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Penguin Imprint Focus: Subgenres in SF/F - Alternate History

Thu, 12/13/2007

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Alternate History is a subgenre of both science fiction and history both, the area where they overlap and author's ask: What would the world be like if..? What would the world be like today if the Axis had won WWII? If Napoleon had not been defeated at Waterloo, or if aliens had made first contact during the Industrial Revolution?

Harry Turtledove (1949)

Harry Turtledove was born in Las Angeles, California, in 1949. After flunking out of Caltech, he graduated from UCLA with a Ph.D. in Byzantine history in 1977. He published his first two novels in 1979 under a Nordic sounding pseudonym, explaining later that his editor didn't think the public would believe that his last name was ‘Turtledove'. He began writing professional in 1991, and has been dubbed the ‘Master of Alternate History'. A recurring theme in his novels--whether they be about the survival of the Byzantine Empire or the South winning during the Civil War-is the realistic depiction of war from the point of view of simple soldiers, with both the heroes and villains being cast in complex lights. He has been nominated numerous times for the Nebula Award, he has won the Hugo, Sidewise, and John Esthen Cook Awards. He lives with his wife and children in California.

SM Stirling (1953)

S.M. Stirling was born in Metz, France; his father was a Newfoundlander of Scots descent, and his mother an Englishwoman who grew up in Peru. Raised in Europe, Africa, and North America, his interests include history, travel, anthropology, and the martial arts. His acclaimed series of alternate history/post apocalyptic novels began with the Islander trilogy of On the Oceans of Eternity, Island in the Sea of Time and Against the Tide of Years which dealt with the effects on the island of Nantucket of a technological catastrophe called The Change. In 2004 with Dies the Fire, he began a new story cycle detailing how a diverse group of characters living in the Pacific Northwest survive The Change. A former lawyer and an amateur historian, he lives in the Santa Fe, New Mexico with his wife, Jan.

EE Knight (1965)

E.E. (Eric) Knight was born in LaCrosse, Wisconsin and grew up near the Twin Cities in Minnesota. He graduated from Northern Illinois University with a double major in history and political science, then made his way through a number of jobs that related to neither. He is now a full-time writer. His Vampire Earth series are set in, as he says on his website, "a world which contains a little bit of everything from the rich pulp stew of my youth. I knew I wanted a milieu as rich and threat-filled as Richard Adam's rabbits' eye view in Watership Down, as vast as Alan Dean Foster's Commonwealth, as chaotic as a Hieronymus Bosch painting, and as horrifyingly bloody as Lumley's Necroscope books." He currently lives in the Chicago area with his wife Stephanie.

Jeff Carlson (1969)
(From his webpage)

Jeff Carlson was born on the day of the first manned moon landing and narrowly escaped being named Apollo, Armstrong, or Rocket. His father worked for NASA-Ames at the time, and his granddad on his mother's side was a science fiction fan whose library included autographed copies of Isaac Asimov's Foundation trilogy. Both men were strong, early influences-and in the high tech 21st Century, it's easy to stand with one foot in reality and the other in sci-fi. Jeff's writing alternates between mainstream and genre fiction.

His debut novel is high concept thriller Plague Year (Ace/Penguin, August 2007), to be followed by the sequel Plague War. New York Times bestselling author James Rollins hailed Plague Year as "Harrowing, heartfelt, and rock-hard realistic. Not to be missed." Jeff is also a first-place winner in the prestigious Writers of the Future short fiction contest. Other stories have appeared in leading venues such as Asimov's Science Fiction and Strange Horizons.

He lives with his wife and sons in California.

Stephen Baxter (1957)

Stephen Baxter was born in Liverpool, England, in 1957, and currently resides in Northumberland. He graduated from Cambridge University with a degree in mathematics, and acquired degrees in engineering and business administration from Southampton University and Henley Management College. He worked as a teacher of math and physics, and for several years in information technology.

His first professionally published short story appeared in 1987, and his first novel in 1991. Since 1987 he has published somewhere over forty books, mostly science fiction novels, and over a hundred short stories. A full-time author since 1995, he is a past winner of the British Science Fiction Award, the Locus Award, the John W Campbell award and the Philip K Dick award. In addition, he won the Sideways Award for alternate history science fiction for his novel Voyage. He has just completed a four-book cycle titled Time's Tapestry in that sub-genre. (Emperor, Conqueror, Navigator, Weaver).