New Releases 5/3/16

You can support The Update by clicking the banner to your right or the links below if you are purchasing through Amazon!

Hardcovers

Providence, Act 1 by Alan Moore

Alan Moore’s quintessential horror series has set the standard for a terrifying examination of the works of H.P. Lovecraft. It is being universally hailed as one of Moore’s most realized works in which the master scribe has controlled every iota of the story, art, and presentation. The result has been a masterpiece like no other, unparalleled in tone and content, and a true must have addition to his essential works in the field. For a limited one-time run, Avatar Press is presenting a collected Providence Act 1 Hard Cover edition that contains Providence issues #1-4, and all the back matter, which is limited to 6,666 copies. This edition will not be reprinted, there will not be a softcover edition, and this material will not be printed again until the complete collection is available in the far distant future. Don't miss your chance to enjoy the first piece of a true horror masterpiece and enter the creeping world of Providence.

Ring of Fire IV by Eric Flint

NEW YORK TIMES BEST-SELLING AUTHOR. CONTAINS A STORY BY DAVID BRIN AND AN ALL-NEW STORY BY ERIC FLINT. Collection #4 of rollicking and idea-packed alternate history tales written by today’s hottest science fiction writers and edited by New York Times best-seller Eric Flint. After a cosmic accident sets the modern-day West Virginia town of Grantville down in war-torn seventeenth century Europe, these everyday, resourceful Americans must adapt – or be trod into the dust of the past.

Let’s do the “Time Warp” again!  Another anthology of rollicking, thought-provoking collection of tales by a star-studded array of top writers such as David Brin and Eric Flint himself – all set in Eric Flint’s phenomenal Ring of Fire series.

A cosmic accident sets the modern West Virginia town of Grantville down in war-torn seventeenth century Europe.  It will take all the gumption of the resourceful, freedom-loving up-timers to find a way to flourish in a mad and bloody time.  Are they up for it?  You bet they are.  The fourth rollicking and idea-packed collection of Grantville tales edited and introduced by Eric Flint, and inspired by his now-legendary 1632.  Plus: contains an all-new story by Eric Flint.

Stories by Eric Flint, David Brin, David Carrico, Virginia DeMarce, Charles E. Gannon and more.

Paperbacks

The Change by SM Stirling

“[A] vivid portrait of a world gone insane,”* S. M. Stirling’s New York Times bestselling Novels of the Change have depicted a vivid, utterly persuasive, and absorbingly unpredictable postapocalyptic wasteland in which all modern technology has been left in ashes, forcing humankind to rebuild an unknowable new world in the wake of unimaginable—and deliberate—chaos.

In The Change: Tales of Downfall and Rebirth, S. M. Stirling invites the most fertile minds in science fiction to join him in expanding his rich Emberverse canvas. Here are inventive new perspectives on the cultures, the survivors, and the battles arising across the years and across the globe following the Change—from the ruins of Sydney to the Republic of Fargo and Northern Alberta to Venetian and Greek galleys clashing in the Mediterranean.

These adventures revisit beloved people and places from Stirling’s fantastic universe, introduce us to new ones, and deliver endlessly fascinating challenges to conquer.

*Statesman Journal (Salem, OR)

Straits of Hell (Destroyermen) by Taylor Anderson

New York Times bestselling author Taylor Anderson’s phenomenal series of alternate history continues as a dangerous scheme throws the hope of honor, trust, and survival into chaos....

Transported to an alternate version of earth where WWII no longer rages, Matt Reddy and the crew of the Asiatic Fleet destroyer USS Walker have been trying to find their place in a strange new world—only to now face a game-changing conspiracy.

Reddy and his crew fight alongside the felinoid Lemurians and Imperial allies to keep the reptilian Grik, a race growing in supremacy, from reconquering the Lemurians’ ancestral home on Madagascar. But exhausted, far from reinforcements, and wildly outnumbered, the odds seem greater than ever before.

As for the fate of the Americas, Don Hernan and the evil Dominion have gathered to annihilate the forces behind the walls of Fort Defiance as a shadowy power with an agenda all its own rises with chilling resolve.

As the war teeters on a knife-edge, a tipping point may have been reached at last—and cold steel and hot-blooded valor will remain the ultimate weapons.

E-Books

Sons of Liberty (Royal Sorceress Book 4) by Chris Nuttall

The long-dreaded war between Britain and France has finally begun. French soldiers have landed on English soil and the British Army – and the Royal Sorcerers Corps, led by Lady Gwen – is moving to meet them. But when an inexperienced major disobeys her orders and sends two hundred hussars to their deaths, Gwen accidentally uses her magic to permanently damage his mind and sparks a political crisis at the worst possible time.

In the aftermath of the battle, Lord Mycroft suggests she leave Britain and head to the North American colonies, where British forces are anxiously awaiting a French offensive. The local sorcerers have been poisoned, the local government is barely keeping the colonies under control, the slaves are mutinous and revolution against the crown is brewing. The few locals with any known magical talent are untrained and certainly not ready for combat, but – if they can be trained in time – they may be all that stands between the colonies and defeat.

Accompanied by Irene Adler and Raechel Slater-Standish, agents of the British Crown, Gwen heads to North America. But it may be too late to save the colonies from a disaster that has been long in the making …

In ‘Sons of Liberty’, Gwen is sent from the relative safety of London to the colonies, where an undercurrent of revolution still abounds and intrigue and espionage are essential to keep the enemy at bay. But who exactly is the enemy? In the latest book in this exciting alternate history series, Christopher Nuttall expands Gwen’s horizons beyond Europe into the New World.

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.

* * *

Matt Mitrovich is the founder and editor of Alternate History Weekly Update, a blogger for Amazing Stories, a volunteer interviewer for SFFWorld and a Sidewise Awards for Alternate History judge. When not exploring alternate timelines he 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, Tumblr and YouTube. Learn how you can support his alternate history projects on Patreon.

