New Releases 6/14/16

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Hardcovers

Blood In the Water by Taylor Anderson

Taylor Anderson’s enthralling New York Times bestselling series of alternate history continues as game-changing revelations upend the Grand Alliance in a potentially cataclysmic war.

Ever since the USS Walker came from another world war to defy the terrifying Grik and diabolical Dominion, Matt Reddy and his crew have given their all to protect the oppressed Lemurians. But with the Walker in desperate need of repairs just as the Grik’s First General is poised to strike, Reddy is desperate.

With more enemies than ever before arrayed against them, the crew of the Walker needs new allies. That means combing the lethal wilds of Madagascar to find the Lemurians’ fabled ancestors, as well as the enigmatic dwellers east of the Pass of Fire. But what Reddy’s crew unearths may be more than they can handle—discoveries so shattering they could tilt the balance of the war in either direction.

But Reddy’s greatest adversary is from his past: a madman named Kurokawa whose single-minded mission of revenge will shake the Alliance to its core and raise the stakes to the most personal and terrifying levels Reddy has ever faced.

The Book of Esther by Emily Barton

What if an empire of Jewish warriors that really existed in the Middle Ages had never fallen—and was the only thing standing between Hitler and his conquest of Russia?

Eastern Europe, August 1942. The Khazar kaganate, an isolated nation of Turkic warrior Jews, lies between the Pontus Euxinus (the Black Sea) and the Khazar Sea (the Caspian). It also happens to lie between a belligerent nation to the west that the Khazars call Germania—and a city the rest of the world calls Stalingrad.

After years of Jewish refugees streaming across the border from Europa, fleeing the war, Germania launches its siege of Khazaria. Only Esther, the daughter of the nation’s chief policy adviser, sees the ominous implications of Germania's disregard for Jewish lives. Only she realizes that this isn’t just another war but an existential threat. After witnessing the enemy warplanes’ first foray into sovereign Khazar territory, Esther knows she must fight for her country. But as the elder daughter in a traditional home, her urgent question is how.

Before daybreak one fateful morning, she embarks on a perilous journey across the open steppe. She seeks a fabled village of Kabbalists who may hold the key to her destiny: their rumored ability to change her into a man so that she may convince her entire nation to join in the fight for its very existence against an enemy like none Khazaria has ever faced before.

The Book of Esther is a profound saga of war, technology, mysticism, power, and faith. This novel—simultaneously a steampunk Joan of Arc and a genre-bending tale of a counterfactual Jewish state by a writer who invents worlds “out of Calvino or Borges” (The New Yorker)—is a stunning achievement. Reminiscent of Michael Chabon’s The Yiddish Policemen’s Union and Philip Roth’s The Plot Against America, The Book of Esther reaffirms Barton’s place as one of her generation’s most gifted storytellers.

League of Dragons by Naomi Novik

With the acclaimed Temeraire novels, New York Times bestselling author Naomi Novik has created a fantasy series like no other, combining the high-flying appeal of Anne McCaffrey’s Pern saga and the swashbuckling derring-do of Patrick O’Brian’s historical seafaring adventures. Now, with League of Dragons, Novik brings the imaginative tour de force that has captivated millions to an unforgettable finish.

Napoleon’s invasion of Russia has been roundly thwarted. But even as Capt. William Laurence and the dragon Temeraire pursue the retreating enemy through an unforgiving winter, Napoleon is raising a new force, and he’ll soon have enough men and dragons to resume the offensive. While the emperor regroups, the allies have an opportunity to strike first and defeat him once and for all—if internal struggles and petty squabbles don’t tear them apart.

Aware of his weakened position, Napoleon has promised the dragons of every country—and the ferals, loyal only to themselves—vast new rights and powers if they fight under his banner. It is an offer eagerly embraced from Asia to Africa—and even by England, whose dragons have long rankled at their disrespectful treatment.

But Laurence and his faithful dragon soon discover that the wily Napoleon has one more gambit at the ready—one that that may win him the war, and the world.

The Long Cosmos by Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter

The thrilling conclusion to the internationally bestselling Long Earth series explores the greatest question of all: What is the meaning of life?

2070-71. Nearly six decades after Step Day, a new society continues to evolve in the Long Earth. Now, a message has been received: “Join us.”

The Next—the hyper-intelligent post-humans—realize that the missive contains instructions for kick-starting the development of an immense artificial intelligence known as The Machine. But to build this computer the size of an Earth continent, they must obtain help from the more populous and still industrious worlds of mankind.

Meanwhile, on a trek in the High Meggers, Joshua Valienté, now nearing seventy, is saved from death when a troll band discovers him. Living among the trolls as he recovers, Joshua develops a deeper understanding of this collective-intelligence species and its society. He discovers that some older trolls, with capacious memories, act as communal libraries, and live on a very strange Long Earth world, in caverns under the root systems of trees as tall as mountains.

Valienté also learns something much more profound . . . about life and its purpose in the Long Earth: We cultivate the cosmos to maximize the opportunities for life and joy in this universe, and to prepare for new universes to come.

