Rating: 
Summary: An excellent collection of alternate reality short stories
Review: This was an excellent book of short stories. Turtledove says alot in just a few pages and I was left me hungering for more. I admit to being a fan of the alternate history/reality genre and Turtledove is a master at making such "potential pasts" believeable. Perhaps my favorite story of the group (and it was not an easy decision) was concerning the arrival of an official of the Persian court to the conquered province of Greece (I believe the story was titled "Counting Potsherds"). This tells a nice compact story of how things can quickly change on a person at the flick of a wrist.
This story is representative of Turtledove's work because he allows the altenate history to be a seemless and natural background to the story, as if this was the real course of events. Some writers make too much of describing the alternate history and do not give enough time to giving life and action to the characters in their stories. Turtledove's worlds are certainly different from our own but the focus is still on people and everything that people do. If the world they're set in seems foreign and unfamiliar to the reader, the humans themselves make up for it by simply being real people which is the real strength of his work. Pick this one up.
Rating:
Summary: An excellent collection of alternate reality short stories
Review: This was an excellent book of short stories. Turtledove says alot in just a few pages and I was left me hungering for more. I admit to being a fan of the alternate history/reality genre and Turtledove is a master at making such "potential pasts" believeable. Perhaps my favorite story of the group (and it was not an easy decision) was concerning the arrival of an official of the Persian court to the conquered province of Greece (I believe the story was titled "Counting Potsherds"). This tells a nice compact story of how things can quickly change on a person at the flick of a wrist.
This story is representative of Turtledove's work because he allows the altenate history to be a seemless and natural background to the story, as if this was the real course of events. Some writers make too much of describing the alternate history and do not give enough time to giving life and action to the characters in their stories. Turtledove's worlds are certainly different from our own but the focus is still on people and everything that people do. If the world they're set in seems foreign and unfamiliar to the reader, the humans themselves make up for it by simply being real people which is the real strength of his work. Pick this one up.
Rating: 
Summary: Great alternate history short story writing
Review: Turtledove is one of few writers in the genre of science-fiction and fantasy who write compelling short stories, and this book is full of great ones. His knowledge of and respect for history, evident in these pages, leads to stories that are historically plausible alternate happenings (excepting, of course, the ones with vampires, etc. :-). His historicity makes these stories even more wonderful to read, knowing that "it could have been", and it leads the reader to realize and spend thought-time on just how much of history is decided by very small events and chance, and how so much of what we know and who we are today might not have been if seemingly insignificant things hadn't happened (or had happened) even thousands of years ago.I would receommend this book to anyone who is interested in history, science-fiction, gothic horror, or fantasy --> it will appeal to all. I also recommend it to anyone who enjoys literature (of whatever genre) that causes one to pause and think and see things a little bit differently after reading it.
Rating:
Summary: Great alternate history short story writing
Review: Turtledove is one of few writers in the genre of science-fiction and fantasy who write compelling short stories, and this book is full of great ones. His knowledge of and respect for history, evident in these pages, leads to stories that are historically plausible alternate happenings (excepting, of course, the ones with vampires, etc. :-). His historicity makes these stories even more wonderful to read, knowing that "it could have been", and it leads the reader to realize and spend thought-time on just how much of history is decided by very small events and chance, and how so much of what we know and who we are today might not have been if seemingly insignificant things hadn't happened (or had happened) even thousands of years ago. I would receommend this book to anyone who is interested in history, science-fiction, gothic horror, or fantasy --> it will appeal to all. I also recommend it to anyone who enjoys literature (of whatever genre) that causes one to pause and think and see things a little bit differently after reading it.
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