New Releases 5/7/13

Paperback

The Alteration by Kingsley Amis

Description from Amazon.

In Kingsley Amis’s virtuoso foray into virtual history it is 1976 but the modern world is a medieval relic, frozen in intellectual and spiritual time ever since Martin Luther was promoted to pope back in the sixteenth century. Stephen the Third, the king of England, has just died, and Mass (Mozart’s second requiem) is about to be sung to lay him to rest. In the choir is our hero, Hubert Anvil, an extremely ordinary ten-year-old boy with a faultless voice. In the audience is a select group of experts whose job is to determine whether that faultless voice should be preserved by performing a certain operation. Art, after all, is worth any sacrifice.

How Hubert realizes what lies in store for him and how he deals with the whirlpool of piety, menace, terror, and passion that he soon finds himself in are the subject of a classic piece of counterfactual fiction equal to Philip K. Dick’s The Man in the High Castle.

The Alteration won the John W. Campbell Memorial Award for best science-fiction novel in 1976. Hear what Alison Morton has to say about the book in her article: Sample Something a Little Alternative.

Dinocalypse Now by Chuck Wendig

Description from Amazon.

AN INVASION... FROM PREHISTORY!

When the Century Club is called in to prevent the assassination of FDR, it’s just another day on the job—but what they discover puts not just the President, but the entire world in jeopardy.

With psychic dinosaurs taking over Manhattan and beyond, it’s up to Sally Slick, Jet Black, Mack Silver, and the other Centurions to save humanity—from extinction!

Spirit of the Century™ Presents: DINOCALYPSE NOW. A novel by Chuck Wendig.

The Havoc Machine: A Novel of the Clockwork Empire by Steven Harper

Description from Amazon.

In a world riddled with the destruction of men and machines alike, Thaddeus Sharpe takes to the streets of St. Petersburg, geared toward the hunt of his life….

Thaddeus Sharpe’s life is dedicated to the hunting and killing of clockworkers. When a mysterious young woman named Sofiya Ekk approaches him with a proposition from a powerful employer, he cannot refuse. A man who calls himself Mr. Griffin seeks Thad’s help with mad clockwork scientist Lord Havoc, who has molded a dangerous machine. Mr. Griffin cares little if the evil Lord lives or dies; all he desires is Havoc’s invention.

Upon Thad’s arrival at Havoc’s laboratory, he is met with a chilling discovery. Havoc is not only concealing his precious machine; he has been using a young child by the name of Nikolai for cruel experiments. Locked into a clockwork web of intrigue, Thad must decipher the dangerous truth surrounding Nikolai and the chaos contraption before havoc reigns….

E-books

Unburning Alexandria by Paul Levinson

Description from Amazon.

Mid-twenty-first century time traveler Sierra Waters, fresh from her mission to save Socrates from the hemlock, is determined to alter history yet again, by saving the ancient Library of Alexandria - where as many as 750,000 one-of-a-kind texts were lost, an event described by many as “one of the greatest intellectual catastrophes in history.”

Along the way she will encounter old friends such as William Henry Appleton the great 19th century American publisher and enemies like the enigmatic time travelling inventor Heron of Alexandria. And her quest will involve such other real historic personages as Hypatia, Cleopatra’s sister Arsinoe, Ptolemy the astronomer, and St. Augustine - again placing her friends, her loved-ones, and herself in deadly jeopardy.

In this sequel to the THE PLOT TO SAVE SOCRATES, award winning author Paul Levinson offers another time-traveling adventure spanning millennia, full of surprising twists and turns, all the while attempting the seemingly impossible: UNBURNING ALEXANDRIA.

To fans, authors and publishers...

Do you want to see your work given a shout out on 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 volunteer editor for Alt Hist magazine. His fiction can be found at Echelon Press, Jake's Monthly and The 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.

Sample Something a Little Alternative

Guest post by Alison Morton.

I stumbled on AHWU almost by accident and was thrilled to find a welcoming site full of news, articles and, best of all, book reviews. I read, absorbed and bought several recommended books. And have enjoyed them greatly.

