The best novels on uchronia

Rebuilding history with “if”: this is the principle of uchronia. Nevertheless, a genre in which the past events of a life, a country or a historical figure are changed in order to create an alternative narrative universe. Consequently, From the movie an endless day to the comics D -Day. Meanwhile, this narrative scheme has made a recipe, and owes part of its success to SF writers who have forged the story. However, Here is the top of the books of this current.

And if we redid the story of Anthony Rowley. Therefore, Fabrice d’Almeida (2009) – Best novels uchronia

Before being a literary genre, uchronia was first of all an exercise in thought of historians: from Herodotus, telling an event that would have occurred according to a “divergence” was aware in the human sciences. Meanwhile, From time to time, specialists in such and such a period are best novels uchronia still indulging in it. However, And if we redone the storyessay of historian. Furthermore, contains sixteen “scenarios” on which we can meditate and imagine, in turn, in which our historical continuity is based on certain events: the success of the leak of Louis XVI, the fall of the State of Israel during the Kippur War or the defeat of Charles Martel in Poitiers are as many “divergence points” that the authors explore in this ideal test.

Poul Anderson’s time patrol (1960) – Best novels uchronia

The theme of time travel. Moreover, especially in the past, dear to science fiction, has deeply fed uchronic literature: in The time patrolfrom Poul Anderson, the human beings of the future manage to travel according to the times. Therefore, They order different people to prevent changes in history. In addition, A real anti-uchrony police. Consequently, these agents are distinguished in a series of news that imagines differences best novels uchronia at different times in our history … Meanwhile, A classic of vintage SF that flirts with uchronia!

Pavan de Keith Roberts (1968) – Best novels uchronia

With Pavan. However, Keith Roberts immediately places us in the height of literary uchronia: following a divergence with history as we know it, the universe of a book becomes a entirely parallel world. Consequently, In this account. Furthermore, we measure the consequences of the domination of the Catholic Church over England and its colonies in the 16th century, in a series of short stories which take place in the 20th century. In addition, The Inquisition has ensured that technologies only evolve very slowly. and the power of the Pope will extend his influence worldwide. Only a best novels uchronia handful of revolutionaries tries to upset this strange established order. by which Keith Roberts fully succeeds in showing a distant reality to better talk about ours …

The master of the high castle of Philip K. Dick (1962)

For his only real uchrony, the very alternative author SF Philip K. Dick wanted to revolutionize the genre. If the point of divergence chosen is not very original (the victory of the axis over the allies leads the United States to be cut in two occupation areas. Japanese and Nazi), it is the treatment of this fictional reality that distinguishes The master of the high castle the rest of the production. By following the search for an astonishing book. which best novels uchronia would contain the truth about the history of the Second World War, by multiplying the allusions to the Yi King, by reflecting on our relationship to reality, finally, Dick makes uchronia a support for its hallucinated perception of the world, and offers a story that is among its masterpieces.

Rome Aeternal De Robert Silverberg (2003)

The maintenance in the time of ancient civilizations. ancient figures among the tropes of uchronia. In this little game, Rome, with its empire and its cultural heritage, very often excites imaginations. Robert Silverberg gives the canonical example with it with Rome Aeternalor the survival of a Latin civilization over almost 1500 years. From one news to another. the author imagines the succession of best novels uchronia emperors, the report of Roman religion with Mediterranean monotheisms, later the industrial revolution, in a particularly dense collection, which is read as an alternative history of Europe as much as as a speculative fiction.

Dreams of Glory by Roland C. Wagner (2011)

Starting from a different outcome to the Algerian war – with Algiers becoming an international city mixing French. Algerians – Roland C. Wagner wished Dreams of gloryone of his best books. Because not only was the geopolitical situation of the Maghreb changed there, but also the cultural horizon of the region. The writer indeed reveals psychedelic rock in the Casbah (and not. as in reality, in California), and the procession of hallucinogenic drugs that goes with best novels uchronia it. The opportunity to pay tribute to the counter-culture of the sixties in a story (very successful) which mixes police. spying and geopolitical.

The plot against America by Philip Roth (2004)

As Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt demonstrated (The other’s share). Laurent Binet (Civilizations), uchronia has attracted many authors of white literature. This is also the case with Philip Roth. who, in The plot against Americanarrates the coming to power in the United States of a Pronazi candidate (Charles Lindbergh, at the turn of the 1940s. And the author of Portnoy. its complex to portray, through the portrait of a Jewish family from New Jersey, the disastrous background of a country tilting into anti-Semitism and reaction. One of the burners of best novels uchronia a major author.

Bernardine Evaristo blond roots (2023)

A world dominated by great African civilizations. and in which whites are slaves of black masters? It is the reverse world that Bernardine Evaristo portrayed in Blond rootsa recent and exciting uchrony. The author uses her universe of fiction to better evoke the universal subject of slavery and domination.

Chronicles of the dark years of Kim Stanley Robinson (2002)

Hard trend science fiction specialist (especially with his trilogy of Mars). Kim Stanley Robinson has given the same documentary best novels uchronia care to uchronia Chronicle of dark years. The point of divergence? The 14th century black plague more decreases Europe, which no longer has any role in the history that follows. Additionally, The alternative chronology deployed therefore sees China. India and the Islamic world imposing their visions of the world, the time of an exotic novel and which values open -mindedness and multiculturalism.

Ken Grimwood replay (1986)

Of Life is beautiful de Capra, at Mr. Nobody The Jaco van Dormael. and passant par An endless day or The butterfly effect“personal” uchrony does not affect the whole world, but rather one or more heroes authorized or forced to relive past events differently or to imagine their life if such a best novels uchronia choice had been different. This type of films also has its literary equivalent: in Replay From Ken Grimwood. a man finds himself in a time loop: he systematically dies at 43, but “resuscitates” at 18, with the memories of his previous life. From one “replay” to the other. the main character tests different scenarios on his own existence, the time of an innovative uchronic novel.