Paperbacks

The Invisible Library by Genevieve Cogman

Collecting books can be a dangerous prospect in this fun, time-traveling, fantasy adventure from a spectacular debut author.

One thing any Librarian will tell you: the truth is much stranger than fiction...

Irene is a professional spy for the mysterious Library, a shadowy organization that collects important works of fiction from all of the different realities. Most recently, she and her enigmatic assistant Kai have been sent to an alternative London. Their mission: Retrieve a particularly dangerous book. The problem: By the time they arrive, it's already been stolen.

London's underground factions are prepared to fight to the death to find the tome before Irene and Kai do, a problem compounded by the fact that this world is chaos-infested—the laws of nature bent to allow supernatural creatures and unpredictable magic to run rampant. To make matters worse, Kai is hiding something—secrets that could be just as volatile as the chaos-filled world itself.

Now Irene is caught in a puzzling web of deadly danger, conflicting clues, and sinister secret societies. And failure is not an option—because it isn’t just Irene’s reputation at stake, it’s the nature of reality itself...

FEATURING BONUS MATERIAL: including an interview with the author, a legend from the Library, and more!

E-Books

Hellfire by Jeff Provine

Locomotive fireman, Nate Kemp, uncovers a conspiracy around the miraculous Newton’s Catalyst, a powder that makes fires burn hotter than they should—secretly releasing the fires of Hell. Now, more is beginning to slip through, and the Rail Agency tries to tuck him away in a mental institution. Nurse Ozzie Jacey helps him escape. They must warn the capital, Lake Providence, before Hell literally breaks loose.

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.

The World of Destroyermen (Plus A GIVEAWAY!)

Guest post by Taylor Anderson.

I love “what if.”  Not only is it the ultimate foundation of all fiction, it’s the prime mover behind every technological advancement in human history.  “What if I tie this sharp rock to the end of this stick?”  The spear, arrow, axe, grubbing hoe – virtually every early weapon and modern garden tool is born.  “What if we harness the power of the atom?”  Nuclear bombs and, incidentally, an efficient, relatively benign, and virtually inexhaustible energy source are created.   “What if I had a phone that would fit in my shirt pocket?”  Voila!  Cell phones allow instant communication and inescapable aggravation.  (One might consider that almost every “what if” inspired beneficial leap comes with a dark side).

“What if” is also a useful tool to the explorer and open-minded paleontologist, archeologist, and geologist.  Diabolical as it may seem to some purist historians, I propose that “what if” might even benefit them from time to time.  (Speaking as an historian myself, I can cite numerous examples of how that simple question has constructively redirected my own research on occasion).  And asking “what if” has certainly led to many of the stunning breakthroughs over the last generation regarding our understanding of the prehistoric world.  I still have a few of my childhood “dinosaur books” which depicted those fascinating creatures as bloated lizards with the reflexes of a sloth, stumping about, dragging their tails.  And they expressed no real theory at all as to why they “suddenly” went extinct.  Since then, (I won’t say how long ago), largely by pursuing ever-expanding networks of “what ifs,” dinosaurs and megafauna, even early man and ancient civilizations have been increasingly revealed to be infinitely more fascinating than we ever imagined.

Currently, the majority of paleontologists and geologists support the theory that, about 66 million years ago, something whacked our planet.  The jury remains out regarding what it was, (the level of certainty fluctuates and that’s NOT a bad thing), but whether it was a comet or an asteroid, a single strike or half a dozen, it was a hellova big punch.  The jury considering the immediate results remains out as well, with new evidence ranging from the awkward to the genuinely thought-provoking arising all the time.  Still, there’s no doubt our world has taken a number of serious cosmic beatings, all of which would’ve been unwelcome by its inhabitants. Therefore, regardless of whether it happened overnight or over millennia, or if a resultant global firestorm cooked most life, an ash cloud choked it out, or gradual climate change caused by a battered and wildly volcanic planet was ultimately to blame, my money’s on the Chicxulub impact either directly or indirectly knocking off most species on Earth.  And though I stand willing and happy to be convinced otherwise, I personally lean toward the gradual (likely more excruciating) process, with Chicxulub as the trigger.  But “what if” . . . whatever happened . . . never did?

That question opens a fantastically vast array of fictional possibilities to explore.  Since something certainly did happen in “our” universe, I was compelled to explore another possibility that seems to become more mainstream all the time; the theory that multiple, perhaps an infinite number of universes exist at the same time.  This is not a new concept and has been used in fiction for many decades, but most often it seems to focus on subtle differences, sometimes even difficult to detect.  I imagined that the farther back in history the “divergent event” occurred, the more profound the differences would be, and was drawn back to that cataclysmic event 66 million years ago as an obvious example, but I went a step beyond.

