Rating: 
Summary: Some stories sparkle in "Alternate Generals"
Review: Alternate Generals is a strong addition to Harry Turtledove's editing work. As always, his contribution, "The Phantom Tolbukhin," is the strongest story of the lot; Esther Friesner's "An Old Man's Summer," featuring a debilitated Eisenhower, and R.M. Meluch's "Vati," in which Hitler gets lots of jets and prevents D-Day, are also top of the line. There are no weak links in the volume, however; even the most routine stories are interesting and well-executed. Mr. Turtledove can be proud of this one.
Rating: 
Summary: A real"dog's dinner" of alternate history!
Review: Although I felt somewhat misled (as usual) by the cover of the book showing Romans in Panzers,I was not too displeased with the content. This little volume would make a fine travelling companion,since most of the short stories take only a little time to read and they all "stand alone". Hence a good book for a commuter or someone taking a short regional hop.As with most anthologies,the contents of the book covers alot of territory. I particularly liked "Vati",since I am not only an aviation buff,but also a serious student of W.W.II. The concept of Werner Moelders leading the Luftwaffe was great,for at the time of his real-time death he was the leading "ace" in the European Theatre of war. Of the other alternate history short stories , I thought "A Hard Day for Mother","Billy Mitchell's Overt Act" , and "Craft of War" all had particular merit. Several of the others were somewhat "forgettable". To enjoy the genre of alternate history , one should be fairly well versed in "real-time" history , or many of the stories dealt with in this book will fall on barren ground. Most people will not have heard of Christopher Craddock , for example. Instead of vanquishing the German battlecruiser "Goeben" as he accomplished in the story , he actually went to a sailors's grave at the hands of von Spee's armoured cruisers at Coronel! It is exceedingly difficult to give a book such as this a "star" rating since a few of the stories contained would themselves rate 5 stars while others are far less meritorious. To simplify matters , I would give this book a "worth buying" or a "thumbs up" , as opposed to a negative rating.
Rating:
Summary: Some deep stuff, but too deep?
Review: Although the stories in this anthology are on average much better than the stories in the alternate history anthologies edited, e.g., by Mike Resnick a few years ago, the casual reader is nevertheless going to run into trouble when reading this collection. The problem is that the various authors have done too good a job, while the publisher has totally screwed up. In other words, several of the stories in this anthology are based on "too" obscure historical what-ifs. Unfortunately, as has become well-known by those who closely follow science fiction, it turns out that the introductory notes that were supposed to be included with the stories were left out by the publisher! >So... there is some decent stuff in here. But unlike other recent alternate history collections, the reader is going to have do some more thinking about the stories in order to gather a better appreciation of what the authors put into the tales.
Rating:
Summary: Bats around 500
Review: As the summary suggests, I liked 8 of the 16 stories. "A Hard Day for Mother" alone rewards the price of admission. One caution: this is a book for history buffs. Those with minimal historical preparation and/or background will find several of the stories hard to follow.
Rating:
Summary: A great book, despite Elizabeth Moon
Review: Firstly, I was incredibly pleased that the contents did not match the description on the back. Almost all of the stories were very well written (especially Weber's) and lingered in the mind well after the book was finished. The most notable exception was Moon. I often look to short story collections to give me an idea of a writer whom I'd either not heard of or had never read. Thank God I got this book before I'd made the mistake of getting one of her novels. It was dull, tedious, meandering, and in all other ways one of the most useless pieces of prose I've seen this side of a Star Trek convention fan publication. And yet it was fortunately utterly forgetable. In short, this book is historically and militarily very good reading. Just skip over Moon's 'story'. I promise you won't have missed anything.
Rating:
Summary: A great book, despite Elizabeth Moon
Review: Firstly, I was incredibly pleased that the contents did not match the description on the back. Almost all of the stories were very well written (especially Weber's) and lingered in the mind well after the book was finished. The most notable exception was Moon. I often look to short story collections to give me an idea of a writer whom I'd either not heard of or had never read. Thank God I got this book before I'd made the mistake of getting one of her novels. It was dull, tedious, meandering, and in all other ways one of the most useless pieces of prose I've seen this side of a Star Trek convention fan publication. And yet it was fortunately utterly forgetable. In short, this book is historically and militarily very good reading. Just skip over Moon's 'story'. I promise you won't have missed anything.
