Most fans of fantasy and science-fiction literature are familiar with the concept of alternate history—tales that spring from such speculations as “What if the Confederacy had won the Civil War?” or “What if the Roman Empire had never fallen?” and so forth—but less well known is the niche of secret history (sometimes referred to as “shadow” history).
Unlike their cousins of alternate history, tales of secret history are designed to mesh with reality and history as we think we know it. Rather than posit changes to major events of the past, stories in the secret history subgenre speculate what might have happened behind the scenes, or in the shadows, of the past or present that we all take for granted.
