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Overview
Four award-winning authors.
Four amazing alternate histories.
In this collection of novellas, four masters of alternate history turn back time, twisting the facts with four excursions into what might have been.
Bestselling author Harry Turtledove imagines a different fate for Socrates (now Sokrates); S. M. Stirling envisions life "in the wilds of a re-barbarized Texas" after asteroids strike the earth in the 19th century; Sidewise winner Mary Gentle contributes a story of love (and pigs) set in the mid-15th century, as European mercenaries prepare to sack a Gothic Carthage; and Nebula nominee Walter Jon Williams pens a tale of Nietzsche intervening in the gunfight at the O.K. Corral.
Synopsis
Four award-winning authors.
Four amazing alternate histories.
In this collection of novellas, four masters of alternate history turn back time, twisting the facts with four excursions into what might have been.
Bestselling author Harry Turtledove imagines a different fate for Socrates (now Sokrates); S. M. Stirling envisions life "in the wilds of a re-barbarized Texas" after asteroids strike the earth in the 19th century; Sidewise winner Mary Gentle contributes a story of love (and pigs) set in the mid-15th century, as European mercenaries prepare to sack a Gothic Carthage; and Nebula nominee Walter Jon Williams pens a tale of Nietzsche intervening in the gunfight at the O.K. Corral.
Publishers Weekly
What if, in any single moment, history had taken a different turn? In the engaging Worlds That Weren't, bestselling author Harry Turtledove imagines a different fate for Socrates (which he spells Sokrates); S.M. Stirling envisions life "in the wilds of a re-barbarized Texas" after asteroids strike the earth in the 19th century; Sidewise winner Mary Gentle contributes "a piece of flotsam" from her epic Ash a story of love (and pigs) set in the mid-15th century, as European mercenaries prepare to sack a Gothic Carthage; and Nebula nominee Walter Jon Williams pens the tale of Nietzsche intervening in the gunfight at the O.K. Corral. Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.
Editorials
Publishers Weekly
What if, in any single moment, history had taken a different turn? In the engaging Worlds That Weren't, bestselling author Harry Turtledove imagines a different fate for Socrates (which he spells Sokrates); S.M. Stirling envisions life "in the wilds of a re-barbarized Texas" after asteroids strike the earth in the 19th century; Sidewise winner Mary Gentle contributes "a piece of flotsam" from her epic Ash a story of love (and pigs) set in the mid-15th century, as European mercenaries prepare to sack a Gothic Carthage; and Nebula nominee Walter Jon Williams pens the tale of Nietzsche intervening in the gunfight at the O.K. Corral. Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.KLIATT
Four novellas are included here: "The Daimon" by Harry Turtledove, "Shikari in Galveston" by S. M. Stirling, "The Logistics of Carthage" by Mary Gentle, and "The Last Ride of German Freddie" by Walter Jon Williams. In Turtledove's Greece, Sokrates influences General Alkibiades to prevail over the Spartans. In Williams' Tombstone, Arizona of the Earps and O.K. Corral, Friedrich Nietzsche tests his theories of destruction. Stirling transplants his characters from The Peshawar Lancers into the US of his alternative view of history, while Gentle introduces the antecedents of her Ash series characters into the outskirts of Carthage. Turtledove's novella is vaguely disappointing, but perhaps I don't know enough about this period of history to "get it." I love seeing how the US turned out in Stirling's "history" and pray his worldview never comes true. Gentle's fans will be interested in how that saga started, and Nietzsche in the Wild West is truly novel! This will be popular where alternative history holds sway. You may want to warn readers to keep reading if they bog down on the Turtledove story, since it is first. KLIATT Codes: SA-Recommended for senior high school students, advanced students, and adults. 2003, Penguin Putnam, Roc, 298p., Ages 15 to adult.— Sherry Hoy