One Lamp: Alternative History Stories edited by Gordon Van Gelder
01/12/2003 . Source: Geoff Willmetts 
pub: Four Walls Eight Windows. 435 page enlarged paperback. Price: £10.99 (UK), $15.95 (US). ISBN: 1-54858-276-5. Buy from Amazon US - Buy from Amazon UK
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This is a 14 short story anthology
of alternative realities from material that has been published in
the 'Magazine Of Fantasy And Science Fiction' over the years.
A change in a particular event and things don't turn out quite the way
they would in our reality and the consequences result in the stories that you
see here.
 This
is also quite an interesting selection and short of reading MoF&SF,
I doubt if you'll see such a collection as this put together in
one volume.
The writers range from the likes of Alfred Bester, Robert Silverberg
and Poul Anderson to new boys on the block like Paul McAuley and Philip Di Filippo.
Choosing favourite stories is as much personal taste as anything. The real
problem is in qualifying them as purely SF or just speculation. I mean, take Bradley
Denton's 'The Territory' set in the American Civil War and has Sam Clemens, aka
Mark Twain, fighting with the South and changing a particular result when appalled
by the violence. The same can be said of C.M. Kornbluth's 'Two Dooms',
although this time a dimensional traveller realising the possibilities of giving
the atomic bomb secrets to the other side for a stand-off falling apart on him.
There is nothing to dispute the quality of detail, research and storytelling
but purists could debate as to whether it is SF or just historical thrillers under
a different name. If anything, alternative histories fit into SF simply because
there's no other place to put them.
Much of these alternative histories
are based in America cos that's where these authors are based and familiar with
events. I don't think you'd be disappointed with the quality of the stories here
and it might clear the ground for authors to consider different events to these
with future alternatives. This is the kind of book that needs to be read
to understand the legacy you're living on if you write alternative history stories.
GF
Willmetts
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