Why Are Alternate History Adaptations So Poorly Made?

Guest post by Josh Weiss.

I recently re-read Robert Harris’s classic 1992 alternate history novel Fatherland in which a homicide detective in the Reich Kripo (Kriminalpolizei) attempts to solve the murder of a Party big-shot in a somewhat dystopian version of 1964 in which Germany won WWII. It’s a tour-de-force of a book that works on several levels as noir murder mystery, science fiction story and history lesson about Hitler’s “Final Solution” for the Jews and other European groups considered sub-human by the fascist ideology of National Socialism. Two words: Wannsee Conference.

Sounds like it would make a great movie, right? Of course and as it so happens, an adaptation of Fatherland was made by HBO only two years after the book’s publication, starring Rutger Hauer (Blade Runner) in the main role. However, the only problem is that the made-for-TV is so abysmal that it’s hard to watch … like extremely hard to watch, especially if you had just finished the book right before watching it like I had.

For one thing, not a shred of what makes the book great is contained within the almost two-hour movie that is just plain bad, even for a ‘90s feature. The plot is stripped of its integrity. Neither the dread nor the paranoia of a police state monitoring one’s every move. Not to mention the gaping absence of the ethical twist of the book’s big reveal for the characters. Horrible acting, the miscasting of every single major character and the trashy quality of the movie itself all work together to tarnish the good name of Robert Harris. Not even the presence of a younger Peter Vaughan (Maester Aemon on Game of Thrones) or seeing a Hitler impersonator with a greying moustache can save this sad excuse for a film.

Stick with the book and avoid it all costs. Now, you may be saying, “Well, it could just be an isolated incident in the world of alternate history adaptations.” Let me counter that with another AH scenario that would make another great movie.

One of the most notorious Nazi doctors of the Second World War—Josef Mengele—The Angel of Death himself--succeeds in making clones of Adolf Hitler with funds from a post-war SS network in the hopes of having the Fuhrer rise to power once more. A chilling sci-fi tale of intrigue and espionage, no?

Wish I’d thought of it, but that’s actually the plot of Ira Levin’s 1976 novel The Boys From Brazil. And again, it got a movie adaptation only two years after its publication. Like, Michael Crichton, Levin makes the science so believable, that you’ll be forced to concede that making clones of Hitler is downright easy. And so, the book involves a Simon Wiesenthal-esque Nazi hunter named Yaakov Lieberman trying to put a stop to the dastardly plot that never was. In reality, Mengele was never caught and lived out his years comfortably in South America with the occasional bother from Mossad agents attempting to bring him to justice.

So who was tapped to helm the Hollywood version of the book? None other than Franklin J. Schaffner, director of the sci-fi classic Planet of the Apes. So far so good. And who will act in it? Why two of the great thespians of the 20th century, Gregory Peck and Laurence Olivier. Shut the front door! There’s no way this movie can fail!

Oh, but it did and still does to this day. Again, the sound plot and names of characters are bastardized for no discernible reason. Although great actors, neither Peck nor Olivier were right for right for the roles in which they were cast:  Mengele and Lieberman respectively. Gone is the intrigue and race against the clock, the true evil of the plan. The acting is hammy and the direction is non-existent and the entire thing is as forgettable as a transitory case of amnesia.

So why has the butchery of great works of alternate history literature occurred in their translations to the screen? Personally, I blame it on the time periods between publication and production. In both instances, only two years passed between the book coming out and the release of a feature-length film adaptation. It’s sloppy is what it is. You can’t rush greatness and in these cases, stories that should have matured over time and become classics in their own right were plundered for cinematic gain.

Look at Amazon’s take of Philip K. Dick’s The Man in the High Castle. The book came out in 1962 and 54 years passed before anyone decided to try and make it work as a television show. And with today’s superior effects and budgets, that kind of world building is not only more believable, but more enthralling.

