New Releases 8/25/15

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Hardcovers

Just One Damned Thing After Another by Jodi Taylor

A story of history, time travel, love, friendship and tea. Meet the disaster-magnets at the St Mary's Institute of Historical Research as they ricochet around history, observing, documenting, drinking tea and, if possible, not dying. Follow the catastrophe-curve from eleventh-century London to World War I, and from the Cretaceous Period to the destruction of the Great Library at Alexandria. Discover History – The New Sex

Mechanica by Betsy Cornwell

Nicolette’s awful stepsisters call her “Mechanica” to demean her, but the nickname fits: she learned to be an inventor at her mother’s knee. Her mom is gone now, though, and the Steps have pushed her into a life of dreary servitude. When she discovers a secret workshop in the cellar on her sixteenth birthday—and befriends Jules, a tiny magical metal horse—Nicolette starts to imagine a new life for herself. And the timing may be perfect: There’s a technological exposition and a royal ball on the horizon. Determined to invent her own happily-ever-after, Mechanica seeks to wow the prince and eager entrepreneurs alike.

A Second Chance by Jodi Taylor

St Mary's is back and nothing is going right for Max. Once again, it's just one damned thing after another. The action jumps from an encounter with a mirror-stealing Isaac Newton to the bloody battlefield at Agincourt. Discover how a simple fact-finding assignment to witness the ancient and murderous cheese- rolling ceremony in Gloucester can result in CBC - concussion by cheese. The long awaited jump to Bronze Age Troy ends in personal catastrophe for Max and just when it seems things couldn't get any worse - it's back to the Cretaceous Period again to confront an old enemy who has nothing to lose. So, make the tea, grab the chocolate biscuits, settle back and discover exactly why the entire history department has painted itself blue ...

A Symphony of Echoes by Jodi Taylor

Book Two in the madcap time-travel series based at the St Mary's Institute of Historical Research that seems to be everyone's cup of tea.

In the second book in the Chronicles of St Mary's series, Max and the team visit Victorian London in search of Jack the Ripper, withess the murder of Archbishop Thomas a Becket in Canterbury Cathedral, and discover that dodos make a grockling noise when eating cucumber sandwiches.

But they must also confront an enemy intent on destroying St Mary's - an enemy willing, if necessary, to destroy History itself to do it.

Paperbacks

Black Tuesday by Bob Mayer

When a mysterious force known only as the Shadow infiltrates history, it has a suspicious target: the date October 29 in six different years spanning 999 to 1980. The Time Patrol must send its highly skilled members into the past with only twenty-four hours to stop the destruction each time.

Each targeted date features a significant event, including Sir Walter Raleigh’s beheading in 1618, the American stock market crash of 1929, and the first Internet message sent in 1969. But the missions are never as clear-cut as they seem, leading the team straight into the dangerous paths of extraordinary adversaries, such as yetis, krakens, and Vikings.

As time grows short, the Time Patrol learns that no amount of training and experience can prepare them for the enemies they battle and the alternate realities they face. And now, six changes to history could lead to the ultimate catastrophe: the end of existence.

Operation: S.I.N.: Agent Carter by Kathryn Immonen

Tying into the explosive events of ORIGINAL SIN , see an untold story from the origins of the Marvel Universe! After an alien energy source is discovered in Russia in the early 1950s, it's up to Peggy Carter and Howard Stark to find out what happened. But a newly risen terrorist group going by the name Hydra also happens to be on the hunt for their own nefarious purposes! It's only when a mysterious operative going by the name of Woodrow McCord enters the picture to aid Peggy and Howard that they realize just how far some people are willing to go to keep the Earth safe!

Operation S.I.N.: Agent Carter TPB is a tie-in to ABC's hit TV show, Marvel's Agent Carter!

COLLECTING: Operation S.I.N. 1-5, Captain America and the First Thirteen 1

Sherlock Holmes: The Thinking Engine by James Lovegrove

Man vs Machine

it is 1895, and Sherlock Holmes is settling back into life as a consulting detective at 221B Baker Street, when he and Watson learn of strange goings-on amidst the dreaming spires of Oxford.

A Professor Quantock has built a wondrous computational device, which he claims is capable of analytical thought to rival the cleverest men alive. Naturally Sherlock Holmes cannot ignore this challenge. He and Watson travel to Oxford, where a battle of wits ensues between the great detective and his mechanical counterpart as they compete to see which of them can be first to solve a series of crimes, from a bloody murder to a missing athlete. But as man and machine vie for supremacy, it becomes clear that the Thinking Engine has its own agenda...

Third Reich Victorious: Alternate Histories of World War II edited by Peter G. Tsouras

This book is a stimulating and entirely plausible insight into how Hitler and his generals might have defeated the Allies, and a convincing sideways look at the Third Reich's bid at world domination in World War II. What would have happened if, for example, the Germans captured the whole of the BEF at Dunkirk? Or if the RAF had been defeated in the Battle of Britain? What if the U-Boats had strangled Britain with an impregnable blockade, if Rommel had been triumphant in North Africa or the Germans had beaten the Red Army at Kursk?

The authors, writing as if these and other world-changing events had really happened, project realistic scenarios based on the true capabilities and circumstances of the opposing forces. Third Reich Victorious is a dynamic and eye-opening alternate history that opens up the dramatic possibilities of World War II.

We Install: And Other Stories by Harry Turtledove

From Harry Turtledove, bestselling author of the Worldwar series and The Guns of the South, a collection of nine stories and three essays that illuminate his broad storytelling range

Harry Turtledove earned the title “master of alternate history” from Publishers Weekly for his thought-provoking novels that turn historical facts into gripping tales of possibility. But his writing talent goes much further. We Install offers a showcase of styles, from humor—in “Father of the Groom,” a scientist with a penchant for wild experimentation helps his love-struck son by synthesizing a wedding ring out of two carrots—to classic science fiction, as in the Hugo Award–winning “Down in the Bottomlands” and “Hoxbomb,” in which a regular guy just trying to make a living selling scooters has to deal with some very odd competition. The alternate history tale “Drang von Osten” begins on a bloody battlefield in World War II and ends somewhere quite different. In the brand-new “Logan’s Law,” a man discovers that sometimes, second chances really do work out. The book’s three essays tackle the diverse subjects of how to write alternate history, Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings, and the history of Chanukah.

We Install will delight longtime Turtledove fans and new readers alike with its rich offerings from one of the finest craftsmen writing today.

To readers, authors and publishers...

Is your story going to be published in time for the next New Releases? Contact us 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 blogger on Amazing Stories and a Sidewise Awards for Alternate History judge. When not writing he works as an attorney, enjoys life with his beautiful wife Alana and prepares for the day when travel between parallel universes becomes a reality. You can follow him on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. Learn how you can support his alternate history projects on Patreon.