When the idea for the Destroyermen series popped in my head—on the movie set of the 2003 Alamo movie, oddly enough—I saw an opportunity to use hard history in a fanciful, exhilarating way.   I’d combine the “Alamo-like” ordeal of minor elements of the doomed U.S. Asiatic Fleet at the outbreak of WWII, already surrounded by the exotic, primordial setting of the Malay Barrier, with an alternate earth with momentous differences that only seem “subtle” at a glance.  There, I could incorporate many of the latest evolutionary and multi-universe theories that would be utterly unknown to the characters.  And these men and women would succeed or fail, in a radically revised world, based only on the character, equipment, attitudes, collective knowledge, and prevailing culture of early 1942.

Thus began Into the Storm, published in 2008.  It was followed by Crusade, Maelstrom, Distant Thunders, Rising Tides, Firestorm, Iron Gray Sea, Storm Surge, Deadly Shores, Straits of Hell, and now Blood in the Water.  Through all their adventures, the true heart of the ongoing series remains how they, the people, with their worldview, aboard a couple of dilapidated, battle-worn ships, cope with their situation and the beings they meet, (and how those beings cope with them). The result is a story possibly similar to others in some ways, (all novelists owe a debt to Homer), but also unique in other aspects which leave the characters--and hopefully readers--asking “what if” on every page.

And it’s not “just” a “dinosaur” story, or a “war” story, or any specific kind of story at all.  The best description I’ve come up with is “Alternate/Historical/Military/ Sci-Fi,” but even that’s not a perfect fit.  On the “Earth” where the crew of the old four-stacker destroyer Walker find themselves, the world doesn’t remain as it was when that massive celestial body passed it by; it continued to evolve as it would have – minus the impact.  The moon and tides move as they should and the stars remain unchanged.  Even the various continents have found themselves roughly where they ought to be, though water levels are different due to an altered climatic clock set in motion--or more precisely, left as it might have been.  There have been ice ages, droughts, and continental drift.  There have even been other “extinction events.”  Life has continued to evolve, but in an entirely different direction.  Mammals exist in places and climates they might be expected to since the dinosaurs have been beaten back just a bit, but the hot-blooded dinosaurs (I was a very early convert to THAT theory) continue to thrive, evolve and adapt to their environment as well.  Only a few creatures that had already achieved a virtually perfect form to take best advantage of their species’ “niche” have remained largely unchanged.  They may be bigger or smaller than their ancestors in the fossil record, but they still “do” what they did.

Through cooperative pack behavior, the “raptors” have risen to dominate many regions.  One “race” of these, the Grik, are particularly unpleasant.  But as the story unfolds, readers will discover that other races of “Grik-like” folk exist, with different temperaments and cultures, having experienced a diaspora similar to prehistoric humans.  This phenomenon was more limited across the vast, feral seas, which are a Darwinian delight of lethal adaptation.  Few creatures survived to drift across its reaches on logs, for example, so each land mass harbors wildly different life forms, isolated from others of their kind long enough to become vastly altered in many ways.

The “Lemurians,” or “Mi-Anaaka,” are relative latecomers--as were humans on this world. Possibly evolved from giant lemurs, they required an isolated land mass, such as Madagascar, on which to flourish.  Originally, as a more primitive species, they inhabited other places just as they did here.  One must sadly assume those outposts suffered extermination by earlier Grik incursions.  (Recently discovered specimens on “this” world have given rise to theories that modern lemurs and humans may have had a common ancestor!  I must admit considerable amusement concerning this post Into the Storm publication development, but I have valiantly resisted any claim of prescience.

Lemurian prehistory is similar to that of humans in some loose but very fundamental ways.  Look at the Epic of Gilgamesh and the Old Testament of the Bible.  Examine attributes of Celtic, Druidic, Norse, Ancient Greek, Native American, and many other religious and societal traditions, and you discover that many founding principles, myths and time-honored tales--regardless of inspiration--are universal among even the most isolated humans.  It’s therefore reasonable that almost any sentient, social species would incorporate at least vaguely familiar belief systems, devised to understand the natural world and create a functioning civilization.  A strong concept of right and wrong, for example, is essential to the maintenance of any society not ruled by fear.

For the Grik, this is not necessarily the case since the vast majority of them are arguably non-sentient . . . sort of.  Only a minority are self-aware in a manner humans--or Lemurians--would recognize, and there are reasons for that.  Those that are sentient do hold recognizable, precedented--if unappealing--belief systems.

As for the rest of the world, much remains unexplored--at least by the known characters in the tale.  It’s different, certainly, in thoughtful and sometimes unexpected ways.   It is not reasonable for readers to know much more about it than the characters do however, so I invite you to explore it with them.  I’m sure they’d appreciate the company.

GIVEAWAY

Want to win all 11 books in the Destroyermen series? Enter below:

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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.

New Releases 5/5/15

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

Hardcovers

1882: Custer in Chains by Robert Conroy

NATIONALLY BEST-SELLING AUTHOR. A world where Custer survives Little Bighorn and becomes president goes seriously awry.

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!

Look Who's Back by Timur Vermes

"What would happen if Adolf Hitler woke up in modern-day Berlin? In a bestselling satirical novel, he'd end up a TV comedy star . . . [Look Who's Back] has unsurprisingly sparked debate in a country that has grappled for decades with Hitler's unconscionable legacy."
-Time

Timur Vermes' record-breaking bestseller Look Who's Back is a satirical novel that imagines what would happen if Hilter were reborn in present-day Germany. The book was a massive success in Germany, selling more than 1.5 million copies. It was subsequently published for the first time in English by Quercus in the UK to strong sales and even stronger media attention.

