DO YOU LIKE ALTERNATE HISTORY/SCI-FI BOOKS?

I love the idea of Alternate History stories because, being the history fanatic that I am, I’ve often theorized about how different happenings would have affected the world. I’m somewhat disappointed though. There are millions of interesting points in history to target, but most authors seem to pick the American Civil War or the Second World War. What if Carthage defeated Rome in the third Punic war? What if the Nina, Pinta, and Santa Maria, sank in a storm as they were crossing the Atlantic? What if John Calvin and Martin Luther never rebelled against the Catholic Church? I’d be interested in these.

I remember hearing of a book that I wanted to read but never found, I don’t remember the title, heck I might never have known it. It is a fact that during WW2 scientists were experimenting and making progress with technology that we still think of as futuristic. Examples include stealth technology, teleportation, and energy weapons. This book presented that Germany had successfully achieved time travel, and the hero of the story is a time traveler not from the future, but from the past. I thought that was cool.

My favorite idea for alternate history though was presented in an episode of an awesome TV show: Quantum Leap. In one particular episode Sam leaps into the body of a secret service agent the day of President Kennedy’s assassination. He’s unable to save the president but he is able to protect the first lady. We find out before the episode ends that originally both the president and first lady were killed, but now Sam has changed history, and so we, the audience, are living in an alternate timeline. This idea is awesome to me, the idea that we could already be living in an alternate history.

As for science fiction, it would be more appropriate to say I like space fiction. I prefer spaceships and adventures that travel across the galaxy over genetic engineering, chemistry, physics, or mathematics. I’d much rather read something like Star Trek and Star Wars instead of Jurassic Park or The Sphere. I like the adventure, and if the adventure is good I don’t care about the science that makes the adventure possible. Too many science fiction books bore me with how things work, I’d rather read about the things being used. I don’t need to know how the flux capacitor works, I’m content with being told that it works.