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Alternative Liberties
Alternative Liberties gathers together some of the finest minds in speculative fiction to address the implications of current politics.
Adam-Troy Castro answers the classic question “What happens if this keeps on?” in a riveting story of a quiet citizen undergoing an increasingly surreal house arrest. Renowned fantasy author Louise Marley writes from the perspective of a future academic, proposing a Ph.D. thesis about our times. Harry Turtledove, a master of alternate history, gives us the tale of a woman enthralled by the Terrific Leader. In Brenda Cooper’s “A Better President,” she tells the story of a Black D.C. teenager who, passing as white, ends up play a key role in a fascist riot. In the thoughtful “Afterward,” science fiction legend David Gerrold presents an all-too-relatable a man estranged from his neighbors in an increasingly paranoid society. Elwin Cotman gives us a hack writer whose specialty is gutting American literary classics so they will appeal to a contemporary rightwing audience—and comply with the government’s AI censor, named Liberty.
As frightening as our times appear, these writers envision daring, resistance, and hope. DP Seller’s tale of resistance at the Port of New Orleans has magical overtones. Voss Foster celebrates queer teens whose courage and collaboration enable them to survive in their ultra-conservative communities.
Alternative Liberties is the latest in the Alternatives series from B Cubed Press that includes Alternative Truths, More Alternative Truths, Alternative Theologies, and Southern Truths. The editorial team for Alternative Liberties includes Debora Godfrey, Lou Berger, Cliff Winnig, K.G. Anderson, and B Cubed’s founding editor,
Adam-Troy Castro answers the classic question “What happens if this keeps on?” in a riveting story of a quiet citizen undergoing an increasingly surreal house arrest. Renowned fantasy author Louise Marley writes from the perspective of a future academic, proposing a Ph.D. thesis about our times. Harry Turtledove, a master of alternate history, gives us the tale of a woman enthralled by the Terrific Leader. In Brenda Cooper’s “A Better President,” she tells the story of a Black D.C. teenager who, passing as white, ends up play a key role in a fascist riot. In the thoughtful “Afterward,” science fiction legend David Gerrold presents an all-too-relatable a man estranged from his neighbors in an increasingly paranoid society. Elwin Cotman gives us a hack writer whose specialty is gutting American literary classics so they will appeal to a contemporary rightwing audience—and comply with the government’s AI censor, named Liberty.
As frightening as our times appear, these writers envision daring, resistance, and hope. DP Seller’s tale of resistance at the Port of New Orleans has magical overtones. Voss Foster celebrates queer teens whose courage and collaboration enable them to survive in their ultra-conservative communities.
Alternative Liberties is the latest in the Alternatives series from B Cubed Press that includes Alternative Truths, More Alternative Truths, Alternative Theologies, and Southern Truths. The editorial team for Alternative Liberties includes Debora Godfrey, Lou Berger, Cliff Winnig, K.G. Anderson, and B Cubed’s founding editor,
- GenresFictionAnthologies
374 pages, Paperback
Published January 21, 2025
29 people are currently reading
19 people want to read
About the author
Bob Brown
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
January 23, 2025
In the face of despair and the march of fascism people keep saying that one way to resist is to make art. This anthology has done so and gives me hope.
February 3, 2025
“Alternative Liberties” bills itself as an anthology of political cautionary tales about what it would be like to live in America under a fascist dictatorship. While it does indeed fit that description, it can also accurately be described as a collection of horror stories.
I’ve never been a big fan of the horror genre. Although I can enjoy the most unbelievable and imaginative science fiction stories, I’ve never cared for stories about ghosts, werewolves, and vampires. With two exceptions, these 47 stories, poems, and essays have no supernatural or fantasy elements, yet they are among the most terrifying and emotionally disturbing stories I have ever read.
I purchased the Kindle edition on January 20, 2025, the day it was released. It took me 13 days to read the anthology because it was often difficult to read more than three or four pieces in a row.
“Diminished Horizons” by award-winning sci-fi and horror author Adam-Troy Castro and "Seen and Not Heard" by Tera Schreand are exceptionally disturbing.
Only a half-dozen of the stories could be described as having a marginally happy ending, including the final story, “Afterword,” by Hugo and Nebula award-winning author David Gerrold. “Weaponized Genealogy" by Tom Easton left me laughing, So it’s not all doom and gloom.
