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52 of 52 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Good, solid stories of AH, July 24, 2000
This review is from: Roads Not Taken: Tales of Alternate History (Mass Market Paperback)
This is a good one-stop source for short-form Alternate History. Although most of the stories are fairly recent, there are also a few classics thrown into the mix. The almost-inevitable Turtledove story is "Must and Shall". Like many of his other works, this tells about the results of an alternate American Civil War. Abraham Lincoln is assassinated while touring the front in 1864. The North still wins, but Lincoln's successor institutes a harsh, vengeful Reconstruction. In the 1940s, the Southern States are still under military occupation, and full of resentment. Surprisingly, this one of the least interesting stories in the book. The premise is good and the story is readable, but the plot is below Turtledove's usual standards. There is also a Robert Silverberg tale ("An Outpost of the Empire") in which the Roman Empire never fell. The protagonist, a Venetian woman of Byzantine descent, must come to terms with her new Roman governor. It is a decent love story with a good sense of "otherness", but nothing special as far as AH goes. Most of the stories, however, explore less conventional themes. A. A. Attanasio's atmospheric "Ink from the New Moon" tells the tale of an alternate 15th century in which North America has been extensively colonized by Chinese religious outcasts. The protagonist, in a letter to his dead wife, tells of his encounter with three ships bearing strange, bearded men. In "We Could do Worse", Gregory Benford tells the chilling tale of a dystopian alternate USA ruled by Joseph McCarthy and Richard Nixon. One of the strangest of the stories, and one of the best, is "The West is Red", by Greg Costikyan. Due to a slight difference in human nature, Communism turns out to be much more effective than Capitalism. As the Cold War draws to a close, Russia and China have become the most prosperous countries in the world, while the poverty-stricken US finally prepares to go Communist. The fundamental difference in the nature of the world also leads to some interesting and unexpected changes in fields like computer science. Very imaginative. I'm capitalist to the core, but I loved it all the same! "How I Lost the Second World War", by Gene Wolfe, makes a great closing story. The plot is too weird to describe, but suffice to say that it takes place in an alternate version of the '30s, and involves Winston Churchill, Adolf Hitler, Dwight Eisenhower, an automobile race, a strategic wargame, and an early invention of the transistor. The above is just a sample of what this anthology has to author. There are many other fine stories by many other fine authors. All of them are well worth reading. Go buy it today!
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11 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great book that covers all the bases! MUST READ!, July 4, 1999
This review is from: Roads Not Taken: Tales of Alternate History (Mass Market Paperback)
WOW! This book rocked. I am a 16 year old who recently discovered the world of alternate history and I love it! This book covers all the bases and then some. First of all, the wide range of authors, writing styles, and subjects kept my interest piqued through the whole book. I finished it in 1 DAY! I loved all of the selections. (Not to say I didn't have a favorite!) Well, my favorite was the last one by Gene Wolfe about the auto race. The whole scenario seems absurd, but by the end, all the subtleties catch up and make it a smashing end to the book. I also liked the one with Aristotle and the one where the 13 colonies never came together. Great research and development went into those, I can tell. I probably learned more from this book than I did in Modern World History class this year! I will definitely read more alternate history because of this book. A DEFINITE MUST-READ!!!
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6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
What if???, March 25, 2001
This review is from: Roads Not Taken: Tales of Alternate History (Mass Market Paperback)
Some people who have reviewed this book seem to have a problem with the way so many of the stories have appeared elsewhere. I suppose that if you are a really hardcore conoisseur of alternate history, that might grate on you a little, but I'm new enough to the genre that the issue didn't come up on my radar. A.A.Attanasio's story is terrific. It is written in the style of Chinese literature, and deals with a man in an America that was originally settled by the Chinese (the United Sandalwood Autocracies -- U.S.A.) A.A., if you read this, please click on my "about me" link right up above and e-mail me. I'm working on a novel that deals with the same premise you use, among other premises. I'd prefer not to be sued to death. L.Sprague de Camp was an early pace-setter in this genre, with "Lest Darkness Fall," and here he proves himself again with "Aristotle and the Gun." "The Forest of Time" by Michael C. Flynn is probably my favorite. Set in a world where the United States never quite came together, it follows the adventures of a cross-world traveller from our world who tells about several other alternate historical timelines, and then gets caught up with his captors in a phildickian (love that word) morass of speculations about the nature of madness, of time, etc. All the stories are interesting, and worth reading. Other reviewers have discussed them in the following pages, however, so let me just say that there is a very good introductory essay by Shelly Shapiro, which I recommend reading carefully. Also -- one story which I wish were in here is "The Sleeping Serpent" by Pamela Sargent, a very cool story set in an America settles by Genghis Khan's hordes, which you can find in "The Way it Wasn't," compiled by Martin Greenberg. To sum up -- I enjoyed this book a lot. Definitely two thumbs up.
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