Alternate Tyrants (Alternate Anthologies) [Paperback]

Mike Resnick (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 15, 1997 | Series: Alternate Anthologies

History is full of tyrants. But even the best of history's other rulers have always been just a few decisions away from tyranny. From 20 of science fiction's finest storytellers come exciting tales of despots that never were "Alternate Tyrants".

Product Details

• Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: Tor Books (April 15, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0812548353
• ISBN-13: 978-0812548358
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.2 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 2.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,982,336 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Mike Resnick is the author of numerous science fiction novels and short stories, including Dragon America, Lara Croft: Tomb Raider: The Amulet of Power, Mutiny, Return to Santiago, and Santiago. He is the editor of This Is My Funniest and has won five Hugo Awards and the Nebula Award. He lives in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Tepid tales enlivened by only the occasional gem, March 8, 2010

By 

Mark Klobas (Tempe, AZ, USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Alternate Tyrants (Alternate Anthologies) (Paperback)

This collection of alternate history stories is the fifth in a series that Mike Resnick edited in the 1990s. As the title suggests, the theme is one of historical tyrants who never existed in the settings the authors envisioned or made choices that led to different developments. Written by a mixture of longtime pros and relative newcomers, the stories range across the span of human history, from ancient Greece to a near-future tale of a King William V who engineers the resumption of power by the British monarchy.

With the exception of Maureen F. McHugh's Hugo Award-winning short story "The Lincoln Train" (which is easily the best story in the book), all of the stories in this collection were original works published for the first time. This helps to explain the main problem with the collection; though the quality varies, nearly all of them feel like little more than a response to an assignment. Only a few such as Jack Haldeman and Barbara Delaplace's "That'll Be The Day" (about a 1960s America in which rock `n' roll stars run the country) or Mark Bourne's "Boss" (in which a chance encounter between Al Capone and a political fixer lead to the gangster becoming President) really rise above this to stand as interesting or imaginative tales in their own right. The rest depend on the awkward premise of the collection for their existence, and often do not reward the time spent to read them, which makes the collection one that only a diehard fan of the alternate history genre will want to read.