From Wikipedia:
An essential element of historical fiction is that it is set in the past and pays attention to the manners, social conditions and other details of the period depicted. Authors also frequently choose to explore notable historical figures in these settings, allowing readers to better understand how these individuals might have responded to their environments. Some subgenres such as alternate history and historical fantasy insert speculative or ahistorical elements into a novel.
Alternate history or alternative history sometimes abbreviated as AH, is a genre of fiction consisting of stories in which one or more historical events occur differently. These stories usually contain “what if” scenarios at crucial points in history and present outcomes other than those in the historical record. The stories are conjectural, but are sometimes based on fact.
There is also fan fiction which I define as complete works of fiction using real life people as characters.
I know these categories are very similar, but the best way for me to describe the difference is on a personal level. I love historical fiction novels about Edgar Allan Poe. The authors of these books (click to see the Poe books I’m talking about) use real life events in Poe’s life and build a story around it with minimal, if any, changes to Poe’s history. Fan fiction would take Poe and put him into situations that he would have never been in, altering the outcome of his life completely. Another example of historical fiction would be Can’t Buy Me Love by Dan McNeil in which he wrote a great mystery novel around the night that the Beatles first appeared on the Ed Sullivan show without changing their story.
So, given the definitions above, I would put this book in the Fan Fiction category because the author doesn’t start the story at the end of the Beatles story when the band officially broke up. Mr. Zabel went back to the year 1968 and changed the history of the Fab Four including the title and song list of several of their albums. Imagine, if you will, if songs that were released on each of the their solo albums were part a group album. Imagine #9 Dream without May Pang saying “John….John…” Imagine Yoko Ono and Linda McCartney as friends, and Allen Klein and Lee Eastman all working together to keep the Beatles together. The Beatles win Oscars for their work in Stanley Kubrick’s The Lord of the Rings. They star in a remake of Murder on the Orient Express. John is kidnapped by the politically far-left group the Weather Underground and eventually pardoned by Gerald Ford. A nineteen year old Steve Jobs befriends George Harrison and becomes the head of Apple Computers…a division of Apple Corp. Could this things have happened if the Beatles broke up in 1975? Can you dig it?
The fans of fan fiction are going to love this book. The writing is exceptional and despite my dislike for fan fiction, there was a point where I found myself caught up in the kidnapping of Lennon. But I believe that the true Beatles fans who are purists are going to roll their eyes and toss this book aside before finishing the first chapter. This makes my job as a reviewer very tough since I need to figure out if I’m reviewing this book for Beatles fan fiction lovers or Beatles purists (and I hope the three winners of this book will comment after reading it)…so for that reason, I went middle of the road…
I rate this book, 2 out of 4 Beetles!
Beatles-Freak's Reviews 
Strange to give a book 2 out of stars/beetles, when the reviewer clearly states “The writing is exceptional and despite my dislike for fan fiction, there was a point where I found myself caught up in the kidnapping of Lennon.” This means it is a well written book, and does what a books intends to do: engage and entertain.
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Do you really choose to review a book for Beatles’ fans or fans of Beatle-fiction? Look at the books you reviewed. In a similar kind of argumentation, you suggest ‘The Man in The High Castle’ is a book/series for lovers of 2nd WW fans of Germany and/or Japan?
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‘Once There Was a Way: What If The Beatles Stayed Together?’, by Bryce Zabel is not a bad book for any novel reader… actually it is very well written and has a nice story-line. Which can easily exhilarate non-Beatles’ fans as well. The publisher choose the long road and limited the interest of the books by picking/accepting this title. b.t.w. I think this is ‘alternative history’.
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I hope you will give ‘beetles’ to the book and not based on how useful it is to a specific little group among your readers…
Hi Rob,
You’re points are very valid and I value them a lot.
As I pointed out in my review Bryce has the Beatles starring in 3 movies from 1969 to 1975 and at least two of those movies won numerous Oscars. Paul McCartney winning an Oscar for playing Frodo? John Lennon ends up living with Linda Ronstadt during his lost weekend and is kidnapped by a leftist group. George Harrison meets Steve Jobs in India, befriends him and Steve ends up with the ultimate plan to find and rescue John Lennon. Alternative History? Mmm…not in my mind. It goes way beyond “what if the Beatles had stayed together” right smack into Fan Fiction. And Mr. Zabel has every right to tell the story the way he wants to tell it.
As for my decision to give it 2 out of 4 Beetles, as I said, it’s tough to review a well written book that could have been written without using the Beatles as characters and instead just make up your own characters since it’s pure fiction anyway. I really don’t care for books written just so someone can get their piece of the Beatles pie. And, I think maybe you and I have different definitions of historical fiction, alternative history and fan fiction. But…to each his own… 🙂
Best,
Jenn
P.S. – I never reviewed “The Man in The High Castle” LOL