Imagine a world where the South won the Civil War because of the outcome of a single battle. Or a world where a portal links past and future, throwing everything into chaos and confusion. A ferry that travels between the worlds, and a girl who’s committed suicide seven times. A world where the concrete knowledge of the existence of other timelines makes every decision, however drastic, ultimately trivial. Worlds where the Nazis won, where the Kennedy family harbors a dreadful secret that could destroy a nation’s morale, or a world where the bombing of Hiroshima unfolds in a slightly different manner. These are only some of the paths taken in this new anthology edited by a master of the alternate history genre, Harry Turtledove.

Fourteen stories, all taking different routes through time and space to show us what might have been, or what could be, if events had transpired differently. Fourteen stories in which a man’s presence in the wrong place can destroy the future, or a single decision can alter the past, and even more bizarre explorations of the effect such worlds can have on their discoverers. While the declaration of “the best” can often be hard to agree upon, it’s a sure bet that these stories represent some of the more intriguing and noteworthy reaches of the genre. “What if?” has always been one of the great tropes of the science fiction field, and each of these stories utilizes it to its full potential.

Standouts in an already noteworthy gathering include Ward Moore’s brilliant “Bring the Jubilee,” a tale blending time travel and alternate history to explore how fragile the outcome of the Civil War really was, Kim Stanley Robinson’s “The Lucky Strike,” which explores the power of one man to make a difference when the fate of thousands hangs in the balance, Larry Niven’s “Myriad Ways,” an intensely personal look at what the existence of alternate timelines does to one man, and Allen Steele’s “The Death of Captain Future,” a stunning tale of space travel, personal choices, and heroism in a world where we took to the stars decades earlier.

Chosen for their quality, speculative nature, and ability to show off the vast realms of possibility inherent in the “What if?” of science fiction and alternate history, these stories shine and explore with all due enthusiasm, with nary a clunker in the bunch. This collection is well worth a look, and is another fine offering from Turtledove, who’s been at the helm of several “Best of” anthologies recently.