Weekly Update #248! What I Am Reading Now...

Editor's Note

So I have been sick with a cold for the last few days (I guess this is what I get for turning down a free flu vaccine from my work). I did have brief moment on Saturday where I felt well enough to go outside and do some apple picking, but as I write this on Sunday I am sitting next to an overflowing garbage can full of my used tissues. Even Alana is afraid to kiss me. So my apologies if I don't have much to post this week. I also need to post a video soon, but until I get my voice back it may be a while.

Don't forget to check out Map Monday: Different Ottoman Partition by Panhomo and my review of Prince of Outcasts by SM Stirling, which has revitalized the Emberverse series in my humble opinion. Also don't forget to buy your books through our Amazon banner. May I recommend last week's new releases or some of the books I will be mentioning below?

Also I don't think I will be posting a Flag Friday this week. I didn't find anything interesting to talk about from last week's crop of flags. Still if there are any intrepid alternate vexillologists out there who want to showcase their work, send a submission to ahwupdate at gmail dot com.

And now the news...

What I am reading now...

So my next review will be the first Casefile: ARKHAM book, titled "Nightmare on the Canvas", which is perfect with Halloween season being upon us. Here is the description from Amazon:

What if Raymond Chandler wrote Lovecraft stories? Set in the mid-1940s, Casefile: ARKHAM follows Hank Flynn, a down on his luck private eye who is back from the war and now working the mean streets of the most cursed city on Earth Arkham, Massachusetts. And things only get worse for Flynn when a wealthy uptown socialite hires him to track down an artist by the name of Pickman. What begins as a simple missing persons case leads Flynn down a dark path of flesh eating ghouls, vengeful witches, and the notorious Innsmouth mafia.

The book I am currently reading, however, is King of Worlds by M. Thomas Gammarino, which can best be described as a 90s nostalgia trip set in the near future of an alternate history where humans have started colonizing the galaxy. So far its good, but a little sad. Here is the description from Amazon:

This dark comedy explores the lost universes of disgraced idol Dylan Greenyears. Dylan had always wanted to live as many lives as he could--that was the appeal of being an actor. But at the end of a brief, bright stint as a Hollywood heartthrob, Dylan loses the lead in Titanic and exiles himself and his wife to a recently settled exoplanet called New Taiwan.

At first, life beyond Earth seems uncannily un-wondrous. Dylan teaches at an American prep school, raises a family with his high school sweetheart, and lives out his restlessness through literature. But then a box of old fan mail (and the hint of a galaxy-wide conspiracy) offers Dylan a chance to recapture the past. As he tries to balance this transdimensional midlife crisis against family life, Dylan encounters a cast of extraordinary characters: a supercomputer with aspirations of godhood, a Mormon-fundamentalist superfan, an old-school psychoanalyst, a sampling of his alternate selves, and, once again, the love of his lives.

King of the Worlds throws cosmology, technology, nineties pop culture, and religion into an existential blender for a mix that is by turns tragic and absurd, elegiac and filled with wonder.

Next up is a book I have already read, but I am going to be jointly reviewing it with Alana on the channel. Its Harry Potter and the Cursed Child by J.K. Rowling, Jack Thorne and John Tiffany. Believe or not, there is some alternate history in this book, in the It's A Wonderful Life variety. Anyway, here is the description from Amazon:

"The Eighth Story. Nineteen Years Later.

Based on an original new story by J.K. Rowling, Jack Thorne and John Tiffany, a new play by Jack Thorne, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child is the eighth story in the Harry Potter series and the first official Harry Potter story to be presented on stage. The play will receive its world premiere in London’s West End on July 30, 2016.

It was always difficult being Harry Potter and it isn’t much easier now that he is an overworked employee of the Ministry of Magic, a husband and father of three school-age children.

While Harry grapples with a past that refuses to stay where it belongs, his youngest son Albus must struggle with the weight of a family legacy he never wanted. As past and present fuse ominously, both father and son learn the uncomfortable truth: sometimes, darkness comes from unexpected places."

