Weekly Update #149

Editor's Note

I need someone to invent a time machine. There just isn't enough time in the week to finish all the writing I have to do. I'll be honest with everyone: I bit off more than I can chew with 10 posts a week. I will do my best, but no promises.

Moving onto to our next topic, it looks like we will be reaching 400,000 page views sometime in June. Thank you for all of your continued support. Thanks for all the shares, likes, comments, retweets, favorites, quoting and by clicking through our Amazon banner. Most of all, thanks for sticking with us.

The 2013 Sidewise nominees should be announced any day now. Stay subscribed to The Update to learn who made the cut.

And now the news...

RIP Jay Lake

It was announced yesterday that author Jay Lake lost his ongoing battle with cancer. Joseph Edward Lake, Jr., born June 6, 1964, was a science fiction and fantasy writer. He was a quarterly first place winner in the 2003 Writers of the Future contest, won the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer in Science Fiction in 2004 and was nominated for the Sidewise Award in 2007 and 2010.

Lake writings have appeared in numerous publications, including Postscripts, Realms of Fantasy, Interzone, Strange Horizons, Asimov's Science Fiction, Nemonymous, and the Mammoth Book of Best New Horror. He was an editor for the "Polyphony" anthology series from Wheatland Press, and was also a contributor to the Internet Review of Science Fiction.

In the alternate history genre, Lake is best know for his steampunk stories like the Sidewise nominated Mainspring series and "The Baby Killers". He also authored "The Cleansing Fire of God", which you can read at Strange Horizons, and "Our Lady of American Sorrows" which was published in his collection of short stories titled American Sorrows.

Jay, I was a huge fan of short fiction. You knew how to use the medium to tell an evocative story in an alternate setting. You will be missed.

Video Gallery

First up, the guys at The Warp Zone did a funny mash-up of X-Men and Back to the Future:

After that we got a new video from Cody Franklin of the Alternate History Hub who is beginning a new series regarding a Cold War that never ended:

We end last week in videos with the release trailer for Europa Universalis IV: Wealth of Nations:

Links to the Multiverse

Books

1636: Commander Cantrell in the West Indies – Snippet 38 by Eric Flint.
Cover & Synopsis: GLORY O’BRIEN’S HISTORY OF THE FUTURE by A.S. King at SF Signal.
Guest post by Jaime Lee Moyer: The Great War (includes giveaway!) at Far Beyond Reality.
Review: The Churchill Memorandum by Sean Gabb at Ifnicity.
Review: Hild by Nicola Griffith at Spiral Galaxy Reads.
Review: In Dark Service by Stephen Hunt at Falcata Times.
Review: Liberty: 1784 by Robert Conroy at Deseret News.
Review: My Real Children by Jo Walton at The New York Times.
Review: The Revolutions by Felix Gilman at Thinking about books.
Sarah Cawkwell on Alternate History with Fantasy and Magic at SF Signal.
Special Needs in Strange Worlds: Jaime Lee Moyer on Limitations in Historical Fantasy at SF Signal.
A strange sense of history – Altered Pasts: Counterfactuals in History at The Irish Times.

Counterfactual and Traditional History (Plus News)

Coventry soldier spared wounded Adolf Hitler's life in World War I at Coventry Telegraph.
Have You Taken a Good Look Around Your Child's Classroom Lately? by Morgan Shanahan at Huff Post.
Ohio town's Korean War memorial under fire for blunders by Jon Herskovitz at Yahoo.
What if JFK had survived his assassination? by Scott Bomboy at National Constitution Center.

Films and Television

10 Awesome Movies About Time Travel at The Geek Twins.
11 questions about X-Men Days Of Future Past answered by James Hunt at Den of Geek.
Cult Film Club – Primer at Geek Syndicate.
Da Vinci's Demons Season 2 Finale: Nobody's Business But the Turks at Paul Levinson's Infinite Regress.
Review: X-Men: Days of Future Past at Geek Syndicate.
Turn 1.8: Nice, Instructive Turn at Paul Levinson's Infinite Regress.

Games

Alternate history game 'The Order: 1886' out in 2015 by Brett Molina at USA Today.
Counterfactual History and The Conquest of Paradise by Peter Christiansen at Play The Past.
Review: Wolfenstein: The New Order at Stainless Steel Droppings.

Interviews

Ian Edginton at Comic Book Resources.
Christopher Priest at ScienceFiction.com.

Podcasts

Dissecting Worlds: Series 8, Episode 6:Monkey! at Geek Syndicate.

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Matt Mitrovich is the founder and editor of Alternate History Weekly Update and a blogger on Amazing Stories. Check out his short fiction. When not writing he works as an attorney, enjoys life with his beautiful wife Alana and prepares for the inevitable zombie apocalypse. You can follow him on Facebook or Twitter.