Inklings Press has a new anthology out this week, and it asks the question, What if?
Alternate History is an increasingly popular genre, with more and more shows and books exploring possibilities beyond our timeline and reality. Here’s what the publisher had to say:
Have you ever asked the question “What if…?”
What if things had turned out differently, what if history had taken another turn, what if our world had gone another way?
That’s the question at the heart of the genre of alternate history – and that powers the stories in the new Inklings Press anthology, Tales From Alternate Earths 3.
Alternate history has had quite the renaissance in recent years – from TV shows such as The Man in the High Castle, an adaptation of the Philip K Dick novel, to the HBO series Watchmen, and more light-hearted adventures through history such as Timeless or Legends of Tomorrow. Even Disney is getting in on the action with their “What If?” series looking at what might have happened if key moments in the Marvel Cinematic Universe had gone differently.
That’s the fun of it – there’s so much range in the genre, but all so close to home that it could just be the slightest difference that takes us there.
That difference is usually called the point of departure, the moment when history departs from our own. That can be something huge – an alien ship arrives, say – or it can be a tiny difference. In one of the stories in the new anthology, it hinges on a man having a pair of boots.
Stories in the book span the world, from Hitchcock directing Titanic to a hunt for Jack The Ripper, from Cold War chicanery to a Roman Empire that never ended, from mythological beings turned real to post-World War Two genetic experiments. It’s a big canvas and it’s great to see what the authors involved bring to the table. And that’s not even getting into stories where we wouldn’t want to ruin the surprise!
There are stories by Alan Smale, Daniel M Bensen, DJ Butler, Minoti Vaishav, Brent A Harris, JL Royce, Jeff Provine, Ricardo Victoria, Rob Edwards, Matthew Kresal, Aaron Emmel, Christopher Edwards, EM Swift-Hook, Jane Jago and Leo McBride.
In an interview with Newnewsnibbles Leo McBride told us:
The great thing about alternate history is that it shows what could have happened if only things had gone slightly differently. Now, that could be for the worse – but what if history could have changed for the better too? So much hinges on small moments in our past, and the possibilities? Well, they are endless!
The book is out in paperback and ebook format from September 3, and available from Amazon at mybook.to/AlternateEarths3
