Alternate Generals II

June 1, 2002
Napoleon is in New Orleans in William Sanders's "Empire"; the German Empire thrives in 1929 in Harry Turtledove's "Uncle Alf"; Pancho Villa's about to become the vice-president in S.M. Stirling and Richard Foss's "Compadres"; and General Patton gets a new diary in Roland J. Green's "George Patton Slept Here." In Alternate Generals II, a collection of 13 wild speculations for those who enjoy specifically military alternative histories, Harry Turtledove (Colonization: Aftershocks) also gathers stories from the likes of Chris Bunch, Michael F. Flynn and Susan Shwartz.

July 1, 2002
In this collection of alternate-history short stories, Judith Tarr returns readers to the Crusades in "Devil's Bargain" and lets Richard the Lion-Hearted capture Jerusalem, the prize real history denied him. The kaiser prevails in World War I in editor Turtledove's "Uncle Alf," which is otherwise a speculation on whether Hitler could have risen in some other fashion. One of history's favorite whipping boys, General Custer, shows up for more trouble in World War II in Chris Bunch's witty "Tarnished Glory: Custer and the Waffen SS." Not every story's protagonist is a general, however. In Michael F. Flynn's "Southern Strategy," Adlai Stevenson battles for civil rights in an Alabama that has been partitioned into French and German zones because the U.S. failed to enter World War II. Every bit as entertaining as the first "Alternate Generals" (1998). (Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2002, American Library Association.)