Weekly Update #193

Editor's Note

I was staring down a ton of tedious linking, mostly because of BBC's adaptation Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, and I thought "screw this". I didn't set out to be a writer just to spend my day creating long list of links that can take hours to complete.

So say goodbye to the Links to the Multiverse section because this will be the last time you see it. I remember holding a poll a while back and people voted in favor of it, but I need to make an executive decision regarding the future of The Update. Does that mean I won't be sharing all the alternate history posts from the week? No, of course not. Instead of linking it to the Weekly Update post, however, I am going to be sharing them as I find them directly on Facebook and Twitter. So if you don't follow me on those sites, now is the time to do it.

So what does this mean for the Weekly Updates? How will I decide to what to write about if I am not collecting and categorizing articles and posts in my usual manner? Well that is the beauty of my new plan. YOU will decide what the subject(s) of the Weekly Update will be on Monday. After the week is over I will look through the posts on social media that got the most likes, comments, shares, replies, favorites, retweets, etc. and summarize them here on the blog and give my opinion (because everyone obviously loves to hear that). I may even apply the same formula to other long-running segments, like Map Mondays and Videos for Alternate Historians.

Does that all make sense? If not, don't worry, I will iron out the kinks as I get used to the new procedure. Hopefully this will make Weekly Updates easier to write and more fun for you all to read.

And now the news...

LXG Strikes Back

LXG sucked. It was the worst adaptation of an Alan Moore comic and it caused Sean Connery to quit acting. Nevertheless, it still made a lot of money, so that is probably why Fox decided to go ahead and reboot the franchise. According to Variety, John Davis (The Blacklist) will produce, Jayson Rothwell will write the script and Ira Napoliello and Matt Reilly are overseeing (whatever that means) the remake/reboot.

I sort of agree with Katharine Trendacosta of io9 reaction to this news. Since the original film was so bad, there really is no where to go but up for this reboot. Considering as well the high quality films and TV we have seen in the last couple years, audiences are demanding better content from the big studios. Whether they will actually create something that is watchable remains to be seen, but I am cautiously optimistic.

Links to the Multiverse

Books & Short Fiction

5 Great Steampunk Writings that Aren't Actually Steampunk at Pornokitsch.
6 Absolutely Magical Alternate Histories at B&N.
How Mowery (The Parallel Lives of Elizabeth Ann) Found Herself in Fantasy Land at SF Signal.
Review: At the Ruin of the World by John Henry Clay at Falcata Times.
Review: SS-GB by Len Deighton at Past Offences.
Why The Most Powerful Time Travel Stories Aren’t About Changing The Past at io9.

Counterfactuals, History & News

If Africa, Asia, and Europe Declared War on the U.S., Who Would Win? at Slate.
Forays into “What If” History: An After Action Report at American Historical Association.
This OS Almost Made Apple an Entirely Different Company at Wired.
Scotland Yard Feared Trekkies And Sci-Fi Fans In The Late 90s at ScienceFiction.com.
U.S. Army's New Battle Blimp Takes Flight at Popular Mechanics.
A White House without dogs? An alternate history of presidents minus the pups at Yahoo.
Why We'd Be Better Off if Napoleon Never Lost at Waterloo at Smithsonian.

Films & Television

Captain America 2 Animatics Reveal An Alternate Fate For Arnim Zola at io9.
George Miller’s Justice League Would Have Changed Superhero Movies Drastically at Tor.
Review: Outcast at Medievalists.Net.

Games

Once Upon A Timeline is a free game about time travel at PC Gamer

Graphic Novels & Comics

The Line it is Drawn #242 – Golden Age Versions of Modern Superheroes! at CBR.

* * *

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.

New Releases 4/21/15

You can support The Update by clicking the banner to your right or the links below if you are purchasing through Amazon!

Hardcovers

Techno-Orientalism: Imagining Asia in Speculative Fiction, History, and Media edited by David S. Roh, Betsy Huang and Greta A. Niu

What will the future look like? To judge from many speculative fiction films and books, from Blade Runner to Cloud Atlas, the future will be full of cities that resemble Tokyo, Hong Kong, and Shanghai, and it will be populated mainly by cold, unfeeling citizens who act like robots. Techno-Orientalism investigates the phenomenon of imagining Asia and Asians in hypo- or hyper-technological terms in literary, cinematic, and new media representations, while critically examining the stereotype of Asians as both technologically advanced and intellectually primitive, in dire need of Western consciousness-raising.

The collection’s fourteen original essays trace the discourse of techno-orientalism across a wide array of media, from radio serials to cyberpunk novels, from Sax Rohmer’s Dr. Fu Manchu to Firefly.  Applying a variety of theoretical, historical, and interpretive approaches, the contributors consider techno-orientalism a truly global phenomenon. In part, they tackle the key question of how these stereotypes serve to both express and assuage Western anxieties about Asia’s growing cultural influence and economic dominance. Yet the book also examines artists who have appropriated techno-orientalist tropes in order to critique racist and imperialist attitudes.

Techno-Orientalism is the first collection to define and critically analyze a phenomenon that pervades both science fiction and real-world news coverage of Asia. With essays on subjects ranging from wartime rhetoric of race and technology to science fiction by contemporary Asian American writers to the cultural implications of Korean gamers, this volume offers innovative perspectives and broadens conventional discussions in Asian American Cultural studies.

Paperbacks

Top 10 by Alan Moore

The massive, multilayered city of Neopolis, built shortly after World War II, was designed as a home for the expanding population of science-heroes, heroines and villains that had ballooned into existance in the previous decade. Bringing these powered beings together solved some problems but created others - turning Neopolis into a pressure cooker that normal policing methods could never contain.

Join rookie cop Robyn Singer, alter ego "Toybox," as she hits the streets for the first time along with a colorful crew of fellow officers, each having the required training to deal with science-villains and super-crimes. You'll never look at powers, or police work, the same way again!

