Alternate Empires

{{Short description|1989 science fiction short story anthology}}

{{for|the comics publisher Alternate Empire|Eddie Berganza}}

{{Infobox book |

| name = Alternate Empires

| title_orig =

| translator =

| image = Alternate Empires.jpg

| caption = Cover of first edition

| editors = Gregory Benford
Martin H. Greenberg

| cover_artist = Paul Swendsen

| country = United States

| language = English

| series = What Might Have Been

| genre = Science fiction

| publisher = Bantam Books

| release_date = August 1989

| english_release_date =

| 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.{{Cite web|url=http://www.uchronia.net/label/benfwhatmi.html|title=Uchronia: What Might Have Been|website=www.uchronia.net}} 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).{{isfdb title|id=32907}}

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