And the last book I am reading right now is the Folio Society edition of The Man in the High Castle by Philip K. Dick. Now I have read this book already, but Alana hasn't. So we are reading it together in preparation for Season 2 of Amazon's The Man in the High Castle. Here is the description from the Folio Society:

In 1962 Philip K. Dick conjured a new vision of our world – a twisted simulacrum in which the Axis Powers have won the Second World War. America is now divided: the eastern United States is the puppet of a maniacal German Reich, while the western Pacific seaboard is governed by a militaristic, yet spiritual, Japanese dictatorship. Amongst the complexities of this new existence, a group of unremarkable people – an American- Jewish craftsman, a judo instructor, a Japanese diplomat – play out their everyday lives, each striving to uncover a remnant of goodness in the shadow of a gathering evil. As their narratives intersect, Dick poses larger metaphysical questions concerning the authentication of history, perception and the building blocks of destiny.

So that is what I am reading and will be reviewing soon. If you want, read along with me and maybe we can discuss it together.

You should also check out...

• Nisi Shawl's, author of Everfair, appearance on Midnight in Karachi (via Tor).

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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, DeviantArt and YouTube. Learn how you can support his alternate history projects on Patreon.

Weekly Update #240: What We Know So Far About The Man in the High Castle Season 2

Editor's Note

I am back from my short blogging break and I am looking forward to getting back into my routine. Besides all of my usual posts, I will also be reviewing the remaining Sidewise nominees I haven't gotten to yet. Plus I am working on a video regarding the history of the Sidewise Awards, so stay tuned for that.

And now the news...

What We Know So Far About The Man in the High Castle Season 2

The big news last week for alternate historians was the promos released by Amazon for Season 2 of The Man in the High Castle at San Diego Comic Con. Based on the book of the same name by Phillip K. Dick, Season 2 will feature new characters, an attempted coup in Berlin and a Cold War between Nazi Germany and Japan. I was surprised to learn that we would meet the actual "man in the high castle" since I assumed the twist from last year was that Hitler was that character, playing off the resistance and his own intelligence services to ensure that all copies of the film are either destroyed or come to him, but I guess not.

Still I am looking forward to the return of the show and if you want to see more, check out this clip from the show with an intro from Ridley Scott (who looks to be reading from a cue card):


After watching this scene, it appears Juliana saw the man in the high castle and now the resistance is planning to kill her for this. It looks like she will get away, but why is it so important for her to die because of this?

You should also check out the trailer, which gives even more details.:


Friend of the blog, Rvbomally, actually captured a screen shot of a map of the Americas from the trailer. Check it out below:

Although the image isn't great, you can see that the United States wasn't the only place partitioned by the Axis, but there are other neutral areas, like Mexico and the Amazon (are the Axis powers inadvertently environmentalists in this timeline?). Well at least we know what happened to Canada in this timeline.

Among other things, we also learned about a new character Nicole Becker, a Berlin-born filmmaker played by Bella Heathcote. She is a young filmmaker who has only known a world ruled by the Axis, but she is somewhat of a rebel (as much as you can be in that society) and doesn't always agree with the party line. This seems to suggest that the younger generation is starting to rebel at against the Nazi system, but I could just be reading too much into it myself.

Stay tuned to The Update for more The Man in the High Castle new.

You should also check out...

• The trailer for You, Me & Her, a short film where a woman meets alternate versions of herself...and they are all more successful than her. (via io9)
• Paul Levinson's review of the Outlander Season 2 finale. You may also want to check out what Alana and I thought of Season 2.
• This review of The Ballad of Black Tom by Victor LaValle via Fantasy Faction.
• Geek Dad discussing the novels of alternate historian, Lavie Tidhar.
• David D. Levine talking about the big idea and his favorite bit of Arabella of Mars.

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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.

