Other Worlds Than These

Anthologist Adams (Armored) presents readers with a wide variety of alternate Earths, some only slightly askew and others completely unfamiliar. Some characters are unwilling explorers, such as an astronaut dragged through one world after another in Stephen Baxter’s opener, “Moon Six.” Some travel out of duty, like the soldiers of an America that is the multiworlds’ policeman in Paul McAuley’s “A Brief Guide to Other Histories.” A newly widowed husband in Alastair Reynolds’s “Signal to Noise” reality-skips to say things left unsaid, while the heroine of Carrie Vaughn’s “Of Swords and Horses” answers a call of need ignored by others. The confused can be assisted by Mercurio D. Rivera’s increasingly variant advice column in “Dear Annabehls.” Adams’s selections are mirrors reflecting one other with the best images of alternate realities. Readers will greatly enjoy this exploration of our world’s foremost and ascendant speculative authors. (July)