Ancient New

by James Tallett (Editor), Adam Perin, Gareth D. Jones

What would life be like if it was not the United States of America, but the Aztecs, who had led mankind to the stars? If it was the Victorians who used the telegraph and electricity to create a world wide web, a hundred years before it came into being? If survival in the future was dictated by knowledge of an ancient, ignored, form of theatre? Life would be very different indeed. Life always is, when the distant future and the forgotten past are merged together, taking elements of each to explore the what if? of a new whole. The freedom it gives to an author to invent, to digress from what we know happened is liberating. Fifteen writers have taken that freedom, and wrung from it sagas of interstellar aliens found by British regulars, airships cavorting along trade routes once the province of foot and camel, and a great deal more. Here, within Ancient New, these remade worlds unfurl themselves, each story presenting a window into what life would be like had circumstances differed from our own, if the Aztecs had been first into space, if the telegraph had become the world wide web. My, what a different life we would lead. Ancient New is a hundred and one thousand word alternate history anthology edited by James Tallett. The fifteen authors appearing in the anthology, in order of their stories, are Adam Perin, Gareth D Jones, Mark Rigney, Shay Fabbro, Travis Knight, Billy Wong, Robert Santa, Frank Gullo, Marilag Angway, Aaron French, Bo Balder, T.D. Edge, Ken Lizzi, Sarina Dorie, and Tom Howard.

Genres: Steampunk

383 pages, Paperback

First published July 2, 2013

Reviews

[Bo]

Bo Balder