Rating:
Summary: "Awesome Alternate History"
Review: Harry Turtledove did a great job putting together a bunch of solid, alternate history stories. There were a few I wasn't all that thrilled by, but the rest I really enjoyed. By far the the best was "Billy Mitchell's Overt Act" by William Sanders. Here the pioneer in military aviation stayed in the Army and in 1941 became the CO of a bomber wing in Hawaii. A VERY different Pacific War results. Wonderfully told in snipets by famous people like Harry Truman, General MacArthur & Walter Lord. The runner-up is "The Craft of War" by Lois Tilton, where Socrates tells the tale of Sun Tzu helping the Persians in their war against Greece. The portrayal of Samuel Clemens in "Bloodstained Ground" was spot on! Sam, aka Mark Twain, is sent by his New York Herald editor to write a story on the death of President George Custer, the hero of Little Big Horn. Great inner turmoil story in "A Hard Day For Mother," where Confederate Colonel Joshua Chamberlain leads his men in the battle for Little Round Top, with his brother is leading the Union troops. And having Admiral Horatio Nelson command the French fleet in "Vive L'Amiral" was just so cool! "The Last Crusader" was an OK story, but I just loved the concept of CARDINAL Napolean Bounaparte leading his troops in the Crusades. This is a definate winner for history buffs.
Rating:
Summary: "Awesome Alternate History"
Review: Harry Turtledove did a great job putting together a bunch of solid, alternate history stories. There were a few I wasn't all that thrilled by, but the rest I really enjoyed. By far the the best was "Billy Mitchell's Overt Act" by William Sanders. Here the pioneer in military aviation stayed in the Army and in 1941 became the CO of a bomber wing in Hawaii. A VERY different Pacific War results. Wonderfully told in snipets by famous people like Harry Truman, General MacArthur & Walter Lord. The runner-up is "The Craft of War" by Lois Tilton, where Socrates tells the tale of Sun Tzu helping the Persians in their war against Greece. The portrayal of Samuel Clemens in "Bloodstained Ground" was spot on! Sam, aka Mark Twain, is sent by his New York Herald editor to write a story on the death of President George Custer, the hero of Little Big Horn. Great inner turmoil story in "A Hard Day For Mother," where Confederate Colonel Joshua Chamberlain leads his men in the battle for Little Round Top, with his brother is leading the Union troops. And having Admiral Horatio Nelson command the French fleet in "Vive L'Amiral" was just so cool! "The Last Crusader" was an OK story, but I just loved the concept of CARDINAL Napolean Bounaparte leading his troops in the Crusades. This is a definate winner for history buffs.
Rating:
Summary: "Awesome Alternate History"
Review: Harry Turtledove did a great job putting together a bunch of solid, alternate history stories. There were a few I wasn't all that thrilled by, but the rest I really enjoyed. By far the the best was "Billy Mitchell's Overt Act" by William Sanders. Here the pioneer in military aviation stayed in the Army and in 1941 became the CO of a bomber wing in Hawaii. A VERY different Pacific War results. Wonderfully told in snipets by famous people like Harry Truman, General MacArthur & Walter Lord. The runner-up is "The Craft of War" by Lois Tilton, where Socrates tells the tale of Sun Tzu helping the Persians in their war against Greece. The portrayal of Samuel Clemens in "Bloodstained Ground" was spot on! Sam, aka Mark Twain, is sent by his New York Herald editor to write a story on the death of President George Custer, the hero of Little Big Horn. Great inner turmoil story in "A Hard Day For Mother," where Confederate Colonel Joshua Chamberlain leads his men in the battle for Little Round Top, with his brother is leading the Union troops. And having Admiral Horatio Nelson command the French fleet in "Vive L'Amiral" was just so cool! "The Last Crusader" was an OK story, but I just loved the concept of CARDINAL Napolean Bounaparte leading his troops in the Crusades. This is a definate winner for history buffs.
Rating: 
Summary: A definite case of false advertising
Review: I bought this book because the blurbs on the back cover sounded interesting. Something like Rommel fighting against the Romans, etc. "What if" scenarios that sounded intriguing. Needless to say, I was a little stunned when not a single one of these scenarios actually appeared in the book. The stories that were presented were average at best. Many of them weren't even military in focus. There's nothing wrong with short stories that don't have a military theme -- I've read and enjoyed many such stories myself. But that wasn't how this collection was presented. I initially gave this book two stars but got so aggravated when I began recalling the feeling that I'd been duped that I dropped a star.
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