oxford University), cars and fixed-winged aircraft, but zeppelins are a common and dominant mode of transport. There are six known planets in this world and the month of April has an extra day. Magical aspects exist as the underpinning quantum reality of Lyra's universe, and other species, such as Witches and talking, intelligent armoured bears (called panserbjørne) co-exist with Humans. Other worlds include that of the world of Cittàgazze, which serves as the crossroads to the worlds because all the windows lead here. Other worlds include that of a world where elephant-like creatures evolved a distinct anatomy based on a diamond-framed skeleton without a spine, and one where Humans aligned with the Majesterium are engaged in a genocidal war with the Gallivespians.
Take Them to the Stars Sylvain Neuvel A mysterious society of powerful women manipulate history to save humanity, and ultimately get them into space.
Altered State J. G. Jenkinson An East German Scientist tries to help Germany win WW1 by sending documents to 1913. His grandfather, a soldier in the Kaiser's army experiences the new war and his future paramour from the 21st century he creates travels back to stop him. The Berlin Principle (2022)

The London Reaction (2023) The Sarajevo Hypothesis (2023)

Anthologies

Year Title Editor(s)
1932 If It Had Happened Otherwise J. C. Squire
1989 Alternate Empires Gregory Benford and Martin H. Greenberg
Alternate Heroes
1991 Alternate Wars
1992 Alternate Americas
Alternate Presidents Mike Resnick
Alternate Kennedys
1993 Alternate Warriors
1994 Alternate Outlaws
1996 War of the Worlds: Global Dispatches Kevin J. Anderson
1997 Alternate Tyrants Mike Resnick
1998 Alternate Generals Harry Turtledove
1999 What If? Robert Cowley
2001 What If? 2
The Best Alternate History Stories of the 20th Century Harry Turtledove and Martin H. Greenberg
2003 What Ifs? of American History Robert Cowley
2006 Futures Past Jack Dann and Gardner Dozois
2009 Other Earths Nick Gevers and Jay Lake
Columbia & Britannia Brian A. Dixon and Adam Chamberlain
2011 Lest Darkness Fall and Related Stories Alexei Panshin and Cory Panshin

Short stories and novellas

Year Title Author Description
1881 Hands Off Edward Everett Hale Joseph is rescued from the slave traders he was sold to, but this benevolent act leads to humanity's extinction centuries later.[4]
1934 Sidewise in Time Murray Leinster Sections of the Earth's surface begin changing places with their counterparts in alternate timelines, including one where the South won the Battle of Gettysburg.
1937 The Curfew Tolls Stephen Vincent Benét A portrait of Napoleon Bonaparte if he had been born in the 1730s.
1948 He Walked Around the Horses H. Beam Piper Diplomat Benjamin Bathurst arrives in a timeline where the British defeated the American rebels.
1952 Sail On! Sail On! Philip José Farmer The Earth is flat and Aristotle's axiom that objects of different weights drop with different velocities is true.
1958 Two Dooms C. M. Kornbluth The Axis powers win the Second World War.
1960 Delenda Est Poul Anderson Renegade time travelers meddle in the outcome of the Second Punic War, bringing about the premature deaths of Publius Cornelius Scipio and Scipio Africanus at the Battle of Ticinus in 218 BC, and thus creating a new timeline in which Hannibal destroys Rome in 210 BC.
1987 The Forest of Time Michael Flynn The Thirteen Colonies, after getting independent of Britain, did not succeed in creating the United States but developed into separate and mutually hostile nation-states which often fight bitter wars with each other.
1987 Thor Meets Captain America David Brin The Nazis are championed by the Norse Pantheon.
1987 Why I Left Harry's All-Night Hamburgers Lawrence Watt-Evans A young man tells his story about growing up working at a greasy spoon diner where travelers from alternate versions of Earth frequently drop in.
1988 The Last Article Harry Turtledove A Nazi invasion of India and the brutal reaction of the Germans to the nonviolent resistance and pacifism of Gandhi and his followers.
1991 Red Reign Kim Newman The original short story that Anno Dracula is based on.
1997 The Undiscovered William Sanders William Shakespeare lives among the Cherokee and tries to produce a version of Hamlet for them.
1998 The Twelfth Album Stephen Baxter The Beatles do not split up and produce twelfth album called God.
2000 A Colder War Charles Stross The follow-up expedition in H. P. Lovecraft's At the Mountains of Madness has occurred, and inexorably fuses the Cold War and Cthulhu Mythos.
2000 Watching Trees Grow Peter F. Hamilton The Roman Empire never fell.
2002 The Daimon Harry Turtledove Greek philosopher Socrates aids the Athenian general Alkibiades in defeat the Spartans.
2002 Shikari in Galveston S. M. Stirling Novella et in the same world as The Peshawar Lancers, but occurs several years earlier.
2003 The Cuban Missile Crisis: Second Holocaust Robert L. O'Connell The 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis developed into war.
2005 The Apotheosis of Martin Padway S. M. Stirling A sequel to Lest Darkness Fall by L. Sprague de Camp, continues the story of the American archaeologist transported back to 6th century Rome.
2008 A Murder in Eddsford S. M. Stirling A murder mystery set in Post-Change Britain in The Emberverse series.
2008 Something for Yew S. M. Stirling Another Rutherston and Bramble mystery.

