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Other Earths
by Nick Gevers , Jay Lake (Goodreads Author)
by Nick Gevers , Jay Lake (Goodreads Author)
Alternate history is a genre of fiction consisting of worlds in which history turned out differently from our own. Alternate history might have science fiction elements, or even fantasy elements, but it need not have it.
In this collection, there were three stories I didn't care for, two which were outstanding, and the rest were worth reading. The book is worth buying for the two outstanding works alone.
One outstanding work is the short story, "This Peaceable Land; or, The Unbearable Vision of Harriet Beecher Stowe" by Robert Charles Wilson. The premise of this story is that the American Civil War did not occur--the Northern and Southern states stepped back from the brink of civil war. Over the years, slavery had for the most part died out due to various factors ranging from technological development to international opinion. The drama of the story comes from the investigation by a white photographer and a black writer into the status of blacks in this alternative South. While in this story over 500,000 American soldiers did not die, like in our timeline, it was disastrous for others in other ways.
The other outstanding work, which, being around 90 pages, would probably be classed as a novella, is "Dog-Eared Paperback of My Life" by Lucius Shepard. Lucius Shepard is, in my honest opinion, one of the best prose writers in any genre, let alone in the field of fantasy and science fiction. The first third of the novella is Borgesian; the middle third is Conradian; and the last third is Lovecraftian. The narrator, Thomas Cradle, is a writer who discovers a book which popped into our universe from an alternative one. This book, _The Tea Forest_, was written by an alternative universe Tom Cradle, and describes a journey into Southeast Asia. The middle of Shephard's novella describes the narrator's own _Heart of Darkness_ journey into Southeast Asia. The end of the novella, if I'm interpreting it correctly, shows the reason for the occasional inter-penetration of parallel universes. The creature at end of the story would make a fine addition to Cthulhu and Co. I read this novella over a year ago, and yet, since that time, I occasionally recall various scenes and even phrases from it.
In this collection, there were three stories I didn't care for, two which were outstanding, and the rest were worth reading. The book is worth buying for the two outstanding works alone.
One outstanding work is the short story, "This Peaceable Land; or, The Unbearable Vision of Harriet Beecher Stowe" by Robert Charles Wilson. The premise of this story is that the American Civil War did not occur--the Northern and Southern states stepped back from the brink of civil war. Over the years, slavery had for the most part died out due to various factors ranging from technological development to international opinion. The drama of the story comes from the investigation by a white photographer and a black writer into the status of blacks in this alternative South. While in this story over 500,000 American soldiers did not die, like in our timeline, it was disastrous for others in other ways.
The other outstanding work, which, being around 90 pages, would probably be classed as a novella, is "Dog-Eared Paperback of My Life" by Lucius Shepard. Lucius Shepard is, in my honest opinion, one of the best prose writers in any genre, let alone in the field of fantasy and science fiction. The first third of the novella is Borgesian; the middle third is Conradian; and the last third is Lovecraftian. The narrator, Thomas Cradle, is a writer who discovers a book which popped into our universe from an alternative one. This book, _The Tea Forest_, was written by an alternative universe Tom Cradle, and describes a journey into Southeast Asia. The middle of Shephard's novella describes the narrator's own _Heart of Darkness_ journey into Southeast Asia. The end of the novella, if I'm interpreting it correctly, shows the reason for the occasional inter-penetration of parallel universes. The creature at end of the story would make a fine addition to Cthulhu and Co. I read this novella over a year ago, and yet, since that time, I occasionally recall various scenes and even phrases from it.
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