AH: turning points 1

[jrittenhouse]

While I’m notorious in AH circles as someone who insists that a AH story be (1) A GOOD STORY and (2) have some historical basis, not to mention (3) be one simple Point Of Divergence, not a whole mess of them (I can deal with some cascade effects, but not simultaneous stuff) - I give a lot of latitude to someone who gets those points clearly covered

Comments

[angka]

I've read very little AH over the years. In fact most of them have slipped my mind. The one that I remember clearly is Suzanne Blom's Inca novels, only the first of which has actually been published. I enjoyed them because of the glimpse into the Incan empire that they provide, and the fact that she gives information on how this history varies from history -- at least as far as that comparison remains useful.

The tale is set at the time of the Spanish incursion, and begins with a relatively simple change (getting Atahualpa out of town before he's kidnapped) and follows subsequent events for two or three years. Sue's writing style is unique, and not to my usual taste, but what I enjoyed about the story compensated for it. From what I can tell, it doesn't fall into any of the habits you find annoying.

The published first book had a good story arc in its own right and does come to a reasonable resting point, even through it leaves a lot of the story untold. Still, the fact that it wasn't received strongly enough to get the other two books published indicates to me that not everyone enjoyed being immersed in that world as much as I did.

[jrittenhouse]

I read Sue's first book, and haven't seen the others (no longer being in Milwaukee and able to go a few blocks over and ask for a peek at the manuscript). I thought the first book was fine, but it was written as a multipart without being noted as one, and I got to the end of it and said - well, OK, where's the rest of it?

*crickets*

So one the one hand, I can see why #2 never came around - the story didn't explain that it was just going to leave you on the downtown bus stop at 2:30 am (with the next bus running at 7 am).

The only other thing that threw me was that she directly translated all the Quetchua into English in regard to names, and Royal Flower Seed versus Gitcheegumi made it harder for me to follow things.

On the other hand, for sheer inventiveness, I gave her all sorts of Kudos. You did notice that it was on the Sidewise short list for 2000?