(Archive.is will only pull the first 25 books, so I'm linking to the article itself.)
This is a surprisingly good list, even though I'm not a fan of ranked lists of anything. But of the 75 books here, I've read about half, and only one (the Mary Robinette Kowal) is one I wouldn't consider worthwhile.
As with any list like this, there's easily another 75 books left off that could have been used here. And there's definitely some recency bias at play.
I looked at the list and have read a goodly number of them and heard that many of the others are good. I thought the introduction was especially worthwhile. It is a shame that the author of the article limited the book authors to one book each!
Awesome list. I haven't read most of these and it make me wish I had more room in my head.
I never learned to love alt-history. Maybe I haven't found the right story. Or I just find reversing facts unsettling.
I'm not a huge alt-history fan myself. It's too easy to find holes in the present day setting when they've made a major change. I've enjoyed a handful, though -- Jo Walton's Small Change trilogy worked for me partially because it wasn't set today. In Kowal's case, I just find her writing flat and can't engage with it.
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I find much of science fiction to be insufferable fantasy even when people think it is hard sci-fi.
Why? Because when you understand bitcoin and the basics of economics, the worlds that are described are more absurd than portal guns. Tell me to believe in a portal gun, and I can do it, but tell me to imagine a futuristic world without sound money, or unnatural expansion beyond Earth that does not follow from economic interest, and I cannot suspend disbelief.
Bitcoin of course fixes this as new books will be written anchored in a plausible reality. Until then, a bitcoiner subset of such a list is worth providing.