Last month we had the CandlePunk issue. Looking about the punk sub-genres, it all comes down to presenting an alternate course of history on the premises of a technological genre.

The present TK issue is about Alternate History SF. We are not far from the punk sub-genre in general, and completely within the Alternate reality.

You can start your story with 'Once upon a time...', but the main course will come in the 'What if...' platter. What if someone, somewhere, sometime... What could have happened if anything didn't happened the way it had? That leaves a lot of room for the plot bunnies to play around...

Add Sci-Fi, and the answer to your 'what if...' will bathe in aliens and anachronism. You can find plenty of these in the library shelves and on the screen, the big or the small one. But what is your version of Alternate History?

There are some historical premises I would love to revisit. Would I be able to come up with an interesting Sci-Fi story with them? I'd like to share these and see if you can come up with your own version...

What if #1: The Discovery of America

Columbus is not the first man to discover America. If you look far in History, you could find some primitive man walking past an ice bridge and enter snowy plains. Then, everyone heard about Viking settlement in North America.

So, imagine that in the 11th century Leif, Thorvald or Thorfin succeeded in settling on the eastern coast of what is now known as the American continent. The continent wouldn't be named after Vespucci; New-York would be now in Erikland.

Then, when Jacques Cartier arrived in the 15th Century, the population he'd met would have been all tall and fierce Viking warriors clad in dear skin and chainmail.

Where is the Sci-Fi part in all of these? Well... You change the past, so the future no doubt would be different... this is where the plot bunnies come in and imagine for you the new future.

What if #2: The Historical Blunder

Prevented failures of a would be catastrophe are a good base also for an alternate history plot. Do you know that some countries had, in the past, proceeded to nuclear testing near the Antarctica?

What do you think would have happened if a major blunder had occurred? Nuclear night on the South Pole is not something that would have created a major trouble for the Northern hemisphere, but perhaps, if it had led to the southern ice to melt... I let your imagination rewriting the past 4 decades...

What if #3: Alien

If you look at the sky, you can't stop wondering what lies beyond... In 1969, a part of the World was riveted to their TV screen watching two men walking on the Moon. They came back with samples and of extra-terrestrial provenance as they made History. But... What if... What if something else had travelled, piggybacking on the Lunar Module all the way to the Command Module and to Earth? What changes could it have make to our World? Even if it was a simple amoebae...

What if #4: The No. 1 Public Enemy

Imagine what would have happened if one of the early assassination attempt on Hitler had succeeded? The man had been the subject of more than 30 attempts to his life since the 1930's, some before he seized the power in Germany. So? What Hitler had created was a great turmoil. And from this dark period came out some significant technological advances.

Sure, nothing says that we wouldn't have developed the nuclear bomb and the long range missile technology if the German nuclear project and V1/V2 program hadn't been started under his leadership.

No doubt everyone imagines what lives it would have saved if the Final Solution hadn't been endeavoured, but can you imagine what the technological advances we would have missed if the man hadn't forced his ambitions on his nation?

There are so many ways we could change History and re-write it in an entertaining Sci-Fi fashion. My plot bunnies are greatly inspired by little facts and folklore. Myths and Legends always give a lot of room for interpretation. And we can always try to imagine the future colliding with the past... and what with what lies beyond the stars?

So many possibilities with Alternate History... What are your bunnies plotting today?