Roads of Destiny: And Other Tales of Alternative Histories and Parallel Realms

by Alasdair Richmond (Editor)

A poet comes to a fork in the road where three parallel destinies orbit the same violent fate; a child’s rebellious escapade to the city becomes a nightmare when the portal to return is nowhere to be found; rather than abdicate, Kaiser Wilhelm II leads the High Seas Fleet on a doom-laden final voyage.

Delving into the strange imaginings of Arthur Conan Doyle, Joyce Carol Oates, Sarban, Robert Holdstock and many more, this new collection brings together fourteen tales traversing uncanny collateral fates, weird eddies of alternative history, realms of Dark Fantasy and the unsettling otherworlds bordering our own reality.

Genres: Horror, Fiction, Short Stories

353 pages, Kindle Edition

First published November 23, 2023

About the author

Alasdair Richmond is a threefold graduate of Aberdeen University and joined Philosophy at Edinburgh in September 2003. He has published on constructive empiricism, the Anthropic Principle, Doomsday arguments, Descartes' conception of immortality, time travel and the topology of time. Besides teaching epistemology, metaphysics and philosophy of science, he was closely involved with the Higher Philosophy programme 1999-2003, conducting classes for pupils and Continuing Professional Development days for teachers from all over Scotland.

Reviews

[p. · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5☆

The anthology was not quite what you might expect from the title. But the selection is still, at the end of the day, quite solid.

Favourite stories: "The Yellow Wall-Paper" by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, "The Curfew Tolls" by Stephen Vincent Benét, "Branch Line to Benceston" by Sir Andrew Caldecott, "He Walked Around the Horses" by H. Beam Piper, "Calmahain" by Sarban, "Scarrowfell" by Robert Holdstock

[Neil · Rating 4 out of 5]

'Finding Treasure Island' 5⭐️
The Yellow Wall Paper 3 ⭐️
Roads of Destiny 3⭐️
Bad Lands 5 ⭐️<- this was _greeaat_!
The Death Voyage 1⭐️
The Curfew Tolls 3⭐️
An undistinguished boy 1⭐️
Branch line to Benceston 4⭐️
He walked around the horses 4⭐️
Calmahain 5⭐️
Exit 4⭐️
The Rose Wall 2⭐️
Scarrowfell 3⭐️

Some really outstanding stories concerning alternate dimensions/other universes: Finding Treasure Island, Bad Lands, Branch Line to Benceston, Calmahain, Exit.

And some fun alternative history tales too, mixed with a couple of very meh tales! The alternative history tales actually have a connection!

[Andrew Sharkey · Rating 3 out of 5]

An alternative to horror, definitely of the weird genre and certainly thought provoking.

[Tom · Rating 3 out of 5]

•The Discovery of the Treasure Isles by Amelia B. Edwards ⭐⭐⭐
•The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman ⭐⭐⭐⭐
•Roads of Destiny by O. Henry ⭐⭐⭐⭐
•The Bad Lands by John Metcalfe ⭐⭐⭐
•The Death Voyage by Arthur Conan Doyle ⭐⭐
•The Curfew Tolls by Stephen Vincent Bennett ⭐⭐⭐
• An Undistinguished Boy by Gerald Kersh ⭐⭐
•Branch Line to Benceston by Sir Andrew Caldecott ⭐⭐⭐
• Diplotopia by Sir Andrew Caldecott ⭐⭐
• He Walked Around the Horses by H. Beam Piper ⭐⭐⭐
•Calmahain by Sarban ⭐⭐⭐⭐
•Exit by Patricia Miles ⭐⭐⭐
•The Rose Wall by Joyce Carol Oates ⭐⭐⭐
• Scarrowfell by Robert Holdstock ⭐⭐⭐⭐

[Al Wright · Rating 3 out of 5]

These roads are paved unevenly to say the least. This collection is decent enough as a comprehensive history of the Parallel Reality subgenre, with some stories standing out with flying colours compared to others.
It's unfortunate then that a majority of the inclusions spend their entire length simply introducing or getting to their worlds of the weird before ceasing without exploring any worthwhile themes at all, effectively blueballing the reader at any given turn.

The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman is one of my favourite short stories of all time, H. Beam Piper was a welcome return (though not with his best work here in He Walked Around Horses but I digress). O Henry's titular Roads of Destiny is worth checking the book out of the library for alone, the multiple viewpoints compound the parallel themes in a novel way and Joyce Carol Oates' The Rose Wall brings a tinge of tragic melancholy that fits in well with the feel of the earlier classic stories despite being a more contemporary piece (a far cry from her more buzzkilly mountain-of-a-molehile-ish postmodernism in the vein of Blonde and Zombie, both of which I didn't much care for since the reality of both subjects pales in comparison to the shit-stirring layer of fiction Oates drapes over them, again I've strayed from the path but oh well).

All in all 4 out of 13 stories leaves this hard to recommend, which sucks given the subgenre has so much promise and, frankly, there are better examples out there in novel form that have the room to feast on their own themes (The Man in the High Castle and Pavane spring to mind).
Arthur Conan Doyle fatigue rears its head once more, though that's probably more of a personal peeve in being a Portsmouth native; like him or not, there's no getting away from the guy here, and, as enjoyable as the Sherlock stories are, the rest of his output leaves a lot to be desired in my opinion (so flat and dull is the writing, with little to no character to speak of) so, needless to say, the inclusion of The Death Voyage here gave me an inward groan of veritable despair.

In all honesty, I appreciate what Alasdair Richmond has tried to do here in arranging the stories chronologically in terms of publication to create a timeline of this subgenre of speculative fiction, but the stories included are oftentimes so disappointing that it's worth skipping the book altogether and just looking up the stories that interest you seperately, especially considering a majority of them are available through the public domain.

[Philippa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not all the stories in this collection were quite to my taste, but there were also a number of stories that are the best I’ve ever read in the British Library of the Weird series. Favourites include:

The Yellow Wallpaper - Charlotte Perkins Gilman
Calmahain - Sarban
The Rose Wall- Joyce Carol Oates
Scarrowfell - Robert Holdstock

[Richard Howard · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is one of the best collections in this series I have read with nary a dud tale, though including 'The Yellow Wallpaper' seems an odd choice. The cleverest I think is 'He Walked Around The Horses' by H. Beam Piper, though 'Scarrowfell' by Robert Holdstock is the creepiest.