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Is "Ring of Fire" Alternate History?
I agree the first couple of books in the series are quite good (later books, not so much, IMO). But is the premise of what I call "Connecticut Yankee" books alternate history? While similar to AH, to me it is closer to science fiction in that modern technology and the people who know how to use it are inserted into an earlier era. (time travel)
To me, alternate history hinges the 'what if' to a single point in time. i.e. "What if this particular event turned out differently? The event could be large; "What if the South had won the US Civil War? (50% of all Harry Turtledove books - Joke alert). Or it could be small, "What if Sam Houston's injury received in the war of 1812 was much less serious than it actually was (Eric Flint's Rivers of War - Excellent read).How would people's decisions and subsequent events been different?
What keeps any book of fiction from being dreary is universal, a good plot, a logical universe, well defined characters, and good writing.
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