I find that I have to regrettably report, that to me, this book seems like

a publisher jumping on the recent commercial success that this author has had.




Turtledoves contribution to this book is as 'editor', and a 15 page short story.




Other shorts are contributed by David Weber and Elizabeth Moon, both of whom

must consider themselves fortunate to have sold these particular stories,

(although Webers has the honor of being the best contribution to the collection by far.)




The hook, which is a good one, is that these are all stories where a leader could have made a

different contribution to a nexus battle and therefore changed the way that history turned out.




Mu facination with such stories is the change in the way things turn out.




These stories mostly focus on the historical moment of change.




Perhaps they are of interest to someone with more of an interest in history

than myself, but to me these stories constitute no more than literary navel gazing.




They are without exception writen with no context in which to put the story. An assumption of

knowledge of the campaigne or battle is made which for me at least had no basis in fact.




The mark of a good story would be that it inspired me to look up and research the incident in question.




In none of these cases was this true.

The book contains 16 stories by a variety of authors, including Lillian Stewart Carl, Lois Tilton,

Janet Berliner, and others of whom I have never heard.




All in all, Money which could have been better spent elsewhere.
Visit the author of this review