Alternate histories occupy a murky space in science fiction, as they can easily lean more speculative than scientific. Sci-fi loves to ask its audience plenty of “what ifs?”, but we’ve gathered a list of novels that focus on asking how those same scenarios might have played out further back in the timeline. Check it out here!
opens in a new windowThe Relentless Moon by Mary Robinette Kowal (Lady Astronauts #3)
The Relentless Moon, the third installment in Mary Robinette Kowal’s Hugo and Nebula award-winning Lady Astronauts series, takes us to the stars. Earth is quickly becoming inhabitable after a disaster-inducing meteor strikes 1950’s America. The only viable solution is to fast-track a spaceflight exodus. Despite impending doom, there are still many threats of sabotage against the space program as humankind’s first Moon colony struggles to find its footing.
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opens in a new windowEverfair by Nisi Shawl
From noted short story writer Nisi Shawl, Everfair is a brilliant alternate-history novel set in the Belgian Congo. What if the African natives developed steam power ahead of their colonial oppressors? What might have become of Belgium’s disastrous colonization of the Congo if the native populations had learned about steam technology a bit earlier? Shawl manages to turn one of the worst human rights disasters on record into a marvelous exploration of the possibilities inherent in a turn of history.
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The Future of Another Timeline by Annalee Newitz
From Annalee Newitz, founding editor of io9, comes a story of time travel, murder, and the lengths we’ll go to protect the ones we love. The Future of Another Timeline weaves together the lives of one punk 90’s teen and a woman intent on fighting back against a small elite group with the power to change the past, present, and future. As war breaks out across the timeline, is it possible for one person’s actions to make a difference? Available in paperback on 10/06!
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opens in a new windowA History of What Comes Next by Sylvain Neuvel (A History of What Comes Next #1)
Showing that truth is stranger than fiction, Sylvain Neuvel weaves a sc-fi thriller reminiscent of Blake Crouch and Andy Weir, blending a fast moving, darkly satirical look at 1940’s rocketry with an exploration of the amorality of progress and the nature of violence in A History of What Comes Next. It’s a darkly satirical first contact thriller, as seen through the eyes of the women who make progress possible and the men who are determined to stop them.
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Axiom’s End by Lindsay Ellis (Noumena #1)
From our friends over at St. Martin’s Press, Axiom’s End is Hugo finalist and video essayist Lindsay Ellis’s debut novel. Set a little over a decade ago in 2007, a U.S. government leak unveils that first contact has already happened. Cora Sabino is intent on becomes the first human interpreter for the alien population.
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