Role-playing/board games

Year Title Description
1988 Sky Galleons of Mars Set in an alternate Belle Époque where the major nations of Earth are extending their colonial interests on Mars and Venus.
1988 Space: 1889 Set in an alternate Belle Époque where the major nations of Earth are extending their colonial interests on Mars and Venus.
1991 "Reich Star" Set in a 2134 where the Axis powers won World War II.
1993 Forgotten Futures Settings inspired by Victorian and Edwardian science fiction and fantasy.
1998 Crimson Skies The United States crumbles into many hostile nation-states following the effects of the Great War, Prohibition, and the Great Depression.
1999 Brave New World Superhero game set in a fascist United States of America living in a perpetual state of martial law since the 1960s.
1999 GURPS Alternate Earths and GURPS Alternate Earths II
2001 Godlike: Superhero Roleplaying in a World on Fire, 1936–1946 Set in an alternate history version of World War II where people known as Talents have developed unexplained powers.
2005 GURPS Infinite Worlds
2008 Gear Krieg Technological developments during the 1920s (including J. Walter Christie's invention of a bipedal mecha system) leads to a World War II where all major powers are equipped with more advanced military equipment than in reality.

Comics

Year Title Author Description
1986 Captain Confederacy Will Shetterly and Vince Stone A superhero is created for propaganda purposes in a world in which the Confederate States of America won their independence.
1986 Watchmen Alan Moore The United States has costumed adventurers and the country is edging closer to nuclear warfare with the Soviet Union. The point of divergence comes in the 1930s but does not affect larger history until the 1960s.
1989 Baker Street Gary Reed and Guy Davis Features an alternative Sherlock Holmes world where the values and class system of Victorian era England carried over into a late 20th Century where World War II never occurred.
1991 Batman: Holy Terror Alan Brennert Set in a world where Oliver Cromwell lived ten years longer than he should have, and America is a commonwealth nation run by a corrupt theocratic government.
1995–ongoing Astro City Kurt Busiek et alia In an early installment, a man travels back in time and prevents the Challenger space shuttle from exploding in 1986, and one of the rescued crew later sires a descendant who will save all mankind from disaster in the future.
1997 Wonder Woman: Amazonia William Messner-Loebs In 1888, Queen Victoria and most of her family are murdered by an arsonist. A distant American cousin, "Jack Planters", becomes King and rules the British Empire with a misogynistic atmosphere. In the 1920s, an analog of Wonder Woman leads a popular uprising against King Jack's rule.
2001 Ministry of Space Warren Ellis Soldiers and operatives of the United Kingdom reached the German rocket installations at Peenemünde ahead of the U.S. Army and the Soviets, and brought all the key personnel and technology to England.
2002 Scarlet Traces Ian Edginton Britain was able to develop alien technology, abandoned after the abortive Martian invasion of The War of the Worlds to establish economic and political dominance over the remainder of the world.
2003 Arrowsmith Kurt Busiek The United States is actually the United States of Columbia, magic is real, and the First World War is fought with and by dragons, spells, vampires and all other kinds of magical weapons and beings.
2003 Superman: Red Son Mark Millar Superman is raised in the Soviet Union, and his presence upsets the balance of the Cold War.
2003 Shin Konpeki no Kantai (New Deep Blue Fleet) Yoshio Aramaki A manga sequel set three years after Konpeki no Kantai. The series depicts World War III between a new republican Japan facing Nazi Germany in a final battle for the fate of the world.[5]
2003 The Life Eaters David Brin Comic based on Brin's novella Thor Meets Captain America.
2003 Marvel: 1602 and its sequels Neil Gaiman Set Marvel Comics' heroes and villains in the early 17th century due to an alternate Captain America of an alternate dystopian future was transported to the past that alter the time scape, which includes surviving dinosaurs that lives mostly in America.
2004 Ex Machina Brian K. Vaughan Set in a world in which a superhero called the Great Machine becomes mayor of New York after intervening in the September 11 attacks – mitigating the death toll by saving the entire South Tower of the World Trade Center.
2006 General Leonardo Erik Svane and Dan Greenberg A French-language graphic novel series in which Leonardo da Vinci manages to build his avant-garde war machines, with the Vatican confiscating them in order to mount a Crusade to recapture Jerusalem.
2006 Roswell, Texas L. Neil Smith and Rex F. May Davy Crockett survived the Alamo and Santa Anna did not, and in which an expanded Texas eventually became the "Federated States of Texas" rather than one of the United States.
2008 Aetheric Mechanics Warren Ellis Set in 1907, during a war in the air between Britain and Ruritania.
2008–2011 Chotto Edo Made Set in a world where the Tokugawa shogunate never ended.
2009 Grandville Bryan Talbot Set in a world in which France won the Napoleonic Wars. It also features elements of steampunk and anthropomorphic animals.
2009 Storming Paradise Chuck Dixon The first detonation of the atomic bomb at Trinity was exploded prematurely, killing prominent nuclear physicists such as Robert Oppenheimer. This forces the loss of reproducing the atomic bomb and having President Truman to initiate the bloody Allied invasion of Japan in Operation Downfall.
2011 Flashpoint
2018-ongoing Chainsaw Man Tatsuki Fujimoto The events are set in alternate 1997, in which devils are born out of human fears and Devil Hunters deal with them. The Soviet Union still exists, and many events, such as AIDS, Holocaust and nuclear weapons, have been erased from history due to the consumption of suitable devils by the Chainsaw Devil.
2023 1/6 Alan Jenkins and Gan Golan The January 6 United States Capitol attack of 2021 was successful and as a direct result, Donald Trump remains President and Trump's former Vice President Mike Pence is hanged during the attack for opposing Trump.[6]

