The real problem with working at McLean Hospital...

[arib]

On a day like this, when the sun's out, the temperature's nice, and the trees and grass are starting to turn green again, I want to stop what I'm doing, go outside, sit under a tree and read a good book.

*sigh*

That said, recommend a book, if you would. I've just finished all of Kage Baker's Dr. Zeus books, which I borrowed from my dad after hearing a few people (my friend Mordechai and penmage) talk about how good they were. I'm re-reading Alan Steele's "Chronospace" now, but will finish it soon. I seem to be on a time travel/alternate history kick.

Comments

[penmage.livejournal.com]

There is more historical SF out there? Enlighten me, please.

Also, what did you think of the Dr. Zeus books?

[arib.livejournal.com]

Chronospace is a fairly good book with a few plot threads that I'm misremembering at the moment. One involves researchers from the 2300s traveling back to the late 1930s to study the Hindenburg disaster. It combines straight time travel with alternate history quite nicely.

There is more historical SF out there, but it all ran out of my head as soon as I tried to think about it, of course. I'll post them here when I remember them. Ruled Britannia by Harry Turtledove is good alt-history of an England ruled by the Spanish in a world in which the Spanish Armada wasn't sunk. Very good period piece, if not actual SF.

I loved the Dr. Zeus books. I read all four books over Pesach, and am finishing up Baker's anthology of Dr. Zeus short stories on the side. I want to track Kage Baker down, lock her in a hotel room, and not let her out until she's finished the story, already. *grin*

[chaiya.livejournal.com]

Most, if not all, of Harry Turtledove's books are "alternative history" -- what would happen if the South won the Civil War? What if Hitler won WW2? Etc. I believe he also set a couple of books in the future, with the premise that some of these historical events happened differently.

[arib.livejournal.com]

Turtledove has two WWII series:

-What if aliens invaded the earth in the middle of the war. (techincally, this is two series, one during the war, one in the 1960s-70s.

-What if a WWII-type war was fought in a world with magic instead of technology.

Also, In The Presence of Mine Enemies, a novelization based on a short story he wrote that follows several families of Jews hiding in 2008 Berlin in a world in which the Nazis won WWII.