Top Ten Tuesday – August 16, 2016: Ten Alternate-History Books

TTTbanner

TOP TEN TUESDAY
August 16, 2016

It’s Top Ten Tuesday, hosted by the wonderful blog at The Broke and the Bookish! This week’s topic was ten books with X setting so I chose: Ten Alt-History Books

alt history books

Alternate History is pretty neat. I love seeing what authors do with actual historical facts, figures, or time periods and adapting them to fit their books, often times including them in a fantasy or sci-fi type setting (hence, the adaptations). I just reviewed THE RITHMATIST by Brandon Sanderson and so this concept easily popped to mind as the topic as this week’s Top Ten Tuesday list!

READ & RECOMMENDED:

  • THE RITHMATIST  by Brandon Sanderson | When magic is discovered, history is changed forever, including the entire landscape of North America which is now a collection of many islands.
  • THE CROWN’S GAME by Evelyn Skye | Magic involved in a modified version of Imperial Russia.
  • SOMETHING STRANGE AND DEADLY by Susan Dennard | Zombies take over 1876 Philadelphia!
  • BORN WICKED by Jessica Spotswood | Alternate history Salem Witch Trials
  • MY LADY JANE by Cynthia Hand, Brodi Ashton, and Jodi Meadows | Completely fun and frivolous re-write of Lady Jane Grey’s story (but oh, so much fun)
  • GRAVE MERCY by Robin LaFevers | Assassin nuns with a connection to Death play an important role in 15th century France
  • AND I DARKEN by Kiersten White | Gender-swapped Vlad the Impaler (this actually was not a favorite of mine but lots of other people loved it!)

STILL ON MY TBR:

  • A CRIMINAL MAGIC by Lee Kelly | I want to get to this one so badly! Magic meets prohibition
  • THE INVENTOR’S SECRET by Andrea Cremer | Alternate 19th Century America if the Revolutionary War hadn’t happened
  • TIMEKEEPER by Tara Sim | Alternate Victorian era with time magic

Have you read any awesome alternate-history books? Which ones would you recommend??

Hi, I'm Brittany!
Hi, I'm Brittany!

I'm an avid reader, candle-maker, and audiobook lover! Here you'll find book reviews, fun blog posts, and my other loves of photography & craft beer!

Recently Read

Dead Moon
The Fold
14
Instant Karma
American Girl
The Recovery Agent
The Harbor
One of Us Is Dead
The Last Thing He Told Me
Hook, Line, and Sinker
It Happened One Summer
The Good Lie


Brittany S.’s favorite books »

10 thoughts on “Top Ten Tuesday – August 16, 2016: Ten Alternate-History Books

  1. Kasey @ The Story Sanctuary

    Yes! Great topic. The best book I read this year is like this– Ink and Bone by Rachel Caine. LOVED it. Loved the sequel, Paper and Fire, too. Also, I was totally surprised how much I liked The Ring and the Crown by Melissa de la Cruz. (I read one of the Blue Bloods books and didn’t much care for it.)

  2. tiare

    I love alternate history settings! Of the ones on your list I’ve only read Grave Mercy and My Lady Jane, but they were both fantastic. I love seeing authors playing with what-ifs! 🙂

  3. Morgan @ Gone with the Words

    I love alternate history books too! The what-if’s make them so much fun. I loved My Lady Jane, Born Wicked, Something Strange and Deadly, and And I Darken! The Rithmatist and The Inventor’s Secret both sound super interesting and I still need to read Grave Mercy. I just started Timekeeper and I LOVE it so far!! IT’s a great alternate history for sure. In a similar vein, I love Gail Carriger’s steampunk alternate fantasy books; her YA and adult series are connected and the world is so much fun! Very Victorian but with technology and vampires and werewolves. So much fun.

  4. Lori

    I love this genre! My Lady Jane was one of my favorite reads this year because it was so much fun! Some of my other favorite alt-history books are Wolf by Wolf, Rebel Mechanics, and Walk on Earth a Stranger!

  5. Stephanie Kaye

    I’m not going to lie, I hated Grave Mercy. I just couldn’t get into it at all. However, this is such a great setting topic and I now have a few more books to add to my TBR! Alternate histories are pretty awesome and I don’t read enough of them! Great list, Brittany! I decided to highlight books set in Chicago/Illinois that I want to read!

  6. Rabiah

    I love alternate histories. Especially ones that are steampunk or fantasy 😀 I’ve only read SOMETHING STRANGE AND DEADLY and GRAVE MERCY on this list (loved both of ‘em), and can’t wait to read MY LADY JANE, AND I DARKEN and THE CROWN’S GAME. Great list!!

Comments are closed.

%d bloggers like this: