Conqueror Fantastic
edited by Pamela Sargent
(DAW Books, $6.99, 320 pages, mass-market paperback; published in
April 2004.)
Editor Pamela Sargent's Conqueror Fantastic contains thirteen
all-new historical fantasies dealing with the role of the  conqueror
in history. Some of these stories speculate on hidden histories, others
recreate perhaps more mystical worldviews of past eras, while others
explore different paths history might have taken.
Conqueror Fantastic is a fairly strong assemblage, with only
one out-and-out dud, George Zebrowski's cliché-ridden virtual-reality
tale "Nappy".
The other stories are all at least good. Some of them try to convey
too much in too little space, ending up slightly too heavy on exposition
and slightly too light on storytelling. These -- including Michelle
West's "To the Gods Their Due", Janeen Webb's "The Lion Hunt", and Pamela
Sargent's "Spirit Brother" -- read more like novels in progress than
complete fictions.
The most memorable selections are provided by Stephen Dedman, George
Alec Effinger, James Morrow, and Ian Watson.
Dedman's "Twilight of Idols" is a deftly imagined secret history of
Hitler's fascination with pagan religion that doubles as an exquisite
revenge fantasy directed at the twentieth century's most notorious conqueror.
In "Walking Gods", Effinger offers a first-person tale of Saladin at
the end of his life; it's a story replete with unusual and effective
ideas, imbued with profound compassion and empathy.
Morrow's ironically clever "Martyrs of the Upshot Knothole" combines,
to unique effect, Genghis Khan, John Wayne, nuclear testing, cancer,
film history, Cold War dichotomies, alternative medicine, and the politics
of marriage.
My favourite story in this anthology is Watson's "An Appeal to Adolf".
This bizarre comedy takes place during the Second World War, in a timeline
in which flight was never developed. The story occurs on a gigantic
sea ship en route to invade England, from the relentlessly amusing point
of view of an overzealous Navy man whose sexual preferences are forbidden
by the Reich.
Originally published in
The Montreal Gazette, Saturday, 29 May 2004.
Claude Lalumière's Fantastic Fiction
is a series of
capsule reviews first published in the Saturday Books
section of The Montreal Gazette.
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