Films

Year Title Director Description
1936 Things to Come William Cameron Menzies Earth becomes a dictatorship after a deadly plague wiped out most life following a thirty-year war.
1942 Went the Day Well? Alberto Cavalcanti Nazi paratroopers take over an English village and the townspeople lead a resistance against them.
1951 The Magic Face Frank Tuttle Hitler is killed by his valet Rudi Janus, who takes his place during World War II.
1966 It Happened Here Kevin Brownlow and Andrew Mollo Nazi Germany successfully invades and occupies the United Kingdom during World War II.
1989 Kiki's Delivery Service Hayao Miyazaki According to the director, takes place in a Europe where the World Wars were averted.
1991 Edward II Derek Jarman Based on the Marlovian play. In the 1990s, England is ruled by a weak king, who is then deposed in a coup led by a quasi-fascist group.
1994 Fatherland Christopher Menaul Based on the 1992 novel about an Axis victory in World War II.
1995 Richard III Richard Loncraine Based on a Shakespeare play, England is ruled by a quasi-fascist regime in the 1930s.
1995 White Man's Burden Desmond Nakano Set in an alternate America where African Americans and Caucasian Americans have reversed cultural roles.
1996–ongoing Independence Day franchise Roland Emmerich Earth was attacked in the 1990s by an alien invasion, and society was subsequently rebuilt using tools and knowledge captured from the enemy. The original 1996 film was not alternate history, but the second film Independence Day: Resurgence (2016) and a planned third film are.
1997 Starship Troopers Paul Verhoeven The director has stated that this is set centuries after an Axis victory in World War II.
1998 Six-String Samurai Lance Mungia The USSR launched several nuclear warheads at the United States in 1957, reducing most of the nation to an inhospitable desert.
1998 World War III Robert Stone Gorbachev is overthrown in early October 1989 (with hard-line Communists still firmly in control of almost all of their satellite states), Soviet and East German troops opened fire on demonstrators in Berlin and Leipzig, and the new Soviet regime precipitated a third World War.
2000 Timequest Robert Dyke A man travels through time to prevent the assassination of John F. Kennedy.
2001 The One James Wong A serial killer targets his own doppelgangers in various alternate universes. We briefly visit a world where Al Gore became the 43rd US president.
2002 2009: Lost Memories Lee Si-myung The Korean peninsula is still a part of the Japanese Empire, as Ito Hirobumi was never assassinated, and the Empire of Japan sides with the Allies against Nazi Germany.
2002 Nothing So Strange Brian Flemming Covers the assassination of Microsoft chairman Bill Gates on 2 December 1999.
2003 The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen Stephen Norrington Based loosely on a comic book of the same name, an espionage thriller set in 1899, in a steampunk world where technology advanced faster than in ours and where several fictional characters from other works of fiction such as Sherlock Holmes and Jekyll and Hyde are real. The point of divergence is not revealed.
2004 C.S.A.: The Confederate States of America Kevin Willmott The Confederate States win the American Civil War, annex the United States, and still maintain slavery in the year 2004.
2004 Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow Kerry Conran Set around 1939 in a world more advanced than ours, although the point of divergence is not revealed. World War II does not occur; instead all humanity is held in fear by an army of giant robots created by a reclusive mad scientist.