Then it struck me. Not only on AHWU, but on other sites and even on the mighty Zon, many books designated as alternate history involved war of some kind, usually on a world scale. Troops were deployed, desperate defense of loyal enclaves made, resources from another time or planet used to change the course of history. Gripping stuff.

But in parallel to mainline historical fiction, shouldn't alternate history examine social, cultural and political events within an alternate historical society? I'm thinking here of Kingsley Amis' The Alteration which is firmly set within its world. Both title and dilemma of the story neatly reflect the altered society and the potential alteration of one of the characters within it. Like any good book, it has terrific characters, atmosphere, a heart-aching choice, sacrifice, the instinct for survival, tension, etc. The beautifully written world bustles with altered technology and yet retains familiar historical details: express barouches, seven-hour transport between London and Rome, gaslight, photograms and airships yet ermines, silks, velvet, fustian, servants and apprentices. The language is historical and structured, such as you would find in C J Sansom or Ann Lyle, but it never disguises people’s motivations or emotions. The most disturbing thing is how convincing this alternative world is.

Few people need introduction to Michael Chabon's The Yiddish Policeman’s Union, featuring the world-weary Meyer Landsman, a detective with murder and chess dilemmas. A melancholy tone is relieved by glimpses of optimism and impossible bent-back-on-itself humor  Strong streaks of realism and universal dilemmas are woven into very rich world-building. Also, the plot is more than slightly mad. Again, no wars or forces from the future, just people in their world working through their problems against a background of political pressure and murder.

An equally richly described world, but without any comic tone, is found in Keith Thomas' Pavane, where after the assassination of Elizabeth I, England is constrained in the grip of the post-Armada Catholic church. Individual personal stories set from the 1960s to the 21st century in a semi-feudal England are linked through generations. The most advanced form of transport is the steam-powered traction engine; long-distance communication is achieved by the use of mechanical semaphore towers. But rebellion is in the air...

The classic, Robert Harris' Fatherland; what praise can I heap on it that isn't there already?  All policeman Xavier March wants to do is investigate the discovery of a dead body in a lake near Berlin's most prestigious suburb. That and survive in a corrupt society. Attempting to stay one step ahead of the Gestapo and racing against time, he uncovers a shocking secret which chills to the bone. The alternate history setting is impeccably drawn, with descriptions of Speer's thousand-year Reich vision of Berlin and celebrations of Hitler's 75th birthday, but the spare, clever writing,  tension and plot are essentially those of a crime thriller.

Although different in complexity and scope, but all the same mirroring the domestic rather than global, I recently read Dinah of Seneca by Corinna Lawson. The story unfolds using the alternate timeline as its natural setting. The Roman Empire of this tenth century stretches from Russia in the East to a new continent in the West. But a new continent brings new threats to their rule. The Roman garrison in Seneca, located in modern-day New York, lacks the supplies and men needed to defeat an alliance of native Mahicans and immigrant Vikings.

Dinah, a former slave trained in espionage, had hoped Seneca would be the start of a new life. Instead, she's pulled back into conflict, both political and very personal. If Seneca is to survive, Dinah must reconcile her allegiance to Rome with her chance to create her own destiny in the New World with Gerhard, the Viking leader. The novel focuses heavily on character interaction and Dinah is a sharp and mostly unbiased observer. The book also has sufficient spycraft, politics and action scenes to satisfy most readers but also plenty of emotional punch. In short, it’s a romance in an AH setting.

So here I've noted a few books which are firmly fastened in other genres: literary, historic, crime thriller, romance. I like time travel, timeslip and a good war story and these along with steampunk are perceived to be the staples of alternate history fiction, but I wonder if AH widened its scope, stretching out to embrace other genres, it would entice more readers from the fixed world to sample something a little alternative.

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Alison Morton writes Roman-themed thrillers with an alternative history setting and hopes to publish the first of a trilogy early next year. She muses on writing, Romans and alternate/alternative history at her blog.