Customer Reviews

Alternate Generals

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This collection of 16 short stories was profoundly disappointing, if only because I expect better from something with Turtledove's name on it. There is a certain expectation when reading alternate history that either the the events and/or people being tinkered with are so familiar that they need no introduction, or that a small introduction will be given to set up the story (not to mention maps). Unfortunately that was not the case here, as a number of the stories used rather obscure incidents and people as their basis, and there was no corresponding supplementary material. It also doesn't help expectations when the jacket copy is about scenarios that aren't in the book. Add some rather tepid writing in a number of cases, and the book got rather tedious.

If you're going to borrow it, there are a few stories worth checking out. Lillian Carl's "The Test of Gold," focusing on the Romans vs. Boadica, was one of the better stories, albeit somewhat roughly told via the memoirs of an old Roman. S.M. Stirling's, "The Charge of Lee's Light Brigade," has a somewhat interesting premise at least: that Gen. Lee of Civil War fame, instead fights with C.S.A. along with other British forces at Balaclava in a very different Charge of the Light Brigade. Somewhat slyly, Stirling seems to have inserted George MacDonald Fraser's legendary scoundrel and rouge "Flashman" in the story as an homage to the great Scottish writer, which works rather well as Flashman does campaign there in "Flashman at the Charge." Another of the best stories is William Sanders' "Billy Mitchell's Overt Act," in which a military aviation pioneer manages to thwart the attack on Pearl Harbor. Told as a series of excerpts from books, interviews, and testimony, he manages to weave a very engaging tale. The final story, R.M. Meluch's "Vati" is probably the best of the bunch, showing what might have happened had a more imaginative and forceful man taken over German air operations and sped up production of jet aircraft, thus preventing D-Day. It's something the Germans did manage to do at the end of the war, but by then was too little, too late.

As for the rest: "Tradition," by Elizabeth Moon (who's "Deed of Paksenarrion" trilogy I love), suffers from an unknown main character, British WWI Rear Admiral Cradock, a slightly obscure setting, the Mediterranean (more interestingly treated in the historical fiction of John Biggins), and the need to have detailed maps at hand to follow the action. Brad Linaweaver's rather silly "And to the Republic For Which It Stands" imagines an alternate Caesar. Lois Tilton's "The Craft of War" is annoyingly written as a dialogue between Socrates and a student about Sun Tzu's "The Art of War." Jody Nye's "Queen of the Amazons" is a terrible Crusader piece fortunately followed by a competent as usual WWII piece by editor Turtledove. Unfortunately, one then segues into an utter piece of dreck, Esther Friesner's "An Old Man's Summer" featuring the rambling reminisces of a dying Eisenhower. Bill Fawcett's "The Last Crusader" establishes the fun premise of Napoleon as a Cardinal, but doesn't take it anywhere. Even though it didn't particularly engage me, Janet Berliner's "A Case For Justice" is worth mentioning for taking as it's subject, the South African leader Jan Smuts. William Forstchen's "A Hard Day For Mother" folds a cliché "brother vs. brother" Civil War tale into the battle for Round Top Hill at Gettysburg. David Weber's "The Captain From Kirkbeam" is the first of two seafaring stories, his being about a commander trying to blockade French ships from sailing into the Chesapeake Bay during the War for Independence. "Vive L'Amiral," by John Mina imagines Nelson as fighting on the French side, rather than the British, with rather different results, of course. Brian Thomsen's "Bloodstained Ground," is a rather cheezy and weak attempt to show a drunken Samuel Clemens uncovering the hidden truth about "President" Custer and what really happened at Little Big Horn.

So, maybe four or five stories worth reading all told, mixed in with a few more interesting premises, and a lot of bad and just plain boring ones. You're better off checking out Robert Cowley's "What If?: The World's Foremost Military Historians Imagine What Might Have Been."

I bought this book because the blurbs on the back cover sounded interesting. Something like Rommel fighting against the Romans, etc. "What if" scenarios that sounded intriguing.

Needless to say, I was a little stunned when not a single one of these scenarios actually appeared in the book. The stories that were presented were average at best. Many of them weren't even military in focus. There's nothing wrong with short stories that don't have a military theme -- I've read and enjoyed many such stories myself. But that wasn't how this collection was presented. I initially gave this book two stars but got so aggravated when I began recalling the feeling that I'd been duped that I dropped a star.

I've always been a fan of Specualtive history. That's why this book popped off the shelf into my hands. If one can get past the doubious cover art and blurb on the back (Rommel with the Persians... Patton at bull run? Nope, they're not in THIS book), it's not too terrible.

A few of the stories are downright rotton. Some of those same stories are so obscure it makes them uninteresting. Others are so-so, and a number of others are top notch. It's a shame that the selection wasn't more carefully managed.

The best of the bunch in my opinion, which make the book worth reading just for those stories are:

-The Charge of Lee's Brigade,
-Billy Mitchel's Overt act - (The best in the book, and totally worth a read)
-A Case for Justice
-Vive L'Amiral
-Bloodstained Ground

Billy Mitchel's Overt Act, by William Sanders is the best of the bunch. It's a shame that most of the rest didn't match up to its quality.

Bottom line, some of the stories aren't bad, but most are mediocre.

Although I felt somewhat misled (as usual) by the cover of the book showing Romans in Panzers,I was not too displeased with the content. This little volume would make a fine travelling companion,since most of the short stories take only a little time to read and they all "stand alone". Hence a good book for a commuter or someone taking a short regional hop.

