Worlds that Weren't - Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0451458869 ISBN 13: 9780451458865

Publisher: ROC, 2002

Synopsis

Presents a collection of four novellas which explore alternate history, including "The Daimon," in which Sokrates leads his soldiers to victory over the Spartans, and in "The Last Ride of German Freddie," Nietzsche finds himself in Tombstone, Ariz.

About this title

Review:

Alternate history is the branch of speculative fiction that explores what might have happened if history had taken a different turn. The obvious changes, like the Nazis winning World War II, have filled innumerable novels. Fortunately, the anthology Worlds That Weren't avoids the obvious with its four fine new novellas from four superior authors: Harry Turtledove, S.M. Stirling, Mary Gentle, and Walter Jon Williams.

The collection opens with "The Daimon," written by Harry Turtledove, AH's best-known practitioner. In Turtledove's turning point, the ancient Greek philosopher Socrates chooses to accompany General Alkibiades to war instead of remaining in Athens, and sets Alkibiades on a triumphant, terrible new course.

Set in the British India-dominated alternate history of The Peshawar Lancers, S.M. Stirling's novella is a rousing old-fashioned adventure. "Shikari in Galveston" follows a hunting safari through a regressed American frontier that might have given even Daniel Boone pause.

A prequel to her Book of Ash tetralogy, Mary Gentle's novella "The Logistics of Carthage" concerns Christian warriors serving pagan Turks in a North Africa conquered by Visigoths instead of Vandals, and is the strongest story in Worlds That Weren't.

The collection concludes with "The Last Ride of German Freddie," in which Nebula Award winner Walter Jon Williams considers what might have happened if the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche had taken himself and his superman theories to the Wild West. --Cynthia Ward

About the Author:

Harry Turtledove is the author of numerous novels including Guns of the South and How Few Remain. Nominated for the Hugo and Nebula several times, he's won the Hugo, The Sidewise Award, and the John Esthen Cook Award.

S. M. Stirling is the national bestselling author of Island in the Sea of Time, Against the Tide of Years, and On the Ocean of Eternity. He was born in France and raised in Europe, Africa, and North America. He currently lives in Santa Fe.

Mary Gentle has two MAs in 17th century studies and war. Mary won The Sidewise, plus the British Science Fiction Association Award. Her novels include The Book of Ash quartet and Grunts!

Walter Jon Williams has been nominated for the Hugo, Nebula, and World Fantasy Awards, and has won The Sidewise Award for short fiction. His books include the collection Frankensteins and Other Foreign Devils and the novel City on Fire.

About this edition

• Publisher: ROC
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 0451458869
• ISBN 13: 9780451458865
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 295
• Editor: Walter Jon Williams, Harry Turtledove, Mary Gentle, S. M. Stirling