As alternate history, this is awful, terrible and the AH boards should rip it to shreds. It fails the plausibility test early and often, and suffers from the ridiculous notin that after a century of changes the same people will bein the same place doing the same things, sometimes to the same people.
As far as writing and storytelling, it is excellent stuff, really. Once you trhough plausibility, and even possibility, out the window, and everyone accepts that, it is fun. Plus the story is internally consistent, which is rare once people start throwing the rules of AH out the window.
Though the exact same things happeneing on the same date with no logial reason in some of the most recent parts are really off putting. THe RFK assassination and the Reagan ones are just way too much.
And if you are going to keep the same OTL assassins how can you skip Squeaky Fromme? THE best would ba assassin name!
Ever read Turtledove's "American Empire" series. If massivly flunks the plausability test right out of the gate. He has people who were born long after the point of divergence, doing the same things and with the same life-stories.
Just to list:
Ronald "Dutch" Reagan: He is doing radio for sports in the 1930's and even has the same nick name as in the OTL!!
Joe Kennedy: Still a Democrat party boss in Boston and still married to Rose. (though not as wealthy or prominant because there is no prohibition)
Mordecai "Three Fingure" Brown: Not a baseball player in this TL, but a construction worker who still lost his fingures.
Lou Gehrig: Not a baseball Player, but the star quarterback of the "Philadelphia Barrels". And he still uses his old Hoover line (except with Blackford instead) "I know I had a better year last year than he did".
Jerry Voorhis: Once a Senator and now US ambassador to the CSA and still a Socialist.
Herbert Hoover: President of the United States after President-elect Calvin Coolidge dies of a heart attack, on the exact same day he did in the OTL.
Barry Goldwater: An upstart congressman from New Mexico (the Arizona/New Mexico Territory is never split in two) who is a hard-line conservative Democrat (since the Democrats and Socialists are the two major parties).
Wendel Wilkie: Runs for President on the ticket of the hapless Republican Party (which is the moderate party and holds but a few seats in congress) in 1940.
These are, but a few examples in the story. The point I am trying to make is that in order for Alternate History to be fun and in order for a reader to be able to realate to it, you need recongnizable events and faces, even though it is almost impossible for these people to have existed in a NTL.
P.S. And though I was never able to prove it, I always suspected that Hitler is in the "Great War" series the precludes the "American Empire" series.
Anyway, welcome to the forum Tedrick. I love AH. Hope you stick around.
And to everyone, I will start-up my "President Dole" timeline to follow up on my "Alternate 1996" timeline. I just haven't had a chance.
