Alternate Gerrolds: An Assortment of Fictitious Lives

by David Gerrold, Mike Resnick (Introduction)

David Gerrold takes you on a tour of alternate universes … universes where Santa Claus isn’t nice and the best man is actually elected president; where Ronald Reagan and Gregory Peck command the plane carrying the first atomic bomb and John F. Kennedy stars in the hit show Star Track, where Franz Kafka doesn’t write fiction and the Devil holds educational seminars. Introduction by Mike Resnick.

Genres: Science Fiction, Short Stories

216 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2004

Reviews

[Marvin · Rating 3 out of 5]

It has been a long time since I've read anything by David Gerrold. I've read The Man Who Folded Himself, When Harley Was One, and the first three volumes of The War Against The Cthorrs. Then he just fell under my radar for the next decade. This collection of short fiction re-introduced me to this author and he is just as entertaining as I remembered. He is an excellent story-teller with a casual style and a clever wit. The tales in this collection appear to come from a series of anthologies edited by Steve Rasnic Tem. From Tem's introduction and Gerrold's foreword, they are either the best of friends or the worst of enemies. These anthologies seem to have been directed to the sci-fi fan. I say that because there is a lot of inside fan humor. Hint: If you don't know who Cordwainer Bird is, many of the jokes may be over your head. Most of these tales are alternate histories ranging from Manson as a rock star to JFK as a Hollywood actor. Some work and some do not. For instance I found "The Firebringers" an interesting WWII alt.History tale but making the combatants actors like Bogart and Gregory Peck seemed somewhat pointless. On the other hand, "Franz Kafka, Superhero" is a five star masterpiece pitting Kafka aka Bug-Man against Sigmund Freud aka Psycheman. I also like "Rex", "The Ghost of Christmas Sideways" and "A Wish For Smish". It was nice to visit this writer yet again. But sorry, Trekkies. There are no tribbles in this book.

[Cookie M. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Three and a half stars. They can't all be tribbles, but some of them are just as good.

[Robyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Early Bird Book Deal | Could have been arranged better | I haven't read Gerrold in just ages, but I'm a long-time fan. The problem here is that since these were gathered from multiple separate publications, the order they were placed in emphasized the weakness of the first few stories. There were just too many that were the same gimmick: write about a known historical event, change the involved people into different noted personages, toss in a couple winks to the reader. Ike's VP being McCarthy! Kennedy being an actor! Classic actors being soldiers! If those stories had been broken up instead of being one after another, it would be a stronger collection. Still, the stories that followed those were good.

[Laura J · Rating 5 out of 5]

Like a great box of chocolates, there's variety for the eyes. From sci-fi noir to what would happen if the Kennedys choose to move to Hollywood, each story is well crafted and leaves you craving more. I highly reccomend this for anyone who wants to enjoy a temporary escape from reality.

[The_J · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gerrold before Gerrold becomes woke.

[William Leight · Rating 3 out of 5]

Gerrold has a pleasantly light and breezy style and a decent sense of humor, so the mostly slight stories in this book are a quick and entertaining read. "The Kennedy Enterprise", the story of an alternate-history version of Star Trek which starred JFK, is typical: Gerrold deftly makes the whole thing sound almost plausible, dropping all the principals -- Shatner, Nimoy, Roddenberry, RFK -- cleverly into place, and seeding the whole thing with little jokes (e.g., JFK and Marilyn Monroe never meet in this universe). Of course, it helps that Gerrold used to write for Star Trek himself: his most famous episode was "The Trouble With Tribbles", so of course he has JFK reject that idea as being unsuited to his dignity as Captain of the Enterprise. Other stories are similar: "Franz Kafka, Superhero" is a slightly demented joke about Kafka and Freud, "What Goes Around" has Sharon Tate and Roman Polanski's son murder the Manson Family, etc. A couple of the stories stumble when Gerrold tries to be little more earnest -- "The Impeachment of Adlai Stevenson" is a bit too unsubtle, "The Firebringers" verges on the schmaltzy -- but anybody looking for some science fiction that reads easily and mostly doesn't take itself too seriously will enjoy this book: it won't change your life, but it's a pleasant enough way to while away a Sunday afternoon, and there's nothing wrong with that.

[Stephen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Alternate Gerrolds, a collection of David Gerrold's short stories, many of them written for Mike Resnick edited alternate history anthologies, is a perfect example of Gerrold's strengths and weaknesses as a writer. Each story by itself is clever, amusing and eminently readable and none of them are particularly thought provoking or tackle complex or weighty issues. While Gerrold never breaks new ground he is among the best at tilling the already established fields for solid, enjoyable stories. This is another of those books that make me wish Goodreads allowed half stars. It is too well done and enjoyable for just three stars but it is not really notable enough for four stars. Since I can't give it 3.5 stars, Gerrold's long time contributions to science fiction push him to four. Standouts in this collection include The Impeachment of Adlai Stevenson, The Fan Who Molded Himself, The Spell and Digging in Gehenna.

[Jeff · Rating 5 out of 5]

These are some of the most entertaining and absorbing short stories I have read in a long time. There are some great alternate world stories here, including one about what may have happened if Adlai Stevenson had defeated Dwight Eisenhower in the 1952 presidential election; if John F. Kennedy had gone into acting instead of politics; if some of the best-known movie stars of the World War II era had manned a plane assigned to drop the atomic bomb (on Germany instead of Japan); if Franz Kafka, though an experiment by Marie Curie, had gained the power to literally turn into an insect and become a superhero -- plus there are other great stories -- one involving a dysfunctional family with pet dinosaurs, some wonderfully twisted Christmas stories...I could go on and on. This is great stuff by one of science fiction's best writers.

[Danny Nelson · Rating 4 out of 5]

This series of thirteen are typical of Gerrold: the ideas are compelling and the characterizations are for the most part engaging and human. The stories are weakest the more writerly they are--in the minority of stories that are focused on writers and the writing life, there's a simultaneous spirit of self-congratulation and exasperation over the writing process that is distractingly indulgent in my mind. Still, there's much to recommend these stories: Gerrold's ability to take an idea to the point of ludicrousness and yet keep it compelling is showcased here in several stories. It wouldn't be the book I'd recommend as an entry to Gerrold, but for fans it's a delightful read.

[Traummachine · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars:

This was an odd short story collection by Gerrold, mostly dealing with alternate history shorts he wrote for a friend's magazine. They're all over the map, from alternate Kennedy histories, to dinosaurs still being around (in miniature, as pets), to a darn good horror short story. But there were no bad apples here. There were a couple where I knew I was missing some references (like the Kennedy story), but they were still enjoyable.

This man's talent just amazes me, and I'm excited to finally be ready to restart Voyage of the Star Wolf next.

[Cheryl Chapman · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love short stories. This collection was just up my ally. I found it purely by accident while looking for something interesting to download for the first time from my public library digital editions.

The stories are fun, science fiction based, with a touch of truth, irony and humor.

Made me want to find more of David Gerrolds books to read - I will be heading back to my online library account.

[Chris · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed it, but they're all quite short and unrelated. I suspect they fit slightly better in the categorized Resnick anthologies they were written for.

[Eric Brown · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nice collection of alternate history stories.