Just like history cannot be alternated until it’s already happened, so too, a book, especially one about AH, cannot be adapted until it has come into its own.

TL;DR: Stick to reading an alternate history book and avoid the movie at all costs.

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Josh Weiss is a senior at Drexel University in Philadelphia, studying Communications with a concentration in Public Relations. As a die-hard lover of pop culture, he loves reading and writing about movies, superheroes, Lovecraftian horrors, hard boiled noir mysteries and, of course, alternate histories. As a lover of music, he collects vinyl and listen to the music of a bygone era like swing and disco. He's also thinking of picking up the ukulele. 

Interview: Alison Morton

I now present my interview with friend of The Update, Alison Morton:

Can you tell us a bit about yourself?

I’ve been a wordsmith much of my life - storyteller, playwright (aged 7!), article writer, local magazine editor and professional translator. Working in a variety of fields – Government service, the City of London, as a European head-hunter (not the real ones – executive search!), a Territorial Army officer and a translation company owner – I can draw on a wide range of experience to fuel my novels. I completed a bachelor’s degree in French, German and Economics and in 2006 a masters’ in history. I now live in south-western France with my husband. Following the publication of my history eBook Military or Civilians? The curious anomaly of the German Women’s Auxiliary Services during the Second World War, I became an Associate Member of the Society of Authors.

What is the Territorial Army?

It’s the reserve land forces in the UK. Although enlisted personnel are legally civilians, many members serve a tour in theatre now with the regular forces, especially if they have specialised competence or expertise. TA officers are under military rules at all times but are ‘permitted’ to carry on with their civilian lives unless serving in theatre or on mission.

The TA is not exactly parallel, but equivalent to the National Guard in the US.

What got you interested in alternate history?

The trigger was Robert Harris’ Fatherland set in a 1964 Germany where Nazi Germany had won the war. Even as I waited to pay at the counter, I was already intrigued by the idea of an alternate path of history. Published in 1992, Fatherland was intrinsically a political thriller written at the time the whole of Europe was attempting to realign after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and dissolution of the East/West Iron Curtain imposed after the Second War World. Excellent timing by Robert Harris!

Then I started looking for similar ‘what if’s and found Keith Roberts’ Pavane, the story of an England under Spanish domination after the Spanish Armada had succeeded with its invasion. The characters were ordinary people, labouring to make sense of their lives and struggling to take their society forward. But I couldn’t find any Roman alternates then apart from Roma Eterna which while cleverly structured and very detailed but weakened by stodgy writing. Romanitas in 2006 was a much better story, centred around real people. It intrigued me from the start.

What is INCEPTIO about?

New York, present day. Karen Brown, angry and frightened after surviving a kidnap attempt, has a harsh choice – being eliminated by government enforcer Jeffery Renschman or fleeing to the mysterious Roma Nova, her dead mother’s homeland in Europe.

Founded sixteen centuries ago by Roman exiles and ruled by women, Roma Nova gives Karen safety and a ready-made family. But a shocking discovery about her new lover, the fascinating but arrogant special forces officer Conrad Tellus who rescued her in America, isolates her.

Renschman reaches into her new home and nearly kills her. Recovering, she is desperate to find out why he is hunting her so viciously. Unable to rely on anybody else, she undergoes intensive training, develops fighting skills and becomes an undercover cop. But crazy with bitterness at his past failures, Renschman sets a trap for her, knowing she has no choice but to spring it...

What inspired you to write the novel?

Two events separated by many years!

The first was when I was on holiday in north-east Spain one summer. I was eleven and fascinated by the mosaics in the Roman part of Ampurias (a huge Graeco-Roman site). I wanted to know who had made them, whose houses they were in, who had walked on them.

After my father explained about traders, senators, power and families, I tilted my head to one side and asked him, “What would it be like if Roman women were in charge, instead of the men?” Maybe it was the fierce sun boiling my brain, maybe early feminism surfacing or maybe it was just a precocious kid asking a smartass question. But clever man and senior ‘Roman nut’, my father replied, “What do you think it would be like?”