Weekly Update #228! Production on Season 2 of The Man in the High Castle has Begun (and more)

Editor's Note

I really should ditch Blogger. I have been having issues with it for a while now. For example, the link preview function on Facebook won't work for Blogger sites. Meanwhile, the tool that Blogger provides to search and automatically embed YouTube videos doesn't always work, especially for videos with small view counts. Furthermore, when saving, random bits of HTML code will appear causing formatting issues and forcing me to spend time fixing it. I'm not sure if/when I will make the switch, but I am losing my patience.

For those who don't know, I have been working as a volunteer interviewer for SFFWorld. My first interview with Lou Antonelli ("Great White Ship", Another Girl, Another Planet) was recently published and my interview with Alan Smale (Clash of Eagles trilogy) will be published soon.
Now I have the opportunity to interview Taylor Anderson (Destroyermen series). Are there any questions you would like me to ask Taylor? Let me know in the comments or email them to me at ahwupdate at gmail dot com.

And now the news...

Production of Amazon's The Man in the High Castle Season 2 has begun

TV Series Finale reported that production on the second season of Amazon's smash alternate history hit, The Man in the High Castle, has begun. It appears the news first hit the web when Alexa Davalos, who plays Juliana Crain in the show, shared the following tweet, which included her call time to the set.

So what can we expect from Season 2? Well Den of Geek has been compiling news about the upcoming season 2 and Frank Spotnitz has been quite clear that we will be seeing places outside the Pacific States and the Third Reich. Although many have interpreted this to mean places like Russia, considering the last scene of season 1 showed Nobusuke Tagomi in the 1960s America of our timeline, perhaps it is more of a matter of going sideways to find new locations to excite viewers.

At this point its mostly just speculation, but as the year goes on, expect some more concrete ideas regarding what direction the show is going.

Pic of the Week

Last week I got seven books delivered to my office for the Sidewise Awards. Here was my favorite delivery:

Expect a review of Clash of Eagles soon since I am currently interviewing its author and I wanted to read the book while I interviewed him. In the meantime, you can check out my review of Rachel Caine's Ink and Bone, which is another book being considered for the Sidewise Award.

Video of the Week

I had intended to publish this on Wednesday, but due to a technical screw up I had to post it on Sunday. Anywho here is the next edition of AH 101 where I talk about Space-Filling Empires:

Alana and I still want to post some vlogs on 11.22.63 and Outlander Season 1. Plus with the new season of Game of Thrones coming out soon, I decided to do a review on George RR Martin's Doorways, the alternate history television show that predates Sliders, but never saw the light of day. It should be fun to do and I hope you all enjoy it.

Also, don't forget to check out my recent article for Amazing Stories where I list my 6 favorite YouTube channels for history nerds.

You should also check out...

• Cracked's list of the 6 biggest lies used to start horrifying wars.
• B&N's list of 8 books that are set in Lovecraft's Cthulhu mythos (including a few alternate history books).
• SFFWorld's interview with Ben Elton, author of Time and Time Again.
• Politico's prediction of what Scotland's Independence Day celebration would have been like if they had voted for independence from Britain.
• Tor description of Hannibal's army and how it inspired the diverse fantasy armies of Tolkein and beyond.
• My Bookish Ways' interview with Beth Cato, author of Wings of Sorrow and Bone and the Clockwork Dagger series.

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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 and YouTube. Learn how you can support his alternate history projects 

Top 5 Posts from March 2016

This list of the most viewed articles in March is not an April Fools joke. So enjoy!

1) Map Monday: What Remains, Part 2: 1961 A.D. by Zek Sora by Matt Mitrovich.

2) Map Monday: Constantinople Not Istanbul by Rvbomally by Matt Mitrovich.

3) Flag Friday: US Imperial Naval Ensign by Hellerick by Matt Mitrovich.

4) Anime Review: The Place Promised in Our Early Days by Sam McDonald.

5) Was a "Man In The High Castle" Scenario Ever Possible? by Dale Cozort.

