Hmmmm... this is a difficult book to review. On the one hand: the writing was good, the MC was snarky (almost always a plus), there were multiple worlds visited (another surefire point in its favor), the secondary and tertiary characters were engaging and fun and the world(s) building was solid.

On the other hand: the answers sought after in the different worlds (like who was the Dream Master in each world) were easy to suss out. The antagonist was not only wimpy but obtuse to boot. I loved the different incarnations of Lisa/Ilsa... The main questions (why all of this was happening to our protagonist and who exactly was Eddie Raven?) still remain unanswered leaving wiggle room for book #2. Even though we got to visit, and lucid dream through multiple worlds, the pacing felt a bit sluggish at times.

Overall:

I enjoyed this light romp through multiple dream worlds a lot more than I thought I would after reading the first couple of chapters... so if you are floundering a bit, hang on, it gets better.

~ Enjoy

*** I was given a copy of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review ***

This review can also be found at Carole's Random Life in Books.

This was an odd little book. I decided to give this one a try largely because of the cover and the fact that it is the start of a new series. I don't think that I even read the book's summary before diving in since I like to go into most books that I read as possible. Having never read anything by this author before, I didn't have a lot of expectations. This was a quick read for me but one that left me scratching my head at times.

This was a pretty weird story. I like weird so that wasn't a bad thing but it did leave me wondering what was going on more than a few times. Now that I have finished the book, I am still a little confused about the point of some of the stranger elements of the story. Even when the book is at its oddest, I found it to be very readable and was quite curious to see how things would end up.

This book was really imaginative. If you like retellings, this book drops into several very well known stories. These stories aren't quite the way most readers remember though. There's a stop at a bar in Casablanca, a trip to Oz, and some time in Camelot. I was more familiar with some of these than others but had some fun with each one.

The book did start out feeling pretty normal in Manhattan, with Eddie out shopping with his girlfriend, Lisa. I really wish that we had a bit more time with Eddie before he is sent off to different worlds. I liked his character and his sense of humor but I found myself really wanting to get back to the original story.

I am not sure if I will be continuing with this series or not. I am glad that I read this book but I don't know that I am all that eager to jump around through various world with Eddie again. Although I might if I am in the mood for some well-written weirdness.

I received a review copy of this book from Berkley Publishing Group. 

Initial Thoughts
I am going to need some time to process this one. This was an odd little book. Really odd but very readable. Definitely unexpected with a fair amount of humor. I am going to wait a couple of days before I assign a rating.

Not bad. If you've read any SFnal anthology since the middle 1980s (earlier, actually, but I'm too lazy to go look up his first appearance in print) you've read some Resnick. I'm no big fan of his pedestrian writing, but I'm a BIG fan of TR.

Red Whitechapel puts TR at the centre (cause it's in Lunnon I misspelled center, see?) of the Jack the Ripper hunt. Resnick even says he wrote this to get some attention for a theory he proposed in a non-fiction article published in the 1970s regarding his (quite plausible and eminently sensible) idea of who and what the real Ripper was. Wasn't much impressed by the fictionalization. 3 stars

Two Hunters in Manhattan was a real eye-roller, TR making the acquaintance of an ancient Greek vampire who, inexplicably, pays no slightest attention to TR's request for assistance in specific ways but instead whimsically decides to do it his own way. Who knows, maybe that comes with having blues eyes, black hair. 2 stars

The Roosevelt Dispatches puts Teddy in Cuba and has has him meet the Martians from Wells' The War of the Worlds. Okay. 3 stars

Bully! got the otherwhen versions of TR rolling in Resnick's creative world. Nominated for the big awards. I enjoyed this one. 3.5 stars

The Bull Moose at Bay is the most intriguing story to me...how TR got to where he is at the beginning of the tale is deeply satisfying, the place where the tale takes off is spot-on, and the ending is also satisfying. My quibble is why be coy about the identities of the birthday party guests? Still, hands-down my favorite. 4 stars

Over There was depressing and unlikely. TR was too full fledged a politician to fall for what happened to him; the ending was inevitable and seen clearly from the beginning. 2 stars

The Light that Blinds, the Claws that Catch is unmemorable and uninteresting. 3 stars because it's competently written.

Short-story anthologies can often be a mixed bag consisting of both the good and the bad.    This is one of the reasons why Gardiner Dozios and Stanley Schmidt’s book stands out; taken from the pages of both Asimov’s Science Fiction magazine and Analog Science Fiction and Fact, it offers a stronger than average collection of alternate history tales.  The book consists of the following stories:

"Must and Shall" by Harry Turtledove – In 1942 New Orleans, a federal agent works to head off an rebellion in a South still occupied by government forces.

"An Outpost of Empire" by Robert Silverberg – A Byzantine noblewoman reconciles herself to the reunification of the two Roman empires.

"We Could Do Worse" by Gregory Benford – Two FBI agents undertake an assignment in an American where McCarthyism rages unchecked.

"Over There" by Mike Resnick – Theodore Roosevelt puts together a new group of Rough Riders to fight in a very different conflict.

"Ink from the New Moon" by A. A. Attanasio – A man’s letter to his wife reveals a very different America.

"Southpaw" by Bruce McAllister – A Cuban pitching for the Yankees wrestles with events back home.

"The West is Red" by Greg Costikyan – A Soviet scientist is present as the United States grapples with the consequences of its defeat in the Cold War.

"The Forest of Time" by Michael F. Flynn – In a very different Pennsylvania, a scout comes across a man traveling from another world.

"Aristotle and the Gun" by L. Sprague de Camp – A scientist learns a valuable lesson when he attempts to set scientific discovery on a proper path from the beginning.

"How I Lost the Second World War and Helped Turn Back the German Invasion" by Gene Wolfe – In 1930s England, an American diplomat inspires a very different conflict between Adolf Hitler and Winston Churchill.

Though not all of the stories are to everyone’s taste (there are a couple that, having read them, I doubt I will revisit again), the overall quality is quite good, much better than in most anthologies.  With an introduction explaining what alternate history is, this is an excellent book to give someone seeking an introduction to the genre, as well as a good addition to the bookshelf of any fan of the counterfactual tale.

Have been reading, for the first time, Mike Resnick's four-volume "Widowmaker" series over the past few days. It's entertaining, basically a space western as most of it takes place in the author's vast Inner Frontier setting.

But volume three, "The Widowmaker Unleashed", deserves special mention for revealing an interesting quirk of the title character: along with banking much of his bounty money for his old age/retirement (a chronic health issue changes his plans and triggers the events that are the series), the man has stashes of real paper books (he doesn't like "reading pixels") stored on various planets which he plans to send for once he settles down so he can spend his time reading them (along with gardening and birdwatching). When he buys his first house, planning to live out his remaining years there, one of the priority renovations is building bookshelves in anticipation of his collection arriving. It's impossible for me not to love a fictitious character who does that. :-)