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Title:What Might Have Been: Alternate Heroes
Editor: Gregory Benford
Genre: Alternate history short story anthology
Thingummies: 3.5
Synopsis: Stories of alternate timelines featuring other versions of Great Men of history.
Thoughts: What if the Nazis had conquered the British Raj and Gandhi had faced them instead? What if Genghis Khan had been converted to Christianity as a child? It's always fun to play the alternate history game, and this anthology has some nice stories. It's a little overly heavy on WWII and Civil War stories, but still fun.
There's some variety. In some, the course of human history is changed--Roland inspires a very different Europe in "Roncevalles", T.E. Lawrence has a major impact on WWII in "Loose Cannon". Others are quieter--the world is not so different for Einstein in "The Old Man and C" or Hemingway in "Another Goddamn Showboat", but these quiet pieces imagine how the men's lives might have been different.
One big problem of alternate history is handling sensitive issues like racism. "Abe Lincoln in McDonald's" does a great job--what looks like might be a magical Negro character turns out to be rather down-to-earth and realistic, and is all the more tragic for it. "His Powder'd Wig, His Crown of Thorns", on the other hand...major race-fail. I'm sorry, you cannot have a story in which your primitive and superstitious Native Americans are downtrodden but numerous and unironically long for our actual timeline because it spread freedom for all peoples and the white lived in harmony with the red. Have you seen the statistics on the reservations? We whites screwed them over, big time, and this story is incredibly insulting.
I particularly enjoyed the chilling Gandhi story "The Last Article" and the rather tragic Poe story "No Spot of Ground". Less so the On the Road styled "Instability", but then, I hated On the Road. So your mileage may vary.
Overall, a pretty good assortment.
Editor: Gregory Benford
Genre: Alternate history short story anthology
Thingummies: 3.5
Synopsis: Stories of alternate timelines featuring other versions of Great Men of history.
Thoughts: What if the Nazis had conquered the British Raj and Gandhi had faced them instead? What if Genghis Khan had been converted to Christianity as a child? It's always fun to play the alternate history game, and this anthology has some nice stories. It's a little overly heavy on WWII and Civil War stories, but still fun.
There's some variety. In some, the course of human history is changed--Roland inspires a very different Europe in "Roncevalles", T.E. Lawrence has a major impact on WWII in "Loose Cannon". Others are quieter--the world is not so different for Einstein in "The Old Man and C" or Hemingway in "Another Goddamn Showboat", but these quiet pieces imagine how the men's lives might have been different.
One big problem of alternate history is handling sensitive issues like racism. "Abe Lincoln in McDonald's" does a great job--what looks like might be a magical Negro character turns out to be rather down-to-earth and realistic, and is all the more tragic for it. "His Powder'd Wig, His Crown of Thorns", on the other hand...major race-fail. I'm sorry, you cannot have a story in which your primitive and superstitious Native Americans are downtrodden but numerous and unironically long for our actual timeline because it spread freedom for all peoples and the white lived in harmony with the red. Have you seen the statistics on the reservations? We whites screwed them over, big time, and this story is incredibly insulting.
I particularly enjoyed the chilling Gandhi story "The Last Article" and the rather tragic Poe story "No Spot of Ground". Less so the On the Road styled "Instability", but then, I hated On the Road. So your mileage may vary.
Overall, a pretty good assortment.