In the novel, Adolf Hitler wakes up in 2011 from a 66-year sleep in his subterranean Berlin bunker to find the Germany he knew entirely changed: Internet-driven media spreads ideas in minutes and fumes celebrity obsession; immigration has produced multicultural neighborhoods bringing together people of varying race, ethnicity, and religion; and the most powerful person in government is a woman. Hitler is immediately recognized . . . as an impersonator of uncommon skill. The public assumes the fulminating leader of the Nazi party is a performer who is always in character, and soon his inevitable viral appeal begets YouTube Stardom, begets television celebrity on a Turkish-born comedian's show. His bigoted rants are mistaken for a theatrical satire-exposing prejudice and misrepresentation-and his media success emboldens Hitler to start his own political party, and set the country he finds a shambles back to rights.

With daring and dark humor, Look Who's Back skewers the absurdity and depravity of the cult of personality in modern media culture.

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.

Straits of Hell: Destroyermen by Taylor Anderson

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

Matt Reddy’s old Asiatic Fleet destroyer USS Walker has been mysteriously transported to an alternate version of earth. Here WWII is no longer raging, and Reddy and his crew have been trying to find a new place for themselves in this strange new world.

Now, along with the felinoid Lemurians and Imperial allies, they fight to keep the reptilian Grik, a race growing in supremacy, from reconquering the Lemurians’ ancestral home on Madagascar. Reddy and his crew are exhausted, far from reinforcements, and wildly outnumbered, so 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.

Paperbacks

Aurelia by Alison Morton

Late 1960s Roma Nova, the last Roman colony that has survived into the 20th century Aurelia Mitela is alone - her partner gone, her child sickly and her mother dead - and forced to give up her beloved career as a Praetorian officer. But her country needs her unique skills. Somebody is smuggling silver - Roma Nova's lifeblood - on an industrial scale. Sent to Berlin to investigate, she encounters the mysterious and attractive Miklós who knows too much and Caius Tellus, a Roma Novan she has despised and feared since childhood. Barely escaping a trap set by a gang boss intent on terminating her, she discovers that her old enemy is at the heart of all her troubles and pursues him back home to Roma Nova...

The Death of Napoleon by Simon Leys

As he bore a vague resemblance to the Emperor, the  sailors on board the Hermann-Augustus Stoeffer had nicknamed him Napoleon. And so, for convenience, that is what we shall call him.

Besides, he was Napoleon. . . .

Napoleon has escaped from St. Helena, leaving a double behind him. Now disguised as the cabin hand Eugène Lenormand and enduring the mockery of the crew (Na­po­leon, they laughingly nickname the pudgy, hopelessly clumsy little man), he is on his way back to Europe, ready to make contact with the huge secret organization that will return him to power. But then the ship on which he sails is rerouted from Bordeaux to Antwerp. When Napoleon disembarks, he is on his own.

He revisits the battlefield of Waterloo, now a tourist destination. He makes his way to Paris. Mistakes, misunderstandings, and mishaps conduct our puzzled hero deeper and deeper into the mystery of Napoleon.

Deadly Shores: Destroyermen by Taylor Anderson

The Destroyermen series continues from the New York Times bestselling author of Straits of Hell.

The ambitious, long-planned raid on the Grik Empire has grown dangerously ill defined. Only Matthew Reddy, commander of the old destroyer USS Walker, seems focused on the original intent.

While many Lemurians see an opportunity to reconquer their stolen homeland, others—Lemurian and human—have their own agendas, which could compromise the Alliance. Complicating matters further is Reddy’s suspicion that his task force is being stalked by some unknown power bent on aiding the Grik for reasons of its own.

As the raid begins and chaos reigns, Reddy has no choice but to risk everything in a desperate act that results in a sprawling, nightmare battle on the beaches of “Grik City,” on the very decks of Walker, and in the labyrinthine passageways of the Celestial Palace itself. The final cost could be more than Matt Reddy—or the Alliance—can bear.

Unseemly Science: The Fall of the Gas-Lit Empire, Book 2 by Rod Duncan

In the divided land of England, Elizabeth Barnabus has been living a double life - as both herself and as her brother, the private detective. Witnessing the hanging of Alice Carter, the false duchess, Elizabeth resolves to throw the Bullet Catcher's Handbook into the fire, and forget her past. If only it were that easy!

There is a new charitable organisation in town, run by some highly respectable women. But something doesn't feel right to Elizabeth. Perhaps it is time for her fictional brother to come out of retirement for one last case...? Her unstoppable curiosity leads her to a dark world of body-snatching, unseemly experimentation, politics and scandal. Never was it harder for a woman in a man's world...

The Venusian Gambit: Book Three of the Daedalus Series by Michael J Martinez

[Editor's Note: Check out my review over at Amazing Stories.]