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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 and YouTube. Learn how you can support his alternate history projects on Patreon.

Getting To The Man In the High Castle: Would a German Atom Bomb Let The Axis Take Over the US?

Guest post by Dale Cozort.

There are really two question here: Could Germany have gotten atomic bombs first, and if they had, could they have used them to force a US surrender? Answers: Not impossible, but extremely unlikely for the first question, and flat out ‘no’ to the second one.

Could Germany have gotten the bomb? Unlikely. Thanks mainly to Nazi scientific policies the US had the great brain trust of scientists from all over Europe, while Germany had the subset of scientists willing to work under the Nazis. When the Nazis came to power in 1933, Germany lost around half of its highest profile physics and chemistry people, including over a dozen past or future Nobel prize winners. Then the Germans compounded the damage by drafting a lot of physicists into the army, where some of them ended up dying on the Eastern Front. That last probably wouldn’t have happened if the Germans had given nuclear weapons priority, but the early manpower drain was pretty much baked in given the Nazi regime. The US also had the resources to bet on long shots, while Germany had to rebuild essentially everything military from a very low level.

Germany might have gotten an a-bomb if it started early enough and gotten an improbably large number of fast breakthroughs, but the program would have taken resources out of something, which meant that they would have had less of that something. Planes? Tanks? Synthetic fuel or rubber plants? V2 rockets? V2 rocket development would have been the most logical thing to drop and the V2 program did cost approximately as much as the US a-bomb program, though not necessarily at the right time to have been switched into a nuclear program.

The biggest problem with a German atomic bomb was that making atomic bombs wasn’t just a matter of physics breakthroughs. You had to make those breakthroughs first, but then you had to build a vast, resource-hungry industry nearly from scratch. The US built what was then the biggest factory in the world to separate out usable uranium, and that was just one of the components in a vast industry that produced the US bombs. At its height, US atom bomb making took around one percent of the nation’s entire electricity supply. A comparable German effort would have required a much higher percentage of the smaller German electricity supply. One key component of the uranium purification process was going to take so much scarce copper that the US took the extraordinary step of borrowing fifteen thousand tons of silver from US stockpiles to substitute for the copper. Even the giant US economy had trouble providing enough of a wide range of essentials for the program, from electronic components to lumber to skilled workers in a huge range of skills.

Bottom line: producing atomic bombs with 1940s technology was a huge resource drain that required large amounts of very specific materials. Even if the Germans knew how to build a bomb, they would still have to produce it without gutting their ability to do everything else they had to do in order to stay in the war and they would have to find enough of every crucial raw material in large enough quantities to make an ongoing series of bombs.

That’s a formidable set of reasons Germany was unlikely to get atomic bombs, but let’s say for the sake of argument that Germany did somehow get the bomb before the US, maybe by mid-1944. That would take an extreme amount of luck, given their resource and scientific limitations, but even if they did, they still wouldn’t be anywhere close to taking over the US, or even taking out Britain or the Soviet Union. Early atomic bombs simply weren’t war winners on their own.

Historically, the Germans had no delivery system that could reach the US, even with conventional bombs. They could reach Britain and some parts of the Soviet Union, but the British had built up strong enough air defenses that by 1944 the Germans had trouble even doing reconnaissance missions over Britain, much less bomber raids. It’s not that the Germans couldn’t get a plane with a nuke through, but there would be a significant chance--maybe close to fifty percent, that a nuke carrying plane wouldn’t make it through to target.

And what plane would the Germans have used to carry that bomb? Early US nukes were big, bulky things. Early German efforts would probably be similar. The early US bombs weighed in at around ten thousands, give or take a few hundred. That was many times too heavy to fit on V2 rockets, even if the Germans managed to produce both the rockets and the bomb. The only German mass-production bomber that could deliver that much weight in bombs was the very unreliable Heinkel 177, and even it might have had trouble with the width of an early atomic bomb. Historically, Fat Boy was a tight fit even for a B29.