Written by Alan Moore (WATCHMEN, V FOR VENDETTA) and drawn by the team of Gene Ha and Zander Cannon, TOP 10 combines superheroics and cop drama like no series before or after it. Collects issues #1-12.

E-books

1882: Custer in Chains by Robert Conroy

Following his unlikely but decisive (and immensely popular) 1876 victory over Sitting Bull and the Sioux at the Little Big Horn, George Armstrong Custer is propelled into the White House in 1880.

Two years later, he finds himself bored and seeks new worlds to conquer. He and his wife Libbie fixate on Spain’s decaying empire as his source for immortality. What President Custer doesn’t quite comprehend is that the U.S. military isn’t up to such a venture. When a group of Americans on a ship headed for Cuba is massacred, war becomes inevitable—and unless calmer, patriotic citizens and soldiers can find a way to avoid debacle, this war may be America's last stand!

A Long Time Until Now by Michael Z. Williamson

Book 1 in a new series from the creator of the best-selling Freehold Universe series. A military unit is thrust back into Paleolithic times with only their guns and portable hardware.

Ten soldiers on convoy in Afghanistan suddenly find themselves lost in time. Somehow, they arrived in Earth's Paleolithic Asia. With no idea how they arrived or how to get back, the shock of the event is severe. They discover groups of the similarly displaced: Imperial Romans, Neolithic Europeans, and a small cadre of East Indian peasants. Despite their technological advantage, the soldiers only have ten people, and know no way home. Then two more time travelers arrive from a future far beyond the present. These time travelers may have the means to get back, but they aren't giving it up. In fact, they may have a treacherous agenda of their own, one that may very well lead to the death of the displaced in a harsh and dangerous era.

The Whitechapel Fiend by Cassandra Clare and Maureen Johnson

Jack the Ripper stalks through London, and only the Shadowhunters can stop him. One of ten adventures in Tales from the Shadowhunter Academy.

Simon learns the truth behind the Jack the Ripper murders—“Jack” was stopped by Will Herondale and his institute of Victorian Shadowhunters.

This standalone e-only short story follows the adventures of Simon Lewis, star of the #1 New York Times bestselling series The Mortal Instruments, as he trains to become a Shadowhunter. Tales from the Shadowhunter Academy features characters from Cassandra Clare’s Mortal Instruments, Infernal Devices, and the upcoming Dark Artifices and Last Hours series. The Whitechapel Fiend is written by Cassandra Clare and Maureen Johnson.

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.

* * *

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.

New Releases 8/5/14

You can support The Update by clicking the banner to your right or the links below if you are purchasing through Amazon!

Hardcovers

The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (Volume III): Century by Kevin O'Neill and Alan Moore

The nineteenth century, expiring with a flourish of Moriarty and Martians, has left the division of Military Intelligence commanded by Mina Murray in a state of disrepair. While she and her lover Allan Quatermain have achieved a measure of eternal youth, recruiting new talents such as the trans-gendered immortal Orlando, the ghost-finder Thomas Carnacki, and the gentleman thief A.J. Raffles to replace their deceased or missing colleagues, former associate Captain Nemo has retired to his Pacific pirate island to decline in surly isolation. Now it is the early years of a new and unfamiliar century, and forces are emerging that appear to promise ruin for the Murray group, the nation, and, indeed, the world, even were it to take a hundred years for this apocalyptic threat to come to its disastrous fruition. From the occult parlours and crime-haunted wharfs of 1910, through the criminal, mystical, and psychedelic underworlds of 1969 to the financially and culturally desolated streets of 2009, the disintegrating remnants of Miss Murray and her League must combat not only the hidden hand of their undying adversary, but also the ethical and psychological collapse accompanying this new era. And a lot of things can happen in a CENTURY!

Paperbacks

The City of Fear: Bk.3 by Andrew Beasley

Victorian London is ruled by fear. The bloodthirsty Legion have captured the Queen and walled off the city, ushering in a reign of terror. Only Ben Kingdom and his motley band of rebels can stop them, but in the darkest pit of hell, evil creatures are stirring, ready to be called forth...

The Great Abraham Lincoln Pocket Watch Conspiracy by Jacopo della Quercia

This historical thriller is an equal-parts cocktail of action, adventure, science-fiction and comedy. The book follows a globe-trotting President Taft and Robert Todd Lincoln in a race to solve a mystery stretching back to the Civil War and the Lincoln assassination. Based on true events, readers will find themselves swept into a vast conspiracy spanning four continents and three oceans during the turn of the century. Fascinating technologies will be harnessed, dark secrets revealed, true villains exposed, and some of the most famous figures in history will take the stage. With surprises lurking around every corner, and a vast cast of characters to root for, Jacopo della Quercia's The Great Abraham Lincoln Pocket Watch Conspiracy is a heart-pounding adventure that only history could have made possible.

To fans, 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.

* * *

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.

New Releases 7/29/14

You can support The Update by clicking the banner to your right or the links below if you are purchasing through Amazon!

Hardcovers

The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Century by Alan Moore

The nineteenth century, expiring with a flourish of Moriarty and Martians, has left the division of Military Intelligence commanded by Mina Murray in a state of disrepair. While she and her lover Allan Quatermain have achieved a measure of eternal youth, recruiting new talents such as the trans-gendered immortal Orlando, the ghost-finder Thomas Carnacki, and the gentleman thief A.J. Raffles to replace their deceased or missing colleagues, former associate Captain Nemo has retired to his Pacific pirate island to decline in surly isolation. Now it is the early years of a new and unfamiliar century, and forces are emerging that appear to promise ruin for the Murray group, the nation, and, indeed, the world, even were it to take a hundred years for this apocalyptic threat to come to its disastrous fruition. From the occult parlours and crime-haunted wharfs of 1910, through the criminal, mystical, and psychedelic underworlds of 1969 to the financially and culturally desolated streets of 2009, the disintegrating remnants of Miss Murray and her League must combat not only the hidden hand of their undying adversary, but also the ethical and psychological collapse accompanying this new era. And a lot of things can happen in a CENTURY!