The last chapter of the dimension-spanning Daedalus series brings the 19th and 22nd centuries together for an explosive finale in the jungles of Venus!

In the year 2135, dangerous alien life forms freed in the destruction of Saturn's moon Enceladus are making their way towards Earth. A task force spearheaded by Lt. Cmdr. Shaila Jain is scrambling to beat them there while simultaneously trying to save crewmember Stephane Durand, who was infected during the mission to Saturn and is now controlled by a form of life intent on reopening a transdimensional rift and destroying the human race. But Jain doesn’t realize that the possessed Stephane has bigger plans, beaming critical data to other conspirators suspiciously heading not for Earth, but for Venus…

In 1809—a Napoleonic era far different from our own—the French have occupied England with their Corps Eternélle, undead soldiers risen through the darkest Alchemy. Only the actions of Lord Admiral Thomas Weatherby and the Royal Navy have kept the French contained to Earth. But the machinations of old enemies point to a bold and daring gambit: an ancient weapon, presumed lost in the jungles of Venus.

Now, Weatherby must choose whether to stay and fight to retake his homeland or pursue the French to the green planet. And Shaila must decide if it’s possible to save the man she loves, or if he must be sacrificed for the good of two dimensions. In the dark, alien jungles of Venus, humanity's fate in both dimensions hangs in the balance—forcing past and present to once again join forces against an ancient terror.

E-books

The Brass Giant: A Chroniker City Story by Brooke Johnson

Sometimes, even the most unlikely person can change the world

Seventeen-year-old Petra Wade, self-taught clockwork engineer, wants nothing more than to become a certified member of the Guild, an impossible dream for a lowly shop girl. Still, she refuses to give up, tinkering with any machine she can get her hands on, in between working and babysitting her foster siblings.

When Emmerich Goss--handsome, privileged, and newly recruited into the Guild--needs help designing a new clockwork system for a top-secret automaton, it seems Petra has finally found the opportunity she's been waiting for. But if her involvement on the project is discovered, Emmerich will be marked for treason, and a far more dire fate would await Petra.

Working together in secret, they build the clockwork giant, but as the deadline for its completion nears, Petra discovers a sinister conspiracy from within the Guild council ... and their automaton is just the beginning.

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 5/6/14

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

Hardcovers

Deadly Shores: Destroyermen by Taylor Anderson

National bestselling author Taylor Anderson’s explosive WWII alternate-history series continues as a do-or-die battle is waged that risks far more than anyone bargained for. 

The long-planned raid on the heart of the Grik Empire has grown more ambitious—and dangerously ill defined. Only Matthew Reddy, commander of the old destroyer USS Walker, seems focused on its original intent.

Many Lemurians see an opportunity to reconquer their sacred homeland, which was stolen long ago, and have no intention of simply striking a blow and then pulling back. Others, Lemurian and human, have their own agendas—which may not be in the best interests of the Alliance. Complicating matters further is Reddy’s suspicion that his task force is being stalked by an unknown power bent on aiding the Grik for reasons of its own.

As the raid begins and chaos reigns, Reddy has no choice but to go all-in, risking everything in a desperate act that results in a sprawling, nightmarish battle on the beaches of “Grik City,” on the very decks of Walker, and in the labyrinthine passageways of the Celestial Palace itself.

The final cost could be more than Matt Reddy—or the Alliance—can bear.

Multiverse: Exploring Poul Anderson's Worlds edited by Greg Bear and Gardner Dozois

Poul Anderson (1926-2001) was one of the seminal figures of 20th century science fiction. Named a Grand Master by the SFWA in 1997, he produced an enormous body of standalone novels (Brain Wave, Tau Zero) and series fiction (Time Patrol, the Dominic Flandry books) and was equally at home in the fields of heroic fantasy and hard SF. He was a meticulous craftsman and a gifted storyteller, and the impact of his finest work continues, undiminished, to this day.

Multiverse: Exploring Poul Anderson's Worlds is a rousing, all-original anthology that stands both as a significant achievement in its own right and a heartfelt tribute to a remarkable writer--and equally remarkable man. A nicely balanced mixture of fiction and reminiscence, Multiverse contains thirteen stories and novellas by some of today's finest writers, along with moving reflections by, among others, Anderson's wife, Karen, his daughter, Astrid Anderson Bear, and his son-in-law, novelist and co-editor Greg Bear. (Bear's introduction, My Friend Poul, is particularly illuminating and insightful).

The fictional contributions comprise a kaleidoscopic array of imaginative responses to Anderson's many and varied fictional worlds. A few of the highlights include Nancy Kress's 'Outmoded Things' and Terry Brooks' 'The Fey of Cloudmoor,' stories inspired by the Hugo Award-winning 'The Queen of Air and Darkness;' a pair of truly wonderful Time Patrol stories ('A Slip in Time' by S. M. Stirling and 'Christmas in Gondwanaland' by Robert Silverberg); Raymond E. Feist's Dominic Flandry adventure, 'A Candle;' and a pair of very different homages to the classic fantasy novel, Three Hearts and Three Lions: 'The Man Who Came Late' by Harry Turtledove and 'Three Lilies and Three Leopards (And a Participation Ribbon in Science)' by Tad Williams. These stories, together with singular contributions by such significant figures as Larry Niven, Gregory Benford, and Eric Flint, add up to a memorable, highly personal anthology that lives up to the standards set by the late--and indisputably great--Poul Anderson.

