What Might Have Been, Volumes III & IV

What Might Have Been #3-4

by Gregory Benford (editor)

Gather together some of Science Fiction's most ingenious writers, give them free rein to speculate on the past - at pivotal points - and here you have it 'What Might Have Been, Volumes 3 & 4, an intriguing two-in-one short story bonanza that contains 26 fascinating, alternate histories that are enthralling, and entertaining - tales by Rovert Silverberg, Kim Stanley Robinson, Gregory Benford, Nancy Kress, Poul Anderson and many other talented writers.).

Volume III: Alternate Wars
Volume IV: Alternate Americas

Genres: Science Fiction, Alternate History, Historical Fiction, Fiction

453 pages, Hardcover

First published December 1, 1992

About the author

Gregory Benford is an American science fiction author and astrophysicist who is on the faculty of the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of California, Irvine.

As a science fiction author, Benford is best known for the Galactic Center Saga novels, beginning with In the Ocean of Night (1977). This series postulates a galaxy in which sentient organic life is in constant warfare with sentient mechanical life.

Reviews

[James Bowman · Rating 2 out of 5]

An omnibus edition containing two collections of alternate history stories - "Alternate Wars" (Volume III) and "Alternate Americas" (Volume IV). Overall this is somewhat weaker than the two volumes from the first omnibus, with Volume III having a few surprisingly dull stories, and Volume IV feeling particularly repetitious (apparently a lot of authors really wanted to tell Christopher Columbus stories). Still, the omnibus does have some stories I found interesting:

Alternate Wars: "And Wild For To Hold" by Nancy Kress (what if Anne Boleyn was "rescued" by time travelers?); "Arms and the Woman" by James Morrow (what if Helen of Troy had enough of the Trojan War?); "Ready for the Fatherland" by Harry Turtledove (what if Nazi generals had removed Hitler?); "The Tomb" by Jack McDevitt (what if the Byzantine Empire never was?); "Goddard's People" by Allen Steele (what if the space race began during World War II?); and "Over There" by Mike Resnick (what if Teddy Roosevelt had fought in World War I?) Also of note (though not on my personal "interesting" list) is "If Lee Had Not Won the Battle of Gettysburg", an alternate history written by Winston Churchill.

Alternate Americas: "Ink from the New Moon" by A. A. Attanasio (what if China had colonized North America?), "If There Be Cause" by Sheila Finch (what if early English settlers had joined with Native Americans?); "Let Time Shape" by George Zebrowski (what if Carthage had colonized North America?); "Looking for the Fountain" by Robert Silverberg (what if the Crusaders had visited North America?); and "The Sleeping Serpent" (what if the Mongols had colonized North America?). (B-)

[Veronica · Rating 2 out of 5]

Some interesting ideas here but a lot of the stories felt a bit same-y. I did like that there was a small bit of interconnecting thread through them. But a lootttt of them had a bunch of racist shit in them. I get that most of the stories took place between like the 1400s and early 1900s but that often felt like an excuse for the authors to just spew as much stupid shit as they wanted like this completely racistly described Native American man steals and eats a baby and then blames a poor innocent white man for it like come onnnnnnnnnnn man. Felt like a lot of the stories should have went further into how the rest of course of history would be changed by the deviances in their plots. Like an alternate history short story anthology should be more interesting than this. Lots of misogyny too like it got hard to keep going after the first 100 pages realizing you still got 75% left.

[Al Berry · Rating 1 out of 5]

It seems as though this book is going to out of its way to prove the premise that writing alternate history is hard, since most of the stories are just garbage.

There are a few standouts worth reading, such as a Robert Silverberg story on Ponce de Leon and of course anything with Turtledove’s name on it is good, but the vast majority of this volume is just rubbish.

[Kristin · Rating 2 out of 5]

I love alternative history, but this volume did not do it for me. I skimmed most of the first half "Alternate Wars" and plodded through most of the second half "Alternate Americas".

Not recommended.

[Rob Stevens · Rating 4 out of 5]

Story collections alternative histories. Varying quality. 3½ stars.

My favorites:
Nancy Kress - And Wild for to Hold
Mike Resnick - Over There
A.S. Attanasio - Ink from the New Moon
L. Sprague de Camp - The Round-eyed Barbarians