Paperbacks

Jani and the Greater Game by Eric Brown

Jani and the Greater Game is the first book in a rip-roaring, spice-laden, steampunk action adventure series set in India and featuring a heroine who subverts all the norms...

It’s 1910 and the British rule the subcontinent with an iron fist – and with strange technology fuelled by a power source known as Annapurnite – discovered in the foothills of Mount Annapurna. But they rule but at the constant cost of their enemies, mainly the Russians and the Chinese, attempting to learn the secret of this technology... This political confrontation is known as The Greater Game.

Into this conflict is pitched eighteen year old Janisha Chaterjee who discovers a strange device which leads her into the foothills of the Himalayas. When Russians spies and the evil priest Durja Das find out about the device, the chase is on to apprehend Janisha before she can reach the Himalayas. There she will learn the secret behind Annapurnite, and what she learns will change the destiny of the world for ever...

Online Originals

"Brisk Money" by Adam Christopher

Raymond Chandler famously hated science fiction, saying “They pay brisk money for this crap?” However, it has recently come to light that Chandler secretly wrote a series of stories and novels starring a robot detective. He then burnt all the manuscripts and went on writing his noir masterpieces. Unknown to Chandler, his housekeeper had managed to save some of these discarded manuscripts from the grate in his study,  preserving the tales for future generations.

The first of these stories was recently unearthed by author Adam Christopher. On the topic of how the manuscript made its way from Chandler’s study in California to Christopher’s home in England, Christopher is suspiciously quiet.

This novelette was acquired and edited for Tor.com by editor Paul Stevens.

To fans, 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.

* * *

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.

Weekly Update #135

Editor's Note

Still having trouble reaching my goal of five articles a week. My job has been extremely busy this week as my firm has just brought on some highly successful real estate attorneys and clearing them through conflicts has been a nightmare. What I really need is a contributing blogger. Someone who can submit articles on a regular basis to help fill in the gaps. But how do I encourage someone to volunteer for such a role?

Well...I actually have a small budget to pay for a staff writer. I am thinking either a flat rate per article or a few cents per word deal. Nothing in concrete yet, but if you are interested, shoot me an email at ahwupdate at gmail dot com. Since I am creating a position out of thin air here, I am willing to consider any and all proposals as long as they meet the subject matter of the blog.

And now the news...

Coming Soon: The Enceladus Crisis by Michael J. Martinez

Friend of The Update, Michael J. Martinez, was in the news a lot last week. Although his next book The Enceladus Crisis (sequel to The Daedalus Incident) does not come out until May, already review copies are being sent to the usual SF sites. For those who don't know about The Enceladus Crisis, here is the description from Amazon:

Two dimensions collided on the rust-red deserts of Mars—and are destined to become entangled once more in this sequel to the critically acclaimed The Daedalus Incident. 

Lieutenant Commander Shaila Jain has been given the assignment of her dreams: the first manned mission to Saturn. But there’s competition and complications when she arrives aboard the survey ship Armstrong. The Chinese are vying for control of the critical moon Titan, and the moon Enceladus may harbor secrets deep under its icy crust. And back on Earth, Project DAEDALUS now seeks to defend against other dimensional incursions. But there are other players interested in opening the door between worlds . . . and they’re getting impatient. 

For Thomas Weatherby, it’s been nineteen years since he was second lieutenant aboard HMS Daedalus. Now captain of the seventy-four-gun Fortitude, Weatherby helps destroy the French fleet at the Nile and must chase an escaped French ship from Egypt to Saturn, home of the enigmatic and increasingly unstable aliens who call themselves the Xan. Meanwhile, in Egypt, alchemist Andrew Finch has ingratiated himself with Napoleon’s forces . . . and finds the true, horrible reason why the French invaded Egypt in the first place. 

The thrilling follow-up to The Daedalus Incident, The Enceladus Crisis continues Martinez’s Daedalus series with a combination of mystery, intrigue, and high adventure spanning two amazing dimensions.

Paul Weimer of SF Signal said in his early review of the novel that it "manages to improve on the first in significant ways but doesn't quite leap to the next quantum level." Still he did give it 4 out 5 stars, so I will take that as a recommendation. Those wishing to learn more about Michael can check out his interview over at the Functional Nerds and, for those aspiring authors out there, check out his original query letter to Michael's agent to find out what a successful query letter looks like.

Update: Nemo: Heart of Ice by Alan Moore

Alan Moore has a new entry in his successful League of Extraordinary Gentlemen series. Titled Nemo: Heart of Ice, here is the description from SF Signal:

Moore revisits the world he created in The League of Extraordinary Gentleman in a new book, Nemo: Heart of Ice, which focuses on Janni Dakkar, daughter of Captain Nemo, and her trek across Antarctica to prove herself by recreating Nemo’s own Antarctic expedition. Moore draws from several sources, including H.P. Lovercraft, to create a dark and mysterious continent full of dangers and madness. As a character, Janni feels the weight of the Nemo name and legacy set squarely on her shoulders, and struggles throughout the book to come to terms with that.

Patrick Hester (of SF Signal Podcast fame) reviewed the comic for Kirkus and said "[f]ans of Moore's League will enjoy the book as an addition to the bigger universe, but for me, it fell a little flat. I wanted something more." So a disappointing review for someone like me who has read several books from the series, but I am still likely to read this one. What do you think?