2004 The Incredibles Brad Bird An animated adventure set in a mid 20th century where technology and culture resemble our 2004. This advanced state is implicitly due to the existence of superheroes. The chronology is not emphasized in the plot, but can be gleaned from calendars and newspapers visible at various moments throughout the film.
2004 The Place Promised in Our Early Days Makoto Shinkai An anime film by Makoto Shinkai is set in a modern-day Japan that was partitioned after the Pacific War between the Soviet backed Republic of Ezo in Hokkaido and a US allied government in the rest of the Home Islands. The movie also deals with alternate universes.
2007 Pirates of the Caribbean: At the World's End Jerry Bruckheimer King George II of Great Britain with the help of Lord Cutler Beckett carries out a coup abolishing the British Constitution causing the British Empire to return to absolutism and persecute pirates and the people associated with them.
2009 Watchmen Zack Snyder Film adaptation of the comic book of the same name, Richard Nixon remains President in 1985, years after the USA definitively won the Vietnam War.
2009 Inglourious Basterds Quentin Tarantino A group of Jewish-American soldiers assassinate Hitler in Paris in 1944.
2009 The Invention of Lying Ricky Gervais and Matthew Robinson At the beginning of the story, human beings had never evolved the mental trait of deceit, and progressed to the modern world without ever having heard of dishonesty, fiction, or belief in any God(s) or religion whatsoever. The protagonist is the first individual to develop such ability and uses it to his benefit.
2011 Resistance Amit Gupta Based on the same-titled novel, after the June 1944 Normandy Invasion fails, the British Isles come under a German occupation.
2014 Captain America: The Winter Soldier Russo Brothers In the Marvel Cinematic Universe, instead of Lee Harvey Oswald being the assassin of the United States President John F. Kennedy, the assassin was a legendary agent of Hydra, the Winter Soldier.
2014 X-Men: Days of Future Past Bryan Singer The year 2023, is a Dark Age for the mutant race and for humans, since the worst people of humanity rule the world and mutant hunter robots known as Sentinels slaughter mutants and their human allies.
2014 Big Hero 6 Don Hall and Chris Williams San Francisco was rebuilt after the 1906 earthquake with a Japanese motif, and renamed San Fransokyo.
2014 Predestination The Spierig Brothers Based on the 1950s novella "All You Zombies" which was written as a future history – space travel technology in the 1960s seems to be somewhat more advanced than in our history, and New York was hit by massive terror attacks in the 1970s. A squadron of time-traveling enforcers attempt to correct history.
2015 The Good Dinosaur Peter Sohn The K-T extinction is averted, and non-avian dinosaurs live long enough to develop a kind of agricultural civilization.
2015 April and the extraordinary world Christian Desmares and Franck Ekinci The Franco-Prussian War never happened, and emperors of House Bonaparte still rule France. In 1941, the greatest scientists (Albert Einstein, Enrico Fermi...) have mysteriously disappeared so the world only uses coal as an energy source and planet is totally deforested.
2015 World Wide What? Adam Townsend and Andy Trace The World Wide Web, or the Internet as we know it today, is never invented.
2016 Love Is All You Need? K. Rocco Shields