Had this book been released in early January, one might easily conclude that these are 47 ridiculously exaggerated possibilities of what the country might be facing. But suppose that one of these stories had the following outline…
In the first 300 hours of the new administration, 1500 pardons were issued for people lawfully charged, tried, and convicted of the January 6 insurrection, including those who violently assaulted police officers. Many of the defendants pled guilty to all charges, while others are completely unrepentant.
An ambiguous order was issued to freeze all federal grant spending, including Medicaid, cancer research, food stamps, support for rural hospitals, law enforcement grants, and countless other programs. When the order was challenged, the administration gradually backed down on freezing one program after another, clearly indicating that they had no idea of the scope of the original order.
All Inspector Generals were illegally terminated without the required 30-day notice and explanation of just cause to Congress.
All federal prosecutors and FBI agents involved in any phase of investigating the president’s crimes, as well as anyone associated with the investigation or prosecution of any of the 1500 pardoned January 6 cases, faced termination. If fully implemented, this will drastically affect the Justice Department and the FBI. This loss of institutional knowledge and experience will be devastating not only to the Justice Department but also to the state and local officials who rely on the FBI’s expertise.
A tragic midair collision that took 67 lives was blamed on DEI programs, and the president suggested that the FAA was hiring people with intellectual and cognitive disabilities as air traffic controllers.
An oligarch, neither elected nor confirmed by Congress, seized control of the federal government payment system.
If the above story had been included in this anthology and published… let’s say, on January 6, 2025, just for the sake of argument, you would likely have dismissed it, along with the 47 others, as ridiculous hyperbole. It could never have happened.
Now ask yourself… Are the 47 stories collected herein hyperbole?
As disturbing as it is, everyone who cares about this country should be reading this book and asking themselves what can I do to save our democracy?
I’ve never been a big fan of the horror genre. Although I can enjoy the most unbelievable and imaginative science fiction stories, I’ve never cared for stories about ghosts, werewolves, and vampires. With two exceptions, these 47 stories, poems, and essays have no supernatural or fantasy elements, yet they are among the most terrifying and emotionally disturbing stories I have ever read.
I purchased the Kindle edition on January 20, 2025, the day it was released. It took me 13 days to read the anthology because it was often difficult to read more than three or four pieces in a row.
“Diminished Horizons” by award-winning sci-fi and horror author Adam-Troy Castro and "Seen and Not Heard" by Tera Schreand are exceptionally disturbing.
Only a half-dozen of the stories could be described as having a marginally happy ending, including the final story, “Afterword,” by Hugo and Nebula award-winning author David Gerrold. “Weaponized Genealogy" by Tom Easton left me laughing, So it’s not all doom and gloom.
Had this book been released in early January, one might easily conclude that these are 47 ridiculously exaggerated possibilities of what the country might be facing. But suppose that one of these stories had the following outline…
In the first 300 hours of the new administration, 1500 pardons were issued for people lawfully charged, tried, and convicted of the January 6 insurrection, including those who violently assaulted police officers. Many of the defendants pled guilty to all charges, while others are completely unrepentant.
An ambiguous order was issued to freeze all federal grant spending, including Medicaid, cancer research, food stamps, support for rural hospitals, law enforcement grants, and countless other programs. When the order was challenged, the administration gradually backed down on freezing one program after another, clearly indicating that they had no idea of the scope of the original order.
All Inspector Generals were illegally terminated without the required 30-day notice and explanation of just cause to Congress.
All federal prosecutors and FBI agents involved in any phase of investigating the president’s crimes, as well as anyone associated with the investigation or prosecution of any of the 1500 pardoned January 6 cases, faced termination. If fully implemented, this will drastically affect the Justice Department and the FBI. This loss of institutional knowledge and experience will be devastating not only to the Justice Department but also to the state and local officials who rely on the FBI’s expertise.
A tragic midair collision that took 67 lives was blamed on DEI programs, and the president suggested that the FAA was hiring people with intellectual and cognitive disabilities as air traffic controllers.
An oligarch, neither elected nor confirmed by Congress, seized control of the federal government payment system.
If the above story had been included in this anthology and published… let’s say, on January 6, 2025, just for the sake of argument, you would likely have dismissed it, along with the 47 others, as ridiculous hyperbole. It could never have happened.
Now ask yourself… Are the 47 stories collected herein hyperbole?
