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alternative history

The Widow's Son by Ryan Williamson Book Review

The Widow’s Son by Ryan Williamson [Amazon link] is a weird western, a tradition going back to at least to Robert E. Howard’s “The Horror from the Mound”. Westerns were popular for more than a century, oftentimes [loosely] inspired by the real-life adventures of men like Kit Carson,

The Long View 2008-06-04: Toward the Courts of the Crimson Kings

At a request from a reader, I re-published ahead of schedule this review of S. M. Stirling’s In the Courts of the Crimson Kings a little less than a year ago, but I like it enough to re-publish it now when it comes around again. Here are a couple

An alternative history forum and Leslie Fish

John J. Reilly was quite the fan of alternative history, both a consumer and a producer of it. He had a whole section of his webpage devoted to the subject, but it also suffused the rest of his work. Every so often one of John’s AH creations will generate

Fenton Wood's Yankee Republic Coming in Paperback

Author Fenton Wood is currently running a Kickstarter to bring his Yankee Republic series to paperback. I’ve reviewed Pirates of the Electromagnetic Waves and Five Million Watts, and I really need to publish my thoughts on the other volumes in the series. The Yankee Republic is a favorite of

Linkfest 2020-11-20: Metahistorical Models

Peak Oil Never Went Away Peak Oil is something I’ve often had cause to discuss on With Both Hands. It is of the class of theories that John J. Reilly loved, metahistorical theories using simplified assumptions like Henry Adam’s energy predictions, Moore’s Law, Eroom’s Law, and

Janissaries: Storms of Victory by Jerry Pournelle and Roland Green Book Review

Janissaries: Storms of Victory [Amazon link] by Roland Green and Jerry Pournelle is the third volume in the Janissaries series. At least until this year, it was also the last. I think Jerry and Roland did a pretty good job wrapping things up in the original three, but clearly there

Janissaries by Jerry Pournelle Book Review (Again)

I reviewed Janissaries [Amazon link] by Jerry Pournelle in 2011, but I am going to do so again in preparation for the fourth posthumously published volume in the series. This is another book that made a big impression on me, and I want to do it justice. First, the physical