- Joined
- Jul 16, 2021
Has anyone read Eric Harry's book Arc Light? That's another good one. It starts out as a limited nuclear war, then turns conventional. It's really good writing, but I have zero idea how realistic it is.
Follow along with the video below to see how to install our site as a web app on your home screen.
Note: This feature may not be available in some browsers.
HAHAHA I REMEMBER THE SHIRT, I almost forgot about it, damn, wish I had it somewhere.I know in the past people have posted about Ian/AH.com drama in this thread, but I wonder if Ian or his toadie CalBear have read this thread given defending Kiwifarms is now an auto-ban.
View attachment 3686998
It's ironic since by the logic of today's world, Ian and his site should be dropped for antisemitism (just show his posts to some Zionists lol), racism (Ian's famous "slavery gets shit done" shirt), transphobia (he claims to have apologized for it, naturally the AH.com troon squad doesn't buy it), and who knows what else given he set all Chat threads older than one year to read only because he's so paranoid of being cancelled.
Finally found a mirror of the trove all the gurps alternate earth stuff was top notch in both unusual divergences and interesting settings Midgard is a pretty based one as well.My favorite Alt-history is the GURPS setting Aeolus, what if the "Divine Wind" didnt blow in William the Orange's favor? Turns out liberalism dies temporarily strangled in the crib and the great liberal revolution didn't happen until 1939 in eastern europe with the Austro Hungarian Empire, also liberalism is a catholic phenomenon and pro clerical also the first aircraft are jet planes developed by Coanda and the MiG guy, its really cool, and i love heckin wholesome liberal revolutions(democratic germany is unironically my favorite HOI IV playthrough) if trove was still up I'd link it but![]()
Ian is a turbo leftist, Calbear is basically a centrist democrat, and Burton is just a janny.I know in the past people have posted about Ian/AH.com drama in this thread, but I wonder if Ian or his toadie CalBear have read this thread given defending Kiwifarms is now an auto-ban.
View attachment 3686998
It's ironic since by the logic of today's world, Ian and his site should be dropped for antisemitism (just show his posts to some Zionists lol), racism (Ian's famous "slavery gets shit done" shirt), transphobia (he claims to have apologized for it, naturally the AH.com troon squad doesn't buy it), and who knows what else given he set all Chat threads older than one year to read only because he's so paranoid of being cancelled.
An AH.com timeline where the US turns socialist? How unusual and strange.Thread Tax: I fucking hate the Falcon Cannot Hear. Its an FDR cocksucking Jewish fantasy-with a revenge fantasy against Southern whites being literally exterminated, and the country becoming ultra liberal in the fifties.
Its not even that, its the clear authorial axe grinding. The servile worship of FDR-the outright genocide of White southerners, (the original constitution being outright lost in the fighting), somehow Nazi Germany still losing and the Soviets getting to fucking Paris. (I'm sorry what...did the author ignore lend-lease, oh right he's a Jewish soc dem so...)An AH.com timeline where the US turns socialist? How unusual and strange.
I was on another forum and discord at the time, pretty much everyone had cooked the popcorn and we were watching the fireworks. You had Ian go on a rampage, discord trannies come back under socks to provoke him again and get banned(again), and so much salt from all parties.Here is a link to the thread, note that you need an account to view it
Not sure where else to put this, but something hilarious has just happened to alternatehistory.com. Apparently the owner, Ian the Admin, was doxxed on a discord and his doxx had an imagine of him wearing a pro-slavery shirt.
View attachment 1350501
View attachment 1350503
The thread went well for about three seconds until someone posted the actual message from the discord
View attachment 1350507
The man who posted this was immediately banned
View attachment 1350510
The thread very quickly went downhill from there as Ian started sperging and banning almost everyone in the thread
View attachment 1350520
View attachment 1350556
BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD
If anyone knows how to archive a webpage that requires an account to view like this website or resetERA, that would be great
God, that must've been something. When did that whole thing happen again?Its not even that, its the clear authorial axe grinding. The servile worship of FDR-the outright genocide of White southerners, (the original constitution being outright lost in the fighting), somehow Nazi Germany still losing and the Soviets getting to fucking Paris. (I'm sorry what...did the author ignore lend-lease, oh right he's a Jewish soc dem so...)
The country somehow legalizing homosexuality in the fifties and Kinsey leading an earlier sexual revolution-put a nasty taste in my mouth, somehow there is no communist vs soc dem struggle (as the communists and the more moderate socialists are basically the last two factions standing-they come to a contrived peace because the author set the title as ending in 1944).
The author is basically writing a long grievance against modern American politics, a worship of social democracy over outright Stalinism, and sucks off FDR so hard, it makes me outright sick.
(Btw the author was banned I think over disagreeing with Ian over Israel...go figure).
I was on another forum and discord at the time, pretty much everyone had cooked the popcorn and we were watching the fireworks. You had Ian go on a rampage, discord trannies come back under socks to provoke him again and get banned(again), and so much salt from all parties.
AH.com fic. The Falcon Cannot Hear: The Second American Civil War 1937-1944.God, that must've been something. When did that whole thing happen again?
I'm not asking what it was, I'm asking when it happened. Just to clarify.AH.com fic. The Falcon Cannot Hear: The Second American Civil War 1937-1944.
It was written a few years ago, its got a TVtropes page.I'm not asking what it was, I'm asking when it happened. Just to clarify.
LMAO that was me.I know in the past people have posted about Ian/AH.com drama in this thread, but I wonder if Ian or his toadie CalBear have read this thread given defending Kiwifarms is now an auto-ban.
