“At the end of World War 2 the Nazis fled to the dark side of the moon, built a Lunar base in the shape of a giant swastika and established a Fourth Reich.”
Well, of course they did. Everyone knows that. Oh wait! No, that’s the plot of Iron Sky, which was released last month.
I remember seeing the trailer months back and thinking it looked fantastically mad – it seems the final cut lived up to my personal hype, so I’ll be sure to pick it up on DVD at some point. (Somehow I doubt it’s going to get a cinema release down here in Brazil any time soon.)
From a writerly perspective, I’ve never really considered writing alternate history sci-fi. Not that it wouldn’t be interesting to do – the problem is my knowledge of actual history. It’s… limited, shall we say. I studied it in school until the age of fourteen, and since then my only education has been proofreading my fiancées undergrad essays on art during the Renaissance. Bit limited.
Unless – maybe a novel about Leonardo da Vinci inventing cryogenics, freezing himself for 400 years, and awakening just in time to use his inventions to help the Allies win World War II!
Or 480 years, and have him fight Moon Nazis.
Full review of Iron Sky at Science Fiction World here.
DAN HARRIS: 10% SCI, 90% FI 
I often write historical/alternative historical fiction, and usually when I start a project, I have a very basic knowledge of the time period. Once I pick when I’m setting it, then I do the load of research I need to write. From what I can tell from other historical fiction writers I know, this is usually the case. The key is picking a time period that interests you and you wouldn’t mind finding out everything from a general time line to whether or not women wore lacy frills on the cuffs of their dresses, if cufflinks were invented yet, and just how long would take to travel from point A to point B on horseback. As for making alternate history sci-fi, it’s pretty much the same thing, though you need to know less about the cufflinks and more about the broad implications of certain events turning out differently (like, what if Da Vinci did build a working flying machine and kickstarted the development planes a few hundred years before its time? What if aliens made contact with us in the late 1700’s?) It’s less factual based and more speculative, and you can get a hell of a lot more creative with it. Mostly, it comes down to watching some documentary on the History Channel and wondering “what if?” I’m by no means an expert in history, I just happen to find it an interesting sandbox to play in. I say, go for it though! Experiment and have fun. If you end up hating it, you can always drop it later.
Also, that movie sounds ridiculously fun. I think I need to visit my local redbox and rent a copy.
Thanks for the comment, Rhiannon – that’s an interesting summary. I’ve got plenty of novels set in the far future to be getting on with for the moment, but I certainly won’t rule out alternate history SF. I probably would set it around a really interesting figure from history, like Leonardo, or Alexander – having a protagonist like that would be a strong hook, and a good plot driver.