Another year of exploring the multiverse has come to an end. Its time once again to recap what we learned this year and pick out the best alternate history of the year.
Just a reminder, there really is nothing scientific about my selections. The works we honor could have been published this year or decades ago. I only honor subjects we covered this year. Some are picked using my own subjective opinion, while others are based on the most page views received. So without further ado (I'm on a budget so I was only able to buy a little ado this year) I bring you the BEST OF 2013! Best Book
Out of all the books we reviewed this year, I felt the best reviewed book on The Update had to be Dominion by CJ Sansom, reviewed by Alison Morton. This alternate WWII book which features a Britain that made peace with Germany in 1940, won this year's Sidewise Award and was described by Alison as being "an exciting, but moving account of people who become heroic but remain very human."
Best Anthology
We didn't review many anthologies this year, but my vote has to go to Alt Hist 5 edited by Mark Lord. Although there were a couple stories you could skip, it was still another good entry for the only alternate history periodical on the Internet. Please continue to support original alternate history by either buying a copy or sending your own submission.
Best Short Story
I was split on this decision, so the honor for this year's short story goes to "43*" by Jeff Greenfield and "Adrift on the Sea of Rains" by Ian Sales. "43*" gets a shout out for the dubious distinction of being reviewed not once, but twice, on this blog. "Adrift", meanwhile, in my humble opinion should have won the Sidewise short form award. Go check this out.
Best Comic
The honor for this distinction has to go to Before Watchmen, which was reviewed in its entirety through a series of posts by longtime contributor Sean Korsgaard. Check out Sean's introduction to his reviews and read all of his opinions on the prequel to Watchmen using this tag.
Best Film
Although it might be debatable whether this is actually alternate history, Django Unchainedgets the nod for best film this year. This revenge fantasy set in the Old South caused quite a bit a controversy, but it was rather entertaining movie. I certainly recommend it.
Best Television Series
I was surprised by how much traffic this review brought in this year so I could think of nothing better than Samurai 7 to pick as the best television series. Reviewed by Sean Korsgaard, who called it the "best anime I've ever seen" is a steampunk-retelling of Seven Samurai. So if you would like to see some steampunk not set in Victorian England, this is a good pick for you.
Read the article to find out how the map was made.
Best Article
With so many alternate histories about whether the Nazis won World War II or whether the Confederacy won the American Civil War, it is refreshing to see a truly original what if like Ben Ronning's Alternate History and Superheroes. In this article Ben describes the comic industry's experimentation with counterfactuals over the years. Go and check it out now!
Best Interview
This was a difficult category to pick a winner, but if I had to pick the single most interesting person I interviewed this year it was podcaster Jordan Harbour. Host of Twilight Histories and the upcoming Battles of Rome podcast, Jordan has continued to produce great content and is a true fan of our favorite genre. More importantly, he is an interesting guy who has led a full life. Learn more by reading my interview and checking out his podcasts.
Best Contributor
This year's best contributor goes to...everyone who submitted a guest post to The Update in 2013. Yeah, maybe this is a cop out, but this year has been full of excellent guest posts. From contest entries, to author promotions and fan posts, I couldn't have provided such great contest all by myself. Thank you to everyone who submitted this year. I look forward to seeing more work from you, and hopefully new faces as well, in 2014.
Well that's it for year 2013. See you all next year when on January 6th, The Update returns to a full schedule.
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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.
Sorry it took so long but today I finally unveil my review of the new Quenten Tarrantino film Django Unchained. Is it an alternate history? Will you become a racist by watching it? Is it even good? Let's find out...
Set in 1858, the film follows a slave (Jamie Foxx) named Django (named after the popular spaghetti western character and the original actor makes a cameo appearance). Freed from slavery by bounty hunter Dr. King Schultz (Christoph Waltz) who needs his help in identifying three fugitives. After helping Schultz identify (and kill) the men, Schultz takes Django on as a partner and together they collect bounties (lots of bounties) across the Old West. Schultz, who despises slavery, decides to help Django rescue his wife Broomhilda (Kerry Washington) from a cruel and charismatic plantation owner Calvin Candie (Leonardo DiCaprio). Posing as slavers, the pair trick Candie into believing they want to purchase one of his Mandingo fighters and hope the ridiculous price they pay will put Candie in a good enough mood to sell Broomhilda as well. Candie's house slave, Stephen (Samuel L. Jackson), however, suspects their true intentions and, as in most Tarantino films, blood is spilled.
Lots and lots of blood.