Solaris commission Paul Kearney novel

Jonathan Oliver, commissioning editor of Solaris Books, has commissioned The Wolf in the Attic, a new historical fantasy novel by Paul Kearney. The novel is set in early 1930′s Oxford and features well-known fantasy authors JRR Tolkien and CS Lewis as characters. It is told from the point of view of a lonely, Greek refugee girl who one day discovers a Romany boy in her attic. The boy is a shape-shifter, and becomes her friend. The two begin to explore the world around Oxford, discovering things they never imagined existed. The girl, Anna, is obsessed by the Odyssey, and likens the Romany boy, Luca, to Odysseus. Here are the author’s thoughts:

“This story has been rattling around in my head for a long time. The genesis of it was a visit to Turkey some years ago, when I saw the magnificent ruins at Ephesus. I knew the ancient history of Asia Minor quite well, but its more recent reincarnation as Turkey was pretty much a mystery to me, so I started reading into it. The one event that really stuck in my mind during my research was the sack of Smyrna in 1922, a ghastly, shameful catastrophe that the world has completely forgotten about. The more I read about the forced exodus of the Ionian Greeks, the more I felt I wanted to say something about them. But how? I put the idea to one side.

“Then, several years later I went back to Oxford for the first time in almost two decades. The place I had known as a teenager was both similar and jarringly different to the memories I had been holding on to, and I had the oddest sense of being dislocated, ghost-like, remembering places and things that no longer existed. That powerful, stubborn mental grasp of a place that was no longer there in some respects made me think about the tenacity of memory, and the way it can mislead and deceive.

“Finally, back at home, I was simply walking the dogs along the beach, and the character of Anna  came to me in a rush. All those dislocated and disparate factors seemed suddenly to mesh, and I had the heart of a story unlike any other I’ve ever tried to tell.”

The novel will be published in autumn 2015. The agent was John Jarrold, and the deal was for UK/US rights.

Map Gallery

Only two maps caught my eye last week. The first is from one of my favorite timelines on AH.com, "A Crack at Draka" by Municipal Engine. That timeline's Great War has just concluded and here is what the world looks like in 1914:

Finally we have a non-AH map, but one I found highly amusing. It is a fan map by "theantilove" featuring the location where every animated Disney movie was set:

Which map did you think was the best? Let us know in the comments below.

Video Gallery

Got some good videos this week. First up, a curious gem I found through Unleash the Fanboy called Project Arbiter which has been described as a "diselpunk Captain America":

Next up is the weirdest "-punk" I have ever featured on The Update. Watch Adam and Joel from Rooster Teeth infiltrate Jazzpunk:

And now our gallery closes for the week with another episode from my new favorite alternate history channel, the Alternate History Hub, simply titled "What if the United States Lost the Revolution":

Know of any other videos alternate historians will enjoy? Let us know in the comments below.

Calendar

February 18-19: Harry Turtledove visits the University of South Florida for a reading, book signing and an  interdisciplinary discussion of alternate history.

March 31: Deadline to submit to Resurrection House's short fiction anthology.

July 17-20: The North American Science Fiction Convention (NASFiC), is held in years when the World Science Fiction Convention (Worldcon) is held outside of North America. This year it will take place in Detroit, Michigan and will be known as Detcon1.

Links to the Multiverse

Books

The Michael Moorcock Collection: An Inside View by John Davey at Gateway.
Read the first 4 chapters. Obsidian Eyes by @AWExley #steampunk at The Masquerade Crew.
Which Gideon Smith Character Are You? by David Barnett at Postcards from the Hinterland.

Comics

Bendis & Oeming Offer First "United States of Murder Inc." Details by Albert Ching at CBR.
GRAPHIC NOVEL PREVIEW: Madame Frankenstein at Geek Syndicate.
​How do you make World War II worse? Add royalty with superpowers by Rob Bricken at io9.
NEWS: Watchmen, Sandman, Chu, Russia and the Clown-Shoes of Cthulhu by Neil Gaiman.

Counterfactual/Traditional History

Alternate Great Lakes by Sean Sherman at Other Times.
Democrats, Media Slam President Romney Over Health Care Law Changes by Charles C. W. Cooke at National Review Online.
Game of Thrones looks like a sideshow next to these real historic events at New.com.au.
Hitler's Secret Science by Alex Michael Bonnici at Far Future Horizons.
The Road Not Taken: It may seem like Alex Rodriguez was destined to be a baseball villain, but he very nearly wasn’t by Rany Jazayerli at Grantland.

Films

What if the Nazis Had Destroyed Paris? Volker Schlöndorff's New Film, "Diplomacy" by Gavriel D. Rosenfeld at The Counterfactual History Review.

Games

Hearts of Iron IV has learned from CKII and EUIV by Mike Holmes at Gamereactor.

Interviews

Eleri Stone at My Bookish Ways.
Lavie Tidhar at Amazing Stories.
Lynn Viehl at The Qwillery.
Harry Turtledove at Eating Authors.

Podcasts

Writing Excuses 9.6: The Experience of Time at Writing Excuses.

Reviews

11/22/63 by Stephen King at SF Signal.
Code Red at Technology Tell.
Dimensions at Paul Levinson's Infinite Regress.
Sherlock 3.3 at Thinking about books.
The Shining Girls by Lauren Beukes at Bookworm Blues.
V-S Day by Allen Steele at Locus Online.

Television

History's Most Famous People Re-Imagined as Weapons by Richard Eisenbeis at Kotaku.
What if “Doctor Who” Was an American Show? at Geeks are Sexy.

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Matt Mitrovich is the founder and editor of Alternate History Weekly Update and a blogger on Amazing Stories. His new short story "Road Trip" can be found in Forbidden Future: A Time Travel Anthology. 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.

Alternate Nixons Part 1

Guest post by Andrew Schneider.

