Recently I started to read two historical SI.

I am Arthur Wellesley; an Iron Duke SI is basically what the title says. The main characters is probably a little too good at everything he does, but the fic gives me motivation to finally read about the Duke in more detail.

Hurry up living or hurry up dying is about a French man becoming the commander of Westerplatte a year before WWII. He prepares for it and then though there is no chance to actually win, the main character makes the enemy bleed a lot for their victory. There is especially one scene that would be perfect for a big actions film when

Spoiler

with a lot of preparation and luck they manage to destroy Schleswig-Holstein.

Additionally, the fic makes you even more impressed with the real events because Westerplatte managed to fight for 7 days without any of preparations that the main character had. My only complain is that as a French, he has a lot less reservations to plan working with the communists after the war is over, something that someone from my country would never do.

Both fics are on Alternatehistory.

Any other historical SI that people would recommend?

 

So is the idea of a historical SI that the author inserts themselves into historical events somehow?

 

Like A Conneticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court by Mark Twain, if you're familiar. A modern character, usually an authorial catspaw SI, transposed into a historical setting.

I haven't ever come across a good one. Although I like the idea well enough it's prone to a lot of autism in the authors.

Although technically it's a historical-equivalent alien world and not the actual history of this world, this is the one I read most recently.

https://www.goodreads.com/series/215776-destiny-s-crucible

Available on Amazon for a pittance and free on KU, I believe. Would give it maybe 3/5 if it was a fanfic, although that's a bit generous.

 

Yes and sometimes even historical people themselves, pretty much always in very high positions like Kings, Queens and even people like Stalin or Hitler.

Though I haven't come across any that didn't quickly die. Even on alternatehHistroy I dont think there is even one that has more than 40k words.

 

Yes, though usually it's a better version of themselves that can actually achieve their goals. Which is fine because this is exactly what I want from these kind of fics and the challenge is to just give an illusion that the main character is working hard, not actually have him be defeated.

Expect a lot of tech uplifting if they become someone from the distant past.

Hurry up living or hurry up dying is 130k and updated. The good thing is that at the moment the main character escaped from Poland to France which is a good ending point if the author doesn't continue it with the rest of WWII.

 

Huh, for some reason the story doesn't show up when you search for titles with SI in it.

Would you recommend it?

 

Don't read such stories unless you are interested in history and nothing else. AH.com's stories are poorly written and usually a slog to go through.

 

Hurry up living or hurry up dying. A WW2 Polish SI story.

It's not amazing, but it pretty well written and has some really good scenes of action. That said, it takes time to get to these and if someone isn't fan of these kind of fics, it's going to be a little boring until it gets to the 1st September 1939.

 

'Tis But a Scratch: A Nicholas II SI by Drunkrobot
https://www.alternatehistory.com/forum/threads/tis-but-a-scratch-a-nicholas-ii-si.393118/

SI wakes up as the future last czar of Russia after a wild night of drinking in Japan during which Nicholas got himself a forearm dragon tattoo (yeah, that happened). First half of the story deals with SI trying to make sense of the mess that was the late Tsardom of Russia (prevent or mitigate famines, reverse the late 19th century brain-drain, promote capable and loyal figures, prevent or at least delay WWI etc) and in the second half we see other actors, both internal and external, reacting to the changes he introduced. Pretty solid imo, unfortunatly the last update was in 2017, although the author still seems to be active on AH.com so maybe it's not completely dead.

 

But I don't Speak German!
AH Link here

Author self-inserts into random German soldier after WW1, during Weimar Republic (I think, my inter-war history is lacking). They're OP, and completely upset the course of history, stopping WW2 before it starts, and turning Germany into an earlier World Power.

Currently I'm only around half way through, but it looks like it's come back off an eight month hiatus, so might be good to dive into.

You don't need to have vast knowledge of Weimar Germany to get the most out of this, but actually having paid attention in history class might be helpful. I can, at the very least, normally recognize the big names when the crop up.

EDIT
Just seen that this was recced by @Paradise in Arth's Uplift thread, too.
/EDIT

 

A Roman SI into Lucius Sergius Catilina called Countdown to Empire. I enjoy it but the updates are highly sporadic.
https://forums.spacebattles.com/threads/countdown-to-empire-late-roman-republic-rome-insert.564415/

 

Ive always had mixed feelings about a lot of these. I am/was (depending on your definition) a historian irl. So a lot of these stories are right up my ally and I love them. "'Tis but a scratch" and "but I don't speak german" were both cited and are good examples.

Most of them though... at least the ones on AH... were just HORRIBLE as stories. Like, amazing breadth of historical knowledge (I was honestly impressed about the knowledge of the writers) but horrible *storytelling*. The worst tendencies of the SI universe.

Not to say dont read them, but know what your getting into. If you love history you'll love them. If you want a gripping plot or characters... eh.

By the bye, if you like this genre Celestin, do you like the "alt-history" genre too? I think the premise/reason for liking it is often similar to historical SIs (i.e to see history go in a different direction) but theres a lot of decent published books in that genre I could recommend if you wanted.

Anyway for the topic of this thread:
I can't seem to find the thread anymore so maybe it got deleted? But there was a good one called something like "Of Course I can, I'm the king of prussia."

Its maybe less an SI and more a Crossover? I had a ton of fun with it, loved it as a historical sorta si? Reverse si? LOTR world gets dropped in medieval europe. Watch all the midieval knights try to hold off orc armies, spanish muslims fighting mirkwood spiders, Saruman meddling in Italian politics, and the Pope calling a christian crusade against the dark lord.

https://www.alternatehistory.com/forum/threads/to-rule-them-all-a-lord-of-the-rings-isot.411863/

I liked this one because it is different (focused on albania and not a major power): https://www.alternatehistory.com/fo...ird-in-the-land-of-eagles-king-zog-si.480861/

An American SI into the revolutionary war period. Like many very fix-it, paint by numbers: https://www.alternatehistory.com/fo...o-the-revolutionary-war.454615/#post-17790602

 

I like them too, but less because they tend to have multiple points of views or even historical text book narrative when I prefer to have one main character. But I'm not against reading something good in this style.

If there is one alt-history I would like, it's Napoleon's victory against all odds in the Hundred Days. Even if he won Waterloo, he was pretty much done because nobody wanted to negotiate with him and he still had Austrians and Russians to beat. I would like someone to present a version where he managed to overcome this impossible task. Maybe even after losing to Wellington, but managing to keep his army together after the battle.

 

Hah! Id like that too if you ever found it! Closest I ever found was a mediocre one (pity was a great idea) where he escapes from st. helena, makes it to america, and sets up a france in exile empire in texas. So much promise, so much mediocre sadly.

 

I’d like to see someone do a series set in a world where the First World War was avoided. You look at today’s world and damn near everything is a consequence of WW1 in someway. So imagine the 20th century without that war. The difference in technology, European empires not falling, no Russian revolution, no Pax Americana, and so on. I’ve always been fascinated about what such a world would look like.