Real life intervened (school, university, career, military, marriage, parenthood, business ownership, move to France), but the idea bubbled away in my mind and the INCEPTIO story slowly took shape. My mind was morphing the setting of ancient Rome into a new type of Rome, a state that survived the dissolution of the Western Roman Empire into the 21st century, but retaining its Roman identity. And one where the social structure changed; women were going to be leading society.

But what actually started me writing INCEPTIO? One Wednesday I’d gone to the local multiplex cinema with my husband. Thirty minutes into the film, we agreed it was really, really bad. The cinematography was good, but the plot dire and narration uneven.

‘I could do better than that,’ I whispered in the darkened cinema.

‘So why don’t you?’ came my husband’s reply.

Ninety days later, I’d written 96,000 words, the first draft of INCEPTIO.

What sources were particularly helpful when researching for the novel?

Classical texts, but Pliny, Suetonius, Caesar’s Gallic Wars in particular, plus my years of visiting sites and museums throughout Europe. My father had introduced me to history and especially to the Roman world. So much so, that it seemed perfectly normal to clamber over Roman aqueducts, walk on mosaic pavements, follow the German limes, pretend I was a Roman playactor in classic theatres all over Europe from Spain to then Yugoslavia, from Hadrian’s Wall to Pompeii.

I’d also spent six years in the reserve forces, which gave me experience of military life first hand and enabled me to write the later scenes in INCEPTIO.

But the most important source for any writer is other people’s books. Not plagiarising (the gods forbid!) but reading what is out there. Writers must read within their genre and learn the traditions and ‘rules’. It’s a plain fact that readers will be disappointed if you jolt them off the path they expect. I don’t mean your writing should be predictable, but that it should not be implausible. Michael Chabon’s The Yiddish Policeman’s Union can be wild at times, but for all its quirkiness it stays within the genre.

Who designed the cover?

The clever and extremely talented team at SilverWood Books! I collected images of covers I thought attractive and saleable over the three months before mine was designed, and sent them in with a request for imperial purple and gold as dominant colours. It was a fabulous result that has made INCEPTIO a very attractive product which shouts ‘pick me’ or ‘click me’. It even won a cover competition two days before publication day.

Do you have any other projects you are working on?

I’m working on book two of the series, PERFIDITAS (Betrayal). I drafted it a little while ago, but it’s been ‘in the drawer’ for several months. It’s a thriller again, but gets more to core of Roma Novan society.

What are you reading now?

I’ve just finished The Labyrinth of Osiris by Paul Sussman, a thriller set in modern day Egypt and Israel, but with many historical links. It’s beautifully written with a gripping plot and excellent characterisation. Not sure what I’m going to look at next...

Do you have advice for would-be authors?

Bash the story out. If you pause too long beautifying individual scenes at this stage, you risk losing the narrative flow. You’re first and foremost a storyteller; the story is the most important thing.

Put it away for at least six weeks, then do the first self-edit, checking the plot structure, deleting the dreadful parts and working on the sloppy bits. Then back into the drawer and start the next project.

Out of the drawer comes the first novel a few months later and this time you scrutinise each sentence word by word, forcing each one to justify its existence. Then you have something ready for sending to a professional editor.

Review: Fatherland by Robert Harris

Guest post by Evelyn Robinson.

Alternate history is often thought of as a niche genre, with limited mass appeal due to the historical knowledge required to fully appreciate it, yet Robert Harris brought the genre to the forefront of mainstream attention with his 1992 novel Fatherland.

A detective novel set in an alternate post-Second World War world, where Nazi Germany emerged victorious, the novel captured the public's imagination and emerged as a best-seller in the United Kingdom. Following its release, the book was subsequently translated into thirty different languages and, at the time of writing this review, it has sold over six million copies worldwide, making it one of the most popular alternate history books of all time. Seeing as the book was written twenty years ago, fans of the alternate history genre should look for cheap book deals and get hold of what has been described as one of the great political thrillers of all time at a discount price.

