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alternative history

 
Science Fiction Dictionary: alternative history
(n.)
1. alternate history 1.
  • 1977 B. Aldiss Future & Alternative Histories B. Ash Visual Ency. of SF № 123/1: Silverberg's "Trips" [...] depicts tourist trips to such alternative histories as those where the Industrial Revolution never happened.
  • 1979 A. C. Clarke Fountains of Paradise № 87: Almost all the Alternative History computer simulations suggest that the Battle of Tours (AD 732) was one of the crucial disasters of mankind.
  • 1989 I. Watson World Renews Itself M. Bishop Nebula Awards 23 № 8: This time, however, the distancing devices are the fantasy elements of hexes and effective magic and the SF paraphernalia of alternative history.
  • 1996 D. Pringle, et al. Ultimate Ency. of SF № 28/2: The alternative history template involves setting a story in a world which might have developed had some crucial event in history happened differently.
2. alternate history 2. Hence alternative historian, n. Compare uchronia.
  • 1976 B. Ash Who's Who in SF № 12: Alternative histories, tales of Earth with usually one historical detail changed in the past, and chronicling the resulting effects today.
  • 1990 Thrust (Winter) № 9/3: In this excellent alternative history, vampires rule the world of the 17th century.
  • 1996 D. Pringle, et al. Ultimate Ency. of SF № 29/1: It was World War II that became the favourite topic of alternative historians. Stories set in worlds where Hitler was victorious are numerous.
  • 2002 K. S. Robinson Locus (Jan.) № 7/1: There are all kinds of double binds in writing an alternative history. Do you make the alternate world better or worse?


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Science Fiction Dictionary. The Oxford Dictionary of Science Fiction. Copyright © Oxford University Press Inc, 2007. All rights reserved.  Read more