New Paperbacks
11/22/63 by Stephen King
Description from Amazon.
Dallas, 11/22/63: Three shots ring out.
President John F. Kennedy is dead.
Life can turn on a dime—or stumble into the extraordinary, as it does for Jake Epping, a high school English teacher in a Maine town. While grading essays by his GED students, Jake reads a gruesome, enthralling piece penned by janitor Harry Dunning: fifty years ago, Harry somehow survived his father’s sledgehammer slaughter of his entire family. Jake is blown away . . . but an even more bizarre secret comes to light when Jake’s friend Al, owner of the local diner, enlists Jake to take over the mission that has become his obsession—to prevent the Kennedy assassination. How? By stepping through a portal in the diner’s storeroom, and into the era of Ike and Elvis, of big American cars, sock hops, and cigarette smoke. . . . Finding himself in warmhearted Jolie, Texas, Jake begins a new life. But all turns in the road lead to a troubled loner named Lee Harvey Oswald. The course of history is about to be rewritten . . . and become heart-stoppingly suspenseful.
In Stephen King’s “most ambitious and accomplished” (NPR) novel, time travel has never been so believable. Or so terrifying.
New E-books
Age of Aether by Mark Jeffrey
Description from Amazon.
When Captain Benjamin Bantam is tapped to go back in time in order to retrieve a cure for the vicious Shadow plague, he is shocked to arrive in an alternate 1944 where electricity doesn't exist. Instead, a parallel past has mysteriously arisen -- complete with parasols, stunningly luxurious Aerotels, hydrologic computing, Helux-powered 'cloud growlers' and a space elevator-based moon race with Germany. And of course, there is the lovely Dr. Rachelle Archenstone ...
But when Hitler is made Chancellor in this world and the American space program sabotaged, Bantam is the only one who realizes the true depth of the danger posed by the newly-formed Nazi party. Together with Rachelle, he races to save this America while seeking an explanation to the mystery of this alternate past -- and with it, a way to return to his own world with the Shadow's cure. But when it comes down to a choice between his lovely Rachelle and a thousand years of Nazi rule, what will he do?
Thrill to a tale of a Yesterday that never was ... And yet was!
Deseret by DJ Butler
Description from Amazon.
Is Sam being played for a fool by the Madman Pratt? Will Poe's disguise withstand the scrutiny of his foes? And when the chips are down, which side will Richard Burton choose?
Deseret is Part the Second of City of the Saints, a four-part steampunk gonzo action adventure tale.
The Franklin Incident by Raymond Rose
Description from Amazon.
Philadelphia, 18__. When Jonathan Adams arrives at The Franklin Building, deep in the shadow of a mysterious airship, he finds scared servants, a concerned constable, and a maid with her head cleaved in two. For lurking in the hallways is a killer worse than anything Adams can imagine...
The Franklin Incident is the first story in a collection called Philly-Punk. Set in a steampunk-ish version of Philadelphia where the American Revolutionary War never happened, this Sci/Fi/Horror/Thriller short story introduces us to Jonathan Adams, professional collector of the macabre and consultant to the Philadelphia Constabulary. And the strange and deadly world he lives in.
The Kronos Interference by JB Manas
Description from Amazon.
When physicist Jacob Newman is pulled from his family, his job, and his whole life to investigate a strange vessel discovered at the bottom of the South Pacific, he finds evidence of time travel, along with implications that a judgment day against mankind is imminent. But it isn’t until he cracks the time travel technology and uncovers a startling link to his own family history that he undertakes a dangerous mission back to 1924 to kill Adolf Hitler and undo a horrific episode of Earth’s violent past. The results are catastrophic, and soon he discovers much darker forces working against him—forces he must overcome if he hopes to save humanity and see his family again.
Written in the vein of the late Michael Crichton, James Rollins, and similar authors who inject high concept plots with little-known historical facts and a touch of cutting-edge science, The Kronos Interference offers international intrigue, fast-paced action, and plenty of twists and turns. The book received the coveted starred review from Kirkus Reviews, who called it "impressively original" and a "tour de force."
Shattered World: Volume 1-6 by Bobby Hardenbrook
Description from Amazon.
In the early 1930's relations between Hitler's Third Reich and Stalin's Soviet Union cool dramatically, bringing a level of tension to Europe not seen since the days before the Great War. By early 1936 Stalin is convinced that Hitler intends to invade Poland and decides to launch a preemptive invasion of his own. The Red Army, already large and formidable, begins to make its preparations.
Tensions between the East and West now explode into open conflict as Stalin orders the Red Army to roll west. It is the dawn of a terrible new chapter in human history, and the birth of a global struggle that will boil and rage for years, maybe decades, to come.
Turnkey by Christopher Dunkle and Lori Williams
Description from Amazon.
Set in a reimagined England in the year 1888, Turnkey begins in the gilded metropolis of New London, the poster city of a socially-advanced, mechanically-propelled British empire. In this lavish city, orchestrated and built from the ground up by a reclusive industrialist who has ascended the throne, we find perhaps the only antiquated thing left in Europe…and he’s propping his head on a sticky bar top in the dead of night.
Ladies and gentlemen, Will Pocket.
The so-called “Absynt Bard of New London.”
A progressively-backward and perpetually-penniless daydreamer who has spent most of his nights in New London’s dreariest taverns, making company with warm beer and the warbling sounds sent out from the spinning wax on a dusty music box.
Our story begins on one such night. Having consumed far more beer than he can afford, the exhausted Pocket strikes a deal to friend and barman Alan Dandy to pay for rounds with a well-told story. What follows is a retelling of Pocket’s captivation with the Watchmaker’s Doll, a peculiar young lady crafted entirely out of ticking clockwork and beautiful synthetics. When the Doll is found and accidentally awakened from a mechanical slumber by Pocket and the fox-like cutpurse Kitt Sunner, they inadvertently spark a series of great troubles for not only the three of them, but for those whose paths they eventually cross: everyone from sky-sailing pirates and medicine peddlers to a teahouse mystic and a bulletproof gambler.
A backward and booze-soaked spin on the steampunk model, Turnkey follows its cast of old-fashioned souls adrift in a new-fashioned world. A blend of self-deprecating humor, silly wit, white-knuckle adventure, old-fashioned romance, and bittersweet tragedy, Turnkey begins The Gaslight Volumes of Will Pocket with a resounding bang!
To fans, authors and publishers...
Do you want to see your work given a shout out on our New Releases segment? Contact Mitro 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 volunteer editor for Alt Hist and a contributor to Just Below the Law. His fiction can be found at Echelon Press, Jake's Monthly and his own writing blog. When not writing he works as an attorney and enjoys life with his beautiful wife Alana.
