Tuesday, August 4, 2015

New Releases 8/4/15

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Hardcovers

The Madagaskar Plan: A Novel by Guy Saville

Guy Saville's The Madagaskar Plan imagines a disturbing alternate history in which Nazi victory in World War II brings their "Final Solution" ever closer

The year is 1953. There is peace in Europe, but a victorious Germany consolidates power in Africa. The lynchpin to its final solution is Madagaskar. Hitler has ordered the resettlement of European Jews to the remote island.

British forces conspire to incite colony-wide revolt, resting their hopes on the expertise of Reuben Salois, an escaped leader of Jewish resistance.

Ex-mercenary Burton Cole scours the island for his wife and child. But as chaos descends and the Nazis brutally suppress the nascent insurrection, Cole must decide whether he is master of-or at the mercy of-history.

The Madagaskar Plan is alternate history of the highest order, a thriller of terrifying scope based on the Nazis' actual plans prior to the Holocaust.

Paperbacks

Blood and Honor: The Foreworld Saga Graphic Novels by Tony Wolf , Erik Bear and Christian Cameron

Collected for the first time: three exciting alternate history graphic novel adventures exploring fantasy, magic, and martial arts in The Foreworld Saga! Including:

Suffrajitsu: Mrs. Pankhurst’s Amazons #1–3:

London, 1914: The leaders of the radical women’s rights movement are fugitives from the law. Their last line of defense is the secret society of “Amazons”: women trained in the martial art of bartitsu and sworn to defend their leaders from arrest and assault.

After a series of daring escapes and battles with the police, the stakes rise dramatically when the Amazons are forced into a deadly game of cat and mouse against an aristocratic, utopian cult…

The Dead God #1–3:

In the year 536 AD, the land of Frisia is a hostile place of swords and sorcery. Across the dark, cold countryside, three valiant warriors quest for a treasure, the likes of which few can comprehend. These three—the mighty grappler, Eadhild; the skilled archer, Coll; and the charming young Valens—are searching for the head of Yvrnn, the sky-god. For, according to legend, the head of Yvrnn will grant its possessors great wisdom and fortune.

The trio’s quest won’t be easy, as they must not only contend with Yvrnn’s followers who have set obstacles in their paths, but also the mystical creatures and bandits that haunt the roads of Frisia.

Symposium #1–3:

The Shield-Brethren is a secret martial order that has defended the West for centuries. Now, the origins of the order are revealed in this stunning three-issue tale.

Our heroes, seeking to realize the idea offered to them by the philosopher Plato, leave Athens and travel to Delphi with hope of visiting the oracle. They have a dream to found a city of their own, and they desire insight from the oracle as to their question. But their skills—both as warriors and as thinking men—will be tested by adversaries they do not even know they have.

Comics as History, Comics as Literature: Roles of the Comic Book in Scholarship, Society, and Entertainment edited by Annessa Ann Babic

This anthology hosts a collection of essays examining the role of comics as portals for historical and academic content, while keeping the approach on an international market versus the American one. Few resources currently exist showing the cross-disciplinary aspects of comics. Some of the chapters examine the use of Wonder Woman during World War II, the development and culture of French comics, and theories of Locke and Hobbs in regards to the state of nature and the bonds of community. More so, the continual use of comics for the retelling of classic tales and current events demonstrates that the genre has long passed the phase of for children’s eyes only. Additionally, this anthology also weaves graphic novels into the dialogue with comics.

The Contrary Tale of the Butterfly Girl: From the Peculiar Adventures of John Lovehart, Esq., Volume 2 by Ishbelle Bee

1888. A little girl called Mirror and her extraordinary shape-shifting guardian Goliath Honeyflower are washed up on the shores of Victorian England. Something has been wrong with Mirror since the day her grandfather locked her inside a mysterious clock that was painted all over with ladybirds. Mirror does not know what she is, but she knows she is no longer human.

John Loveheart, meanwhile, was not born wicked. But after the sinister death of his parents, he was taken by Mr Fingers, the demon lord of the underworld. Some say he is mad. John would be inclined to agree.

Now Mr Fingers is determined to find the little girl called Mirror, whose flesh he intends to eat, and whose soul is the key to his eternal reign. And John Loveheart has been called by his otherworldly father to help him track Mirror down…

An extraordinary dark fairytale for adults, for fans of Catherine Valente and Neil Gaiman.

The Einstein Prophecy by Robert Masello

As war rages in 1944, young army lieutenant Lucas Athan recovers a sarcophagus excavated from an Egyptian tomb. Shipped to Princeton University for study, the box contains mysteries that only Lucas, aided by brilliant archaeologist Simone Rashid, can unlock.

These mysteries may, in fact, defy—or fulfill—the dire prophecies of Albert Einstein himself.

Struggling to decipher the sarcophagus’s strange contents, Lucas and Simone unwittingly release forces for both good and unmitigated evil. The fate of the world hangs not only on Professor Einstein’s secret research but also on Lucas’s ability to defeat an unholy adversary more powerful than anything he ever imagined.

From the mind of bestselling author and award-winning journalist Robert Masello comes a thrilling, page-turning adventure where modern science and primordial supernatural powers collide.

Proxima by Stephen Baxter

Mankind’s future in this galaxy could be all but infinite.

There are hundreds of billions of red dwarf stars, lasting trillions of years—and their planets can be habitable for humans. Such is the world of Proxima Centauri. And its promise could mean the never-ending existence of humanity.

But first it must be colonized, and no one wants to be a settler. There is no glamor that accompanies it, nor is there the ease of becoming a citizen of an already-tamed world. There is only hardship...loneliness...emptiness, even as war brews in the solar system.

But that’s where Yuri comes in. Because sometimes exploration isn’t voluntary. It must be coerced.

Soldiers Out of Time by Steve White

Book #5 in Steve White's exciting TRA series. Jason faces down humanity's arch-enemies in an action-packed space adventure.

Special operations officer Jason Thanou of the Temporal Regulatory Authority must once again plunge into Earth’s blood-drenched past to combat the plots of the Transhumanist underground to subvert that past and create a secret history leading up to the fulfillment of their mad dream of transforming humanity into a race of gods and monsters.

E-Books

Alt.History 101 edited by Samuel Peralta and Nolie Wilson

The future is history... From Samuel Peralta, creator of the bestselling Future Chronicles anthology series, comes a new speculative anthology series that turns the world you know upside down.

In Alt.History 101, thirteen top speculative fiction authors re-imagine the world - as one where the inventor of the smallpox vaccine died before he'd created it, as one where the women's suffragist movement failed to win the right to vote, as one where the death penalty exists but where all forms of capital punishment are ruled inhumane - and ten other compelling stories charting the histories of these worlds.

Enter worlds so much like our own, yet so different - where everything you know... is history.

Ultima by Stephen Baxter

Hailed as “one of the most inventive writers that science fiction has ever produced" (SF Site), Stephen Baxter builds on the massive success of Proxima with a career-defining novel of big ideas....

On the planet of Per Ardua, alien artifacts were discovered—hatches that allowed humans to step across light-years of space as if they were stepping into another room. But this newfound freedom has consequences....

As humanity discovers the real nature of the universe, a terrifying truth comes to light. We all have countless pasts converging in this present—and our future is terrifyingly finite. There are minds in the universe that are billions of years old and now we are vulnerable to their plans for us....

It’s time to fight back and take control.

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 judgeWhen 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 FacebookTwitter and YouTube.

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