The Germans couldn’t make a lot of bombs initially. Even the US, with far more resources to throw at the problem, had a limited number of nukes. They had the test bomb, then the two they dropped, then one more that could have been dropped in late August 1945. After that, the US bombs would have become available at the rate of roughly 3 to 4 per month. So the Germans, at best, make three or four, test one and have roughly three or four more available per month after that.

How would things play out after that? Worst case scenario: The Germans use one or more at Normandy. That could have been devastating, but then the US would have known for sure that the bombs were possible and would have pushed essentially unlimited resources into getting its own bomb as quickly as possible.

What if the Germans hit London and maybe Leningrad or Moscow and demanded that the Allies surrender? Not a great idea when the Allies had such a huge advantage in air power. So the Germans try a Hiroshima-scale bombing of London. First, good luck getting the bomb through, given the very strong Allied air defenses and the unreliable He-177. But let’s say the plane gets through and hits London.  Do the Allies surrender? Not likely. Most likely response: Hit Berlin with an unprecedentedly huge firebombing raid, calculated to maximize casualties. A big firebombing raid could produce as many, if not more, immediate casualties as an early atomic bomb. Granted, it might take a thousand or even two-thousand planes to rack up those casualties, but the western Allies had enough planes to do, as they demonstrated time and again. So the next night or the one after that, the Allies hit another major German cities and announce that any further a-bomb attacks on Britain will get the same response. Two German cities burned for every British one hit. Historically, the US, at least, attempted to hit mostly military targets. If the US went for mass civilian casualties, they could add to the mayhem.

The Allies would also make finding and taking out German a-bomb production a huge priority, even if they hadn’t already and redouble efforts to knock out any German bombers within range of Britain. Remember that producing a-bomb material required huge factories, huge amounts of power and very specific raw materials. That would make it very vulnerable to an enemy with near-total air superiority.

What the Allies wouldn’t do is surrender, especially not the Americans, who would be invulnerable to attacks long enough to get their own bombs.

Finally, even if the Axis somehow managed to bomb the US, it wouldn’t cause a US surrender, and even if it did, a US government that surrendered would quickly lose their power to enforce that surrender. A-bombing New York or Washington would not deter would-be-guerrillas in fly-over country and US troops would be very reluctant to fire on fellow citizens to enforce an Axis occupation. So that occupation would require Axis troops in the US in numbers that the Axis simply couldn’t support.

Bottom line: An Axis atomic bomb was almost certainly not going to happen and wouldn’t win the war for the Axis anyway, though it might by them a stalemate until the US a-bombs came on line.

By the way, none of this should take away from your enjoyment of The Man in the High Castle. Alternate history doesn’t have to be plausible to be a good story or even to give you insight into real history.

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Dale Cozort is a novelist, editor of Point of Divergence, the alternate history APA, and a long-term Chicago area fan and writer. Check out his website, blog, Facebook and Twitter profiles.

Final Thoughts on The Man in the High Castle Season 1

Alana and I return to share our final thoughts on Amazon's The Man in the High Castle Season 1:

Sorry for not covering all the episodes as we promised, but we are going to do better for 11.22.63.

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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.

Was a "Man In The High Castle" Scenario Ever Possible?

Guest post by Dale Cozort.

Amazon's adaptation of The Man In High Castle has raised the profile of alternate history lately. Is it plausible? Is there any way the Axis Powers could have not only beaten the Allies but also invaded and subdued the United States?

Let's start out by saying that an Axis victory of any kind was unlikely. I've seen alternatives that might lead to stalemate and Axis survival due to Allied exhaustion, but I've never seen anything plausible that leads to a complete Axis victory. On the other hand, I love a challenge, so I'll explore some possible routes to an Axis victory and the kind of nightmarish Japanese/German occupation of the US depicted in the popular TV series.

Why was an Axis victory so unlikely? A lot of reasons.

