Nine Alternate Alternate Histories — Benjamin Rosenbaum

ROBERT CHARLES WILSON * JEFF VANDERMEER
STEPHEN BAXTER * THEODORA GOSS
LIZ WILLIAMS * GENE WOLFE
GREG VAN EEKHOUT * ALASTAIR REYNOLDS
PAUL PARK * LUCIUS SHEPARD
BENJAMIN ROSENBAUM

Alternate history explores the many possible directions our world could follow if certain key events didn't occur at all or were changed in some crucial way. Is our Earth the only Earth, our reality the only one that exists? Or are there many parallel worlds and societies, some very similar to ours, some barely recognizable?

What if Lincoln had never become president, and the Civil War had never taken place? What if Columbus never discovered America, and the Inca developed a massive, technologically advanced empire? What if magic was real and a half-faery queen ruled England? What if Hitler and Germany won the war because America never got involved? What if many of the world's religions were totally commercialized, their temples run like casinos, religions designed purely for profit? What if an author discovered a book written by an alternate version of himself?

These are just some of the possible pathways that you can take to explore the Other Earths that may be waiting just one event away..