(New York: ROC Books, 2002)
Hardcover, 295 Pages, Fiction
ABCD Rating: CHECK OUT
“History is something that never happened, written by a man who wasn’t there.” —Anonymous
From the Cover: In this all-new collection of original novellas, four award-winning masters of alternate history turn back time, twisting the facts with four brilliant excursions into what might have been by traversing Worlds That Weren’t. Under the influence of the philosopher Sokrates, the Athenian general Alkibiades leads his soldiers to victory over the Spartans in New York Times bestselling author Harry Turtledove’s “The Daimon.” Set in the same universe as The Peshawar Lancers, “Shikari in Galveston” by national bestselling author S.M. Stirling features an Angrezi aristocrat’s hunting expedition into the wilds of Texas—and his growing admiration for the natives who dwell there. In 1453, a rather different Turkish Empire raised the flag of Astarte’s Bloody Crescent over Constantinople. Four years later, European mercenaries find themselves stranded on the coast of North Africa—with an embarrassing corpse—in “The Logistics of Carthage” by Mary Gentle. In Walter Jon Williams’ “The Last Ride of German Freddie,” a mysterious Old World figure stalks Tombstone, Arizona, as a cardsharp, trading philosophy—and lead—with the likes of Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday.
My Review: I’m going to get this out up front: I’ve never been one much for science fiction, especially the hard science fiction kind of stuff. However, I have always had a soft spot in my heart for the Alternate History (though I was put off by the hanging left turn into so-called “hard science fiction” that Robert Charles Wilson’s Darwinia took). “What Ifs” have always tickled my imagination bone ever since I first encountered them in Marvel Comics’ aptly titled “What If…?” editions, so after reading S.M. Stirling’s The Peshawar Lancers and then discovering that Stirling had written another story that took place in that universe, I had to read it. Luckily, my local library had a copy of the anthology.
Honestly, Stirling’s story is the stand-out piece in the anthology (though that may just be my personal predilection for stories that contain cannibals as villains) and I loved that King and Singh come back to star in this prequel to Peshawar. However, Williams’ “The Last Ride of German Freddie” was a very close second, though again it may be the soft-spot in my heart for Westerns and Friedrich Nietzsche.
I think why these two stories stood out to me more than Turtledove’s and Gentle’s is that unlike Turtledove’s and Gentle’s stories, one did not need to have a good grasp of history to understand what was going on, or where the Point of Divergence was in “Shikari in Galveston” and “The Last Ride of German Freddie.” For Stirling’s story, a reading of Peshawar Lancers might be helpful (to understand all that the author is getting at, talking about Peacock Angels, France-outre-mer and the Empire of Dai-Nippon and why the capital of the English Empire is in Delhi and not London (and why they are called the Angrezi Raj)) but not really necessary. And for Williams’ story all you really need to have is a layman’s understanding of the infamous Gunfight at the O.K. Corral to know what Williams changes.
They are both stories that are a lot of fun.
Turtledove’s and Gentle’s, on the other hand … are not fun. I know that saying that about a Harry Turtledove story is tantamount to blasphemy as Turtledove is the Great-Grandmaster of Alternate History Fiction, but both he and Gentle choose events in history that are—to me at least, and I would bet to quite a few readers—little known: the Athenian general Alkibiades’ battles against Syracuse and Sparta and the Turkish invasion of North Africa? I had a hard time staying in these stories because I had no idea what I was supposed to know was different and where their respective Points of Divergence entered into the stories.
Luckily, all four authors include an Afterword to their stories where they discuss what they changed in history and why they chose those points in history … but I’m still a little fuzzy on Turtledove’s and Gentle’s stories. They just weren’t as enjoyable as Stirling and Williams’ stories. Therefore, my recommendation to you, Constant Reader, is don’t pick this up at your local bookstore unless you are a die-hard alternate history fan. Otherwise, pick it up at your local library, read Stirling’s story, read Williams’ story and then decide if you want to read Turtledove’s and Gentle’s stories if you really want to.
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