This must have been done before

Ooh that sounds fun! And I've never read such a book. If someone else comes up with one, I want to know.

ohh that does sound good.

and your right, it is blazzingly obvious. However, in all of my reading i have never heard of or seen anything like it.

i love the idea (though it sort of scares me) of strong indian magic wiping away american soldiers for their crimes against the indian.

i would write it, even if someone else has already done it, it will be yours and that will make it original. And since you don't know of one, no matter what paralles exist you can't copy right infinge. and we would testify to that. (or at least i would)

Sounds cool, Tas. I've never read anything similar.

Who cares if there's something similar out there? (The only thing I is the Alvin series by OSC, but since I never really read it, I'm not sure.) Whatever YOU do with it will make it totally different from whatever else is out there. If you're geeked to write it, have tons of fun with it.

I've not read a book about it, but I've seen RPGs that have similar themes. Shadowrun has magic returning to Native Americans, but also fuses it with a lot of cyber-tech and such. Deadlands might be closer. It's western, gothic-horror. Never had a chance to play that, though it sounds like lots of fun.

Sounds very original to me. The only thing I know of that's even remotely magic set in the Wild West before the turn of the century is the TV show Brisco County Junior. But that was more about time travel. It had to do with this magical giant orb.

Yours is an intriguing idea, Tas! When you get the chance, you might write up a quick one-age synopsis for your agent and see what he thinks. I did that with mine and got her enthusiastic seal of approval before I went full steam ahead.

Not very helpful here, but--

ZOMG if you write it I would totally read something like that!! Cede the Great Lakes/eastern woodlands! Come on, cede them! *begs*

*has always wondered what history would be like if the Indians had won, and the fantasy/magic element, well, that just makes her drool even harder*

Wow, that sounds great! And I haven't read or even heard about anything like it. Go for it, I say.

I don't know of anything off the top of my head, though I imagine there have been books with alternative endings circa the Civil War. I don't know about magic. I think it's a really interesting concept. I would read it.

I am with DeleyenLee in that the only thing I can come up with is the Alvin Maker series by Orson Scott Card. It doesn't focus on the Civil War, though. But the Native Americans do have their own magic and have very heavy importance in the books. And the books also deal with slavery and rising tensions due to that. An interesting series which I must disclose I haven't picked up the latest books on.

I am betting it is not an overdone concept by any means, though. Go have fun with it. Spin it and make it your own.




-Michelle

My approach would be to do some original research on the Indians and their beliefs so they are not firing magic missiles at Johnny Red.

"Sentry Peak" is the first book in a trilogy by Harry Turtledove that is about an alternate history Civil War fought with magic. I haven't read it, though!

FWIW I would read something like that too. Sounds really cool. I devour westerns but I haven't come across anything like that at all. Go for it!

I vaguely recall a gay romance set in this kind of alt universe, but my neurons are not coming up with a title right now. But I am sure it is an idea that could be used to write many different kinds of book.

I haven't read anything like that either.

Tasmin21 said:

Well there went all my fun, Straka.

No, I'm envisioning a world where different cultures have adapted different methods of magical use. (The Europeans have one method, the slaves/former slaves from Africa have their own magic, the Native Americans have their way, etc.)

Hmm... Wonder if I could plot this up and hash it out for Nano...

Click to expand...

With that in mind I feel like post-war reconstruction might be ideal. You have bitter veterans, displaced Indians, and former slaves all trying the survive. Just be careful that it does turn into the Wild Wild West, or does... depending on your voice and overall point to the novel.

Tasmin21 said:

I'm looking for an alternate-history fantasy/western, in which part of the country has been pretty much ceded to the Indians and their magic, where the Civil War was fought with magic, that sort of thing.

Anyone heard of any books like this? It seems to me that there should already be some.

Click to expand...

Not Civil War, exactly. I have seen a ShadowRun book, in which the magic comes back to the world and the Indians use their restored shaman mgic to recapture their territories. You might also find the Temeraire series by Naomi Novik interesting, the Napoleonic Wars with dragon air support. Another one you might like is a series of murder mystery stories by Randall Garrett (?) set in a world where chemistry and physics don't exist but alchemy and magic do, with a Holmesian hero. Mostly set in England, though, but I remember one story mentioned the Mexican colony.

Tasmin: never heard of it, but now that someone's come up with it, I'm jealous that I didn't think of it first haha Please write it! It sounds awesome already.

I know that Mary Rosenblum is working on a novel for the alternate history she used in her story in this collection -- one where the Chinese crossed the Pacific before Columbus crossed the Atlantic, meaning that when the Spanish showed up the Aztecs already had gunpowder and so held their own. Kinda sorta similar -- except she's doing it all without magic.

I'd be dubious that the Native Americans waited until the Civil War to use their magic.

Probably might have happened 2-3 centuries earlier if the threat was recognized.

But still a great concept if the backstory makes sense.

Could be that it wasn't until the Civil War that the Natives were unified enough to take advantage of the division in the US.

I've recently reviewed (for Black Gate magazine) a new book with a similar theme, Ken Rand's Pax Dakota. Rand has a Dakota nation with it's own territory in the Western United States, but the book is really more focused on the action of the story (that does have Native America 'magic' elements) than in world building, so most of the alternate history angle is pretty vague. It really left me wanting more backstory actally, though overall it was a good read.

Even if someone wrote on an identical premise (which Pax Dakota isn't) I think you could do it anyway, so long as the other series wasn't ubiquitous. It's a great idea, with lots of room to explore.

It's not exactly the same idea, but the first thing that popped into my head was Soldier Son by Robin Hobb. A very similar setting and idea, but the story is much different from yours. Idea sounds interesting.