As with most anthologies,the contents of the book covers alot of territory. I particularly liked "Vati",since I am not only an aviation buff,but also a serious student of W.W.II. The concept of Werner Moelders leading the Luftwaffe was great,for at the time of his real-time death he was the leading "ace" in the European Theatre of war. Of the other alternate history short stories , I thought "A Hard Day for Mother","Billy Mitchell's Overt Act" , and "Craft of War" all had particular merit. Several of the others were somewhat "forgettable".

To enjoy the genre of alternate history , one should be fairly well versed in "real-time" history , or many of the stories dealt with in this book will fall on barren ground. Most people will not have heard of Christopher Craddock , for example. Instead of vanquishing the German battlecruiser "Goeben" as he accomplished in the story , he actually went to a sailors's grave at the hands of von Spee's armoured cruisers at Coronel!

It is exceedingly difficult to give a book such as this a "star" rating since a few of the stories contained would themselves rate 5 stars while others are far less meritorious. To simplify matters , I would give this book a "worth buying" or a "thumbs up" , as opposed to a negative rating.

I am afraid that this review must merely echo most of the others who have eloquently raised the major problems with this work. That being the obscure incidents chosen and mediocre writing make this an average collection at best. It is merely the handful of 3 or 4 strong stories that moves this up to 3 stars.

For many of the stories even a well educated reader will not be able to distinguish what is different about the "alternate history" and the stories will read as straight military history. As others mentioned the lack of an author or editor foreword explaining the real history cripples many of these stories.

As a double check, I ran some of the names by my wife the history major. Boudica was remembered after some prompting, but she admitted Boudica is very obscure. Rear Admiral Cradock unheard of, Jan Smuts unheard of. Minor generals and colonels of the civil war unheard of.

This could of course be overcome by intriguing writing but the stories involving those are very dull as well as obscure. Even some of the stories with figures known to everyone, Caeser, Eisenhower, Napoleon are less than enthralling.

A strong John Paul Jones and a strong Admiral Nelson story are really what save this book from being a complete waste of time.

However if you have a Ph.D. in history and know obscure figures from many different periods and places you might get more from this book than I did.

Most of the short stories contained within this book are very specific, and you'll only appreciate them if you've studied the particular battle being looked at.

If you don't know the battle in great detail, then you won't appreciate the story very well. For the serious military history buff, or for the casual reader who is willing to read about what actually happened in the battle, then go back to the book and read the short story again.

Well there are a couple of good stories in there. The Napoleon being a Cardinal, Nelson siding with Napoleon, Hitler getting jets, and USSR almost collapsing but fighting Nazis in 1947.

Still most stories ran from obscure bull-sh*t to "lets stop being a writer and summate". It featured some interesting premises, but used the familiar device of stopping the story to explain to the reader what happened and how and why.

If you want the truth, only four stories were any good. "The Last Crusdader" by Bill Fawcett. "A Hard Day for Mother" by William R. Forstchen. "Vive l'Admiral" by John Mina. And "Vati" by Meluch.

That's 4 good stories out of 16. Better odds than Vegas, but still a major stink-bomb.

I see that another reviewer has already commented on the same points I was going to make, and on the same stories. I realize that in order to be interested in Alternate History, one needs to be well-versed in "real" history. However, there are very few of us who are knowledgable on all facets of history. The story about the Goeben read like a good war story, but not being familiar with the actual history of the event hurt my enjoyment of it as an Alternate History story. Other stories in the book were also hurt by the lack of introductory material. For example, I got the point of the story "A Hard Day For Mother, but I wouldn't have if I hadn't seen the movie "Gettysburg." I could not help but wonder if there weren't a lot of readers who missed the point of that one. Also, there were several typo's in that story that were annoying. I don't know who to blame for that, perhaps an over-reliance on spell-check programs. Those will not catch the use of "out" when you meant "our" for example. This is admittedly minor, but it is something that shouldn't have happened in a professionally published book. I realize that Turtledove was not the sole editor, even though his name was the only one on the cover, but if he is going to be the one up front, perhaps he should've looked at these things. This was a good book, but it could've been a lot better with the attention to a few details like introductions and proofreading.

Harry Turtledove did a great job putting together a bunch of solid, alternate history stories. There were a few I wasn't all that thrilled by, but the rest I really enjoyed. By far the the best was "Billy Mitchell's Overt Act" by William Sanders. Here the pioneer in military aviation stayed in the Army and in 1941 became the CO of a bomber wing in Hawaii. A VERY different Pacific War results. Wonderfully told in snipets by famous people like Harry Truman, General MacArthur & Walter Lord. The runner-up is "The Craft of War" by Lois Tilton, where Socrates tells the tale of Sun Tzu helping the Persians in their war against Greece. The portrayal of Samuel Clemens in "Bloodstained Ground" was spot on! Sam, aka Mark Twain, is sent by his New York Herald editor to write a story on the death of President George Custer, the hero of Little Big Horn. Great inner turmoil story in "A Hard Day For Mother," where Confederate Colonel Joshua Chamberlain leads his men in the battle for Little Round Top, with his brother is leading the Union troops. And having Admiral Horatio Nelson command the French fleet in "Vive L'Amiral" was just so cool! "The Last Crusader" was an OK story, but I just loved the concept of CARDINAL Napolean Bounaparte leading his troops in the Crusades. This is a definate winner for history buffs.

I've read a lot of books by Harry Turtledove. I enjoyed all his alternate history books. They are a must read for any history fan.