@bookstodon My #review of Stars of Chaos (Sha Po Lang) Vol. 2 by priest is now live! This volume builds on both the relationship of the leads and the worldbuilding as a whole, making for a VERY entertaining read.
"I was born to a family that harnessed the winds and could read futures in fire and water. Yet my mother kept her secrets. Then the werewolf came, sharing his madness. Now it’s my turn to keep secrets...."
@bookstodon My #review of Stars of Chaos/Sha Po Lang Vol. 1 by priest has gone live! Enjoyed this more than MDZS, I have to say, mostly because of the worldbuilding and the plot.
Ich mag ja manchmal das rumspielen mit #AlternateHistory. Meistens geht man dabei ja zurück bis WW1 oder 2 mindestens. Heute versuche ich mich mal an einer etwas naheliegenderen Variante:
Was wäre, wenn seit den 80ern im Westen konsequente Klimapolitik gemacht worden wäre? 🧵
ROMANITAS by Sophia McDougall is a tale of political intrigue set against the backdrop of a Roman Empire that has endured into the 21st century. Read my review to find out whether the book successfully delivers on the promise of its intriguing premise. @bookstodon
This is the end of the "official questions" hour. Please feel free to keep
chatting on this topic and hashtag throughout the week!
For now, it's self-promotion time! What links, pieces of writing, art, and so
forth would you like people to see in this chat? Post as many as you like within
the character limit! #Writephant
BLEAK, STUNNING ALTERNATE HISTORY, set in a US where white male supremacy is de jure as well as de facto the norm, intertwines the stories of a brilliant young Black woman seeking freedom and her 19th century ancestor. A MINUS
Alternate History: A Muslim Al-Hajj Vladimir Lenin
"Thus I give you the life of the wandering sufi Al-Hajj Vladimir Lenin as imagined by the Russian artist Rinat Voligamsi from Ufa, Bashkiria. In this version of history Lenin gets tired of politics converts to Islam and becomes a sufi"
#FinishedReading this #KimStanleyRobinson#AlternateHistory epic, spanning 600 years (and 772 pages!) after the total depopulation of Europe by the Plague. The story is essentially 10 short stories / novellas across this time, linked by the reincarnation of characters. It did occasionally feel like work - KSR loves characters who lecture, although he usuallly writes about intellectuals for whom this makes sense - but overall I find it rewarding and rich. #Bookstodon@bookstodon
Would be a fascinating alt-history jonbar point -- if early Christians hadn't interpreted a metaphoric passage about the fall of Satan (which in turn was a reference to the death of Sargon II) literally.
From Eckart Fraham's Assyria: The Rise and Fall of the World's First Empire (2023)
I once spent some time on an alternate history where a 1920s entrepreneur is inspired by the big guns of WWI. He spends his vast fortune building a long multi-charge gun in Alberta, firing out across the Canadian Prairies, to achieve his dream of shooting a man -- himself -- into space. Hubris causes a fall with a twist and history is not changed.
Darned if this concept art for Startram (which is an uncrewed electromagnetic launcher) doesn't match what was in my mind's eye.
Another one from the National Archives, artist Gordon Phillips: Gemini's ill-fated paraglider landing system, abandoned in 1964.
I considered using this idea for the alternate history, just for the sake of difference, but realistically I think we know the Brits would go for splash landing and recovery. They love their naval assets so....
Affirmative Action is a way to try to right generational wrongs that have caused damage to entire portions of our population, damages that continue to reverberate today.
Given that the US continues to underfund public primary education in poor and underprivileged communities where generally minorities live in higher proportion, yes, this is breaking history and the future for many in this country.
Yes, and the beginning of the end was the failed #denazification of #US politics and society of the infestations of the fascist #AmericaFirst Party in the 1930s and 1940s:
CW:
If you haven't listened to RachelMaddow's #Ultra podcast series, it will blow your mind away.
It sounds like fiction,#AlternateHistory in particular.