Moving through the anthology, The Loyalist Washington by Owen Morgan takes an interesting angle to the American Revolution and one of the Founding Fathers of the United States of America. I always find counterfactual scenarios about the American Revolution to be interesting because there are so many different directions that authors can take that particular scenario. Does it mean total defeat for the revolutionaries, or some form of compromise peace after a small amount of conflict has broken out? Or perhaps, like Turtledove and Dreyfuss' famous The Two Georges, there's no conflict at all, ushering in a British North America (albeit one with a small but active resistance movement). So many personalities, so many opportunities to examine - and in his story, Owen Morgan chooses to have George Washington become the benefactor of a permanent officer's commission in the British Army, and his Virginian Regiment given royal status as additional prestige. A few strokes of a pen, a relatively minor change in fortunes, and the course of history is fundamentally altered. A short but very well-written and concise piece of counterfactual fiction, with a wry and all-too rare sense of humour bookending it.

Adam Selby-Martin

Sealion Press