Years of Rice and Salt

[candidgamera]

Just started reading this. Europe wiped out by the plague
in about 1405 - 700+ years of a world dominated by Islam, Buddism, Chinese.

*Chinese discover America about 1650 from the Pacific side - NA Indians remain somewhat independent.
*Indians start Industrial Revolution.

Has some interesting maps at the beginning of each section.

Anybody read this all through?

As a sidebar - anybody read Turtledove's alternative history series on Byzantium (his specialty as a historian)?
Been thinking about reading it in light of playing MTW.

[fenir]

Kim Stanley Robinson is quite a good writer, I quite enjoy his books.


fenir

[Hosakawa Tito]

Thanks Candid, you just gave me an idea of what I want for a X-mas gift. That book sounds real interesting. Didn't Turtledove also write a couple of alternative history books on the US Civil War?

[Alrowan]

turtledove is a genious.. i really loved his latest series.. the one that is post WW1 and the US is allied with germany, and the CSA was allied with england.. and lost the war.. rather interesting

[monkian]

Looks rather good- just added it to my Amazon wishlist. http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif

I bought a book recently called What if ?

It ponders on what what if Hitler conquered Britain and what if Napoleon conquered Europe. Worth getting http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif

[candidgamera]

Leave for a few days and come back and a thread comes to life.

Tito:

may have mentioned those Civil War alternative books in our chats - yes he did, actually 2 if you count Guns of the South (AK47's from South Africans). What Alrowan's alluding to is the one I like a lot: Fascinating how he makes a case of Union ending up like Imperial Germany: strong but surrounded by Enemies. Lincoln as a socialist. Seems to get the tone down right on how US never has the transforming experience of ACW by ending it in 1862, writing the 1880's portion - Union is just as inept 18 years later - no Grant/Sherman/Sheridan style warfare - more like McClellan.

Its up to 5 books now:

How Few Remain - Second American Civil War over confederates getting outlet on Pacific by buying two provinces from Empire of Mexico. Teddy Roosevelt and his volunteer Montana regiment with Gatling Guns help Custer repell

The Great War: The American Front, A Walk in Hell, Breakthroughs, and Blood & Iron (?) covering WWI as fought in US: US surprise attack on Sandwich Islands (Pearl Harbor), Roanoke Valley, Niagara Falls areas - just like Flanders, Eduard Dietl, Heinz Guderian advising brilliant Union officer Irving Morrell (think its Turtledove's pun on Erwin Rommel). Custer lives long enough to be a tanker.

Post War book also, cant remember name - confederacy like post WWI Germany.

Monkian:
There's also a What If 2 - have both. Thought the most topical was the chapter on what if Mongols hadn't had a succession crisis after Leignitz and Budapest: Paris burned to the ground, maybe Rome, low countries - all the ingredients for flowering of Renaissance European Civilization. The numbers too: stunning, 1.6 million slaughtered in the 1200's in one of the Persian cities.
Big thing I get out of those is how history is pretty fragile, it could have gone quite different.

On Title book: got to get some more into it. Haven't really gotten far enough to see large divergence from our own history.

Alrowan:
Have read Byzantium books by T.?

[Alrowan]

ahh... Blood and Iron... its actually the first book in a new series, and im looking out for the others soon. Im just getting arround to reading Red Mars now

[candidgamera]

A:

The second one in the second series is out you know, the one with the confederate swastika on it. (Originally the WWI was to be 4 books, must have changed then?)

Guy's sure prolific isn't he: writing two series at once - the Alien invasion one and this.

Probably lives better too then the average prof. http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif