Other Reviews, Better Books

Hey,

So I just finished up Other Worlds, Better Lives a collection of longer short stories by Howard Waldrop. Normally, I’m a bit leery of anthologies. What if there’s only one good story among the pack? This one came in pretty strong across the board.

The reason I went for this anthology initially was because it contained the story “A Dozen Tough Jobs” which is a 1920’s re-imagining of the 12 Labors of Hercules set in the deep South. It was pretty good, but I was a little surprised at the way most of the labors themselves were glossed over pretty quickly. Not the major ones of course. The Stables, the apples, the fight with Cerebus, all of those get quite some detail, but others are barely a paragraph. Still, it was a fun book.

For the most part, the collected stories all fall under the heading of “Alternate History”, but Waldrop is less interested in “What if the Nazi’s won?” and more interested in details. He covers the slightly-less-famous and dissects their impact on history (both real and imagined). Each story comes with an afterwords that often illuminates both the real story behind some of the characters in the stories as well as pointing out some of the intriguing details that would escape people who hadn’t really looked at the period being depicted.

All the stories were good. One of them, “You Could Go Home Again”, I’d already read as part of the airship anthology I read a few years back. I think my favorites were Fin de Cycle, the pedal-powered turn of the century in Paris story and Flatfeet, the story of a small town sheriff. Certainly if you’re looking for short zippy stories or want to ramble through forgotten halls in history, this is a great book to pick up.

Later
Tom

Other Reviews, Better Books

Hey,

So I just finished up Other Worlds, Better Lives a collection of longer short stories by Howard Waldrop. Normally, I’m a bit leery of anthologies. What if there’s only one good story among the pack? This one came in pretty strong across the board.

The reason I went for this anthology initially was because it contained the story “A Dozen Tough Jobs” which is a 1920’s re-imagining of the 12 Labors of Hercules set in the deep South. It was pretty good, but I was a little surprised at the way most of the labors themselves were glossed over pretty quickly. Not the major ones of course. The Stables, the apples, the fight with Cerebus, all of those get quite some detail, but others are barely a paragraph. Still, it was a fun book.

For the most part, the collected stories all fall under the heading of “Alternate History”, but Waldrop is less interested in “What if the Nazi’s won?” and more interested in details. He covers the slightly-less-famous and dissects their impact on history (both real and imagined). Each story comes with an afterwords that often illuminates both the real story behind some of the characters in the stories as well as pointing out some of the intriguing details that would escape people who hadn’t really looked at the period being depicted.

All the stories were good. One of them, “You Could Go Home Again”, I’d already read as part of the airship anthology I read a few years back. I think my favorites were Fin de Cycle, the pedal-powered turn of the century in Paris story and Flatfeet, the story of a small town sheriff. Certainly if you’re looking for short zippy stories or want to ramble through forgotten halls in history, this is a great book to pick up.

Later
Tom