Wealth/Industrial capacity. Add up the percentage of world wealth from the three major Axis powers, then compare that total to the US alone. The US started out ahead and widened its lead through the war. And that's not even taking into account Britain and the Soviet Union. [Editor's Note: See this map to get a better idea of what Dale is talking about.]

Access to natural resources. A big chunk of the motive for World War II was that the Allies controlled the bulk of the world's natural resources and the Axis powers wanted a bigger share. Of the three Axis powers, Germany managed to temporarily grab some of the Soviet Union's resources, but not the one they needed the most, which was oil. Japan grabbed a very rich natural resource area, but never had enough shipping to take advantage of it and quickly lost much of their already inadequate shipping to US subs once the US got their faulty torpedoes fixed.

Technology. In spite of the hype about Axis secret weapons, the US had a major technological lead in a lot of the war-fighting areas, especially electronics, automotive and some areas of chemistry, particularly in producing high octane fuel and mass-producing explosives. Those advantages led to extremely reliable tanks for the era, proximity fuses that made Allied anti-air much more deadly, much more accurate naval gunnery, bomb-sights and aircraft analog computers that the Axis never quite duplicated, more effective radar, television-guided attack drones and of course the Atom bomb.

The Axis powers managed to convince most of the people they conquered that their vicious or brutal former rulers were the lesser of two evils. That prevented them from effectively using the manpower and resources they conquered. Convincing Ukrainians that Stalin was the lesser evil was quite a feat, but the Germans managed it in a lot of cases, while the Japanese convinced an amazing number of Chinese factions to unite against them in the name of national survival.

Both Japan and Germany quickly got themselves into resource-devouring quagmires with no exit.

Once Germany invaded the Soviet Union, how could they avoid getting bled white, even in the most optimistic scenario? Let's say the Germans managed to grab Moscow in late summer 1941--which might or might not have been possible. Let's take it an unlikely step further and say for the sake of argument that when Moscow fell the Soviets lost control of much of their army. The mostly peasant Red Army evaporated like the Tsarist army did at the end of World War I. That's very unlikely, given the effective Soviet organs of repression and the continuing stream of German atrocities that pushed Russians together, making the war a fight for national physical survival. Let's say, however, that a Soviet army disintegration happened. Simply occupying the Soviet Union would still absorb huge amounts of manpower because it's so huge and even a Soviet Union that disintegrated would still have huge numbers of armed Russian roaming it and still have large production facilities the Germans couldn't reach.

If Stalin died and the Soviet Union collapsed, the vast expanses of Russia would undoubtedly produce warlords, some Communist and others probably anti-Communist or simply opportunists with no ideology. The Germans would have to garrison the vast area for decades and it would continue to drain their resources. And that's even given an improbably successful campaign.

What about Japan? Let's say the Japanese knocked out the Nationalists--destroyed Chiang's remaining German-trained troops and occupied the Nationalist wartime capitol. War over? Not even close. They would still have to deal with China's remaining warlords, plus the Communists, who would quickly flow in to fill the vacuum. After the many atrocities of the Japanese occupation, the Chinese would have continued to fight and continued to tie down Japanese troops.

Axis leadership. The Japanese purged almost all of their most rational leaders during the 1930s, resulting in leaders who seemed to almost always take the most destructive of two possible courses. Their action often were aimed more at rivals within the Japanese military than at foreign enemies.

Hitler started out as an evil leader with reprehensible goals but he was initially good at understanding the reality he was trying to subvert. He lost his grip on as German victories multiplied and especially when facing defeat, while kicking out technocrats and promoting fanatics around him. Mussolini was simply a very bad military leader, consolidating more power than he could possibly use, draining the already weak Italian military by never sticking to one objective long enough to attain it and not understanding the limitations of Italian logistics and equipment. All three leaderships were extremely vulnerable to victory disease, where early German and Japanese victories seemed to confirm Axis propaganda about the weakness of the democracies and led all three Axis countries into trying far more than their militaries were capable of. In spite of their much-hyped "efficiency", the Axis powers used their limited resources poorly.