With the fiftieth anniversary of John F. Kennedy’s assassination rapidly approaching, there have been quite a few new JFK histories floating around.  Thurston Clarke’s JFK’s Last Hundred Days provides some useful insights into how President Kennedy’s policy ideas were evolving in the last few months of his life, shaped in part by the traumatic loss of his baby son Patrick.  Jeff Greenfield’s If Kennedy Lived takes several of Clarke’s themes a step further – considering how Kennedy would have handled U.S. involvement in Vietnam and the civil rights struggle at home had he been reelected in 1964.

But there was another anniversary earlier this year that has been largely overlooked.  January 9 marked the centennial of the birth of Richard Nixon. Rarely have two opposing candidates for the presidency been so shaped and defined by their rivalry as were Kennedy and Nixon.

In 1960, Kennedy was the junior senator from Massachusetts.  He had wealth, charisma, and an inspiring war record, but a very thin record of legislative achievement. He was a Roman Catholic in a country where anti-Catholic sentiment was still common, particularly in the traditional Democratic strongholds of the South. He had name recognition, true, but that came from being the son of Joseph Kennedy, Sr. -- a man cast into the political wilderness for his disastrous turn as ambassador to Britain when that country was fighting for its life during World War II. Harry Truman – in 1960 the only living Democrat to have occupied the White House – was one of many concerned that Ambassador Kennedy would have an outsized influence if his son achieved the prize that had eluded him. “It’s not the Pope I’m afraid of,” Truman said. “It’s the Pop.”

Nevertheless, Kennedy broke out of a heavily contested field in 1960 to claim the Democratic nomination.
As the incumbent vice president, Nixon had superior name recognition. He was a native Californian, who could count on what was then the second-largest state bloc of electoral votes. He lacked any serious opponent for the Republican nomination, enabling him to save his resources for the general election. He was just a few years older than Kennedy and, as has been since been revealed, in considerably better health (Kennedy having suffered for years from Addison’s disease and near crippling back ailments).

Nixon certainly lacked Kennedy’s charisma. But he had something that was arguably a more valuable asset at the height of the Cold War. He had eight years of experience in the fields of foreign policy and national security. And he’d learned at the right hand of President Dwight D. Eisenhower, one of the greatest military leaders the country had ever produced.  The race was his to lose. But lose he did. The great irony was that, in large part, Kennedy won by calling into question the record of Eisenhower and Nixon on national security, stressing a missile gap with the Soviet Union that turned out to be non-existent.  On this basis, he convinced a reed-slender majority of voters that he would do a better job of keeping the country safe. In essence, he out-Nixoned Nixon.

Kennedy spent much of his term defined by the Cold Warrior mold he’d cast for himself. The late David Halberstam was one of the first to make this case in The Best and the Brightest, arguing that the McCarthy era still very much defined the acceptable bounds of foreign policy in the early 1960s. Any sign of weakness in confronting Communism anywhere in the world could lead to a sharp domestic backlash. “Who lost China?” may have lost its potency as a rallying cry in American politics by this point, but would Kennedy really want to chance having it come back as “Who lost Indochina?” Kennedy knew how this worked better than anyone, having cut his senatorial teeth on McCarthy’s Investigations Subcommittee. While McCarthy was dead, the veteran Red hunter Nixon was still very much alive.

Nixon remained a credible threat to Kennedy’s reelection until late 1962. Kennedy’s handling of the Cuban Missile Crisis and Nixon’s withdrawal from politics after losing the California governor’s race upended the table. It gave Kennedy the room to pursue one of his most significant foreign policy achievements, the Limited Nuclear Test Ban Treaty with the U.S.S.R. Even getting this through the Senate required some quiet support from former President Eisenhower. But Kennedy was still concerned enough about his right flank that he was reluctant to do anything as dramatic as pulling U.S. military advisors out of Vietnam until after he was safely reelected.

The degree to which Kennedy shaped Nixon’s career, as opposed to the other way around, is the stuff of legends. Kennedy and Nixon had both been elected to Congress in 1946. This was an era when it was possible for American politicians of different parties to be friends. And for the better part of fourteen years, the two men were friends. The 1960 campaign ended that and left Nixon with a deep sense of betrayal. The narrow margin of Kennedy’s victory, dependent as it was on the votes of Lyndon Johnson’s Texas and an Illinois dominated by Richard J. Daley’s Chicago, convinced Nixon that Kennedy had stolen the election from him. His failed comeback bid in 1962, with Kennedy campaigning against Nixon on behalf of California Governor Pat Brown, only deepened his sense of resentment.

There was always a streak of suspiciousness in Nixon. During his own presidency, this metamorphosed into what has often been described as paranoia. As Henry Kissinger himself observed, though, “Even paranoids have enemies.” Few people had done more to earn Nixon’s enmity than the Kennedys. From the day he took office in 1969 until well into 1972, Nixon was convinced that JFK’s sole surviving brother, Ted Kennedy, was the biggest threat to his political survival. The Chappaquiddick Incident, and the younger Kennedy’s involvement in the death of Mary Jo Kopechne, made this highly unlikely. But by this point, Nixon was taking no chances.

Ultimately, it was Nixon’s determination to break his enemies, real and imagined, before they could break him that led to Watergate and forced his resignation in disgrace.

Kennedy’s assassination has been described, both at the time and in the half century since, as a tragedy.  The violent murder of a relatively young and apparently vigorous leader was certainly a national trauma.  There is ample evidence that Kennedy would have sought to wind down America’s commitment in Vietnam starting in 1965, had he lived and won reelection. By that measure, the bullets fired at Dealey Plaza may have been a contributing factor to the deaths of tens of thousands of Americans, not to mention well over a million Vietnamese. But a tragedy, at least in the classical sense of the term, is something that is at least partially self-inflicted. And by this measure, the term tragedy more accurately describes Nixon’s fate.

