The Best Alternate History Stories of the 20th Century [Paperback]

Harry Turtledove (Author), Martin Harry Greenberg (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 2, 2001

Explore fascinating, often chilling "what if" accounts of the world that could have existed–and still might yet . . .

Science fiction’s most illustrious and visionary authors hold forth the ultimate alternate history collection. Here you’ll experience mind-bending tales that challenge your views of the past, present, and future, including:

• "The Lucky Strike": When The Lucky Strike is chosen over The Enola Gay to drop the first atomic bomb, fate takes an unexpected turn in Kim Stanley Robinson’s gripping tale.
• "Bring the Jubilee": Ward Moore’s novella masterpiece offers a rebel victory at Gettysburg which changes the course of the Civil War . . . and all of American history.
• "Through Road No Wither": After Hitler’s victory in World War II, two Nazi officers confront their destiny in Greg Bear’s apocalyptic vision of the future.
• "All the Myriad Ways": Murder or suicide, Ambrose Harmon’s death leads the police down an infinite number of pathways in Larry Niven’s brilliant and defining tale of alternatives and consequences.
• "Mozart in Mirrorshades": Bruce Sterling and Lewis Shiner explore a terrifying era as the future crashes into the past–with disastrous results.
. . . as well as works by Poul Anderson • Gregory Benford • Jack L. Chalker • Nicholas A. DiChario • Brad Linaweaver • William Sanders • Susan Shwartz • Allen Steele • and Harry Turtledove himself!

The definitive collection: fourteen seminal alternate history tales drawing readers into a universe of dramatic possibility and endless wonder.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

What if? Harry Turtledove, renowned alt-historian and the editor of this anthology, calls that question "those two mournful little words." But little though they might be, they inspired some of the previous century's most brilliant speculative fiction, including the 14 short stories collected here.

And with contributors like Poul Anderson, Greg Bear, Gregory Benford, Larry Niven, Kim Stanley Robinson, Bruce Sterling, and Turtledove himself, there's truly not a clunker in the bunch. All of these stories revolve around Turtledove's central beard-tugging question, but they vary wildly in style, mood, and approach. Many toy with how the future might be altered had some particular event turned out differently (what if the Confederates had won at Gettysburg, or the Enola Gay had crashed before making its fateful flight?), while others follow dimension-hoppers traveling through tangled branches of our timeline (as in Sterling's "Mozart in Mirrorshades," Anderson's "Eutopia," and Jack L. Chalker's surreal ferry ride through "Dance Band on the Titanic").

All but four of these stories were written in the last two decades of the century--before then, Turtledove suggests in part, we weren't scientifically certain about whether Martians and "oceans on Venus full of reptilian monsters" might exist, so we were satisfied by more conventional, planet-faring SF. But the ideas that the contributors wrestle with here, and that irresistible human urge to speculate about the implications of our actions (and whether our decisions matter at all), prove timeless. --Paul Hughes

From Publishers Weekly

A ghostly ferry makes passages between coexisting "different Earths"; a 20th-century man describes his impact on the Civil War, brought about by time-machine tricks; and Mozart, Thomas Jefferson and Marie Antoinette end up as employees at an oil refinery in The Best Alternate History Stories of the 20th Century, edited by Harry Turtledove with Martin H. Greenberg. Contributors include Poul Anderson, Kim Stanley Robinson, Ward Moore and Susan Shwartz.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 432 pages
• Publisher: Del Rey; 1st edition (October 2, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0345439902
• ISBN-13: 978-0345439901
• Product Dimensions: 6 x 1.2 x 9.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (21 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #479,897 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

28 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An Enjoyable but Inaccurate Collection, July 5, 2003

By 

doomsdayer520 (Pennsylvania) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Best Alternate History Stories of the 20th Century (Paperback)

This is a mostly enjoyable collection of innovative stories, but the title of the anthology is far from accurate. Of course anyone can argue about what the "best" stories are in a certain category, but the bigger problem here is that this collection is not entirely Alternate History (AH). This is surprising for a collection compiled by Turtledove, who of course is one of the great practitioners of that genre. This appears to be an editorial challenge as the publisher may have requested a collection applied to the "category" of AH, only to reveal that this is a very difficult label to define. Some tales like Jack L. Chalker's "Dance Band on the Titanic," Bruce Sterling and Lewis Shiner's "Mozart in Mirrorshades," and others are merely time travel stories with the familiar don't-alter-the future theme. "The Death of Captain Future" by Allen Steele is a fun story but an inexplicable addition to this anthology, as it is straight sci-fi without the slightest hint of AH.

The stories that really are AH are high quality and make this collection mostly a success, but they only make up a distressingly small percentage of the book. In fact, the story of his own that Turtledove contributes to this book (perhaps suspiciously), "Islands in the Sea," is one of the best and actually sticks most closely to the supposed theme of AH. Kim Stanley Robinson's "The Lucky Strike" is surely a classic of straight-up AH, while the most enjoyable story here is William Sanders' "The Undiscovered," a comic tale of Shakespeare trying to put on a production of Hamlet with an adopted tribe of New World Indians. Rest assured that most of the stories here are good and even great, but the title of the anthology is not entirely accurate.

25 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Disappointing, October 24, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: The Best Alternate History Stories of the 20th Century (Paperback)

Sorry, but I was expecting something better.

Some of these stories are very good; in particular, "The Winterberry" by Nicholas DiChario, "The Undiscovered" by William Sanders, "The Lucky Strike" by Kim Stanley Robinson all deserved to be included.

"Bring the Jubilee" by Ward Moore I personally disliked, but it was definitely one of the most famous alternate history works of the century so I suppose Turtledove almost had to include it. However it is more a short novel than a story, and takes up almost a quarter of the book, so if you have already read it then this is pretty annoying.

"Moon of Ice" by Brad Linaweaver is just awful, the one really badly written story in the book. Otherwise the quality of writing is good to excellent throughout.

On the other hand quite a few of these stories are not what I would call alternate history. Certainly not "The Death of Captain Future" by Allen Steele, a fine story by a fine writer but straight space-travel science fiction without any alternate history to it at all. "Mozart In Mirrorshades" by Bruce Sterling and Lewis Shiner seems to me more of a time travel story than alternate history.

As a general science fiction anthology this is not bad at all. As a collection of stories having to do with alternate realities it's also okay. The best alternate history stories of the twentieth century? I don't think so.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A mixed bag, but very good overall, January 17, 2002

By 

Kurt A. Johnson (North-Central Illinois, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Best Alternate History Stories of the 20th Century (Paperback)

This book is a collection of fourteen short stories, all revolving around an alternate history, one where an event changed the world we know. As with all anthologies, this one is something of a mixed bag. Personally, I liked Islands in the Sea by Harry Turtledove for its fascinating grip on how things might have been. Suppose They Gave a Peace by Susan Shwartz is probably my favorite, as it does exercise the mind, showing how a change in history might have made things not necessarily better, but certainly much different.

I suppose that it is for that reason that I did not like The Lucky Strike by Kim Stanley Robinson. It is a look at what might have been had the Enola Gay crashed, leaving its deadly mission to another plane; with this change one man stands against the evil Democrat in the White House, stopping America from sparking the nuclear arms race. The story was gripping, but the ending was clichéd and frightfully predictable. One change gives me the world I want--a mindset that I find irritating in some alternate history stories. The rest, however, fall somewhere in between.

I must say that though there was one story that I did not like, they very all very well written. Though my taste may be different than yours, I can definitely say that if you like alternate history, then you will like this anthology!