Alternate history has been around for decades, yet it seems that only recently has it come into its own as a genre. Thanks to authors like Harry Turtledove and Eric Flint, people nowadays can't seem to get enough of alternate history. This is one of the reasons why Sandra Ley's collection of short stories makes for such enjoyable reading. Originally published in 1976, it offers a wide-ranging collection of alternate history tales written before the genre became clogged with endless rehashings of the Confederates triumphing over the Union or Nazis winning World War II. While Ley's collection does contain a couple of stories spawned by those settings (such as Ward Moore's "A Class with Dr. Chang"), most of the stories have a freshness of premise that often seems lacking today.

This freshness results in a diverse collection of stories, from Edmund Cooper's "Jupiter Laughs" (in which a troop of Roman soldiers hunts down a young Jewish couple and their newborn baby) to Avram Davidson's "O Brave Old World!" (where the decision to send an ailing Prince Frederick to America to recuperate leads to a very different revolution). A few stories show their age (most notably Lucy Cores's "Hail to the Chief," which comes across as a product of its time), but most make for entertaining reading for fans of alternate history, especially those who are curious to see a different focus than the ones which seem to dominate the genre today. ( )