Editing Approved Literature (section)

==[[Alternate History]]==

*'''''Poul Anderson - Time Patrol''''': A collection of stories about the titular Patrol - a policing body overseeing the time stream itself, and correcting all the alternations done by third parties. Which due to the way how the universe operates in-story requires routinely wiping out entire new timelines from existence. There is at least a single Alt!Earth present per story and sometimes the alternations persist even after being "fixed". Absolute classic, responsible easily for inventing half of all time-travel and alt-hist plot devices and cliches.

*'''''L. Sprague de Camp - Lest Darkness Fall''''': Martin Padway, a mild-mannered historian, gets hit by a lighting in 1939 and wakes up in Italy, 535 AD, right before Gothic Wars will unfold, destroying the region entirely and leaving Byzantine Empire in ruin, starting Dark Ages for good. Armed with the knowledge of the following events, along with a bit of dramatic flair, Padways decides to prevent that, irrevocably altering the history to one where the "darkness never fall". The book is most notable for giving justice to all the barbarian tribes living in the remains of Western Roman Empire, portraying them with a lot more nuance than "horde of caveman squatting in ruins" and avoiding most of Romanaboo bullshit.
**'''''S. M. Stirling - The Apotheosis of Martin Padway''''': A sequel of the above, more in line with "proper" alternative history, set 50 years later and examining the logical conclusions of all the changes caused by Padway, both in Italy, the Med Basin and world at large. If you ever wanted (very) late antiquity setting, but weirder and far more sophisticated with its culture and tech, look no further.

* '''''Naomi Novik - Temeraire Series''''': Basically "Horatio Hornblower, but with Dragons". It's the Napoleonic War and a Royal Navy captain finds himself unexpectedly bonded to a Dragon Hatchling.

*'''''S. M. Stirling - The Peshawar Lancers''''': In the 1878 a bunch of comets hit the Earth causing much havoc and forcing the British to evacuate to warmer parts of the world. In 2025 the British Empire still reigns as the most powerful nation on Earth run from Delhi, along with French Africa, the Japanese Empire and a rather nasty Russian Empire in a world powered by steam. If you want steampunk that's more than superficial, exotic and just all around well done this is where you go. Just be prepared for a lot of Indian terms.

*'''''Charles Stross - The Merchant Princes''''': A Boston tech reporter one day finds out that she can jump between alternate versions of Earth and that she's part of a large extended family with that talent based in a world at a renaissance level where semi-romanized viking knights control the eastern seaboard of North America and the Chinese have begun colonizing the west coast, and said family is deeply involved in the Drug Trade. That is just the start as events also include a steampunk America ruled by the English crown, homeland security, revolutionaries, dynastic conflicts and more. Good for lovers of crime and intrigue, blending both the medieval and the modern quite well. It also shows a Masquarade in a terminal death spiral, in which a group with fantastic abilities blending in with our society is gradually exposed.

*'''''Harry Turtledove - The Guns of the South''''': Probably the only Turtledove's book where his massive Confederateboo spazzing is in control. Group of Afrikaaner time-travelers decide to meddle with the American Civil War, chiefly by selling the Confederacy AK-47s and providing General Lee with few bottles of nitroglycerin for his heart condition. Needlessly to say, things go off the rails really fucking fast. Most of the book focus on the post-war situation, following a large selection of historical and made-up characters in this new reality and their interactions with the mysterious "Rivington Men". Being written in 1992, the book is very much rooted in the zeitgeist of then-ongoing political changes in the South Africa, so if you are a zoomer, half of the plot might fly over your head.

*'''''Harry Turtledove - Worldwar series''''': Lizard-like aliens invade during World War II. To spice things up, they aren't particularly advanced (having roughly late 80s tech) and more importantly they are very conservative, and the whole invasion was based on outdated intel from a probe that reached Earth in 12th century. But since they've encounter the planet in the middle of a global conflict, they decide to land anyway. Follows a bunch of different perspectives from Americans to Brits to Soviets to Germans to Polish Jews to the Lizards themselves, with world diverging more and more from real-life history each month. There's four books in the series, as well as four more books set afterwards that are frankly not worth it. Warning! Since this is Turtledove, expect a fuckload of Wehraboo antics served side by side with an idealistic take on the whole "land of the free, home of the brave".

*'''''Scott Westerfield - Leviathan series''''': In this absolutely batshit-insane reimagining of World War One, the world is divided into two competing schools of technological thought - the Clankers, who represent machines and mechanization; and the Darwinists, who believe in mutating nature to solve man's problems. Naturally, the Central Powers are the chief adherents of the Clanker philosophy and you can imagine the brutal warfare of the Western Front except with [[The Empire (Warhammer Fantasy)|German Steam Tanks]] versus genetically-enhanced [[Clan Moulder|British Abominations]]. [[Awesome|Yeah]]. Word of warning, the series is advertised as a YA novel series and does feature some questionably mundane character plotlines that do tend to spoil the setting a bit.