Alternate Generals III

Alternate Generals #3

by Harry Turtledove

History shows that leadership is crucial in war, but there are other factors at work. What if history were given a twist or two, and great commanders on land and sea fought their greatest battles under different circumstances? Suppose General Douglas MacArthur had been captured before he could escape from Manila and became a prisoner of war? Suppose Joan of Arc had not been burned for heresy and had gone on to lead France to very different victories? Suppose Genghis Khan had been a convert to Judaism and his horde fought for a different cause than in our universe? Turtledove and his colleagues turn the past upside down and inside out, and the possibilities are endless. . . .

Contents:

A Key to the Illuminated Heretic by A.M. Dellamonica
The Road to Endless Sleep by Jim Fiscus
Not Fade Away by William Sanders
I Shall Return by Jihn Mina
Shock and Awe by Harry Turtledove
A Good Bag by Brad Linaweaver
The Burning Spear at Twilight by Mike Resnick
"It Isn't Every Day of the Week" by Roland J. Green
Measureless to Man by Judith Tarr
Over the Sea from Skye by Lillian Stewart Carl
First, Catch Your Elephant by Esther M. Friesner
East of Appomattox by Lee Allred
Murdering Uncle Ho by Chris Bunch

Genres: Alternate History, Fiction, Science Fiction, Historical Fiction, Short Stories, Science Fiction Fantasy, Anthologies

320 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2005

About the author

Dr Harry Norman Turtledove is an American novelist, who has produced a sizeable number of works in several genres including alternate history, historical fiction, fantasy and science fiction.

Harry Turtledove attended UCLA, where he received a Ph.D. in Byzantine history in 1977.

Turtledove has been dubbed "The Master of Alternate History". Within this genre he is known both for creating original scenarios: such as survival of the Byzantine Empire; an alien invasion in the middle of the World War II; and for giving a fresh and original treatment to themes previously dealt with by other authors, such as the victory of the South in the American Civil War; and of Nazi Germany in the Second World War.

His novels have been credited with bringing alternate history into the mainstream. His style of alternate history has a strong military theme.

Reviews

[Mark]

The dustjacket cover is a piece of irrelevant silliness; there are no stories in this volume involving Lee and Grant as Roman commanders. What it does contain is thirteen original short stories premised in a variety of different histories. The stories are:

“A Key to the Illuminated Heretic” by A. M. Dellamonica – Joan of Arc fails to recant, and instead survives to lead a sect of Christian dissidents fighting for their survival.

“The Road to Endless Sleep” by Jim Fiscus – A Roman centurion loyal to Marc Antony finds himself the commander of Cleopatra’s bodyguard after their triumph over Octavian.

“Not Fade Away” by William Sanders – General Douglas MacArthur does not escape from the Philippines in 1942 but instead ends up a prisoner of the Japanese.

“I Shall Return” by John Mina – Having been assigned to the Philippines, Dwight Eisenhower and his subordinates George Patton and Jimmy Doolittle mount a much more successful defense of the islands from Japanese invasion.

“Shock and Awe” by Harry Turtledove – Instead of a religious following, Jesus inspires a military uprising against the Romans.

“A Good Bag” by Brad Linaweaver – During a 1910 seance, General Francis Younghusband receives a message from the past that warns of the necessity of war between Britain and Germany.

“The Burning Spear at Twilight” by Mike Resnick – Jomo Kenyatta devises a very modern campaign to drive the British from Kenya.

“‘It Isn’t Every Day of the Week’” by Roland J. Green – A daring naval decision by Captain Stephen Decatur leads to a very different War of 1812.

“Measureless to Man” by Judith Tarr – Genghis Khan’s conversion to Judaism creates a much different Mongol Empire – and spawns a doctrinal conflict with their counterparts in Europe.

“Over the Sea from the Skye” by Lillian Stewart Carl – The Duke of Cumberland’s defeat at the hands of Bonnie Prince Charlie creates a difficult situation for a young woman.

