ccidentally exposed to radiation in Marie Curie's lab, writer Franz Kafka has received amazing new powers. Now he can metamorphose into a giant cockroach, and fight evil as Bug-Man. As "Franz Kafka, Superhero!" opens, Bug-Man travels to Vienna, seeking his arch-enemy, PsycheMan—the alter-ego of Sigmund Freud.
In the World War II of "The Firebringers," the United States is on the brink of using a horrifying new technology. The commander of this top-secret mission is Col. Gregory Peck. His co-pilot is Col. Ronald Reagan. But it's Lt. Humphrey Bogart who's assigned to drop the atomic bomb on Berlin.
In 1952, the electorate rejects the Republican presidential candidate, Dwight D. Eisenhower, and vice-presidential candidate, Sen. Joe McCarthy. Instead, the people elect the most qualified man to the presidency of the United States. But then the president fires FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover, backs Batista against the Communists in Cuba, refuses to back the French in Indochina, and is embarrassed by Sputnik. Now the people demand his resignation, and a California congressman named Nixon introduces a bill for "The Impeachment of Adlai Stevenson."
A bitter dispute divides the fans of science fiction's most famous TV show. Who is the better captain of the U.S.S. Enterprise? Is it Captain James T. Kirk, played by William Shatner, or Captain Jack Logan, played by John F. Kennedy? "The Kennedy Enterprise" may hold the answer. ...
America was never like this
Alternate Gerrolds is David Gerrold's first short-story collection in more than 20 years. It's a title that leads readers to expect alternate histories, and they'll find seven among the 16 reprint stories. Three of the counterfactuals—including "The Impeachment of Adlai Stevenson" and "The Kennedy Enterprise"—support the alternate-history status quo: "Even if you change history, you can't change history." The third, "What Goes Around," also supports the status quo, but its subject—the slaughter of rock band Charlie Manson and The Family—is far too grim for anyone to accuse Gerrold of taking the easy way out. And Gerrold shatters the AH status quo with "The Firebringers," which convincingly portrays several famous actors as military heroes who radically change history.
The remaining three alternate histories are less serious—though sometimes not by much. "Franz Kafka, Superhero!" sounds like a fun satire of Spider-Man and all things superheroic; it's clever, but it's also disgusting and disturbing (whether it changes history is a decision left to the reader). "The Fan Who Molded Himself" reveals the depressing real story of Sherlock Holmes. In contrast, "The Feathered Mastodon" is feather-light. This AH in-joke introduces genetically engineered mini-dinosaurs to California as its narrator, "David Gerrold," dumps writer/editor "Mike Resnick" into the La Brea tar pits, with astonishing results.
Even more than altered history, self-referentiality is a recurring motif. "David Gerrold" reappears in "The Fan Who Molded Himself," "The Kennedy Enterprise," the revenge fantasy "The Spell" and perhaps even the dark Christmas fantasy "... And Eight Rabid Pigs." The latter contains several thinly veiled SF authors, among them Harlan Ellison, who must be Gerrold's close friend, as he returns under various names in other stories. The title "The Fan Who Molded Himself" riffs on Gerrold's classic SF novel, The Man Who Folded Himself, and a few stories make allusion to other works in the collection. Readers who hated "Stephen King's" appearance in the Dark Tower series should steer clear of Alternate Gerrolds, whose title refers less to its different histories than to its different Davids.
A strong collection, Alternate Gerrolds extends considerably beyond AH, spanning SF, fantasy and horror. A dark fantasy, "The Ghost of Christmas Sideways" compacts enough cynicism for Bad Santa into a mere six pages. "A Wish For Smish" presents the ultimate Hollywood lawyer with the ultimate deal with the devil. The Faustian bargain goes mass-market in "The Seminar From Hell," a dead-on satire of hotel meeting-room seminars. "Bauble" is a hard-boiled future whodunit. In "Rex," a genetically engineered tyrannosaur threatens a family that deserves to be eaten. The collection's last—and best—two stories are also SF: "Digging in Gehenna" is about desire, betrayal and an alien archaeological mystery. In "Riding Janis," three women feud, with potentially catastrophic results, as they launch an icy comet from the asteroid belt to Earth.
