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Atlantis And Other Places: Stories Of Alternate History (2010)

by Harry Turtledove(Favorite Author)

3.03 of 5 Votes: 3

ISBN

0451463641 (ISBN13: 9780451463647)

languge

English

genre

Historical Fiction

publisher

Roc Hardcover

review 1: This is a great collection. Turtledove's Atlantis is a what-if world... what if the eastern seaboard broke away from the mainland in geologic time? Different evolutionary history, plants and animals, and... naturally, once discovered by Europeans, a different human history as well. The Atlantis stories are complemented by others, most notably one about mythological creatures meeting humans for the first time. Centaurs, specifically, in this case, going to the island of Britain to find out why the tin the need to fight the Sphinxes has stopped showing up. Reading this collection is like walking into a crisp wind in the spring. Sharp, and familiar since it's been cold all winter, but carrying new ideas you hardly even recognize before the next one tumbles on... more you.
review 2: I liked "Audubon in Atlantis", it really conveyed Audubon's sadness at a species going extinct, his quest to find one before they do while on what might be his last trip like this, and also that he has to kill one for scientific purposes which means he's helping to hasten their end.I've never read Sherlock Holmes so I'm not sure how close Turtledove's Helms and Dr Walton are to their counterparts, but I found them a bit snobbish and stuck up even, though I did like his slight alteration of their names. There was a lot of traipsing about, talking to a few people and then you turned the page and the case was solved. It seemed abrupt to me, though I had already figured out who was behind it. But I suppose it was better than another one of the stories, in ancient Greece, that just went on and on. I kept turning the page expecting the story to be over but it kept going.One story, The Catcher in the Rhine, while I liked the play on words in the title, was just sort of purposeless. Perhaps if I had read 'The Catcher in the Rye' it might have made more sense.Most of the stories were pretty forgettable. I found it odd that I liked his Atlantis series but don't care for anything else of his I've read. less

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