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Roads Not Taken
 
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Roads Not Taken [Mass Market Paperback]

Gardner Dozois (Author), Stanley Schmidt (Author)
3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (24 customer reviews)
Price: CDN$ 8.99 & eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over CDN$ 25. Details
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Although none of the stories in this anthology take place in the future, they qualify as science fiction (or perhaps speculative fiction would be more accurate) because at the heart of each one lies the question "What if...?" Only in this case, instead of a question like "What if we had faster-than-light travel?" all the questions revolve around alternative historical events. What if the Chinese had colonized America before the Europeans? What if Joseph McCarthy had become president? As in science fiction, the question is the seed from which the author extrapolates a future and a narrative.

The stories in this anthology cover a wide range of other pasts and presents. Highlights include "Must and Shall" by Harry Turtledove, the modern master of alternative history. His fictional present stems from an alternative Civil War, one that the North still won, but in a very different manner. Gene Wolfe presents a timeline in which World War II is settled by an automobile race, and Robert Silverberg looks at a modern-day world in which the Roman Empire never fell. This anthology will definitely appeal to those who enjoy the curious mental frisson that comes from exploring worlds that are in many ways similar to our own, but also quite different. --Brooks Peck

Product Description

Alternate History: The What-If? fiction that has finally come into its own! Shedding light on the past by exploring what could have happened, this bold genre tantalizes your imagination and challenges your perceptions with thrilling reinventions of humanity's most climactic events. Enter worlds that are at once fanciful and familiar, where fact and fiction meld in a provocative landscape of infinite possibilities. . . .

"An Ink from the New Moon" by A. A. Attanasio
"We Could Do Worse" by Gregory Benford
"The West Is Red" by Greg Costikyan
"The Forest of Time" by Michael F. Flynn
"Southpaw" by Bruce McAllister
"Over There" by Mike Resnick
"An Outpost of the Empire" by Robert Silverberg
"Aristotle and the Gun" by L. Sprague de Camp
"Must and Shall" by Harry Turtledove
"How I Lost the Second World War and Helped Turn Back the German Invasion" by Gene Wolfe

With these dazzling stories, discover just how different things might have been!
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Customer Reviews

24 Reviews
5 star:
 (7)
4 star:
 (7)
3 star:
 (6)
2 star:
 (2)
1 star:
 (2)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
3.6 out of 5 stars (24 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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3.0 out of 5 stars Varied Quality, Too much history required?, Oct 17 2002
By 
TammyJo Eckhart "TammyJo Eckhart" (Bloomington, Indiana United States) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Roads Not Taken (Mass Market Paperback)
The best thing about this collection is Shelly Shapiro's introductory essay that attempts to define "alternative history". As a historian and a college instructor, I can't really agree with Shapiro that using "alternative histories" is a great way to discuss history -- students seem confused enough about history at least at the earliest levels. Most "alternative history" seems focused on WWII or the American Revolution and thus I've not found it very interesting. I bought this specifically for the variety of time periods covered. However what I discovered was that I either had too much historical knowledge or too little really grasp the stories depending on the period covered. Of the 10 stories included in this book, Robert Silverberg and A.A. Attanasio's work stood out in my mind for their ability to tell a story that seemed worth reading and yet also be close enough to "historical facts" to make sense. Some of the stories are so subtly different that you have to really think to understand what is going on while others seem a bit confused in the telling.
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1.0 out of 5 stars If you like alternate history, save your money, July 11 2002
By 
Le chien (Paris, France) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Roads Not Taken (Mass Market Paperback)
I was really eager to read this book because of all the good reviews.

I love alternate history, when it is plausible and when there is a STORY that plays along the alternate scenario.

So, I was really disappointed. Alternate history may be a minor genre, but nothing justifies reading minor writers.

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3.0 out of 5 stars A good collection, Jan 17 2002
This review is from: Roads Not Taken (Mass Market Paperback)
A good sampling of alternate histories, Gene Wolfe's contribution especially, but not the best out there. I enjoyed it but not enough to keep for myself and passed it on to a friend, prefering other, meatier collections.
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