Nixon was a man driven to achieve great things by monumental ambition, and who ultimately succeeded. But the cost was immense. What he went through in order to achieve his goals magnified his character flaws –distrust, jealousy, self-doubt, bitterness, to name just a few – until they overwhelmed not only his talents but his reason. There are few clearer statements of tragedy in American political rhetoric than the most memorable line in Nixon’s farewell address: “Always remember, others may hate you. But those who hate you don’t win unless you hate them. And then you destroy yourself.” In the process, he nearly tore the country apart.

A tragedy, any kind of tragedy, is one that naturally invokes the question, “What if?” “What if Kennedy had lived?” is one that people have been asking ever since November 22, 1963, and it is by far the most popular starting point for any alternate history focused on JFK.  Nixon, by comparison, is a far less popular figure either for AH fiction or counterfactual analysis.

Because Nixon did ultimately win the presidency, such speculation tends to focus on what happened during his time in office, particularly the Watergate scandal. Alan Moore’s Watchmen is set in a world where Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein were murdered, the 22nd Amendment was repealed, and Richard Nixon is serving his fifth term as president. This required not only altering history but bending the laws of physics. Watchmen, after all, is set in a world where superheroes exist and where the U.S. won an outright victory in the Vietnam War, thanks to the nuclear-powered Dr. Manhattan.

Less frequently explored is the question of how Nixon would have behaved as president had he won the 1960 election.  Harvey Simon explored this last year in The Madman Theory: An Alternate History of the Cuban Missile Crisis.  There are at least two major problems with this book.  One is that, as the title indicates, it presumes a President Nixon in 1962 would have acted with the same degree of irrationality as the real Richard Nixon did in the later years of his presidency.  Even if one argues that the earlier Nixon had the same psychology of the later one, this ignores Nixon’s behavior during the Yom Kippur War of 1973, which itself could easily have turned into a nuclear confrontation with the Soviets.

My bigger problem with the book is that it jumps straight from Nixon’s election to the Cuban Missile Crisis. The crisis, though, was in no small part the result of Kennedy’s decision first to go ahead with the Bay of Pigs invasion, then to deny the Cuban exile forces any direct American military support, and finally to abandon them. The debacle convinced Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev that Kennedy, despite his anti-Communist rhetoric and policies, was a weak leader who would fold rather than risk a confrontation.
It’s unlikely a President Nixon would have conducted the Bay of Pigs the same way. Indeed, his own advice to Kennedy in the wake of the debacle -- “It is essential that you act as big as you talk” -- reflects this. Nor is it likely that Khrushchev, who had met Nixon and undoubtedly knew far more about him than he did about Kennedy in 1961, would have viewed Nixon as someone he could bluff or bully.

Had Nixon gone full bore into Cuba, with air support and naval support for the Bay of Pigs invasion, Khrushchev would have trumpeted it as another example of American imperialism. For this, he would have gotten a positive hearing from at least some Latin American nations, as well as any number of nations around the world that had just emerged from colonialism. Would Khrushchev have escalated the crisis into a superpower confrontation?  I doubt it.  Nixon was a close observer of the Hungarian Revolution of 1956. He would have been the first to remind Khrushchev that the U.S. had stayed its hand when the Soviets used force against a country they considered part of their sphere of influence.

The result might have been a quick victory for the American/anti-Castro Cuban forces, or it might have turned into a guerrilla war that would have ground on for years. Either way, it would have meant no Cuban Missile Crisis. It also may have headed off deeper American involvement in Vietnam.

One of the reasons Kennedy felt obliged to shore up the Saigon government was to draw a line in the sand against the further spread of Communism after having failed to do so in Cuba.  Nixon had been all for U.S. military intervention in Vietnam in 1954, in order to shore up the French at Dien Bien Phu. Eisenhower had scotched the idea.  By 1960, the U.S. was providing military advisors to support the government of President Diem, but little more. Nixon would have been under far less pressure to step up that aid, much less to send combat troops.

Learn more about the alternate history of this controversial president in Alternate Nixons Part 2, coming out tomorrow.

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Andrew Schneider is the business news reporter for KUHF Houston Public Radio. His work has appeared in print in The Kiplinger Letter and The Writer, as well as online at KUHF.org. He is currently writing a memoir of his time in Afghanistan as a war correspondent. You can follow him on Facebook or on Twitter.

Preview: Before Watchmen

Guest post by Sean Korsgaard.

Few names in either comic books or alternate history carry as much reverence as Watchmen. The tale of a world on the brink of nuclear Armageddon, a world where masked vigilantes have existed since the 1930s, Vietnam is a US state and President Richard Nixon was just sworn in for his fifth term has been a magnum opus of both mediums since its publication back in 1986, for the striking artwork of Dave Gibbons, the dark and compelling story by Alan Moore, and for a dozen different details and nuances which have made the series a classic. Few works of any genre or medium can claim to have had the impact or legacy of Watchmen.

So it should come as little surprise given its golden reception (and revenue) that publisher DC comics had been trying to do a prequel/sequel almost literally since the original got off the presses, with ideas ranging from Rorschach’s Journal to the Comedian’s War Diary, to one following the Minutemen, with the one thing holding up such projects being Moore and Gibbons refusal to return to Watchmen. Even that would only keep DC at bay for so long from trying to hatch a few more gold eggs, and after months of rumors and speculation, last February, DC Comics announced they were launching a number of prequel miniseries:

•Before Watchmen: Minutemen (6 issues) – Writer/Artist: Darwyn Cooke
•Before Watchmen: Silk Spectre (4 issues) – Writers: Darwyn Cooke and Amanda Conner. Artist: Amanda Conner
•Before Watchmen: Comedian (6 issues) – Writer: Brian Azzarello. Artist: J. G. Jones
•Before Watchmen: Nite Owl (4 issues) – Writer: J. Michael Straczynski. Artists: Andy and Joe Kubert
•Before Watchmen: Rorschach (4 issues) – Writer: Brian Azzarello. Artist: Lee Bermejo
•Before Watchmen: Dr. Manhattan (4 issues) – Writer: J. Michael Straczynski. Artist: Adam Hughes
•Before Watchmen: Ozymandias (6 issues) – Writer: Len Wein. Artist: Jae Lee
•Before Watchmen: Epilogue (One-Shot) - Writers: Various. Artists: Various

