Book Review: Worlds That Weren't

Reviewed By: Harriet Klausner

Worlds That Weren't     Amazon US PB Amazon US HC Amazon Canada PB Amazon Canada HC
Harry Turtledove , S. M. Stirling , Mary Gentle , Walter Jon Williams
Class/Genre:   Science Fiction   Alternate History   [Short Stories]
Roc, Jun 2002, $21.95, 304 pp.

"The Daimon" by Harry Turtledove. Though his admirers inform Sokrates that he has done his public duty and need not accompany the Army in the Sicily campaign, he insists on joining General Alkibiades. War with Sparta is inevitable and with Sokrates to guide him, General Alkibiades might be able to lead Athens to the victory.

"Shikari in Galveston" by S.M. Stirling. Several years have passed since the comet changed the earth. Now Peshawar Lance Eric King is hunting in barbaric Texas where one mistake could lead to him being on the menu.

"The Logistics of Carthage" by Mary Gentle. A few years have passed since the Turks conquered Constantinople, but now they target the Gothic capital Carthage. Though the present looks bleak, Yolande sees her city-state surviving into the twentieth century and beyond, but how to endure the ashes of the fifteenth century is the question?

"The Last Ride of German Freddie" by Walter Jon Williams. On the eve of the street brawl between the Earps and the Cowboys, Frederich Nietzsche arrives in Tombstone. He quickly debates philosophical issues with the participants of the upcoming gunfight.

All four of these short novellas are well written hooking readers as each tale feels genuine due to the real figures fitting smoothly in their substitute environs. The award winning authors provide alternate historical readers with quite a quartet in WORLDS THAT WEREN’T to include continuity from previous books (at least on the parts of Stirling and Gentle). This is a strong anthology that takes readers on a brilliant what if trek.

Harriet Klausner

Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, Harriet Klausner