How many people could you kill to guarantee your happiness?
Would you follow a stranger into a broom closet at a Grateful Dead concert?
How many times could you watch your own suicide?
What would cause you to give away a wish-granting genie?
Those are just a few of the questions eighteen incredible authors answered in response to the call to take three historical figures, throw them together in some situation, and tell us the story that ensues. You’ll be fascinated by those stories featuring Julia Child, Jesus Christ, Michael Jackson, and Vlad the Impaler (well… not all in one story), plus dozens of others.
These marvelous tales of time-traveling adventure flow from the imaginations of Eric Avedissian, Adam-Troy Castro, Peter David, Keith R.A. DeCandido, Gregory Frost, David Gerrold, Henry Herz, Jonathan Maberry, Gail Z. Martin, Heather McKinney, James A. Moore, Jody Lynn Nye, L. Penelope, Louise Piper, Hildy Silverman, S.W. Sondheimer, Allen Steele, and Lawrence Watt-Evans.
Paperback | Hard cover | Kindle | Nook
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Featuring the following stories (and which characters appear within):
At the Chocolate Bar by Jody Lynn Nye: (George Washington Carver, Julia Child, Im-Hotep)
The Jurors by Lawrence Watt-Evans: (F. Scott Fitzgerald, Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin, William Tecumseh Sherman)
Star Rat’s Tale by Allen Steele: (Marlon Brando, Jesus Christ, Caesar Romero)
A Vampire, an Astrophysicist, and a Mother Superior Walk into a Basilica by Henry Herz: (Neil deGrasse Tyson, Vlad Tepes, Mother Theresa)
The Greatest Trick by Louise Piper: (Charles Baudelaire, Cassie Chadwick, Martin Luther King Jr.)
The Mystic Lambby Gail Z. Martin: (Edgar Cayce, Maggie Fox, Harry Houdini, Nicola Tesla)
Episode in Liminal State Technical Support, or Mr. Grant in the Bardo by Gregory Frost: (Ambrose Bierce, Cary Grant, Ameila Earhart)
The Eternal Library by L. Penelope: (Zora Neale Hurston, the Queen of Sheba, Tituba)
Time Out by David Gerrold: (Harlan Ellison, Dorothy Fontana, David Gerrold)
Punching Muses by S.W. Sondheimer: (Frida Kahlo, Kusama Yayoi, Sappho, Oscar Wilde)
Wednesday Night at The End Times Tavern by James A. Moore: (Cotton Mathers, Robert E. Howard, Prince Radu of Wallachia)
A Christmas Prelude by Peter David: (Ali Baba, Don Quixote, Mephistopheles)
Cornwallis’ Gift by Heather McKinney: (Elizabeth Bathory, Michael Jackson, George Washington)
What You Can Become Tomorrow by Keith R.A. DeCandido: (Josh Gibson, Katherine Johnson, Mary Shelley)
Nostradamus’ Angels by Hildy Silverman: (Marie Antoinette, Marie Curie, Mary Todd Lincoln)
The Last Act at the Time Cabaret by Adam-Troy Castro: (Lansford Hastings, Joseph Pujol, Billie Ritchie)
Never Meet Your Heroes by Eric Avedissian: (Blackbeard, John Dillinger, Jesse James)
The Adventure of the Confounded Writer by Jonathan Maberry: (Arthur Conan Doyle, Ed McBain, H.G. Welles)
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“The title sums up the premise of this entertaining anthology: in each story, a group of time travelers from different eras meet—either on purpose or accidentally—and therein lies the tale. Ventrella has brought together eighteen authors, including Jody Lynn Nye, Allen Steele, Lawrence Watt-Evans, Gail Z. Martin, David Gerrold, Peter David, and Hildy Silverman, among others.
The stories take every imaginable angle on the premise, which—despite sounding like just the setup for a wacky joke—offers plenty of scope for writers who want to take a more serious tack…
Some of the stories bring together characters with similar fields of expertise—for example, Gail Martin’s “The Mystic Lamb” assembles Edgar Cayce, Maggie Fox, Harry Houdini, and Nicola Tesla to explore questions related to spiritualism and extrasensory perception. In “A Christmas Prelude,” Peter David goes against the grain to assemble fictional rather than historical characters—Don Quixote, Ali Baba, and Mephistopheles—to deliver a life-altering message to another fictional character who will be familiar to all. In “The Adventure of the Confounded Writer,” Arthur Conan Doyle, H.G. Wells, and Ed McBain are brought together to alter history for the better. And one writer—no spoilers here—gives a younger version of himself a chance to alter history after meeting two of his mentors and the version of himself who has lived through our history—a tour de force of time-travel twists and turns.
All in all, this is a highly entertaining volume based on a classic SF theme. It would have been interesting to see what editor Ventrella—himself a widely published author of short fiction and novels—might have contributed, given the rich possibilities of his premise. Bet it would have been good! He deserves kudos for this thoroughly readable collection. Recommended.” – Peter Heck, Asimov’s Science Fiction magazine
Michael A. Ventrella 