To say the least, the move has attracted a great deal of controversy and attention, with most people either furious that DC would have the gall to add on to what is widely hailed as the greatest comic book of all time, or cautiously optimistic at the possibility of further enhancing it. I myself am one of the latter, with DC’s New 52 having rekindled my childhood interest in comics somewhat, and for your reading pleasure, I shall be handing Weekly Update’s look at the return to one of alternate history’s most acclaimed and beloved works. I will be giving issue-by-issue reviews, looks back at the original Watchmen comics and movie, discussing the impact of the original, and of course, letting you know if Before Watchmen is worth looking into every step of the way.

Who watches the (Before) Watchmen? For now, I do, and I’ll let you know if you should too!

[Editor's Note: Sean has posted a review of the issues he has read.]

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Soldier, scholar, writer and web-voyeur, Sean CW Korsgaard has been active in the alternate history community since 2006, and was recently elected to succeed Mitro as President of the Alternate History Online Facebook group. In addition to his contributions at the Alternate History Weekly Update, he writes for several websites, including his own, which can be found here.

Weekly Update #40.2

Editor's Note

Sorry for the links-only post yesterday.  I had some real life issues I had to deal with so I had to set my virtual life aside for a moment.  I will try not to do it again in the future.

So we surpassed our monthly record...again!  That is the fourth time in a row and our new record is 4,725 page views in a month.  That accomplishment, however, pales in comparison to what a fan of Weekly Update, Tyler Bugg, wrote on our Facebook page:

Hey, I would like to thank you guys for posting that Candlemark and Gleam were looking for submissions for their Alternate History short story anthology: If it were not for you guys, I would not have noticed, and would not have gotten my story accepted by the editors to actually be published in it!

You are welcome Tyler, but more importantly, thank you.  Your statement represents everything I was trying to accomplish when I started this blog last year.  I wanted to keep fans of the genre better informed about the world of alternate history and you have provided evidence that I have been successful with my goal.  Good luck with C&G, and I look forward to reading your short story.

Meanwhile, we got our first readers from Guam, Honduras and Jamaica.  Welcome!

And now the news...

DC Announces Before Watchmen

This summer, DC Entertainment will publish all-new stories expanding on Alan Moore's Watchmen, the alternate history comic book that was also made into a movie. The seven inter-connected prequel mini-series, called Before Watchmen, will build on the foundation of the original story.  Writers and artists on the project include Brian Azzarello, Lee Bermejo, Amanda Conner, Darwyn Cooke, John Higgins, Adam Hughes, J.G. Jones, Andy Kubert, Joe Kubert, Jae Lee, J. Michael Straczynski and Len Wein.

Each week, a new issue will be released, and will feature a two-page back-up story called Curse of the Crimson Corsair, written by original series editor Len Wein and with art by original series colorist John Higgins. There will also be a single issue, Before Watchmen: Epilogue, featuring the work of various writers and artists, and a Crimson Corsair story by Wein and Higgins.

Will Before Watchmen live up to the hype?  Probably not.  Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons are not involved in the project and Moore is firmly against it.  More importantly, I have experienced first hand what a prequel series can do to a great story (if you do not believe me, go watch Star Wars: Episode I when it comes out in 3D).  I could go on, but Tim Callahan makes a better argument against the series then I ever could.

Will I still read it?  Probably.  Though I am going to wait for it to come out in graphic novel form.

Is J. J, Abrams Ripping Off S. M. Stirling?

NBC has picked up a new drama pilot from the Star Trek director J. J. Abrams and Warner Bros. TV. The new show is called Revolution and it will be written by Supernatural creator Eric Kripke.  The logline: “A high octane action drama from J. J. Abrams following a group of characters struggling to survive and reunite with loved ones in a world where all forms of energy have mysteriously ceased to exist.”

Huh...I could swear that I have seen this before...

Of course!  S.M. Stirling's Emberverse series, where alien space bats change the laws of physics and thus wipe out modern civilization.  So is Stirling on the phone with his lawyer?  Well according to Guadalupe Lopez-Gutierrez (Kier Salmon) on the S. M. Stirling Appreciation Society:

We are discussing this... but the concept of no more power is one used in many books, Ariel, Here be dragons, and others. It's the actual characters locations and solutions that would make a copyright violation.

So it looks like the Stirling camp is in wait and see mode. Whether Revolution even classifies as alternate history also remains to be seen, but perhaps a good post-apocalyptic series is just what network television needs.

Resources to Help You Get Published


If you already have published your own steampunk story, you might be interested in submitting your previously published work to Steampunk Revolution.  This new steampunk anthology is being edited by Ann VanderMeer for publication in Fall 2012.  Deadline for submissions is March 1.

Not a published author yet?  Well I have a few resources to share with you.  Those hoping to submit a story to Dark Moon's Zombie Jesus and Other True Stories should check out this interview, which gives a writer some idea about what the editors are looking for.  Meanwhile, those looking to improve their writing ability should check out these two writing seminars I found.  The first is called Tweaking History: Steampunk And Other Tales Of Alternate History and it is being presented by Beth Daniels.  The seminar begins Feb 13 and costs only $25 ($15 if you are a premium member of the website).  The second is called Superstars Writing Seminar which will last from April 30 to May 2.  Lecturers include Kevin J. Anderson (The Trinity Paradox, Alternitech) and Eric Flint (1632).

As always, good luck.

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Mitro is founder, editor and contributor of Alternate History Weekly Update. When he is not busy writing about his passion for alternate history, he spends his time working as a licensed attorney in the state of Illinois and dreams of being a published author himself one day.