Seriously the red paint supply must have been tapped out in California by the time they finished filming.
Frankly I liked the film. It is a modern take on the classic western tropes, with plenty of ridicule of slavery and racism. Waltz put on a stellar performance and one can be forgiven for mistaking him as the main character. He certainly deserved the Golden Globe he received and it will be a travesty if he does not get the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor. The film is, as mentioned above, extremely violent and graphic. This doesn't bother me, but my wife did walk out of the theater about 20 minutes in, so make sure whoever you bring into the film can stomach the gore. Also the gratuitous use of the n-word might offend people (but perhaps only after the 136th time you hear it).
Of course no film is perfect and there have been plenty of criticisms (I found Cracked's article on the film to sum them up rather well). Some have complained about pacing, and I agree when it comes to Django's flashbacks/hallucinations of his wife or the Australian slaver scene (sorry Tarantino, you just can't act), but generally I felt Tarantino's choices did not distract too much from the overall narrative. Perhaps my biggest beef with the film was the lead actor, Foxx. Trust me, Foxx gives his best performances in the film when he keeps his mouth shut and does the stoic avenger. When he gets cocky and tries to be funny, it hurt the film.
I would be remiss, however, to not touch upon the history covered by the film. Is Django Unchained an alternate history? No. At best it is historical fiction that takes a lot of liberties with the source material. Lincoln gave a much better picture of race relations in mid-19th century America, despite being far from perfect, so go see that if you want historical accuracy. In Django Unchained, every white person is an evil, sadistic, racist buffoon except for the one German (thank God he won't live long enough to see what happens to his home country in 1933). An early version of the KKK make a cameo, but they are so inept that they can be taken down by two bounty hunters working in the Deep South.
In fact, as Jelani Cobb in The New Yorker, the film even fails history in the way it portrays blacks as being passive servants who wouldn't dare raise a hand against a white man, except Django. The film ignores the history of how the enslaved undermined the slave economy by running away or revolting. And how rare can Django be when compared to the slaves who fought against America for the British in the American Revolution or against the Confederacy in the Civil War? Kimberly Ellis on Salon slamsDjango Unchained for its portrayal of black resistance and comes up with several other examples of blacks resisting America's "peculiar institution”.
So you can't really argue that the film is a satire of an era because it fails miserably to understand the era. Yet the film could be a satire of western cinema itself as Amanda Marcotte suggests in her review of Django Unchained. Although the film might suck at history, it certainly has to be a more realistic portrayal of history then the white-washing done by Gone With the Wind. At worst the film took a controversial subject (slavery and the Civil War) and made it into a joke. Yes I can see why people will be offended, but as a character from my favorite web comic put it: "[t]he first step toward recovery is to turn your personal tragedy into a weapon for making others horribly uncomfortable." Author and editor Maurice Broaddus seemed to embrace that fact when he called the film an "empowerment vehicle" right after admitting he once fantasized about killing white people after watching Roots.
So suspend your disbelief and go enjoy a good, over-the-top revenge fantasy.
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Matt Mitrovich is the founder and editor of Alternate History Weekly Update, a blogger on Amazing Stories and a volunteer editor for Alt Hist magazine. His fiction can be found at Echelon Press, Jake's Monthly andThe Were-Traveler. 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.
Editor's Note The last post of 2013! I know I said I would be splitting this into between AH and steampunk, but for once there is not enough steampunk info to warrant a separate Weekly Update. O well.
Next month begins our No Americans writing contest. We got several entries, but we still have room for a few more. Send your submissions to ahwupdate at gmail dot com. We are looking for reviews, essays and original fiction based on non-American AH. I also will announce the theme for February on Wednesday.
Welcome to our first readers to Netherlands Antilles. I hope you enjoy our trips into the multiverse.
And now the news...
Is Django Unchained alternate history?
That is a question I have been pondering when I read the Digital Spy article regarding Quentin Tarantino's trilogy of alternate history films. Django Unchained is the second film in the trilogy, the first being Inglorious Basterds, the tale of a group of Jewish American commados going on a rampage in Nazi Europe. A pretty good film and the end is certainly alternate history when the Basterds assassinate Adolf Hitler in a movie theater (don't complain about spoilers because the film has been out for 3 years now).
Now I haven't covered Django Unchained before because it never came under my radar as alternate history. Annalee Newitz at io9 says it is at least on the personal level of a free black taking revenge on his former master. Of course alternate histories do not require earth-changing divergences, yet IMHO you need more than just fictional event to make something alternate history. At the very least that would make Django Unchained a historical fiction.
