Customer Reviews

Sideways In Crime

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Sideways in Crime is an appealing blend of alternate history and murder mystery. Half the fun lies in figuring out the crime, and the other half lies in figuring out the differences between the story's reality and our own. The stories are set in a variey of milieus, ranging from Aztec monarchies to Victorian England had Christianity never taken hold, among many others. The range of settings and crimes is impressive and entertaining.

Out of sixteen stories, only two didn't grab me, and they were well-written, just not my taste. Highly recommended.

Anders has posited a very interesting question. Can you write alternate history mysteries? The answer is unequivocally, yes. There are fifteen never before published tales by some of the best new (and old) authors of alternate history. You would expect great stories from Jack McDevitt, S(M)teve Stirling and Stephen Baxter, but the stories from Grimwood, Buckell and Roberson are worth the price of the book alone.

Some of the stories could have been written in the normal history line, except that the alternates add a different flavor or color. Others could only have existed where the mechanical or social revolutions turned onto a different path. One deals with the Western Hemisphere being under the Aztec, Mayan and Incan Empires, while another deals with a Europe where only Britain is safe from the Nazis.

Anders has created a sub-genre all to himself and done a great job of bringing in the right people to get it off to a great start. This could be the most important style change for anthologies since Harlan Ellison's "Dangerous Visions". Let's hope there are more to come.

Zeb Kantrowitz

When I saw this book on the shelf at my local shop, I had to pick it up. Mystery and Alternative History? I was expecting gimmicky stories and mediocre writing, but it seemed an amusing premise. Bluntly, my expectations were blown away. The writing is almost uniformly superb, the stories engaging, the settings believable and almost always flawlessly executed. They will appeal both to the hardcore history buff and the dilettante; there's even a dash of science fiction.

An all-around spectacular offering. I only wish there was more.