WE COULD DO WORSE

History takes a detour in these nine speculative fictions. Teddy Roosevelt leads the Rough Riders into WWI; Eisenhower and Patton become jazz musicians, rather than generals, and perform to a Washington, D.C., audience that includes Mississippi's Senator Presley. JFK travels back in time to the real Camelot and manages a tryst with--who else?--Queen Guinevere "Well, it could be worse," remarks failed novelist and hack journalist Sam Clemens, covering the assassination of President George Armstrong Custer. The nine readers each convey the mood and spirit of the individual stories, and the stories themselves are witty and entertaining. But most fit the mold of conventional science fiction--long on exposition, short on character development. The exception is Kristine Kathryn Rusch's "The Arrival of Truth," about a slave uprising in the antebellum South; beautifully performed by JoMarie Payton, this is an audio gem, its theme and voice perfectly matched. D.A.W. © AudioFile 2000, Portland, Maine [Published: DEC/JAN 01]