ReVisions edited by Julie E. Czerneda and Issac Spindel
01/08/2004 . Source: Paul Hanley 
pub: DAW. 312 page paperback. Price: $ 6.99 (US), $ 9.99 (CAN). ISBN: 0-7564-0240-9. Buy from Amazon US - Buy from Amazon UK
nb: US titles may only be available from Amazon US, and UK titles from Amazon UK. check
out website: www.dawbooks.com ReVisions' is an anthology of 15 'What if?' stories, each
by a different writer. Such Alternative Histories seem to have become very popular
over recent years. Most, however, tend to set in the similar scenarios,
such as the American Civil War or World War II and be based on alternate outcomes
to military events such as the battles of Waterloo or Gettysburg or the Battle
of Britain. There is nothing wrong with that, I enjoy them, but this anthology
breaks new ground in that the key alteration in each case is a scientific one
rather than primarily a military or a political event.
For instance,
'The Terminal Solution' supposes a disease akin to AIDS arrives in the teeming
streets of Victorian London and describes the desperate attempts to find a cure
in an age when patients were still being bled and where basic sterilisation techniques
were not in widespread use. 
The
overcrowded cities with poor, sometimes non-existent sanitation and connected
by railways and steam ships would have allowed the disease to spread in a way
that might have threatened civilisation itself as Robin Wayne Bailey points out.
This is quite a fun story, despite its subject matter, as Dr Conan Doyle, and
his real life tutor, Dr Bell of Edinburgh, are the protagonists attempting to
unravel this medical mystery against the backdrop of the Whitechapel murders.
In 'The Ashbazu Effect', John G. McDaid imagines the effect if printing
had been developed in Ur and doubtless it would, as he supposes, have re-shaped
their world just as in did in Europe in the years before the Renaissance.
The other stories vary from the amusing to the serious but are all written
by people who have published other Science Fiction books and stories. Geoffrey
A. Landis, for example, as well as having won two Hugo Awards is also a scientist
who works for NASA on the rover team of the Mars Pathfinder mission. His story,
'The Resonance Of Light' supposes the invention of the laser in nineteenth-century
Russian. At a demonstration before the Czar that supreme ruler bends over to look
into the beam...
These are all interesting, well-written stories and
some are quite thought-provoking. If you like Alternative History, I think you
will enjoy this anthology even thought the premise for change is not the usual
one of a battle's outcome being altered. The stories make one appreciate the complexity
of life and wonder whether these developments or inventions could only have arisen
in a particular time or place or whether some alternative is possible.
Paul
Hanley 
|