View attachment 3686998
It's ironic since by the logic of today's world, Ian and his site should be dropped for antisemitism (just show his posts to some Zionists lol), racism (Ian's famous "slavery gets shit done" shirt), transphobia (he claims to have apologized for it, naturally the AH.com troon squad doesn't buy it), and who knows what else given he set all Chat threads older than one year to read only because he's so paranoid of being cancelled.
I personally really enjoyed The Difference Engine, but I'm a worldbuilding autist who can tolerate mediocre writing and characters if the setting is intriguing and detailed.Started reading The Difference Engine.
It's a greatly detailed setting but so far I don't like it much to be honest, having real life characters in it feels goofy and it's not a great style of writing.
Same i loved the difference engine it was fantastic also it gets props for one of the most uncomfortable sex scenes ever committed to printI personally really enjoyed The Difference Engine, but I'm a worldbuilding autist who can tolerate mediocre writing and characters if the setting is intriguing and detailed.
One thing I liked is the meta-story that connects it all together.
AH.com has both a large contingent of online communists and the like-hence the radical reconstruction/southern genocide fantasies, and a lot of British liberals who with some gusto still defend the British empire. You also have some euro left nationalists-the guy that wrote the 2002 Spain Morocco war got banned for attacking the catalan independence referendum, and Worffran(an american online communist) was demanding Europe take in a billion niggers because well...its like a Nazi not too! People were getting kicked responding with a "this is ridiculous and unreasonable" for disagreeing with him.LMAO that was me.
I think another thing you missed is Calbear's now 180 on Israel, also the current politics thread, the ukranians one, it's all very funny since they use blatantly biased sources.
There's even one faggot who thinks he's some sort of spy by bringing "opposition research" which is basically going on counterpunch, z telegrams, leftist sites and other who think russia isn't the both dumb and loosers, that somehow also present a gigantic threat to world democracy.
Or some other who basically goes on gen pol to say "see this biased clickbait article about recycling, or how about cars are dumb or how electric cars solve all the problems, or how we're about to see the fusion power breakthrough"
Also on post 1900, there's a shittons of "what if we had more trainzz threads" where everyone cums at the thought of banning cars and how passenger trains in a continental country like the USA make more sense than air travel, or how about the UK is so badass and awesome it could had fielded m1 garands in ww1 without issues (better rifle at halloween) or how the 1956 suez crisis was completely legit.
Most of the good folk left, Wiking and company, who gave up making threads to the replies of :"Germany dumb and can't change, also if they win, somehow america nukes germany, forgetting germany air defenses and jet aircraft would make such premise, optimistic, to say the least)
Also UK colonialism good, all others bad and evil, Southerners should had been genocided cause niggers, and other tropes i fucking hated.
i don't know much about alt history forums, but if you guys have alternatives, i'm listening.
ww2aircraft.net is great but it's dead.
What you didn't like it when the protagonist boffed a squaw? I'm in a different boat than you I really enjoyed the book and I thought it stuck the landing quite well, but then again im a huge a cyberpunk fan and DE is basically a proto-cyberpunk society in tophats and waistcoats.The Difference Engine sucked, was boring, didn't go anywhere, and eventually went up its ass at the end.
The world-building was actually pretty sophisticated for steampunk, mostly it's just that like in any genre the original foundational works are well thought out and everything afterwards is dreck. Almost everything I see that's steampunk is basically fantasy with a top hat on, no attempt at all to represent Victorian social mores or society (just costumes), ridiculous technology like clockwork robots, kind of a childish thing. I used to like airships a lot, but at some point I read a ton about zeppelins (for a WW1 history essay) and now I can't really enjoy fantasy airships anymore because I know too much about real-world zeppelin doctrine (they're flying submarines that used the cover of dark and extreme altitude to survive) to not cringe when they're flying around like little ships shooting each other with cannons.
Anyways, the book is nothing like that, the crazy future technology is basically things like extremely shitty steam cars that existed OTL in the late 1800s (but were quickly outcompeted by internal combustion engines) and of course the eponymous engines that perform the same tasks as mid-1900s computers (scientific research and record-keeping) but instead of being the size of rooms are the size of entire buildings and are measured in yardage. I thought hacking would be a much bigger part of the story than it was.
I do think the book did a good job, much better than I would have expected, of depicting an alternate history ideological conflict. That's very hard to do, it's just way too easy to play off existing ideologies. Basically it seems there's a melange of Luddites, Victorian-era socialists and anarchists including utopian socialists (the phalanstery movement survives), and then some sort of early technocratic/progressive movement. I don't understand why Byron is supposed to be a Radical when he was a Romantic, didn't they usually sympathize with agrarianism? I googled it and it seems he even defended Luddites in real life. Maybe the authors were just going for a role-reversal, but everywhere else they use real life people, it's in a way that makes sense (like Vallandigham ruling the rump-US). The role of the shattered US at first looked like a cliche, but a big deal is made out of Britain having used espionage to completely derail their industrial rival.
The book mostly revels in a celebration of heroic Victorian science, like Peshawar Lancers revels in British colonialism. One of the main heroes is a paleontologist and references are made to lots of different disciplines of science and controversies of the era, which, interestingly, are not all resolved yet like we would (the authors don't presume that any smart guy would just obviously realize the world is billions of years old just because technology is somewhat more advanced). It's an interesting vibe.
But I just dont' find the plot interesting or the prose enjoyable. It was a chore to slog through by the end. I've also come to find it tedious how many authors have a fixation on whoring, especially Victorian London, it's everywhere in fiction.