TV shows

Original run Title Description
1963–present Doctor Who This series has made extensive use of alternative history, especially (but not exclusively) since its relaunch in 2005. These include Inferno, Day of the Daleks, Pyramids of Mars (a brief glimpse of a dead Earth), "Father's Day", "Rise of the Cybermen", which follows into "Doomsday".
1966–2005 Star Trek This series has used the theme several times. Examples include: TOS- "The City on the Edge of Forever" (alternate World War II outcome); Enterprise- "Storm Front" where Nazis seized East Coast of America.
1978 An Englishman's Castle A 3-part BBC mini-series focusing on television writer Peter Ingram, who lives in a present-day Britain in which Nazi Germany won World War II.
1983 Blackadder Secret history: upon the death of Richard III in 1485 at Battle of Bosworth Field, Richard IV is crowned king of England, but this has (according to the prologue) been censored out of official histories by Henry VII, leaving the history we know.
1985 Otherworld A family is transported to an alternate Earth while exploring the Great Pyramid of Giza.
1987 Amerika An ABC TV miniseries about life in the United States after a bloodless takeover engineered by the Soviet Union. The miniseries takes place in 1997
1995–2000 Sliders A gang of scientists, a musician and others as travellers who "slide" between parallel worlds by use of a wormhole referred to as an "Einstein-Rosen-Podolsky bridge". First episode was Soviet-ruled America after Soviets seized Americas. Other episodes were many alternate Earths as British America, Ancient Egyptian-ruled America, Spanish America, Druids-controlling America, Atomic Bombs never existed, and others.
1995 Spellbinder In an alternate world where static electricity is used as a power source.
1997 Spellbinder: Land of the Dragon Lord Sequel to original TV show.
1997 Red Dwarf The episode "Tikka to Ride" deals with a timeline in which John F. Kennedy was never assassinated.
1999 Blackadder: Back and Forth A spoof of Doctor Who where a time traveling Blackadder's meddling with history causes changes including a French victory at the Battle of Waterloo.
2001 Princess of Thieves This retelling of the Robin Hood legend takes the legend's customary historical exaggeration to extremes, by ending with Richard the Lionheart being succeeded as King of England, not by his brother John Lackland, but by his son Philip of Cognac.
2003–04 Evil Con Carne The series takes place in a year 2002 where the League of Nations still existed.
2004–05 Zipang A Japanese warship is sent back in time to World War II, altering much of the situation at Midway, but also alters the loss of USS Wasp (CV-7), in which she is destroyed by a Tomahawk missile instead of being lost to a submarine.
2006 The Boondocks: Return of the King Martin Luther King Jr. survives his assassination, waking up from a coma 32 years later.
2006 Code Geass Britannia, the descendant of what was once Britain, is the primary world power and conquers Japan through the use of mecha called Knightmare Frames; an exiled Britannian prince named Lelouch leads the Japanese resistance against them.
2011 Futurama In the episode "All The Presidents' Heads", during a trip back in time, Fry accidentally causes Paul Revere to misdirect the American Revolutionaries, creating a timeline in which the American Revolution failed, and Great Britain went on to conquer all of North America, renaming it "West Britannia".
2011 Supernatural In the episode "My Heart Will Go On", the Titanic never sank and the goddess Atropos is killing the descendants of survivors who should have died.
2013 What If...? Armageddon 1962 John F. Kennedy is assassinated in December 1960, and under Lyndon B. Johnson's leadership, the Cuban Missile Crisis snowballs into nuclear war.
2015 The Man in the High Castle Based on the book with the same title, the show portrays a 1962 in which the Axis powers won World War II and divided the Americas.
2015 Ascension In 1963, the U.S. government launches a covert space mission sending 600 volunteers aboard the USS Ascension self-sustaining [generation ship], on what should be a century-long voyage to colonize a planet orbiting Proxima Centauri to assure the survival of the human race from the escalation of Cold War.
2016 11.22.63 Based on the book 11/22/63 by Stephen King, in which the main character goes back in time trying to save John F. Kennedy and altering the course of events.
2017 Neo Yokio Set where New York (or this universe as aforementioned 'New Yokio') that magicians saves city from take over by Demons in 19th century and gaining place in the upper echelons of society and becoming known as "magistocrats" ever since.
2017 SS-GB British drama series set in a 1941 alternative timeline in which the United Kingdom is occupied by Nazi Germany during the Second World War.
2018 1983 Polish Netflix original series set in 2003. Two decades after a 1983 terrorist attack, a law student and cop uncover a conspiracy that's kept Poland as a police state and the Iron Curtain standing.
2019 Alternate Histories 17th Episode of the Netflix original series Love, Death & Robots, showing six different timelines of the death of Adolf Hitler in 1908 instead of 1945.
2019 For All Mankind An Apple TV original that explores a world where the Soviet Union was the first to land on the Moon in 1969, sparking a more intense and advanced space race that continued well into the 1990s. The point of divergence is described as Soviet space engineer Sergei Korolev surviving past 1966, leading to his technological expertise being used for the Soviet Moon landing.
2020 Hollywood
2020 Noughts + Crosses Set in an alternate version of the British Isles, where African powers colonized most of Europe, and enforce a race-based hierarchy. Based on the young adult novel of the same name.
2020 Bridgerton The Queen Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz is a black woman when in real life she was Caucasian. This comes from an old British urban legend with the same claims.
2021 Joseon Exorcist This series was set in Joseon era of Korea and made extensive use of alternate history. In this alternate world, Joseon is besieged by the Fallen Angel "Azazel" from the Vatican religion. The King of Joseon called for a Vatican priest to help defeat Azazel through exorcism, and stop his demons from possessing people through a physical disease. The series was cancelled after episode 2 because many Koreans found the alternate universe offensive.