Background to the Novel

Perhaps the most explored idea in the alternate history genre is the concept of an Axis victory in the Second World War and the subsequent effect that would have had on the world. It is a theme explored by Frederic Mullally in Hitler Has Won and Harris readily admits he took inspiration from several other authors who had explored this concept. As the reader progresses through the book, we find out how and where the history in Fatherland deviates from the real-life history.

In Harris' world, the Nazis pushed back the Soviet army and were able to cut them off from petroleum supplies by 1943. In 1944 their U-Boat campaign forced the British to surrender and in 1946, Nazi Germany tests its first atomic bomb and makes a demonstration of force to the United States, firing a missile above New York City in order to demonstrate the long-range capability Germany possesses.

In the aftermath of a German victory in Europe and a United States victory over Japan, Germany, rather than the Soviet Union, become involved in a Cold War with the U.S. and also remain involved in a guerrilla war with what remains of the Soviet Union.

Robert Harris expertly sets the scene of a 1960s in which the 'Greater German Reich' menacingly incorporates Alsace-Lorraine, Austria, Poland, Luxembourg, Ukraine, Belarus and much of the western Soviet Union. Berlin emerges as the biggest city in the world, with a population of over ten million people and Adolf Hitler lives well into his 70s. Meanwhile, Harris explains that Winston Churchill and Elizabeth II have been forced into living in exile in Canada.

Plot Details

Although the background to Harris' post-war world is firmly established, it acts as a backdrop for the plot of the novel and real-life characters like Adolf Hitler are only really mentioned by name. The main plot of the novel centers around Xavier March, a fictional detective investigating the death of Josef Buhler, a high-ranking Nazi official.

Xavier soon discovers that there is a government conspiracy designed to murder the Nazi Party officials involved in the planning of the Holocaust. In Harris' world, the Holocaust is explained away by the Nazis as the relocation of the Jewish population to an area where travel and communication methods remain poor and, despite many suspecting the realities, most of the German population are unaware of the true extent of Nazi crimes.

In the process of his investigation, Xavier March meets an American journalist, Charlotte Maguire, and together they uncover a plot by the Nazi Party to ensure their crimes remained secret ahead of an upcoming meeting between Adolf Hitler and President Kennedy, where it was expected that superpower relations would significantly improve.

March and Maguire are then faced with the task of exposing the evidence to the world, in the face of a Gestapo operation to prevent them from doing so.

Final Thoughts

Throughout Fatherland, Robert Harris forces the reader to consider the reality that a Nazi victory in the Second World War was not an impossibility and, though it was not the first nor last book to examine the concept, he is able to expertly and imaginatively paint a picture of what post-war Europe could have looked like if the Allies had failed to halt Adolf Hitler's attempt for domination.

The totalitarian society that exists in Harris' Greater German Reich is reminiscent of George Orwell's 1984, yet the standard of living for most German people in the novel is actually very high. It is a society which, largely, remains blissfully ignorant to the extent of the crimes committed by the Nazi regime and it is primarily through the investigative work of the central character, Xavier March, that the true horrors of what lies beneath the surface are explored. Harris encourages the reader to consider the possibility of an even more controlling Nazi regime, an even greater number of Jews killed during the Holocaust and a largely happy German public in a reality that seems somewhat unbelievable to us today, yet was was perhaps not a million miles away from actually occurring.

Sample Something a Little Alternative

Guest post by Alison Morton.

I stumbled on AHWU almost by accident and was thrilled to find a welcoming site full of news, articles and, best of all, book reviews. I read, absorbed and bought several recommended books. And have enjoyed them greatly.

