Recent Speculative Fiction with a 2000 branch?

January 18, 2011 8:01 AM

Speculative Fiction Filter: Has anyone written a book, story, or website about what the world would look like had Al Gore been elected as president in 2000?

I've loved reading Speculative Fiction since I stumbled upon "A Sound of Thunder" as a child. There's lots out there that deal with wars - tons of books, movies, and even video games about the dystopic future if Germany had won WW2, etc.

Is there anything recent that involves a speculative future where Al Gore won the 2000 election? Obviously the largest piece of this is the creative curiosity of how the 9/11 terrorist attacks and subsequent foreign policy would have been different, but I'm interested in it all. It seems like someone should have written something by now! Any links to books or websites appreciated.

posted by juniperesque to writing & language (9 answers total)

Memories of the Gore Administration.
posted by John Cohen at 8:08 AM on January 18, 2011 [1 favorite]

The Spiders.
posted by Pirate-Bartender-Zombie-Monkey at 8:13 AM on January 18, 2011

Yes, and Yes.
posted by timsteil at 8:14 AM on January 18, 2011

The "Meet the Quagmires" episode of Family Guy is sorta kinda like this, a little bit at least.
posted by Blake at 8:25 AM on January 18, 2011

President Gore: A Look Back by Ted Rall
posted by susanvance at 8:25 AM on January 18, 2011 [1 favorite]

I'm going to expand on your question a bit. If you like Alternative History and Politics, I recommend finding a copy of Alternate Presidents, edited by Mike Resnick. It's a collection of short stories that has an alternative for each president, from Washington (Ben Franklin) to Bush I (Dukakis). It's a fun read and I wasn't at all surprised that alternative President Goldwater used nukes in Vietnam.

I think it's out of print but I found a used copy on Amazon.
posted by JohntheContrarian at 12:04 PM on January 18, 2011 [1 favorite]

Saturday Night Live: "Parallel Universe."
posted by kirkaracha at 12:26 PM on January 18, 2011

It's not immediately revealed that this is the case, but this book is set in a world where Al Gore won, and IIRC the 9/11 attacks were foiled, and... well, it's still a dark place.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 12:47 PM on January 18, 2011

Uchronia: The Alternate History List has several listed. Check their list of titles by point of divergence -- I'm not seeing a way to search by point of divergence, but they're listed chronologically, and here's the appropriate page.
posted by asperity at 10:24 AM on January 19, 2011