Plays

Year Title Author Description
1946 Peace in Our Time Noël Coward Nazi Germany successfully invades Britain in World War II.
1995 Best Fred Lawless After The Beatles remove their original drummer Pete Best from their rock band and replace him with Ringo Starr, Best goes on to be a world-famous rock superstar while The Beatles are stuck as one hit wonders.[7]
2000 The Madagascar Plan Brian Borowka Nazi Germany resettles the Jews on Madagascar.[8]
2001 The Adventures of Stoke Mandeville, Astronaut and Gentleman Fraser Charlton and Nikolas Lloyd The British develop space travel during the reign of Queen Victoria.
2006 Picasso's Closet Ariel Dorfman An alternate account of Picasso's life (and possibly death) in Paris during World War II.[9]
2007 Universal Robots Mac Rogers Robots take over Czechoslovakia and eventually the world just before World War II in a thought-provoking script that raises questions about the future of humanity and science.[10]

Video games

Year Title Description
1996 Command & Conquer: Red Alert (series) A series of computer real time strategy video games set in an alternate timeline, created when Albert Einstein travels back to the past and eliminates Adolf Hitler in an attempt to prevent World War II from taking place. This plan indirectly backfires and results in an unchecked Soviet invasion of Europe by Joseph Stalin in 1946.
1997 Fallout (series) A series of role playing video games set in a post-apocalyptic United States where the world's timeline diverges after World War II, in which the cultural basis and technological aspects of the 1950s and the "World of Tomorrow" remains a part of everyday life.
1999 Crimson Skies PC game based on the original board game, the United States collapses during the Great Depression, leading to the rise of 23 nation-States in the former U.S. and Canada, new airplane and zeppelin technologies, and rampant air piracy.
2000 Gunparade March An alien invasion occurs in 1945, before the end of World War II. The series led to the creation of an anime series.
2002 Iron Storm World War I lasts more than half a century. At the time of the start of the game in 1964, the "Great War" (as the war is still called in that time) has gone on for fifty years.
2003 Crimson Skies: High Road to Revenge Video game sequel to PC game.
2003 Enigma: Rising Tide The British passenger ship Lusitania was not sunk by a German U-boat in World War I.
2003 Freedom Fighters Set in an alternate Cold War where the Soviet Union drops the atomic bomb on Berlin in 1945 and eventually invades the United States in likely early 2000s.
2006 Hearts of Iron II: Doomsday Contains a scenario involving Soviet forces attacking Allied forces in 1945, starting World War III.
2006 Resistance: Fall of Man Set in 1951 Britain as human resistance forces attempt to drive out an alien species of unconfirmed origin called the Chimera.
2007 War Front: Turning Point Set in an alternate version of World War II in which Adolf Hitler died during the early days of the war, and a more effective leadership arose to command Germany during the conflict.
2007 World in Conflict Set in 1989 during the social, political, and economic collapse of the Soviet Union. However, the Soviet Union pursued a course of war to remain in power.
2008 Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3 Set in the time where Soviets successfully eliminated Albert Einstein, turning the war on the Soviet favors, but also the rise of the Empire of the Rising Sun, Japanese armies that will almost crush both Allies and Soviets.