Still the next installment in the trilogy, Killer Crow, will be more alternate history than the revenge fantasy of Django Unchained. Tarantino plans to base the third film on a group of black soliders mutinying against their oppressive white officers and going on a war path in their attempt to reach Switzerland. This could be really interesting to watch. Anyone who has read "The Good War" by Studs Terkel would have learned about how badly African American soldiers were treated in WWII. One veteran told Terkel about how they were kept at night in barbed wire enclosures and rarely allowed to leave while the white soldiers could come and go as they pleased. After hearing some of those tales, I am surprised Killer Crow isn't a documentary instead of a fictional story.
What is your opinion? Is Django Unchained an alternate history?
Crusader Kings II: The Republic Video & Developer Diary Released!
Paradox Interactive announced a new video developer diary and written developer diary for the Strategy RPG's latest expansion, The Republic, have been released. Listen to CKII Project Lead Henrik Fåhraeus give details on what's in store for rulers in the upcoming DLC, and then head over to the forums for additional details in the written portion which will be published weekly until launch.
Despite all the back-stabbing and uncovered assassination plots, it has been quite the year for Crusader Kings II, which has been recognized by gaming press and media worldwide with glowing reviews and several award nominations, including “Strategy Game of the Year” by PC Gamer, IGN, Gamespot and Destructoid and GameSpot’s “People’s Choice” award.
“The tremendous success of Crusader Kings II means a great deal to us, and not just as a personal achievement,” said Johan Andersson, Studio Manager for Paradox Development Studio. “Our vision was to create a challenging game experience that continues to reward gamers over time, combining unlimited freedom and huge replayability, a certain level of complexity and lots of passion for game development. I can't tell you how happy and proud we are to see Crusader Kings II embraced by so many people."
Crusader Kings II: The Republic expansion will release on January 14, via all major digital download portals for $9.99 USD.
Submissions Wanted Those looking for opportunities to get published should check out the Calls for Anthologies page of World Weaver Press and Prime Books new digital implant Masque Books. Some bad news, Lightspeed Magazine is not accepting new submissions until March 15, 2013. Also if you are going to submit anything to The Alchemy Press, you need to use the standard manuscript format.
Writing, however, is not just about submission guidelines. It takes some skill and creativity. Check out 10 Elements of Reality Not Allowed in Fiction by John Wiswell at The Bathroom Monologues for a good list of everyday occurrences you will never see in a story. Also you might want to listen to what George R. R. Martin has to say about writing. The author of Song of Ice and Fire series and the editor of Wild Cards should definitely be a guide in your world of writing.
Good luck!
New Releases Baen has released their ebook library on Amazon. Although not technically new releases, Amazon users now have access to a lot of older AH books from writers including Turtledove, Stirling and Flint. So enjoy those and these new releases:
Paperback
Blood and Steam (Volume 3) by Jamie Sedgwick
It has been many years since Breeze Tinkerman vanished in her spring-powered plane over the northern Wastes while searching for the fabled lost city in the ice, but her daughter River is more than happy to carry on her legacy.
Doktor Glass by Thomas Brennan
In an age of Zeppelins and gyroplanes, atomics and horseless carriages, the Transatlantic Span is the industrial marvel of the nineteenth century. A monumental feat of engineering, the steel suspension bridge stretches across the Atlantic from Liverpool to the distant harbor of New York City, supported by no less than seven hundred towers. But in the shadows of its massive struts, on the docks of the River Mersey, lies a faceless corpse…
E-books
An Alternate History of the Netherlands by JL Avey
An Alternate History of the Netherlands explores the past four hundred years of a world where it was the Dutch, and not the English, who maintained dominance of the world's oceans. You can also read my review of his short story "The End". Hopefully we will even see a review of this book in the future.
In the Heart of Darkness by Eric Flint and David Drake
The Malwa Empire has conquered 6th century India and is forging the subcontinent's vast population into an invincible weapon of tyranny. Belisarius, the finest general of his age, must save the world.
Owl Dance by David Lee Summers
Owl Dance is a Weird Western steampunk novel. The year is 1876. Sheriff Ramon Morales of Socorro, New Mexico, meets a beguiling woman named Fatemeh Karimi, who is looking to make a new start after escaping the oppression of her homeland.
Matt Mitrovich is the founder and editor of Alternate History Weekly Update, a blogger on Amazing Stories and a volunteer editor for Alt Hist magazine. His fiction can be found at Echelon Press, Jake's Monthly andThe Were-Traveler. 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.