“First, Catch Your Elephant” by Esther M. Friesner – Hannibal’s pachyderm-equipped invasion of Italy faces difficulty when his men run out of food in the Alps.

“East of Appomattox” by Lee Allred – Robert E. Lee is sent on a diplomatic mission to London for a victorious Confederacy facing difficulties.

“Murdering Uncle Ho” by Chris Bunch – In a North Vietnam occupied by invading American forces, an American commando mission is sent on a mission to eliminate the surviving Communist leadership.

Like any short story collection, individual readers will have their own favorites from among the offerings, but the range of tales offers something for just about any fan of alternate history. Overall, this is a good entry to a solid series, one that offers intriguing tales into worlds that might have been.

[Norman Howe]

Interesting collection of what-if stories. My favorite was "First"," catch your elephant" by Esther Friesner. The stories did need historical notes for those of us not familiar with every era of history"," though.

[Steven Raszewski]

You have to be an astute student of history understand and enjoy alternate fiction. I am and I do. Not everyone's cup of tea but I love this stuff.

[Dennis]

A wide variety of alternate history stories around generals of various times and countries.

Stories range from the silly (but quite fun) Esther Friesner's "First, Catch Your Elephant" (around Hannibal crossing the Alps) to the painful "East of Appomattox" by Lee Alfred (a winning Robert E Lee in London post-war) to the off-beat "Measureless to Man" by Judith Tarr (I'll let you figure it out), all the stories are strong, and some more than that.

Highly recommended.

[Mark Moxley-Knapp]

Another intriguing collection of shorts, edited by Harry Turtledove. Only a few miss the mark, but all are interesting and most are engaging and fun.

[Grant]

Turtledove brings together a diverse array of alternate military history authors who provide a series of entertaining "what-ifs"

[Paul]

Half a star for the Hannibal short story, three for the rest

[Elliott]

The Alternate Generals installments seem to have been aptly named in that the stories decline in quality the later the volume. This being the third is indeed the worst. Of the thirteen stories contained within I found only two: "Not Fade Away," by William Sanders, and "East of Appomattox" by Lee Allred to be even worth including, though for as good as they were (and they were indeed very well done), it was hardly worth the cover price in any case. The remainder aimed for mediocrity and achieved far less. "I Shall Return," was perhaps the worst, where Eisenhower, Patton, MacArthur, and James Doolittle all wind up in the Philippines in 1941 and repulse the Japanese Invasion, besides the plot being a rather throwaway idea the writing was so stale and pulpy to the extent that every character sounded exactly alike, from the bombastic Patton, to the soft spoken Eisenhower. "Murdering Uncle Ho," seemed to me purely an excuse to attack the Kennedy's beneath an alternate history setting, and "Over the Sea from Skye," entirely omits the fact that Bonnie Prince Charlie was not fighting for Scottish Independence, but Stuart Restoration, a completely different cause altogether. Turtledove's "Shock and Awe," is a flawed attempt at ramming a square peg into a round hole which while certainly interesting, could have been done far better than it was. Jesus going the route of the Zealots and provoking an earlier Jewish Revolt with the Roman Empire has serious potential, though the story hardly delivers on it. The remainder are largely uninspiring even to write on, much less read, and all in all the entire collection does very little for the genre of alternate history, much less the previous two installments.

[Nick]

I expected somewhat better. While several of the stories were innovative and interesting, some of them were a bit too forcibly political, and those didn't age well. Chris Bunch's story really belonged in the Alternate Kennedys volume, since the portrayal of both John and Bobby was very strange.
Still, you don't often see a funny Hannibal-crossing-the-Alps story, so that was worth finding, and some of the other stories were quite interesting.

[lewis king]

An eclectic mixture of various author's short stories ranging from topics such as Jewish Huns to Vietnam being won. Some were enjoyable to read, others were problematic in the style of writing. I recommend sticking to full length novels.

[Michael]

interesting short stories of alternate histories.

[James Willey]

Tedious.