ROADS OF DESTINY and Other Tales of Alternative Histories and Parallel Realms by Alasdair Richmond

Book Review

Pauline Morgan

Ever since people told each other stories, there has been a fascination with imagined other worlds. The idea that making a different decision at any point in one’s life could have had a very different outcome is an ever-present one. This volume explores those alternative scenarios and the way that the protagonists enter them.

            Before our planet was so completely mapped, there were many unexplored corners, and a number of stories were written using this idea of the unknown being out there to be discovered, examples of which were King Kong or Conan Doyle’s Professor Challenger stories. In ‘The Discovery Of The Treasure Isles’ by Amelia B. Edwards (1864), a merchant ship sails into the mist and is wrecked on an island littered with gems. The narrator, believing himself to be the sole survivor, later discovers that twenty years have passed while he slept. When he finally escapes the island, no one believes his story and the island cannot be found.

            Landmarks can act as gateways to other worlds, and for Brent Ormerod in ‘The Bad Lands’ by John Metcalfe (1920), it is a tower in the dunes. Passing it leads him into another world that he perceives as unnerving. Finding the source of the malaise, he is determined to destroy it. The reader is left to wonder whether the experience is the result of a mental breakdown or if actions in one world have consequences in ours.

            Not all the alternative worlds are physical. In ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’ by Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1892), a woman becomes fixated with the wallpaper in her bedroom and envisions a woman creeping around behind the wallpaper. Under the circumstances, in the present time, we might diagnose the narrator with post-natal syndrome. Nevertheless, the atmosphere and imaginings seem very real.

            O. Henry takes the idea of path choices literally in ‘Roads of Destiny’ (1909). A poet comes to a fork in the road. The story explores his choices to go left, right or turn back. In each case, he arrives at the same place but by a different route, suggesting that we may not be able to escape our destiny, but we can choose how we get there.

            There have been many stories along the lines of ‘what would happen if…?’ especially relating to the Second World War. In ‘The Death Voyage’ (1929), Arthur Conan Doyle imagines alternative events that bring about an early end to the Great War. In a similar vein, Stephen Vincent Benet relates a different history for Napoleon in ‘The Curfew Tolls’ (1935), in which his genius in military matters was not recognised.

            There have been a number of alternative histories, particularly relating to WWII, in which the Germans won. ‘An Undistinguished Boy’ by Gerald Kersh (1946) would have been among the earliest and is a snapshot of how children can be brainwashed (think social media today) and lead to a boy denouncing his father in order to get a medal for patriotism. H. Beam Piper in ‘He Walked Around the Horses’ (1948) puts his main character, Benjamin Bathurst, into an alternative history. There is no explanation as to how Benjamin crossed into the other world, but between one step and another, he entered a world where the American Revolution did not succeed and the French Revolution did not happen.

            In some alternative world situations, a person can freely move from one to the other. Railways are a good way to facilitate this. In ‘Branch Line To Benceston’ by Sir Andrew Caldecott (1948), one of the characters, Frent, references John Metcalfe’s story ‘The Bad Lands’ as a way to explain what is happening to him, in that he appears to be living two lives which have similarities, but in one he works well with his business partner and in the other he despises him. Caldecott returns to the theme in the very short ‘Diplotopia’ (1948), where a character appears to be in two places simultaneously.

            Children often exercise their imaginations in play. In ‘Calmahain’ by Sarban (1951), two children separately explore the environs of their home, and when they meet up again, they describe their adventures in exaggerated detail, ascribing magical properties to ordinary things. They make their imaginary world real and plan to escape into it. Children also play a part in ‘Exit’ by Patricia Miles (1980). Here, two boys go to explore a supposedly haunted place. One boy believes that hauntings are caused by visitations from an alternative world, especially during thunderstorms. As it begins to rain, the boy disappears. Sometimes, passing through a door leads to somewhere unexpected. In ‘The Rose Wall’ by Joyce Carol Oates (1981), the narrator is kept safe, living in beautiful surroundings with servants and everything she wants. She is curious about what lies beyond the rose-covered wall. When she finds the door to the outside has been left open, she goes through but can’t find her way back. It is a story that contains a lot of themes, including the idea that there is no way back into the past.

            It can be argued that all fantasies are alternative world stories, even if they bear no relationship to the one we inhabit. In ‘Scarrowfell’ by Robert Holdstock (1987), Ginny finally discovers the destiny she has been groomed for. The crossing into an alternative world is one from childhood to adulthood.

             This volume dips into various alternative worlds. It is a concept that holds a fascination for both readers and writers alike. The introduction by Alasdair Richmond (2023) provides many suggestions for further reading and gives an overview of the theme of alternative worlds.