As disturbing as it is, everyone who cares about this country should be reading this book and asking themselves what can I do to save our democracy?
March 22, 2025
I regularly read and listen to Jim Wright and David Gerrold, two writers who would seem to have little in common. Gerrold made a name for himself in the science fiction sphere, most notably for the script for The Trouble with Tribbles episode of the original Star Trek series. Jim Wright is a former Navy intelligence officer who writes political commentary. Events in this country since 2016 have made it so that our political reality resembles those dystopian futures science fiction writers often wrote about. The two often discuss this climate on a podcast from B Cubed Press, which is the publisher of this anthology of short stories from many different science fiction writers, including another favorite of mine, Harry Turtledove.
In light of the current political climate, it was refreshing that not everything here was doom and gloom. Gerrold’s piece, in the afterward, is a ray of hope. There are a number of stories where the protagonist decides the time has come to stand up to those in power, and although we don’t get to see the result of that decision, it’s a rallying call to all of us who are despondent about what we see happening. Little things add up, and if we all do little things where we can, then we have some power.
Jim Wright’s essay was the first entry in the book, and it is in his usual writing style as if he’s having a conversation with someone. I’d read this particular essay when he first published it after the Election in November, and he seems to really capture how frustrated so many of us feel.
Two of my favorites were Smart Squirrel by Kurt Newton, where a border guard gets a comeuppance, and Monteczuma’s Rescue where a man who escaped to Costa Rica must now decide whether or not to save his Trump-loving mother from the camp where she has been interned.
To read my full review, please go to Alternative Liberties – Exploring the Impact of Politics and Current Events on Speculative Fiction
In light of the current political climate, it was refreshing that not everything here was doom and gloom. Gerrold’s piece, in the afterward, is a ray of hope. There are a number of stories where the protagonist decides the time has come to stand up to those in power, and although we don’t get to see the result of that decision, it’s a rallying call to all of us who are despondent about what we see happening. Little things add up, and if we all do little things where we can, then we have some power.
Jim Wright’s essay was the first entry in the book, and it is in his usual writing style as if he’s having a conversation with someone. I’d read this particular essay when he first published it after the Election in November, and he seems to really capture how frustrated so many of us feel.
Two of my favorites were Smart Squirrel by Kurt Newton, where a border guard gets a comeuppance, and Monteczuma’s Rescue where a man who escaped to Costa Rica must now decide whether or not to save his Trump-loving mother from the camp where she has been interned.
To read my full review, please go to Alternative Liberties – Exploring the Impact of Politics and Current Events on Speculative Fiction
February 15, 2025
Alternative Liberties is a collection of great stories from great writers who put their hearts and minds to work to commenting on the implications of the current times. By turns, it is disturbing, funny, and touching. The particular stories that have resonated and stayed with me are: Just One Vote - Louise Marley; Little Boxes - Jacy Morris; The Sylvia Rivers School for Wayward Queers - Voss Foster; Sanitation Day - DP Sellers; Brown Eye - Ell Rodman. But the story Diminished Horizons by Adam - Troy Castro will stay with me forever and it alone is worth the price of admission. It is an expertly crafted tale of an incremental and horrifying descent of a soul into diminished personhood but who still, in the spirit of humanity's eternal struggle to resist the darkness, finds a way back and reaches for the light.
February 7, 2025
The latest anthology from Bob Brown's B-Cubed Press has lots of great stories, but the standouts for me were as follows: Adam-Troy Castro's "Diminished Horizons" seems to read like horror to anyone outside of Florida. The horror is making the rest of the country as far down the road to fascism as Florida already is and then going the last little step into full-on Orwellian dystopia. The gut punches for most Floridians come only in the last part. For me, as I know about both what made it into the backstory (a version of Adam is the protagonist, and I knew and cared very much about his late wife, Judy) and what didn't, some came right at the beginning. Nevertheless, the dystopia doesn't need to be 1984 in the real world--as Neil Postman put it, Huxley was right: you don't need to ban books if few want to read them. Florida's there already. That's more horror for those outside of the American South.
Paula Hammond's "The Big Fat Double-Take" starts out like a somewhat satirical take on a gangster story, but then takes a left-field twist that I loved. Saying any more would be a spoiler, so I won't, but it's a terrific story.
K.G. Anderson's first-person account of living in Seattle after Trump declares it a terrorist zone, "Unwanted Visitors," is harrowing. The "Good Germans" aspect of the story even more so.
