Alternate Generals: Amazon.ca: Harry Turtledove, Elizabeth Moon, Roland Green: Books

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From Library Journal

Gen. Sir Robert E. Lee leads the cavalry of the Royal North American Army during the Crimean War in S. M. Stirling's "The Charge of Lee's Brigade," while Cardinal Napoleon Buonaparte commands the armies of the Church in a European campaign in Bill Fawcett's "The Last Crusader." Sixteen tales of alternate military history by Elizabeth Moon, Brad Linaweaver, Esther Friesner, and other accomplished sf and fantasy authors provide a wide variety of historical speculation in a collection of "what-if" tales that deserves a wide readership. A good choice where "theme" anthologies are popular.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Mass Market Paperback edition.

Ingram

Military history--with a new cast of characters! Authors include multiple-Nebula-Award-winning Esther Friesner, Hugo-winner Harry Turtledove, Elizabeth Moon, David Weber, S.M. Stirling, and many more. --This text refers to the Mass Market Paperback edition.

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Customer Reviews

20 Reviews

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(1)

Average Customer Review

3.4 out of 5 stars (20 customer reviews)

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2.0 out of 5 stars Big-time hit and miss book, May 2 2004

By	TrezKu13 (Norfolk, VA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: ALTERNATE GENERALS (Mass Market Paperback)

I really expected better from this. Unfortunately, very little of this is actually worth reading, and it inspired me to do my own alternative general stories after seeing how badly some of these authors had tried with theirs.

For example, one story involves Caesar having a nightmare where some one tells him he'll get assassinated. Well whoop-de-doo, what does that have to do with alternative history? One story about Boadica didn't seem to offer any thing alternative: she fights the Romans and gets defeated - wait that happened in real life!

Some are actually pretty decent. The story on a historical figure much like Sun Tzu conquering Greece I thought was interesting. The story about Lee preventing the Charge of the Light Brigade was clever, particularly the ending ("Aye, it would have been the valley of death!"). The story "Tradition" was interesting just in the fact it took a real event (the German navy headed for the Ottoman Empire that the British didn't stop) and took it another route (the British do try to stop it).

I would not suggest buying this book though. Overall I was seriously disappointed by this. Like I said before, write your own "alternative general" story. It will probably be a lot better - and make a lot more sense.

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5.0 out of 5 stars Not for dropouts!, Jul 29 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: ALTERNATE GENERALS (Mass Market Paperback)

It seems that most of the reviewers did not read thier H.S. school history text books. Know a little about history before you read alternate history books. There was no story in this book that I did not know the real history, as it happen. I am no history buff, but I did finish school.

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3.0 out of 5 stars An inconsistant compilation of Alternative History, Oct 10 2001

By	S. Lawrenz "Lendorien" (Milwaukee, WI) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: ALTERNATE GENERALS (Mass Market Paperback)

I've always been a fan of Specualtive history. That's why this book popped off the shelf into my hands. If one can get past the doubious cover art and blurb on the back (Rommel with the Persians... Patton at bull run? Nope, they're not in THIS book), it's not too terrible.

A few of the stories are downright rotton. Some of those same stories are so obscure it makes them uninteresting. Others are so-so, and a number of others are top notch. It's a shame that the selection wasn't more carefully managed.

The best of the bunch in my opinion, which make the book worth reading just for those stories are:

-The Charge of Lee's Brigade,
-Billy Mitchel's Overt act - (The best in the book, and totally worth a read)
-A Case for Justice
-Vive L'Amiral
-Bloodstained Ground

Billy Mitchel's Overt Act, by William Sanders is the best of the bunch. It's a shame that most of the rest didn't match up to its quality.

Bottom line, some of the stories aren't bad, but most are mediocre.

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Most recent customer reviews

2.0 out of 5 stars 4 or 5 out of 16 ain't good...
This collection of 16 short stories was profoundly disappointing, if only because I expect better from something with Turtledove's name on it. Read more

Published on Jul 9 2001 by A. Ross

3.0 out of 5 stars A real"dog's dinner" of alternate history!
Although I felt somewhat misled (as usual) by the cover of the book showing Romans in Panzers,I was not too displeased with the content. Read more

Published on Mar 9 2001 by Rodger Raubach

4.0 out of 5 stars Alternate Reality
This is a great example of the genre of alternate history, and the persons and situations depicted in this book show why this is such a popular area of science fiction. Read more

Published on Feb 10 2001 by Jon Eveland