- Paperback: 304 pages
- Publisher: Roc Trade; Reprint edition (Sep 2 2003)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0451528980
- ISBN-13: 978-0451528988
- Product Dimensions: 23 x 15.2 x 1.7 cm
- Shipping Weight: 331 g
- Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #441,137 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- See Complete Table of Contents
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Amazon
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 --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From 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, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Most helpful customer reviews
3.0 out of 5 stars
German Freddy vs. Wyatt Earp !,
By the wizard of uz (Studio City, CA United States) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Worlds That Weren't (Paperback)
Allright, I've read Nietsche and I've visited the OK Corral. I've got a copy of The Tombstone Epitaph dated October 27, 1881 with the headline "Yesterday's Tragedy--Three Men Hurled Into Eternity In The Duration Of a Moment." so you might be inclined to think that I'd probably give the last novella: " The Last Ride of German Freddy " by Nebula award winner and Kenpo Karate fanatic Walter John Williams the best marks , right?You're right. But not for the reasons you might imagine. It really stands out worlds apart (pun intended) from the other three 'alternative history' fantasy stories. Yes, I'm familiar with Greek history, and the catastrophic invasion of Syracuse. When Mark Twain was asked what was the turning point in his life he quipped "When Caesar crossed the Rubicon. " He was right, of course, it changed Western Civilisation! Had he wanted to risk being a bit more obscure he could have gone further back in time and replied " When Alcibiades was arrested on the way to Syracuse. " If he hadn't, the expedition probably would have succeeded and it would have been The Athenian, not The Roman Empire that conquered the known world. However Harry Turtledove's handling of the story is lame, not because he has--as one reviwer noted--Socrates as an unlikely character aiding Alcibiades (Socrates did in fact fight as an Athenian hoplite, though not at Syracuse) but because the story never gets off the ground. It just doesn't deliver the goods. Worse still are S.M Stirling and Mary Gentle's offerings. Were they in a hurry? Ok, so it's er...light summer reading. By contrast 'German Freddy' with Nietsche as a gambler and gunslinger in The Wild West who berates Curly and John Ringo for bribing elections--not because it's dishonest, but because these outlwas are now becoming 'citizens and taxpayers' instead of the warlike 'Roman Supermen' he admires ("What was Romulus? A bandit!) Falling in love with Tombstone's 'Helen of Troy' (Sadie) and debating philosophy with Doc Holliday between Poker hands is a pure delight. Well crafted and suspensefull.
5.0 out of 5 stars
A well-developed alternate to traditional history settings,
By Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Worlds That Weren't (Paperback)
Science fiction fans of alternate history settings will want to place Harry Turtledove, et.al.'s Worlds That Weren't anthology high on their reading lists: it provides four novellas by Turtledove, Stirling, Gentle and Williams, each featuring a well-developed alternate world from 1452 Constantinople to a mysterious Old World figure stalking Tombstone. Each makes for a diverse, well-developed alternate to traditional history settings.
4.0 out of 5 stars
Four Interesting Alternative Histories,
By
This review is from: Worlds That Werent (Hardcover)
"Worlds That Weren't" is a fascinating glimpse at four alternative histories written by writers who are masters of this subgenre of science fiction. Mercifully short is Harry Turtledove's contribution, which recasts the Athenian general Alkibiades as an early precursor to Alexander the Great, aided and abetted by a most unlikely warrior, Sokrates (It may be the least attractive of the four to those unfamiliar with Classical Greek history.). S. M. Stirling's look at an alternative Texas under the sway of a rejuvenated British Empire is set in the same time as his alternative history novel "Peshawar Lancers" and is a fascinating, gripping light piece of entertainment. A more sobering alternative history is presented by Mary Gentle's contribution, set in the same time as her novel "Ash", regarding the aftermath of the conquest of the Byzantine Empire by a non-Moslem Ottoman Turkish empire. Yet the best tale in this brief collection is saved for last, in Walter Jon Williams' delightful look at the famous gunfight at the O. K. Corral in Tombstone, Arizona, with one Friedrich Nietzsche as a gun-toting gambler.
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