5 Alternate Histories Featuring Real Natural Disasters

The Great Seattle Fire, Boneshaker by Cherie Priest
In our version of history, the Great Seattle Fire literally leveled the city. As a result, the city was rebuilt at a higher grade, creating an area known as the Underground, frozen in time and haunted by the ghosts of the past to this very day. Before the events of Boneshaker, something similar and equally catastrophic happens, turning the city into a split-level sprawl. Ths version, however, involved zombies, a massive steam-powered drill, and a gas that turns the city into a plague zone. Priest’s take is just as devastating as the real thing was, though the reality of a massive death toll and a part of the city being confined to the underground is slightly less lasting than, say, a permanent walled quarantine, a mysterious gas polluting the air, and a buttload of zombies. Boneshaker makes the over- and underground of Seattle feel vibrant and dangerous, and a place worth venturing (if best experienced at a remove, though orderly pages of type).

The San Francisco Earthquake, Breath of Earth by Beth Cato
Breath of Earth is another alt-history novel that takes place on the west coast and involves a city-leveling disaster. Cato’s San Francisco is under the influence of a partnership known as the Unified Pacific, a union between the United States and Japan that has set its sights on gaining a foothold in China. But when the geomancers who draw energy from San Francisco’s faultline are all assassinated, the city is thrown into chaos, raising the possibility of a massive earthquake could devastate the landscape. Its inclusion on this list makes what happens here pretty obvious, though Cato’s magic system, and the idea that the geomancers are the only ones keeping the roiling world in check, are more than enough to create an intriguing and well-realized world.

The Paris Flood of 1910, Angels of Music by Kim Newman
Kim Newman is known most prominently for blending gothic fiction, pulp, and historical events to create novels of dark intrigue and expansive world-building. His latest is no different, placing the Phantom of the Opera in charge of a spy ring similar to Charlie’s Angels (in basic idea, anyway). run out of the Paris Opera. A major event in the book, however, occurs during the Great Flood of Paris, where a terrible murder sends various forces across the city into conflict, including (once again) Newman’s intrepid reporter and agent, Kate Reed. As usual, Newman’s intense focus does the book well, creating a fascinating and fantastical underworld for his characters to inhabit.

The Black Plague, The Years of Rice and Salt by Kim Stanley Robinson
Years of Rice and Salt is an alternate history that explores what would happen if the Black Plague really did wipe out most of Europe, instead of just laying waste to large swaths of the population. Without the European migration and progress, the Middle East and China emerge as the major superpowers in the world, with their philosophy and culture informing progress for years to come. Eventually, of course, this also erupts into massive war, as fewer world superpowers in no way mean fewer wars. Robinson keeps most of his fiction well within the plausible, though the novel does speculate on the afterlives of some of the characters, and takes minor liberties with tech advancement.

Mount Vesuvius Erupts, New Pompeii by Daniel Godfrey
Godfrey’s thriller concerns an energy company that has developed the ability to transport matter from the distant past, which they’ve used to bring the city of Pompeii forward in time, just moments before the explosion of Mount Vesuvius, with the intent to use it as a moneymaking scheme— a real Roman city built in an area the company owns, something to observe and possibly exploit. Anyone who’s read a thriller about mega-corporations meddling with things they shouldn’t already knows what’s going to happen when NovusPart’s plan starts to develop cracks, but Godfrey allows the mystery of what’s really going on to percolate before its eventual eruption.
What disaster-fueled stories do you love?