08 May 2009

On history, alternate

I dig alternate histories. In theory, anyway; most of the published ones are about the Civil War or WW2. BORING!

So I'm having fun playing with Prussian history and making them less militaristic and averting WW1-as-we-know-it. I just finished The Guns of August by Barbara Tuchman, and I've started King, Kaiser, Tsar: Three royal cousins who led the world to war by Catrine Clay. Because my local library's German history selection is largely limited to the periods 1914-19 and 1939-45. I'm definitely buying the former; it's a neat reference and very not boring (despite being a play by play of the first month of WW1.) The latter I may have to buy just for the pictures, including uniform pr0n.

It's rather ironic, considering my penchant for social democracies, that I adore military SF and space opera. But it's all about the politics.

ObRandom: I can still pick German handwriting out of a line-up.

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