Sunday, July 23, 2006

The Best Alternate History Stories of the 20th Century, edited by Turtledove with Greenberg

The Best Alternate History Stories of the 20th Century, edited by Turtledove with Greenberg

The cover of the edition I have shows Lincoln in front of a Communist flag and Hitler wearing the Confederate battle flag. While this seems fitting give the title of the anthology, no stories found within deal with either image. An odd choice, but I suppose both images are fairly iconic for the genre. It isn’t the strangest thing about this volume, though; one of the stories here isn’t even an alternate history tale. The Death of Captain Future by Allen Steele is traditional science-fiction, with no point of divergence with our known history.

Regardless, there are a couple of good adventures here. Bring the Jubilee by Ward Moore is a classic tale about the Civil War and one I’ve been wanting to read for quite a while. Mozart in Mirrorshades by Bruce Sterling and Lewis Shiner was pretty good too; it tells of a world that has discovered how to jump between alternate realities and strips the new worlds of their natural resources. The Lucky Strike by Kim Stanley Robinson (describing the world as it would be if the Enola Gay had failed in its mission) is one of the weaker entries, riddled with clichés and a highly predictable ending.

First Sentence (from the introduction):
What if...

No comments:

Search This Blog