Elizabeth Anne Scarborough's story, "Death of the God Emperor of the Universe," was just funny. Trump attempting to escape and rule the galaxy. I didn't see the twist coming.
Five of my favorites were quiet, small stories, distinguished by excellent rendering of protagonist emotions. In Loren Davidson's "Monteczuma's Rescue," Norm hasn't seen his mother in ten years. He fled the country for Costa Rica; she was pro-Trump and stayed in America. She's now in a camp--can he rescue her?
In William Kingsley's "A Place Before the Storm," a cafe owner in Mexico and his kitchen staff muse over their choice to hide "The Senator," the man who had run against Trump in his run for a third term. A story of courage, of common folks doing what they can to oppose fascism and imperialism.
In Earl T. Roske's "NeighborHelp," a teenager struggles to find the money to take a now-even-more-future-decisive exam. In Kurt Newton's "Smart Squirrel," a Border Patrol guard's life takes a turn for the worse. And in David Gerrold's "Afterward," a grandfather whose family had escaped to Canada watches from his home as a military coup overthrows Trump and restores the Constitution.
There's a reason why the Kindle edition is number one among short story anthologies today. Lots of good stuff in here. Well worth reading. Strongly recommended.
Paula Hammond's "The Big Fat Double-Take" starts out like a somewhat satirical take on a gangster story, but then takes a left-field twist that I loved. Saying any more would be a spoiler, so I won't, but it's a terrific story.
K.G. Anderson's first-person account of living in Seattle after Trump declares it a terrorist zone, "Unwanted Visitors," is harrowing. The "Good Germans" aspect of the story even more so.
Elizabeth Anne Scarborough's story, "Death of the God Emperor of the Universe," was just funny. Trump attempting to escape and rule the galaxy. I didn't see the twist coming.
Five of my favorites were quiet, small stories, distinguished by excellent rendering of protagonist emotions. In Loren Davidson's "Monteczuma's Rescue," Norm hasn't seen his mother in ten years. He fled the country for Costa Rica; she was pro-Trump and stayed in America. She's now in a camp--can he rescue her?
In William Kingsley's "A Place Before the Storm," a cafe owner in Mexico and his kitchen staff muse over their choice to hide "The Senator," the man who had run against Trump in his run for a third term. A story of courage, of common folks doing what they can to oppose fascism and imperialism.
In Earl T. Roske's "NeighborHelp," a teenager struggles to find the money to take a now-even-more-future-decisive exam. In Kurt Newton's "Smart Squirrel," a Border Patrol guard's life takes a turn for the worse. And in David Gerrold's "Afterward," a grandfather whose family had escaped to Canada watches from his home as a military coup overthrows Trump and restores the Constitution.
There's a reason why the Kindle edition is number one among short story anthologies today. Lots of good stuff in here. Well worth reading. Strongly recommended.
February 16, 2025
My bias must be showing as I'm both an editor for this anthology and a contributor. My story was edited by the other editors and I did what I was told. The final version of my story is what they decided looked best, not me.
The anthology is a labor of love, truly, for we American Patriots who believe fervently in the rule of law and the gravity of the US Constitution. We are, collectively, horrified at the coterie of oligarchs that have, apparently, successfully taken control of our American government and are now initiating policies designed to elevate THEM and not US, the rest of America.
The stories are powerful, insightful, and will make you think. Some will make you cry, and some will make you laugh.
Even if you're a proud MAGAt, you will find stories in this anthology that resonate with you.
In the end, we are a small group of authors and editors who see America heading down an unsustainable path to authoritarianism, fueled by hatred for "the other".
And "the other" are fellow Americans.
Please read this book and share it with your friends.
The anthology is a labor of love, truly, for we American Patriots who believe fervently in the rule of law and the gravity of the US Constitution. We are, collectively, horrified at the coterie of oligarchs that have, apparently, successfully taken control of our American government and are now initiating policies designed to elevate THEM and not US, the rest of America.
The stories are powerful, insightful, and will make you think. Some will make you cry, and some will make you laugh.
Even if you're a proud MAGAt, you will find stories in this anthology that resonate with you.
In the end, we are a small group of authors and editors who see America heading down an unsustainable path to authoritarianism, fueled by hatred for "the other".
And "the other" are fellow Americans.
Please read this book and share it with your friends.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews