Revisions (Mass Market Paperback)

by Julie E. Czerneda (Editor), Isaac Szpindel (Editor)

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist
The 15 alternate histories in this anthology consider what would have happened if scientific and technological breakthroughs--and challenges--occurred long before they did in real history. Editor Czerneda's "Out of China" portrays the discovery of a cure for plague during the Black Death. In John G. McDaid's "The Ashbanzu Effect," the Sumerians invent printing, and in Geoffrey Landis' "The Resonance of Light," a particularly decisive invention prevents World War I. Several stories weigh alternate environmental scenarios, and the notion that religion is entirely a manifestation of electrochemical brainstorms pops up more than once. Robin Wayne Bailey's "The Terminal Solution" imagines the Victorians reacting to AIDS. Dorranna Durgin's "A Call to the Wild" envisions a world in which only one animal hasn't been tamed--the dog. Lots of fresh alternative-history thinking on view here. Roland Green
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Product Description
Fifteen original tales of "what if"

Some of today's top science fiction writers explore the futures that might have been, including original stories from Julie E. Czerneda and other great names in the genre.

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 312 pages
• Publisher: DAW (August 3, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0756402409
• ISBN-13: 978-0756402402
• Product Dimensions: 6.6 x 4.2 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #343,467 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Delightful New Alternate History Shorts..., April 8, 2005

By	Amerigo Vespucci (Fairbanks, Alaska) - See all my reviews

Unlike most alternate history anthologies, ReVisions consists of all new and original stories, a great change from the constantly re-hashed collections. All of the stories in ReVisions deal with some sort of technological, social, or anthropological change. There's everything from Nikola Tesla inventing the laser to the Sumerians creating the printing press, to what might have happened if dogs had never been domesticated or if Da Vinci's inventions had actually been put into effect.

The stories themselves, while creative and original, do not seem to have been edited as well as they might have been, keeping me from giving ReVisions a full five stars. It's a new release, and so you probably won't find it in used bookstores. That being said, I have no regrets about spending the full price to buy from Amazon.

The topics featured for diversion are best-suited for scientific and engineering types, but there are a few to satisfy those preferring socially-based or even anthropological stories.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent!, February 4, 2007

By	Midwest Reader (USA) - See all my reviews

These are not your typical, predictable "what if someone went back in time and gave General Lee machine guns?" type of historical revision tales. Instead, they are based in real science, and speculate about how real, historical (or scientific) events could have changed the world if they happened in a just slightly (and realistically) different way. Brilliantly written, and very fun to read.

9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars delightful what if alternate history tales , August 3, 2004

By	Harriet Klausner - See all my reviews (#1 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This fifteen short story collection contains what if alternate history tales that will delight genre fans. Each tale takes a key scientific or technological element and changes when it occurred so that it either intersects at an earlier pivotal moment in history such as the Sumerians inventing the printing press in BC or never materialized such as Galileo fails to release his findings. The tales are all well written and the explanation of the REVISION point is fun to follow to ascertain whether the reader agrees with the author's logic. Intriguing are those with a modern aspect to include Tesla inventing a laser in the nineteenth century, Livingstone bringing AIDS out of Africa in the nineteenth century and the government pushing aquanauts over astronauts and banning the Internet. Mindful of the Marvel Comics What If series, this terrific collection will have the audience thinking of new ones such as what if an underpaid over paid book reviewer was given a guitar instead of Narnia?

Harriet Klausner