MY EARLIER POSTS on Harry Turtledove led to requests for other recommendations in the alternate-history vein. That’s a genre I enjoy, so here are some others you might like if you enjoy Turtledove.

Kim Stanley Robinson’s The Years of Rice and Salt looks at a world in which Christianity never amounted to much once the Black Death wiped out 2/3 (instead of 1/3) of Europe. A bit mystical in places, but well-written. Interestingly, fundamentalist Islamists are still a problem in the new world.

Steven Barnes’ Lion’s Blood (and its sequel, Zulu Heart) also takes place in a world where Islam was triumphant, this time in an America colonized by African Muslims. The battle is between Sufis and fundamentalists.

Steve Stirling (S.M. Stirling) has written a lot of good alt-history. His Island in the Sea of Time (along with its sequels) is one of my favorites. Americans wind up back in the Bronze Age, with interesting results. I also liked his Conquistador, and his The Peshawar Lancers is pretty good, though a bit too British-Empire-revivalist for my taste. His most recent book, Dies the Fire, isn’t exactly alternate history, but it’s good.

As I mentioned before, I liked John Birmingham’s Weapons of Choice, and look forward to the sequel.

Meanwhile, though only some of his stories were of the alt-history variety, I have to put in a plug for classic space-opera writer A. Bertram Chandler, whose stuff is being reissued now in collected form. (The first installment is John Grimes: Survey Captain). When I was in Australia a few years ago, I met some people who had known Chandler, a merchant sea captain who wrote his novels at sea, and they told me that he had a lot in common with his main character, John Grimes.

UPDATE: Reader Richard McEnroe writes about Chandler:

What a great old character he was! I had the pleasure of meeting him in NY a couple of years before he passed. Very much a figure out of one of his books, in the best way.

I wish I’d met him. McEnroe also recommends Eric Flint’s 1632 — which I should have remembered. And, of course, I highly recommend Neal Stephenson’s Baroque Cycle books. Here’s my review of those, from the Weekly Standard’s Christmas book issue.

MORE: Reader Frank LoPinto notes that Steven Barnes has a blog.

MORE STILL: But this alternate-history stuff can be dangerous.

UNSCAM UPDATE:

Billionaire Marc Rich has emerged as a central figure in the U.N. oil-for-food scandal and is under investigation for brokering deals in which scores of international politicians and businessmen cashed in on sweetheart oil deals with Saddam Hussein, The Post has learned.

Rich, the fugitive Swiss-based commodities trader who received a controversial pardon from President Bill Clinton in January 2001, is a primary target of criminal probes under way in the U.S. attorney’s office in New York and by Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau, sources said.

“We think he was a major player in this — a central figure,” a senior law-enforcement official told The Post.

It seems that my initial skepticism regarding this story may have been misplaced. (More recent post here.)

MICHAEL TOTTEN thinks that some people are too ready to blame the Jews for, well, everything.

UPDATE: Related post here.

CODEBLUEBLOG is skeptical of the Yuschenko-poisoning story, and thinks his problem is rosacea. I don’t know about the substance, of course, but the tone isn’t entirely persuasive, at least to someone, like me, who isn’t a regular reader of the blog.

UPDATE: MedPundit disagrees with CodeBlue.

I LIKE THIS SLOGAN: “Instapundit — where the New York Times looks for big ideas.”

ALPHECCA’S WEEKLY REPORT on gun coverage in the media is up, with lots of interesting items including the story of a professor in Oklahoma who was demoted for expressing pro-gun views. More crushing of dissent in John Ashkkkroft’s Alberto Gonzales’ America!

ARNOLD KLING: “Many professors speak as if the opportunity cost of working in academia is a high-paying job in the private sector. However, talent is not quite so interchangeable. It is not just that there are very few CEO’s who could do high-caliber scholarly work in chemistry or linguistics. There are equally few academics who could function as CEO’s.”

That’s true, though I took about a 60% pay cut when I left law practice to become a law professor. And although I do fairly well now (I actually make more money than when I quit practicing law back in the first Bush presidency!) I noted last year that one of my former colleagues at the old firm, who stayed on and made partner, was making over a million dollars a year. His bonus was bigger than my salary. On the other hand, since then he’s quit and gone to graduate school. What does that tell you?

I think that Arnold’s overall point is valid, though. Law professors, like those in other professional schools, have closer ties to their professions, and hence to the real world, than academics in general. And if taking academic jobs were a huge, public-spirited personal sacrifice there probably wouldn’t be so many applicants for every academic job.

THE MUDVILLE GAZETTE has posted its quotes of the week.

ARTHUR CHRENKOFF has more underreported news from Afghanistan.

DAVE KOPEL:

This weekend was the celebration of the Virgin of Guadeloupe, and if you don’t know who she is, you might as well learn, because she is well on the road to becoming as an all-American icon like St. Patrick and Saint Nicholas.

Read the whole thing.