2008 Turning Point: Fall of Liberty Depicts the invasion of the United States by Nazi Germany during the 1950s.
2009 Damnation Set in the early part of the twentieth century after the American Civil War has spanned over several decades, where steam engines replace internal combustion engines.
2010 Singularity Set in an alternate 1955 where the Soviet Union finds a secret element called E-99. Thanks to the new element they are able to create the TMD. (Time Manipulation Device) which helps them rewrite history.
2013 The Last of Us The story is set twenty years after a fungal pandemic collapsed civilization on September 26, 2013, and turned most of the population into the Infected.
2013 Timelines: Assault on America Germany invades North America in World War II.
2013 BioShock Infinite Set mostly in Columbia, a floating American city, during an alternate 1912.
2013 Call of Duty: Ghosts Set after a war dubbed "Tel Aviv War" before 2005, destroyed the oil reserves of Middle East, allowing a super-state called "The Federation of the Americas" to emerge.
2013 Far Cry Blood Dragon Takes place in an alternate 2006 in a timeline where the US and the USSR fought a nuclear war.
2014 Wolfenstein: The New Order Set in an alternate 1960 where Nazi Germany won World War II and now rules the entire world and the Moon.
2015 Wolfenstein: The Old Blood A prequel to Wolfenstein: The New Order about an Allied stealth operation at the German base, Castle Wolfenstein in 1946.
2017 Prey Takes place in an alternate 2025, in which John F. Kennedy was never assassinated and the Space Race led to the construction of a large crewed space station orbiting the Moon.
2017 Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus A sequel to Wolfenstein: The New Order, set in a Nazi-occupied America in 1961.
2018 Frostpunk Set in an alternate early 20th century where volcanic eruptions in the 1880s led to a global ice age.
2018 We Happy Few Set in an alternate 1960s city-state off the coast of Great Britain named Wellington Wells, where the inhabitants of the town are subjected to unethical drug-induced experiments. The point of divergence is mentioned to be the election of Huey Long as President of the United States, which kept America out of WW2 leading to the invasion and occupation of Britain by Germany, as well as its subsequent impoverishment.
2019 The Outer Worlds Set in an alternate future where William McKinley was never assassinated in 1901, leading to a future dominated by large Gilded Age-styled business trusts which have colonized other planets.
2019 Wolfenstein: Youngblood A Threequel to MachineGames' Wolfenstein series set in 1980, 19 years after the events of The New Colossus.
2020 Art of Rally Set in an alternative future when the Group B class of Rally cars was not discontinued.
2020 Call of Duty: Black Ops: Cold War The Soviet Ending results in the Soviet Union nuking Western Europe, making these countries fall under Soviet influence.
2020 Cyberpunk 2077 Set in a future that diverged in the late 1980s (based on the in-universe history of the tabletop RPG the game is based on). Advanced cybernetics are shown to be commonplace by 2013, the Japanese economic miracle led to Japan becoming a corporate-dominated superpower, and defunct regimes like the Soviet Union are shown to be powerful in 2077.
2023 Atomic Heart The Soviet Union develops robots in 1936 and when the Nazis invade in 1941, The Soviets are able to defeat the Nazis much earlier (in 1942 instead of 1945) by using the robots as soldiers.

