How to Handle Alternative History

I've been thinking of the problems I've had with some of my attempts at what I call the Jackson Roberts Trilogy. The problem has been the inclusion of 'psionics' and other elements, but I've found that trying to mix these elements into our world, with the constant battling between religion and science, has been next-to-impossible.

I came up with the idea of creating an alternate Earth, called Meridian, but I'm not sure how to handle the history of it. Should I just weave the history into the story as well as have it mentioned on the summary, or should I have a 'Required Knowledge' segment at the beginning of the book? A major aspect is that religion is not a major player in Meridian, so I'm not sure if that would be mentioned in a book's summary or not.

Also, out of curiosity, is alternate history considered a niche market, or does it have a consistent fanbase? Just wondering, though I'll write this regardless. Thanks in advance for your comments...

RichardGarfinkle said:

Starting from your last question. Alternate History has a very strong fan base. Some writers, like Harry Turtledove have made a great success writing for that fan base.

For your larger question, history in AH is like science in hard SF, you interweave it throughout the story. A Required knowledge prologue is a bad idea as it will turn off a lot of readers.

Your statement about lack of religion being a major aspect is a little confusing. Do you mean that religion is irrelevant in the world or that the cultures are anti-religious.

If religion is irrelevant just write the book and the characters as they are. There's no need to discuss its absence especially.

If on the other hand there is a strong anti-religious cultural element you can bring this up with how religious people or concepts are treated.

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Okay, thanks. I figured it was something like this, but I had to be sure. As for the religious aspect: it depends on the character as well as the area. For example, Italy (which plays a large role in the final book) is extremely anti-religion (so the opposite of what it is now), America is moderately religious but not as much fanaticism as we see (this is my own perspective here), and places like Britain and other European countries are much like they are in our own world: there are religions, but they don't dominate the culture and are more background noise (I understand some countries are completely atheistic).

I'll be posting the first chapter, which begins to set up the plot of the first book, in the SYW section later on, so I can see if I need to work on some things.

RichardGarfinkle said:

As regards the emphasis or deemphasis of religion you might need to put in a brief mention of some relevant historical change that brought this about or if it doesn't matter in the book don't worry about it.

I'm looking forward to seeing it in SYW.

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I put it up, though I had a hell of a time figuring out how to configure it right. Finally just used the Quote tags; I tried all the other ones with no luck whatsoever.... anyways, its up if you want to go see it.