New Releases 12/15/15

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Paperbacks

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith

In the five years since its publication, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies has become a true cultural phenomenon, amassing a legion of fans and spawning an entire “mash-up” genre. As our story opens, a mysterious plague has fallen upon the quiet English village of Meryton . . . and the dead are returning to life! Feisty heroine Elizabeth Bennet is determined to wipe out the zombie menace, but she’s soon distracted by the arrival of the haughty and arrogant Mr. Darcy. What ensues is a delightful comedy of manners with plenty of civilized sparring between the two young lovers—and even more violent sparring on the blood-soaked battlefield as Elizabeth wages war against hordes of flesh-eating undead. This movie tie-in edition features eight pages of color movie stills and a new introduction by coauthor Seth Grahame-Smith.

E-Books

Lockup by Dusk Peterson

Deep underground lies a prison filled with idealistic men who have committed themselves to putting the best interest of their prisoners first . . . through torture. Soaring high in an adjoining nation are two "reformed" prisons where life prisoners (and a few sympathetic guards) must band together for survival.

Friendships between prisoners and guards, romance between two torturers, a young woman's appalled discovery that a dungeon-worker is courting her, desire and companionship in prison cells, a teenage guard's struggle to survive when his train is attacked by soldiers intent on slaughter . . . The two nations are broiling with events centered upon their prisons.

This historical speculative fiction volume explores with drama and dry humor the complexities of prison life in the nineteenth century, while taking a peek at the surrounding societies in the nations' alternate universe. Characters who appear in one story reappear in other stories, seen from a different perspective and at a different age.

This first volume of Dark Light collects seventeen stories from Turn-of-the-Century Toughs, a cycle of alternate history series (Dark Light, Waterman, Life Prison, Commando, Michael's House, and The Eternal Dungeon) about disreputable men on the margins of society, and the men and women who care for them. Set between the 1880s and the 1910s, the cycle's novels and stories take place in an alternative version of America that was settled by inhabitants of the Old World in ancient times.

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.

Review: "Pride and Prejudice and Zombies" by Seth Grahame-Smith

Grade: A-

This is my contribution to our "Profiles of Terrifying Alternate Worlds" campaign we have going on here at Alternate History Weekly Update.  Enjoy!

Let me start by painting a word picture: it is 19th century England.  You are immersed into the manners, morality and rituals of the English landed gentry.  In the fictional town of Meryton in Hertfordshire, a young woman finds herself torn between her own desires and what is expected of her by society.  Also there are zombies and the young woman's Shaolin training comes in handy since  we all know that the best way to kill a zombie is to go for the head.

This is the world of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Seth Grahame-Smith and Jane Austen.  A mashup of Austen's classic 1813 novel, the world can be considered an alternate history or at least deserving the title of "honorary alternate history".  First, the fake group discussion questions at the end seem to suggest that in an alternate timeline the publishers of the novel convinced Austen to include zombies in the novel.  This alternate Pride and Prejudice could have been the Night of the Living Dead 150 years earlier. 

Second, Seth (I am too lazy to call him by his last name) created a plausible setting and convinced me that the tactics used by early 19th-century England would be implemented in case a zombie outbreak in the British isles.  From the walled cities, to the martial arts training in the Orient and the great fire pits for disposing the dead, all of these precautions convince me that the England of OTL could have weathered a zombie apocalypse. 

It is because of this attention to detail that I like Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.  So many zombie stories in the genre make the mistake of just taking the plot of World War Z and placing it in a different time period.  Rarely does an author actually sit down and think about what would the people in different historical eras do to fight the undead menace.  Of course I could be wrong and he just thought it was cool to have English nobles with private ninja armies.

Still as a zombie fanboy (the worst kid of fanboys, they tend to have a lot of guns) I was turned off by the fact that these zombies were more of the "Brrrrrrrraaaaaaaaiiiiiiiinnnnnnnnnnssssssss" kind then the traditional Romero slow walkers.  Nevertheless the dark humor and excessive violence more than made up for it.  More importantly, you do not have to have read Pride and Prejudice before reading this parody, but if you are a fan of Austen's novel you will probably enjoy this parody even more.

A bloody good time for any alternate historian or horror fan.

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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.