Alternate Empires

Cover of first edition
Editors	Gregory Benford Martin H. Greenberg
Cover artist	Paul Swendsen
Language	English
Series	What Might Have Been
Genre	Science fiction
Publisher	Bantam Books
Publication date	August 1989
Publication place	United States
Media type	Print (paperback)
Pages	ix, 291 pp.
ISBN	0-553-27845-2
Preceded by	None
Followed by	Alternate Heroes

Alternate Empires is an anthology of alternate history science fiction short stories edited by Gregory Benford and Martin H. Greenberg as the first volume in their What Might Have Been series.^[1] It was first published in paperback by Bantam Books in August 1989, and in trade paperback by BP Books in March 2004. It was also gathered together with Alternate Heroes into the omnibus anthology What Might Have Been: Volumes 1 & 2: Alternate Empires / Alternate Heroes (Bantam Spectra/SFBC, July 1990).^[2]

The book collects twelve novelettes and short stories by various science fiction authors, with an introduction by Benford.

• "Introduction" (Gregory Benford)
• "In the House of Sorrows" (Poul Anderson)
• "Remaking History" (Kim Stanley Robinson)
• "Counting Potsherds" (Harry Turtledove)
• "Leapfrog" (James P. Hogan)
• "Everything But Honor" (George Alec Effinger)
• "We Could Do Worse" (Gregory Benford)
• "To the Promised Land" (Robert Silverberg)
• "Bible Stories for Adults, No. 31: The Covenant" (James Morrow)
• "All Assassins" (Barry N. Malzberg)
• "Game Night at the Fox and Goose" (Karen Joy Fowler)
• "Waiting for the Olympians" (Frederik Pohl)
• "The Return of William Proxmire" (Larry Niven)