A review by jonathanpalfrey
Roads Not Taken: Tales of Alternate History by Stanley Schmidt, Bruce McAllister, Greg Costikyan, A.A. Attanasio, Harry Turtledove, Michael Flynn, L. Sprague de Camp, Gregory Benford, Mike Resnick, Gene Wolfe, Robert Silverberg, Gardner Dozois, Shelly Shapiro
3.0
The trouble with anthologies is that they tend to contain no more than one or two stories that are really worth having; and so it is here.
Flynn's [b:The Forest of Time - Hugo Nominated Novella|11539011|The Forest of Time - Hugo Nominated Novella|Michael Flynn|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1416605278l/11539011._SY75_.jpg|16478070] is a great story, one of my favourites; though I later bought it as a separate item for Kindle, so I don't need to go back to this book for it. Five stars.
Turtledove's "Must and Shall" is not one of my favourites, but it's quite striking and memorable, worth reading more than once. One of his better efforts (I'm not a big Turtledove fan). Say three and half stars.
The other stories here are generally competent and readable, but I could easily live without them.
Something I notice as a non-American is that they're mostly about American history. The Sprague de Camp story is about ancient European history, but the narrator is a time-travelling American. The only story with no American connection at all is Silverberg's: it's one of the better stories in his [b:Roma Eterna|851384|Roma Eterna|Robert Silverberg|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1348262963l/851384._SY75_.jpg|1965569] series (I later read the whole series but wasn't keen on it).
I have no objection to American history: my favourites include various stories about it. But, when I read a whole collection of alternative-history stories and most of them are about American history, I start thinking, "What, AGAIN?" The USA has a short history, currently less than 250 years, and writers tend to concentrate on the four major wars of American history. Indeed, one of the strengths of Flynn's story is that its turning point is in an obscure and neglected part of early American history.
Turtledove manages to cram the Civil War and the Second World War into the same story, without even using time travel.
Flynn's [b:The Forest of Time - Hugo Nominated Novella|11539011|The Forest of Time - Hugo Nominated Novella|Michael Flynn|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1416605278l/11539011._SY75_.jpg|16478070] is a great story, one of my favourites; though I later bought it as a separate item for Kindle, so I don't need to go back to this book for it. Five stars.
Turtledove's "Must and Shall" is not one of my favourites, but it's quite striking and memorable, worth reading more than once. One of his better efforts (I'm not a big Turtledove fan). Say three and half stars.
The other stories here are generally competent and readable, but I could easily live without them.
Something I notice as a non-American is that they're mostly about American history. The Sprague de Camp story is about ancient European history, but the narrator is a time-travelling American. The only story with no American connection at all is Silverberg's: it's one of the better stories in his [b:Roma Eterna|851384|Roma Eterna|Robert Silverberg|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1348262963l/851384._SY75_.jpg|1965569] series (I later read the whole series but wasn't keen on it).
I have no objection to American history: my favourites include various stories about it. But, when I read a whole collection of alternative-history stories and most of them are about American history, I start thinking, "What, AGAIN?" The USA has a short history, currently less than 250 years, and writers tend to concentrate on the four major wars of American history. Indeed, one of the strengths of Flynn's story is that its turning point is in an obscure and neglected part of early American history.
Turtledove manages to cram the Civil War and the Second World War into the same story, without even using time travel.