Twenty Trillion Leagues Under the Sea by Adam Roberts

Adam Roberts revisits Jules Verne's classic novel in a collaboration with the illustrator behind a recent highly acclaimed edition of The Hunting of the Snark

It is 1958 and France's first nuclear submarine, Plongeur, leaves port for the first of its sea trials. On board, gathered together for the first time, are one of the Navy's most experienced captains and a tiny skeleton crew of sailors, engineers, and scientists. The Plongeur makes her first dive and goes down, and down and down. Out of control, the submarine plummets to a depth where the pressure will crush her hull, killing everyone on board, and beyond. The pressure builds, the hull protests, the crew prepare for death, the boat reaches the bottom of the sea and finds nothing. Her final dive continues, the pressure begins to relent, but the depth guage is useless. They have gone miles down. Hundreds of miles, thousands, and so it goes on. Onboard the crew succumb to madness, betrayal, religious mania, and murder. Has the Plongeur left the limits of our world and gone elsewhere? Contains 33 full page pen and ink illustrations.

Paperbacks

The Enceladus Crisis by Michael Martinez

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.

The Place of Dead Kings by Geoffrey Wilson

Can England be liberated if the Holy Grail is found? The hero of Land of Hope and Glory begins an epic quest to Scotland to find out.

It is 1855. The English revolt has failed, and brutal General Vadula governs England now. Only a few small bands of English rebels still hold out against the Rajthanan empire. Jack Casey survives in remote Shropshire, training young rebels to use the conqueror's magic, but he is gravely ill, with only two months to live. Then refugees bring with them news of a rogue Indian sorcerer in Scotland. Mahajan has discovered a mysterious power in the uncharted country to the north—a power that could be the legendary Holy Grail. The Rajthanans have already assembled an army to capture Mahajan. Jack has nothing to lose now. He agrees to lead his own men, disguised as porters for the conquerors, on the same grueling march. Their hope is to find a weapon that will free England from her oppressors. But they will find something even more powerful.

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 7/2/13

Hardcover

Christian Nation: A Novel by Frederic C. Rich

Description from Amazon.

“They said what they would do, and we did not listen. Then they did what they said they would do.”

So ends the first chapter of this brilliantly readable counterfactual novel, reminding us that America’s Christian fundamentalists have been consistently clear about their vision for a "Christian Nation" and dead serious about acquiring the political power to achieve it. When President McCain dies and Sarah Palin becomes president, the reader, along with the nation, stumbles down a terrifyingly credible path toward theocracy, realizing too late that the Christian right meant precisely what it said.

In the spirit of Philip Roth’s The Plot Against America, one of America’s foremost lawyers lays out in chilling detail what such a future might look like: constitutional protections dismantled; all aspects of life dominated by an authoritarian law called “The Blessing,” enforced by a totally integrated digital world known as the "Purity Web." Readers will find themselves haunted by the questions the narrator struggles to answer in this fictional memoir: "What happened, why did it happen, how could it have happened?"

The Last Full Measure by Jack Campbell

Description from Amazon.

As the author of the bestselling Lost Fleet series, Jack Campbell s name is well-known to fans of interstellar heroics. Now, with his thrilling new novella The Last Full Measure, Campbell brings his keen eye for military adventure and political intrigue to a tale that is earthbound, but no less wondrous...

In a transformed mid-nineteenth century America dominated by plantation owners and kept in line by Southern military forces, a mild-mannered academic from Maine, Professor Joshua Chamberlain, stands accused of crimes against the nation. In court alongside him is Abraham Lincoln, whose fiery rhetoric brands him a 'threat to the security of the United States of America.' Convicted, Chamberlain is sentenced to forty years hard labor, while Lincoln s fate is indefinite detention at Fortress Monroe. But Professor Chamberlain then encounters military minds who understand the true ideals upon which the country was founded and who want to foment revolution. To succeed, they need a leader, someone to inspire the people to take up the cause of liberty: Lincoln. All they have to do is flawlessly execute a daring plan to rescue him from the darkest federal prison.

In The Last Full Measure, Campbell delivers a riveting look at an America where war is imminent, and nothing is as it should be.

Storm Surge: Destroyermen by Taylor Anderson

Description from Amazon.

In Taylor Anderson’s acclaimed Destroyermen series, a parallel universe adds an extraordinary layer to the drama of World War II, as Lieutenant Commander Matthew Reddy and the crew of USS Walker, cast into that alternate earth, continue to fight the war that rages across the globe.

In the Pacific, as USS Walker is repaired and updated after a previous battle and Reddy is healing from his wounds, planning begins for a bold raid on the very heart of the Grik Empire.