Then it struck me. Not only on AHWU, but on other sites and even on the mighty Zon, many books designated as alternate history involved war of some kind, usually on a world scale. Troops were deployed, desperate defense of loyal enclaves made, resources from another time or planet used to change the course of history. Gripping stuff.

But in parallel to mainline historical fiction, shouldn't alternate history examine social, cultural and political events within an alternate historical society? I'm thinking here of Kingsley Amis' The Alteration which is firmly set within its world. Both title and dilemma of the story neatly reflect the altered society and the potential alteration of one of the characters within it. Like any good book, it has terrific characters, atmosphere, a heart-aching choice, sacrifice, the instinct for survival, tension, etc. The beautifully written world bustles with altered technology and yet retains familiar historical details: express barouches, seven-hour transport between London and Rome, gaslight, photograms and airships yet ermines, silks, velvet, fustian, servants and apprentices. The language is historical and structured, such as you would find in C J Sansom or Ann Lyle, but it never disguises people’s motivations or emotions. The most disturbing thing is how convincing this alternative world is.

Few people need introduction to Michael Chabon's The Yiddish Policeman’s Union, featuring the world-weary Meyer Landsman, a detective with murder and chess dilemmas. A melancholy tone is relieved by glimpses of optimism and impossible bent-back-on-itself humor  Strong streaks of realism and universal dilemmas are woven into very rich world-building. Also, the plot is more than slightly mad. Again, no wars or forces from the future, just people in their world working through their problems against a background of political pressure and murder.

An equally richly described world, but without any comic tone, is found in Keith Thomas' Pavane, where after the assassination of Elizabeth I, England is constrained in the grip of the post-Armada Catholic church. Individual personal stories set from the 1960s to the 21st century in a semi-feudal England are linked through generations. The most advanced form of transport is the steam-powered traction engine; long-distance communication is achieved by the use of mechanical semaphore towers. But rebellion is in the air...

The classic, Robert Harris' Fatherland; what praise can I heap on it that isn't there already?  All policeman Xavier March wants to do is investigate the discovery of a dead body in a lake near Berlin's most prestigious suburb. That and survive in a corrupt society. Attempting to stay one step ahead of the Gestapo and racing against time, he uncovers a shocking secret which chills to the bone. The alternate history setting is impeccably drawn, with descriptions of Speer's thousand-year Reich vision of Berlin and celebrations of Hitler's 75th birthday, but the spare, clever writing,  tension and plot are essentially those of a crime thriller.

Although different in complexity and scope, but all the same mirroring the domestic rather than global, I recently read Dinah of Seneca by Corinna Lawson. The story unfolds using the alternate timeline as its natural setting. The Roman Empire of this tenth century stretches from Russia in the East to a new continent in the West. But a new continent brings new threats to their rule. The Roman garrison in Seneca, located in modern-day New York, lacks the supplies and men needed to defeat an alliance of native Mahicans and immigrant Vikings.

Dinah, a former slave trained in espionage, had hoped Seneca would be the start of a new life. Instead, she's pulled back into conflict, both political and very personal. If Seneca is to survive, Dinah must reconcile her allegiance to Rome with her chance to create her own destiny in the New World with Gerhard, the Viking leader. The novel focuses heavily on character interaction and Dinah is a sharp and mostly unbiased observer. The book also has sufficient spycraft, politics and action scenes to satisfy most readers but also plenty of emotional punch. In short, it’s a romance in an AH setting.

So here I've noted a few books which are firmly fastened in other genres: literary, historic, crime thriller, romance. I like time travel, timeslip and a good war story and these along with steampunk are perceived to be the staples of alternate history fiction, but I wonder if AH widened its scope, stretching out to embrace other genres, it would entice more readers from the fixed world to sample something a little alternative.

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Alison Morton writes Roman-themed thrillers with an alternative history setting and hopes to publish the first of a trilogy early next year. She muses on writing, Romans and alternate/alternative history at her blog.