Melissa Scott
A Choice of Destinies
Baen, c1986, ISBN 0671655639
SF/Alternate History
 

What might have happened had Alexander not marched into India, but turned back west?  This is the question posed in Ms. Scott's alternate history.  Yet another revolt in Greece (even more serious than the historical revolt of King Agis of Sparta) forces Alexander to turn around and march back home.  Having been thwarted then in his bid for India, he turns his interest west instead, to Rome and Carthage.  It is the only novel-length alternate history about Alexander published.

This is a book of mixed pleasures.  Melissa Scott is a well known name in science fiction circles for, among other works, the award-winning Burning Bright.  But she had quite a number of books published before that, this alternate history among them.  Few who pick it up will fail to find an entertaining read, and it's too bad that Baen took it out of print.  (To locate a copy these days, try the science fiction section of your local used bookstore or ABE.)  Nevertheless, and though the action moves right along with clean, lively prose, the writing is not at the same level as Burning Bright, the characters somewhat two-dimensional.  Readers who enjoy action-adventure are more likely to appreciate the story than those who prefer character novels.

When the story opens, we are in the year 1499 [A.D.], in a fort at Alexandria Eschate.  The garrison is discussing Flavius Arrianus' History of Alexander III/I -- an amusing touch.  (Although the actual title of Arrian's work is The Anabasis of Alexander.)  An argument ensues regarding what might have happened had Alexander gone to India after all:  "alternate" history in alternate history.  It quickly becomes apparent that this world does not owe to a Roman empire, but to a Macedonian one.  Alexander survived, East and West remained together, there were no dark ages, and the alternate world of their 1499 is far more advanced than our own.  This is the frame story (which we see through short takes at various points) in which the alternate history is told.

If it fails to meet Renault's standard, it is still a good book.  She handles the military aspects well, though I believe the research into Macedonia somewhat better than that into Rome.  The mistakes she does make are not numerous or severe enough to drive a reader to put it down.  Trained as an early modern historian, her familiarity with historical research -- even if in a different era -- shows.

What may annoy more are some of her deliberately-made choices.  The book, in the form it currently stands, makes the pivotal change point -- after which the alternate future takes over -- after Baktria, before India, at the point of the Pages' Conspiracy.  But differences predate this.  For one thing, Alexander is married, and has a son.  In fact, Scott says, "the actual change point is Alexander's marriage, without which none of the rest would take place" (personal communication).  She goes on to add, "In retrospect, that could've been clearer," but in the process of revisions suggested by the editor, "some things got lost."  Indeed.  The problem is that these minor changes occurred offstage, and none altered the course of her alternate history.  Despite her claims, the change point is not Alexander's marriage.  When the novel opens, the conqueror is still at the same basic place in his career that he was in real history.  So one wonders what was the point?  This is a case where an editor's demands seem to have weakened, not strengthened, the story.  All the dots do not connect.  In my opinion, the novel could have been about fifty pages longer, with the prior changes mentioned much earlier -- or these changes removed entirely.

The book has good points, however, to outweigh the bad.  Scott employs elements of the mythical-fantastic in places, including a night-time vision of Ammon and occasional prophecies from the Seer Pasithea.  Like Tarr in Lord of the Two Lands (or Gene Wolfe's "Soldier" duology), these fantastical elements match the mind set of the ancients and so contribute to, rather than distract from, the whole.  Another nice touch is her use of Hephaistion.  She has the most interesting and prominent Hephaistion in Alexander fiction.  If the full nature of his relationship with the conqueror is only alluded to, he emerges as a fully-realized personality.  (Though a lesbian herself, Scott wrote A Choice of Destinies during the Reagan era when SF/F publishers were leery of homosexuality in novels.)  But the best aspect of the book, as mentioned previously, is her handling of things military.  Unlike Renault, who wrote about Alexander the man (and politician), Scott writes about Alexander the general with detailed descriptions of battles.

If not Renault -- and not really meant to be Renault -- Scott's alternate history is a story Alexander fans should seek out.