This is inspired by Watchmen, the 2019 TV series. In that world, because of some events that happened in 1985, there is technological phobia (no laptops, no mobile phones, but everybody drives an electric car), smoking is a controlled substance (illegal), the cops have to wear masks for their own protection and can’t use a gun without calling in dispatcher for permission.
Are there any books with very well developed worlds that get right into the meat of it and then slowly you get the context of the why is this stuff happening? That’s mostly what I’m looking for… don’t really care about other genres except for there to be Adult themes.
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by BookOfVeganism
10 Comments
Harry Turtledove writes a lot of alternate history – some good, some mediocre. One good standalone is an odd duck in that it’s co-authored with actor Richard Dreyfus. It’s called _The Two Georges_, and it’s about an America where the Founding Fathers came to a peaceful agreement with George III, and there’s a famous painting (for which the book is titled) showing Washington’s introduction at the Royal Court.
His best-known series is one where the Confederacy wins the Civil War, but that’s a long series (12 books or so, divided into “era” trilogies), and honestly I broke down before I got to the end.
Station Eleven
Piranesi!!! It’s so amazing! The author, Susanna Clarke also has another fantastical book called Dr. Strange and Mr Norrell which is also incredible but it’s 1000 pages long. Piranesi hooks you from the beginning and is about a third of the length
The Peshawar Lancers by S.M. Stirling
The Yiddish Policemen’s Union
Grimnoir, Corriea
Alvin Maker, Card
Kushiel’s Dart, Carey
The Handmaid’s Tale… at least I hope it’s alternate history and not a preview of the future, given the state of the world today..
Written in Red by Anne Bishop
11/22/63 by Stephen King
Blindness by Jose Saramago
Oryx and Crake, series by Margaret Atwood
The Stand by Steven King
The Boy on the Bridge by M. R. Carry
The Girl with all the Gifts by M. R. Carry
World War Z by Max Brooks
The Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham
1984 by George Orwell
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
The Children of Men by P.D James