New Releases 9/4/12

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And now onto the freshly discovered alternate worlds...

New hardcovers

Lord of Mountains by S. M. Stirling

Description from Amazon.

Rudi Mackenize, now Artos the First, High King of Montival, and his allies have won several key battles against the Church Universal and Triumphant. But still the war rages on, taking countless lives, ravaging the land once known as the United States of America. Artos and his Queen, Mathilda, must unite the realms into a single kingdom to ensure a lasting peace.

If the leaders of the Changed world are to accept Artos as their ruler, he will need to undertake a quest to the Lake at the Heart of the Mountains, and take part in a crowning ceremony—a ceremony binding him to his people, his ancestors, and his land.

Then, once he has secured his place and allegiances, Artos can go forward, and lead his forces to the heart of the enemy’s territory…

New paperbacks

Bloodroot Cantons by Larry Lamar Yates

Description from Amazon.

In 1729, enslaved Africans made a well-planned, well-equipped flight from eastern Virginia to the Shenandoah Valley. Their brave effort, history records, ultimately failed. But in Bloodroot Cantons, history takes a different turn. The escaped Africans meet a Shawnee band, whose own ugly history with whites makes for an alliance that defeats the pursuing slavecatchers. The two linked communities create a refuge from British colonial power for native people and for the enslaved. Then call of justice, good farmland, and dissatisfaction with increasingly ungodly Pennsylvania, bring in a third group – Anabaptists and Quakers. From distinct traditions, from songs and dreams, from wit and necessity, from the talents of women and men, young and old, mother and warrior, sage and craftswoman, new hope arises. But only ingenuity and patient sharing of wisdoms can overcome the British military threat, and earn the Bloodroot Cantons their season in history.

Pym by Mat Johnson

Description from Amazon.

Recently canned professor of American literature Chris Jaynes has just made a startling discovery: the manuscript of a crude slave narrative that confirms the reality of Edgar Allan Poe’s strange and only novel, The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket. Determined to seek out Tsalal, the remote island of pure and utter blackness that Poe describes, Jaynes convenes an all-black crew of six to follow Pym’s trail to the South Pole, armed with little but the firsthand account from which Poe derived his seafaring tale, a bag of bones, and a stash of Little Debbie snack cakes. Thus begins an epic journey by an unlikely band of adventurers under the permafrost of Antarctica, beneath the surface of American history, and behind one of literature’s great mysteries.

New e-books

Baker Street Inquisitor by Cin Eric

Description from Amazon.

Conway Cave has got everything except the girl, but he's learned to live with that, filling the gaping hole that Sonya Romney left behind with six years of alcohol and other women. He's the youngest Grand Inquisitor ever to sit on the throne of the Sydney Holy Office, the city's top dog. He's popular, according to The Star Observer's latest polls. He has “friends” in all the worst places.

And an illegitimate son, Michael, for whom he would do anything.

Soon, he'll have to.

When Michael is kidnapped for ransom and hostage exchange by rabid werewolf terrorists, Conway breaks every rule in the book to ensure the boy's safe return, rekindling his relationship with Sonya along the way.

However, Conway's plan to make the werewolves pay goes awry. It's only a matter of time before his boss the Lord Inquisitor General finds out about his misdeeds, and the clock is ticking fast...

Heart of Steam & Rust by Stephen D. Sullivan

Description from Amazon.

Imagine waking up in a strange hospital with no memory of how you got there and surrounded by people who might be your enemies. Russian agent Lina Ivanova finds herself in just such a predicament. To make matters worse, she quickly discovers that someone is out to kill her -- and the last attempt nearly succeeded. Now she must navigate a maze of plots and counter-plots and even face Rasputin himself if she is to save her own life. Fortunately, Lina has an advantage that none of her foes suspect....

Heart of Steam & Rust is a stand-alone novella set in The Empires of Steam and Rust world created by Sullivan and renowned SF writer Robert E.,Vardeman. Filled with intrigue, betrayal, and plot twists, this story will satisfy even the most hardboiled steampunk, action, and espionage fans. The story features Pavlina Ivanova, from Sullivan’s Steam Nations stories.

High Crimes and Miscreants by D. L. Mackenzie

Description from Amazon.

Phineas Magnetron is an eccentric Nineteenth Century inventor and former Union soldier who sustained a war injury which has unaccountably bestowed upon him a strange gift he doesn't completely understand. No stranger to peril and derring-do, Phineas is asked to join the Hogalum Society, an inscrutable secret organization of crime fighting adventurers, by none other than Society founder Dr. Yngve Hogalum.

Traveling the globe in their Luftigel electric airship, Phineas Magnetron and his Hogalum brothers encounter mistrustful policemen, mentally ill criminals, wood-craving aliens, a witch doctor, a mad oracle, and a cross-dressing female matador, among many others. However, this "steam dream team" always manages to triumph over impossible odds and improbable obstacles as they preserve order in a disorderly world with all the Steam Age weird science they can muster.

The Magnetron Chronicles is a serialized steampunk tale re-envisioning the future of generations past with all the breathless melodrama and tumult of that Victorian-era pulp fiction staple, the "penny dreadful." The narrative harks back to the grandiose style of Jules Verne and H. G. Wells, but gently satirized with a sprinkling of purposeful anachronisms, double entendres, tongue-in-cheek inventions, and droll Twainian humor. Adapted from "The Secret Journals of Phineas J. Magnetron," a web serial characterized by short chapters with cliffhanger endings, the story builds chapter by chapter, volume by volume, as quirky new characters join the fray and perplexing new mysteries and situations arise.

To fans, authors and publishers...

Do you want to see your work given a shout out on our New Releases segment? Contact Mitro at ahwupdate at gmail dot com.  We are looking for works of alternate history, counterfactual history, steampunk, historical fantasy, time travel or anything that warps history beyond our understanding.

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Matt Mitrovich is the founder and editor of Alternate History Weekly Update, a volunteer editor for Alt Hist and a contributor to Just Below the Law. His fiction can be found at Echelon Press, Jake's Monthly and his own writing blog. When not writing he works as an attorney and enjoys life with his beautiful wife Alana.