ALTERNATE HISTORY SHORT STORIES

Reviewed by Steven H Silver

The title of Flame Tree Publishing's Alternate History Short Stories is misleading as many of the works contained in the book are not actually alternate histories. Although there are alternate histories included in the anthology, many of the stories are either secret histories or merely stories set in some historical time, and some are ambiguous enough in their settings that it is difficult to tell when they actually take place. The collection includes eleven reprinted works (or excerpts) which have a higher rate of fitting the theme than the original stories.

Two of the stories in the collection focus on England's King Henry VIII. In Jennifer R. Povey's "Regent," Henry's older brother, Arthur, lived long enough to have a child, John, with Catherine of Aragon. The story follows Catherine's regency for her young son and her fears that his uncle, Henry, might attempt to usurp the throne. Catherine's fears are well laid out and it becomes clear that John's throne may be in danger, although Povey provides a nice twist to the power struggle. The other story is Adam Lawson's "The Husband of Henry VIII," which might have worked if he had merely postulated that Henry were gay or bisexual, but Lawson fails to explore fully the attitudes society would have taken had Henry been so open about his same-sex proclivities. Henry's relationship with Pope Clement VII doesn't appear to be grounded in any historical reference and the twist Lawson incorporates moves the story from the realm of alternate history to the realm of fantasy.

Evan A. Davis's story "The Sixth-Gun Conspiracy" is an example of secret history, rather than alternate history. The entire point of the story is that if everything happened in the way Davis postulates, our history would not have been changed and events would appear the same way they do. In this case, John Wilkes Booth is portrayed as a stalwart of the Northern cause, although he uses his acting ability to infiltrate Confederate groups, eventually, when he bursts into Lincoln's box at Ford's Theatre, he is falling into a trap to kill the president and frame Booth for the murder. Similarly, Guy Prevost's "The Intervention" set during the time both Hitler and Stalin lived in Vienna, places a time traveler in the scenario, but ultimately doesn't change history.

Some of the more ambitious stories fail to work because they are attempting to reverse the course of history to make a point. In DJ Tyrer's "Opening England," The Japanese decide to force trade upon an isolationist England, much as the Western world forced trade on an isolationist Japan in the nineteenth century. Tyrer doesn't make any attempt to explain how the two countries evolved in such a different way from the history in our own world. Similarly, Cameron Wise-Maas uses a Nazi invasion of the United States in "Men of Their Time" to explore race relations in America by swapping Jews for African-Americans in society. While is message is clear, the story would need more subtlety to work beyond the polemic.

For an alternate history to fully succeed, it should not only introduce a branch point, but it should follow up on the ramifications of the change. Too often, as with James Young's "Winifred," authors tiptoe up to the line, show what the change is, and then end the story without exploring the repercussions. The effect of these stories is like serving an appetizer, but failing to have an entree prepared to follow it. Rebecca E. Treasure's "I Will Not Be," which also involves a time traveler attempting to change history, does indicate that changes have happened, allowing the Incas to have flintlocks when Christopher Columbus landed in Venezuela in 1498, but she ended the story immediately after the first contact, indicating that the changes in her timeline may not be very long-lasting or important.

Few of the original stories in Alternate History Short Stories stand out and the extremely lengthy excerpts from Wells' A Modern Utopia and Men Like Gods, Erskine Childers' The Riddle of the Sands, and Castello Holford's Aristopia throw off the pacing of the anthology. The reprint short stories tend to provide the strongest examples of alternate history, further weakening the appearance of the original stories in the anthology. As an example of the titular genre, the book offers of poor example of the field.

Essa Bah	What Can a Woman Do?
Rebecca Buchanan	The Syllabus
Monica Butler	The Bondage Tribe
Jay Caselberg	Herd Mentality (reprint)
Joseph E. Chamberlin	The Ifs of History (reprint)
Erskine Childers	The Riddle of the Sands, Chapters I-IV (reprint)
Jonathan Davidson	The Savior of Worlds
Evan A. Davis	The Sixth-Gun Conspiracy
Nathaniel Hawthorne	P.'s Correspondence (reprint)
MC.R. Hobson	Tippecanoe
Castello Holford	Aristopia, Chapters I-IX (reprint)
Vylar Kaftan	The Weight of the Sunrise (reprint)
Richard Kigel	The Untold Story of History's First Flight
Andrea Kriz	The Leviathan and the Fury (reprint)
Adam Lawson	The Husband of Henry VIII
Livy	The History of Rome, Book IX, Sections XVII-XIX (reprint)
Kwame M.A. McPherson	A Journey to the New World
Eve Morton	Where in Time and Space is Mark Twain?
Chiamaka Muoneke	First of October
Maureen O'Leary	Earthquake Weather
Jennifer R. Povey	Regent
Guy Prevost	The Intervention
Matias F. Travieso Diaz	The Last Tsar
Rebecca E. Treasure	I Will Not Be
DJ Tyrer	Opening England
H.G. Wells	A Modern Utopia, Chapters I-IV (reprint)
H.G. Wells	Men Like Gods, Book I (reprint)
Iris Whelan	Mary, Quite Contrary
Cameron Wise-Maas	Men of Their Time
Alex Woodroe	Carrots for Nine
John Wyndham	Random Quest (reprint)
James Young	Winifred
Elizabeth Zuckerman	Butterfly Burning

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