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Q&A How acceptable is "alternate history" in writing (nowadays)?

On another site, I wrote a critical review of a book that featured a "King Frederic II" of France who reigned between 1777-1819. I pointed out that this was a particularly unfortunate time to confu...

3 answers  ·  posted 6y ago by Tom Au‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

Question fiction genre trends
#3: Attribution notice added by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-08T08:38:36Z (almost 5 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/q/35616
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision by user avatar Tom Au‭ · 2019-12-08T08:38:36Z (almost 5 years ago)
On another site, I wrote a critical review of a book that featured a "King Frederic II" of France who reigned between 1777-1819. I pointed out that this was a particularly unfortunate time to confuse the facts because the actual events of the time were so dramatic and well-known (the overthrow of Louis XVI and the rise of Napoleon.

I was taught (30 years ago), that in a historical novel, you should not "rewrite history." That is, your historical facts should be reasonably accurate (not necessarily letter-perfect), and the only thing that should be "fictitious" is the fact that your characters should be doing the heavy lifting.

Was I right, or at least with my rights to find this "disconcerting?" Under what circumstances is this kind of alternate history desirable, or at least acceptable?

#1: Imported from external source by user avatar System‭ · 2018-04-27T10:06:43Z (over 6 years ago)
Original score: 7