But time is running out for the Alliance army in Indiaa, and the Allied forces in the west must gather in an unprecedented land, air, and sea campaign to destroy the mighty Grik battle fleet and break through to their relief. All other plans go on hold when the attempt proves more difficult—and more heartbreakingly costly—than anyone imagined.

Meanwhile, the struggle continues on other fronts near and far: in the jungles of Borno in distant Southern Africa and in the Americas, where the allies are finally learning the terrible truth about the twisted Dominion.

The Alliance is on the offensive everywhere, but their enemies have a few surprises, including new weaponry and new tactics...and a stunning geographic advantage that Reddy never suspected.

Until now.

Thieves' Quarry by D.B. Jackson

Description from Amazon.

Ethan Kaille isn’t the likeliest hero. A former sailor with a troubled past, Ethan is a thieftaker, using conjuring skills to hunt down those who steal from the good citizens of Boston. And while chasing down miscreants in 1768 makes his life a perilous one, the simmering political tensions between loyalists like himself and rabble-rousing revolutionaries like Samuel Adams and others of his ilk are perhaps even more dangerous to his health.

When one hundred sailors of King George III's Royal Navy are mysteriously killed on a ship in Boston Harbor, Ethan is thrust into dire peril. For he—and not Boston’s premier thieftaker, Sephira Pryce—is asked to find the truth behind their deaths. City Sheriff Edmund Greenleaf suspects conjuring was used in the dastardly crime, and even Pryce knows that Ethan is better equipped to contend with matters of what most of Boston considers dark arts. But even Ethan is daunted by magic powerful enough to fell so many in a single stroke. When he starts to investigate, he realizes that the mass murderer will stop at nothing to evade capture. And making his task more difficult is the British fleet's occupation of the city after the colonials' violent protests after the seizure of John Hancock's ship. Kaille will need all his own magic, street smarts, and a bit of luck to keep this Boston massacre from giving the hotheads of Colonial Boston an excuse for inciting a riot—or worse.

Paperback

Cold Copper: The Age of Steam by Devon Monk

Description from Amazon.

In steam age America, men, monsters, machines, and magic battle to claim the same scrap of earth and sky. In this madness, one man struggles to keep his humanity, his honor, and his hell-bent mission intact....

Bounty hunter and lycanthrope Cedar Hunt vowed to track down all seven pieces of the Holder—a strange device capable of deadly destruction. And, accompanied by witch Mae Lindson and the capricious Madder brothers, he sets out to do just that. But the crew is forced to take refuge in the frontier town of Des Moines, Iowa, when a glacial storm stops them in their tracks. The town, under mayor Killian Vosbrough, is ruled with an iron fist—and plagued by the steely Strange, creatures that pour through the streets like the unshuttered wind.

But Cedar soon learns that Vosbrough is mining cold copper for the cataclysmic generators he’s manufacturing deep beneath Des Moines, bringing the search for the Holder to a halt. Chipping through ice, snow, and bone-chilling bewitchment to expose a dangerous plot, Cedar must stop Vosbrough and his scheme to rule the land and sky....

Iron Gray Sea: Destroyermen by Taylor Anderson

Description from Amazon.

War has engulfed the other earth, the parallel universe that Lt Commander Matt Reddy and the crew of the USS Walker now call home. With every hard-won victory and painful defeat, Reddy and the Allies encounter more friends—and even more diabolical enemies.

Cutting short his “honeymoon,” Reddy sails off in pursuit of Hidoiame, a rogue Japanese destroyer that is wreaking havoc in Allied seas. Now that Walker is armed with the “latest” technology, he hopes the four-stacker can handle a straight-up fight against the bigger ship.

Elsewhere, the long-awaited invasion of Grik “Indiaa” has begun, and the Human-Lemurian Alliance is pushing back against the twisted might of the Dominion, even as political machinations threaten the Alliance from within. But the savage Grik have also mastered “new” technologies. And their fleet of monstrous ironclads and a bloodthirsty army are finally massing to strike...

To fans, authors and publishers...

Is you 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. His new story "The Enchanted Bean" can be found in Once Upon a Clockwork Tale from Echelon Press. 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 10/2/12

New hardcover

1635: Papal Stakes by Eric Flint and Charles E. Gannon

Description from Amazon.

#15 in the multiple bestselling Ring of Fire Series.

It’s springtime in the Eternal City, 1635. But it’s no Roman holiday for uptimer Frank Stone and his pregnant downtime wife, Giovanna. They’re in the clutches of would-be Pope Cardinal Borgia, with the real Pope–Urban VII –on the run with the renegade embassy of uptime Ambassador Sharon Nichols and her swashbuckling downtime husband, Ruy Sanchez de Casador y Ortiz. Up to their necks in papal assassins, power politics, murder, and mayhem, the uptimers and their spouses need help and they need it quickly.

Special rescue teams–including Harry Lefferts and his infamous Wrecking Crew–converge on Rome to extract Frank and Gia. And an uptime airplane is on its way to spirit the Pope to safety before Borja’s assassins can find him. It seems that everything is going to work out just fine in sunny Italy.

Until, that is, everything goes wrong. Now, whether they are prisoners in Rome or renegades protecting a pope on the run, it’s up to the rough and ready can-do attitude of Grantville natives to once again escape the clutches of aristocratic skullduggery and ring in freedom for a war-torn land.

New paperback

Firestorm by Taylor Anderson

Description from Amazon.

Designated Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces, Matt Reddy must now contend with a new threat; the Dominion—humans whose lust for power matches the Grik. But even though the Grand Alliance recognizes the danger of the Dominion, it must deal with the land-based Grik first, leaving the Imperial navy—and USS Walker—with little assistance.

As war rages, more Japanese ships come through the time-space maelstrom that the Americans call The Squall. One is a “Hell Ship,” carrying prisoners of an Imperial Japan that is growing ever more ruthless in the face of looming defeat. Escorting it is a new, state-of-the-art destroyer, whose officers recognize no rules of war.

Fighting on two fronts, Reddy is plunged into a firestorm of loyalty, betrayal, and sacrifice. But nothing can prepare him for a devastating new Grik weapon—a weapon that could wipe out all who oppose them…

The Mechanical Messiah and Other Marvels of the Modern Age by Robert Rankin

Description from Amazon.

Colonel Katterfelto has returned to London, having departed America under something of a cloud—of smoke, issuing from his Spiritual Laboratory, which the townsfolk of Wormcast, Arizona, marched upon with their flaming torches. This catastrophic conflagration caused considerable concern to the pious colonel, who had been engaged in the creation of "Heaven's last and best gift to Mankind," The Mechanical Messiah—he was, after all, being guided in this Great Work by holy angels, communicating to him through his monkey butler, Darwin. It is 1897, the British Empire encompasses Mars, and an uneasy peace exists between the peoples of Venus, Jupiter, and Earth. In London the marvels of the modern age to be experienced include the Electric Alhambra Music Hall, where crowds thrill to the Earl Grey Whistle Test—a musical extravaganza featuring such top turns as Hayward's Acrobatic Kiwis, the Travelling Formbys, and the newly arrived Colonel Katterfelto's Clockwork Minstrels. But all is far from well in old Whitechapel, where a monster is once more abroad in the night-time streets, committing hideous acts of murder. Can this be the return of Jack the Ripper, or has something altogether unearthly and hellishly evil materialized? Famed consulting detective Cameron Bell is already on the case, but it may take nothing less than the new Messiah himself to save London, the Empire, and all of the solar system from the impending apocalypse!

New e-books

The British Alien by John Lewis

Description from Amazon.

An alternative history of the British Empire in the dark days of the Second World War. Be astonished by this first hand account of how the British Secret Service attempted to make deals with otherworldly demonic entities in order to counter a similar deal made by the Nazis.

A mysterious package is dropped from an RAF bomber over the Atlantic. Nazi secret societies conspire against the British Empire and a small team is created to investigate the situation. Dark secrets are revealed that lie at the heart of the British establishment.

The Hundred Years Farce by Scott Skipper

Description from Amazon.

Most people don't recall—if they ever knew—that the United States Army invaded México in 1846. A year later they entered México City and received an unconditional surrender. Then they walked away with Texas, New México and California. What would have happened if they hadn't walked away?

History is full of crossroads. Alexander conquered Egypt, Persia and Afghanistan then he went to India and died of fever at twenty-three. How would he have redrawn the world map if he had lived to a ripe old age?

Arab enemies very nearly killed Mohamed before he wrote the Koran. How would the world look today if there were no such thing as Islam?

Washington was pressured to crown himself king. What would have come of the United States if he hadn't been quite so altruistic?

The sum of all events that led us to where we are could have turned quite differently had small things been tweaked. This quirky and irreverent 'what if' story starts with the truth then looks at plausible, bizarre and absurd alternatives to what came later. Do we have here a simple alternative history or could it be an allegorical reflection of modern times? Will the end always look the same no matter how many parallel universes we examine? Is our fate hard wired or are we at the mercy of some cosmic coin toss?

The Lady Astronomer by Katy O'Dowd

Description from Amazon.

Lucretia's quiet life as an astronomer and hat-maker is quickly turned on its head by her brother. He is commanded by the king to build the grandest telescope in the land. Unfortunately for Lucretia, she is introduced to his majesty as her brother's assistant. Her nights spent on rooftops gazing at the stars are replaced by adventure and danger. In a race to build the Forty-foot telescope on time for the king, her misfortunes take their toll. When Lucretia finds herself held hostage at the Clockwork Court, the innocent country girl doesn't know who to trust. The lady astronomer finds court life to be more dangerous than she could have ever imagined. Even if her brothers manage to build the telescope on time, she might not live to earn her freedom.

With the help of her brothers, Freddie and Al, and her constant companions Leibniz the Lemur and Orion the Eagle Owl, Lucretia embarks on a journey that could change her life forever. Can she find the strength inside to balance her new life and overcome the obstacles threatening her destiny? Only the stars will tell.

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.

* * *

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.