Alternate History discussion

Are there any good alternate histories where the point of departure involves no atomic bomb?

It would provide a number of questions including:

What is the space race like if there is no corresponding race in ICBM development?

What is the Cold War like? A US-Soviet war in the immediate aftermath of World War II is unlikely as the Soviets had suffered such extensive losses and were worn out. But does Korea, Hungry, Cuba, Vietnam, Nicaragua, or Afghanistan turn out differently?

No nuclear weapons likely means no nuclear power. Implications on the development of alternate sources of power? No Chernobyl.

Did Japan have to be invaded to force it to surrender? If so, the nature of American-Japanese relations is vastly different and most or all of the Japanese contributions to technology post-WW2 are delayed or don't happen at all. For that matter, the situation in Korea probably looks different (Soviets captured all of it - no split at the 38th parallel?) and a possible Soviet invasion of northern Japan in addition to America invading south and/or central Japan.

I just joined this group a few minutes ago, and i don't know of any alt history about the bomb. but I think that the invasion of Japan would have been unneccesary if the allies would have been willing to simply starve them out (kill another 50 mm or so). modern cities can not exist without modern transportation and Japan in particular relied on naval tranport which under Allied attack was rapidly vanishing along with the railroad.

There's actually a debate on that topic ongoing right now in a WW2 group I'm in:

http://www.goodreads.com/group/show/2...

More science fiction than alternate history, but read "The Jesus Factor" Basis is that the bomb doesn't work.

I read "The Jesus Factor" but found it rather disappointing and the premise seemed kinda ridiculous (magnesium flares timed to coincide with an earthquake).