Historical Fiction vs. Alternate History vs. Fantasy
Before moving into the speculative genres, let’s pause and ask a transitional question: what are the differences between Historical Fiction, Alternative History, and Fantasy? As with all literary or storytelling genres, there is no cleanly defined line that separates these three. There is typically overlap in abundance — particularly with fantasy and alternate history stories — and so parsing out where the boundaries of each genre or sub-genre lies is tricky to say the least. So, this article is going to break down each subgenre into its basic definition and summarize their differences, knowing that all these subgenres exist on a spectrum, not in neat boxes.
Historical Fiction — Historical Fiction can be described as the least imaginative of these three genres when it comes to worldbuilding, although the stories can be just as rich and exciting as the others. Much like Contemporary Fiction, it is defined by its realism. While accuracy is another element entirely, Historical Fiction typically focuses on the real world in its worldbuilding and plots. There are no dragons (except dragon hoaxes), there is no magic (except ordinary humans attempting magic), there are no portals to other realities (except regular doors with fancy curtains that lead to kitchens and living rooms) and so on and so forth. Elements that exist in the real world’s past define the boundaries of Historical Fiction and what kind of stories this genre can tell.
Alternative History — While this genre parallels Historical Fiction in a lot of ways, it veers off course far beyond anything that can be chalked up to mere “historical inaccuracies”. In fact, one of the major differences between Alternative History and Historical Fiction is whether or not the historical inaccuracies were intentional. Typically Alternative History stories either establish strange physics for the world — allowing humans to make discoveries about technologies sooner or invent imaginative tech specific to that story — or have some catalyst that makes major changes to the course of history as we know it. The catalyst may be something minor, leaning into the butterfly effect, or it may be massive (i.e. Columbus never found America or, a classic, the Allies lost World War II). Regardless of which, the author is primarily asking the question: “what if something else occurred instead?” and exploring it. Given this departure from reality, Alternative History is considered to be Speculative Fiction, rather than Realistic Fiction.
Fantasy — This genre often carries with it a lot of historical set dressing, but has permission to deviate entirely from reality. Dragons run amuck, magic flows through every vein and artery, castles float in the sky, portals are opened to strange dimensions, and how reality can be molded to fit the author’s imagination is pretty much limitless. Fantasy is, of course, its own spectrum, but even the lightest versions of the genre have some strangeness to them that separates them from reality; be it cat-sized dragons or purple skies. Fantasy asks the readers to step into a completely and totally different universe than the one that they are currently part of. For readers and listeners looking for escapism in its purest sense, there really is no better genre. Fantasy also tends to have a specific ecosystem of tropes and storytelling archetypes that are not usually found in either of the more historical options, setting it even further apart.
As stated earlier, these genres suffer from a great deal of overlap. Identifying exactly where one ends and another begins is up for long and complicated debates across the storytelling community. In fact, individual authors or publishers often define each genre little differently or may put one genre’s label on a book that reads more like a different genre (i.e. a book labeled ‘fantasy’ that suits the ‘alternate history’ better) depending on market trends. Regardless, these genres do tend to have slightly different core audiences who each, in turn, are looking for slightly different things out of the fiction they prefer. Understanding and researching each audience before writing in each genre is one of the keys to success.
Regardless of how imaginative or realistic creative wants to take their story, the important thing to remember is that each of these three genres or subgenres serves a purpose in the whole of Christian storytelling. Without Historical Fiction, the rich, human history of the Christian faith might just be relegated to dusty, boring textbooks and old manuscripts; coming “alive” for no one and lacking empathy. Alternative History pushes Christians to ask “how would they behave, act, or think if events in the timeline leading up to now had gone differently?” in a familiar context. And Fantasy allows Christians to explore the very foundations of how God made the world, stepping for one fraction of a second into His creative shoes and building for themselves — as the bearers of His creativity — an entire universe different than ours. None of these genres is superior to the other in terms of theology or “purity”. Each one has it’s audience in the Body of Christ and each glorifies God in different and wonderful ways, much like how each person is uniquely made to honor Him.