See also

References

  1. ↑ Robert B. Schmunk. "Hawthorne, Nathaniel. "P.'s Correspondence"". Uchronia: The Alternate History List. Retrieved 24 November 2008.
  2. ↑ "Review of Alternities". Archived from the original on 3 December 2008.
  3. ↑ "Cahokia Jazz by Francis Spufford | Books & Shop".
  4. ↑ Foote, Bud (1991). The Connecticut Yankee in the Twentieth Century: Travel to the Past in Science Fiction. Greenwood Press. p. 28. ISBN 0-313-24327-1.
  5. ↑ "新 紺碧の艦隊 — 徳間書店". Archived from the original on 23 April 2009. Retrieved 19 March 2009.
  6. ↑ "What if the January 6 insurrection at the US Capitol had succeeded? A graphic novel is uniquely placed to answer". The Conversation. 6 January 2023.
  7. ↑ Leigh, Spencer (1998). Drummed Out: The Sacking of Pete Best. Northdown. ISBN 978-1900711043.
  8. ↑ Barry Cohen (15 September 2000). "Writer explores alternate history in new play". Jewish News of Greater Phoenix. Archived from the original on 21 November 2008. Retrieved 26 September 2008.
  9. ↑ Peter Marks (27 June 2006). "'Picasso's Closet': An Artist With No Place to Hide". The Washington Post. Retrieved 26 September 2008.
  10. ↑ "Plays by Mac Rogers". doollee.com. Retrieved 26 September 2008.

External links
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