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Sliding Scale of Alternate History Plausibility: Difference between revisions
Sliding Scale of Alternate History Plausibility (view source)
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Note also that [[Tropes Are Tools|none of these types are inherently superior or inferior to the others]] and all can be used effectively depending on the purpose to which they are being put and the story being told; a Type 1 might be more a plausible examination of the history than a Type IV, but a Type IV might conceivably, despite it's issues with historical credibility, be a better or more entertaining story than a Type 1.
{{examples
== Type I : Hard Alternate History ==
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* ''For Want of a Nail'' by Robert Sobel: a very detailed and carefully researched novel that explores the "history" of a world where the Continental Army lost at Saratoga.
* ''[[How Few Remain]]'': The first book in [[Harry Turtledove|Turtledove's]] ''[[Timeline-191]]'' series explores a vividly realistic 19th century following a southern victory in the American Civil War.
* ''[[The Yiddish Policemen's
* ''[[The Iron Dream]]'' by Norman Spinrad where [[Adolf Hitler]] emigrates to the USA and becomes a [[Science Fiction]] author rather than enter politics. Intended as an Anvilicious satire of perceived fascist trends in [[Speculative Fiction]] at the time, it still manages to be a plausible AH story.
* [[Eric Flint]]'s ''[[Trail of Glory]]'' series starts off with an arrow that hit Sam Houston being a minor injury instead of the [[Groin Attack|major one]] it was in [[Real Life]], and follows through from there.
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* ''[[Children Of The Revolution]]'', an Australian film about the hypothetical son of [[Josef Stalin]] and his rise to political power very nearly resulting in a [[Dirty Commies|communist revolution]] in Australia. [[Rule of Funny]] is strictly in charge for most of the film.
* World E3 in Ian McDonald's ''Planesrunner'' in which everything is coal powered because there's no oil and the steam engine was never invented because the electric motor was invented first.
* The ''[[Star Trek:
== Type IV : Utterly Implausible Alternate History ==
=== Literature ===
* Another Turtledove Geologic example: The ''Atlantis'' series, where the North American east coast is a large island. While geologically somewhat plausible the PoD could arguably Butterfly the existence of Humans. Plus the [[Mirror World|implausible parallelism]] of the history itself.
* Turtledove's ''Days of Infamy''; Japan invading Hawaii (considered logistically impossible) pushes this story to Type IV in many minds.
* World E2 in Ian McDonald's ''Planesrunner'' in which Great Britain is a Muslim nation, having been colonized and converted during Islam's great wave of expansion. Plausible enough by itself but what puts it in Type IV territory is the reason: Great Britain, instead of being located north of
=== Live-Action TV ===
* Spike TV's "Alternate History" special. With a point of divergence that starts with a successful repelling of the Normandy invasion due to an unexplained influx of jet aircraft on the German side, Nazi Germany manages to completely turn the tide of the war, and conquer both the United Kingdom and the United States. The Soviet Union also doesn't seem to exist in this timeline.
▲* World E2 in Ian McDonald's ''Planesrunner'' in which Great Britain is a Muslim nation, having been colonized and converted during Islam's great wave of expansion. Plausible enough by itself but what puts it in Type IV territory is the reason: Great Britain, instead of being located north of continantal Europe is located a hundred miles west of the Straits of Gibralter. And Ireland didn't go with it.
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