Conqueror Fantastic

Rating:
Summary: A "shoulder shrugger" . . .
Review: I picked this up thinking it was a collection of original alternate history stories, but it's not quite that. Many of the stories do involve "what-if" plot points, but they're rooted in fantasy -- but not of the Tolkienesque variety, either. In Stephen Dedman's "Twilight of Idols," for instance, Adolf Hitler kills a dragon straight out of the Niebelungen, making him more or less invulnerable (how do you think he escaped injury from that bomb?), but the rest of his career fits more into the "secret history" category. Michelle West's "To the Gods Their Due" is a cautionary tale about Alexander and the price to be paid for quasi-immortality, and while it's a well-written story, there's nothing especially "fantastic" about it. (I don't think access to a soothsayer counts.) "Intensified Transmogrification," by Barry Malzberg and Bill Pronzini, is a brief alternate history about LBJ with no fantasy element that I can discern. (Schizophrenia is not fantasy.) And so on. There's some pretty good writing in this volume, but not much thematic consistency.

Rating:
Summary: Not really Alternative History
Review: Readers looking for alternative history should pass up the opportunity to read this book. The point of this collection of short stories is geared more toward alternative culture. Both the title and the back cover blurb are very misleading. Neither fantasy nor conquerors are the focus of the 13 authors contributing to this anthology. The first story puts more emphasis on Alexander the Great's infatuation with one of his male bodyguards than it does with a prophet and some historical facts. The key plot revolves around Alexander's Oedipal passion that results in his alienating his mother by murdering her husband, then transferring this fixation to the mother of the Persian King. Two other stories have a homosexual theme - one that fantasizes about a gay Genghis Khan, while the other describes a revoltingly explicit sexual relationship between two male sailors on an impossibly large Nazi warship. Recent historical figures are dragged through the mud as Lyndon Johnson is fantasized as a schizophrenic sociopath and Robert Kennedy as an amoral thug who tries for redemption through hollow "Good Deeds." Two stories might have provided a good launching point for some real alternative fiction when Alexander dies in an assassination attempt on his father and when Saladin and Xenophon team up to fight a couple of battles. However, neither story goes any further than that. I stayed with this book as long as I could but ended up skipping several stories. Finally, I gave up without reading the last two. I just can't say anything positive about this book. I think it's being sold to the wrong audience. Those who like alternative history will be disappointed. I hope my review can help those who would better enjoy these stories find them.

Rating:
Summary: Not really Alternative History
Review: Readers looking for alternative history should pass up the opportunity to read this book. The point of this collection of short stories is geared more toward alternative culture. Both the title and the back cover blurb are very misleading. Neither fantasy nor conquerors are the focus of the 13 authors contributing to this anthology. The first story puts more emphasis on Alexander the Great's infatuation with one of his male bodyguards than it does with a prophet and some historical facts. The key plot revolves around Alexander's Oedipal passion that results in his alienating his mother by murdering her husband, then transferring this fixation to the mother of the Persian King. Two other stories have a homosexual theme - one that fantasizes about a gay Genghis Khan, while the other describes a revoltingly explicit sexual relationship between two male sailors on an impossibly large Nazi warship. Recent historical figures are dragged through the mud as Lyndon Johnson is fantasized as a schizophrenic sociopath and Robert Kennedy as an amoral thug who tries for redemption through hollow "Good Deeds." Two stories might have provided a good launching point for some real alternative fiction when Alexander dies in an assassination attempt on his father and when Saladin and Xenophon team up to fight a couple of battles. However, neither story goes any further than that. I stayed with this book as long as I could but ended up skipping several stories. Finally, I gave up without reading the last two. I just can't say anything positive about this book. I think it's being sold to the wrong audience. Those who like alternative history will be disappointed. I hope my review can help those who would better enjoy these stories find them.

Rating:
Summary: Great anthology
Review: This is a terrific alternate history anthology that centers on taking a pivotal moment in the life of an influential individual from the past and showing his or her (yes females can prove critical too especially outside the west) fragility of the time stream with a minor twist or two. The key players are a wide grouping from Philip of Macedonia to John Wayne, LBJ and Mao and many major points in between. The stories are well written, but what grips the audience is how easily history could have been different if some mostly minor event (and some critical real happenings) never occurred as we know it. This what if drill works cleverly and brilliantly as the audience will ponder similar happenings involving diverse crowd from JFK to Hitler to Alexander. Think if Philip failed to unite Macedonia where does that leave Alexander or if Hitler had no air war over England how would he plan his invasion? The key to this collection written by some of the leading science fiction lights of today is that the tales take the audience down one speculative path but leaves readers wondering about other possibilities. Perhaps editor Pamela Sargent should consider a contest for many readers will have their own ideas for Conqueror Fantastic II after this fantastic compilation....................

Harriet Klausner