Finally, a complete Axis victory, invading and conquering the United States, would have meant ferrying and supplying armies across the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. Neither Japan nor especially Germany had any realistic possibility of bringing a large army across the ocean and supplying it. Japan held naval superiority in the Pacific from Pearl Harbor to the Battle of Midway, but didn't have enough cargo vessels to supply a ground invasion of Hawaii, much less invading the mainland US. Not only that, but their warships didn't have the range to escort an invasion fleet or do battle with the US fleet off the US west coast. They were only able to attack at Pearl Harbor by using desperate measures to extend their aircraft carriers' ranges--stacking oil in drums on the decks and carrying it in the bilge, then using essentially every oil tanker the Japanese had available to refuel along the way.

The Japanese deliberately built a short-range navy, because they planned to force the US fleet to fight its way across the Pacific against strings of Japanese-held island chains, then defeat the weakened US ships in a decisive battle near the Philippines. If the decisive battle was to be fought near Japan, Japanese ships could use the tonnage the US used for fuel for armor and firepower.

German U-boats could challenge the British and US, but that could at best only deny the Allies use of the Atlantic. Invading the US would have meant controlling the Atlantic not just denying it to the Allies. The Axis never came close to challenging the British and US fleets in that way and wouldn't have had enough cargo ships to invade anyway.

Wow! That's a formidable list of reasons why an invasion of the US couldn't happen. Do I really want to even bother trying to figure out how it might be possible? Is there any way an Axis we would recognize as such could invade the US, or is this one of those alternate history nightmares that couldn't really happen? We'll look deeper in the next few weeks.

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Dale Cozort is a novelist, editor of Point of Divergence, the alternate history APA, and a long-term Chicago area fan and writer. Check out his website, blog, Facebook and Twitter profiles.

TV Review: The Man in the High Castle S1:E4: Revelations

Alana and I are back to talk about The Man in the High Castle Episode 4: Revelations. Watch as some of my worst fears are confirmed.

In case you missed our earlier reviews, here is the list so far:

• Episode 1: The New World
• Episode 2: Sunrise
• Episode 3: The Illustrated Woman

Stay tuned for another review...next year! Enjoy the last Monday of 2015 everyone.

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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.

Top 5 Posts from November 2015

I am thankful for November 2015 being the third best month in terms of page views in The Update's short history. Here are the top 5 articles that helped make it happen:

1) Is the Alternate History Community Over-Centralized? by Matt Mitrovich.

2) Map Monday: Twenty-Eight Equally Sized European Union Member States by Alasdair Gunn by Matt Mitrovich.

3) Why Are World War II Alternate Histories So Popular? by Matt Mitrovich.

4) Map Monday: A Russian In the Pacific by Lynn Davis by Matt Mitrovich.

5) Weekly Update #213: The Man in the High Castle Ad Campaign Backfires by Matt Mitrovich.

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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.

TV Review: The Man in the High Castle S1:E3: The Illustrated Woman

Alana and I return to share our thoughts on Episode 3 of Amazon's The Man in the High Castle: "The Illustrated Woman. Check it below:

In case you missed our earlier reviews, here is the list so far:

• Episode 1: "The New World"
• Episode 2: "Sunrise"

Stay tuned for another review later this week. Hopefully we can get these all filmed and uploaded before I take my usual holiday break.

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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.

Weekly Update #213: The Man in the High Castle Ad Campaign Backfires

Editor's Note

It can be cool when a celebrity responds to something you said on Twitter. I had that experience last week when actress and writer Mara Wilson liked my tweet. Granted I was responding to one of her tweets where she was asking for more info on alternate history (naturally), but she could have just ignored it and I'm glad she took the moment to say thanks. Hopefully she likes some of the works on there and a new fan will be born.

Don't forget guys to click through our Amazon banner on this Cyber Monday. Amazon will slice a little bit off the top from your purchase and give it to us to help support our mission of bringing high quality alternate history news and commentary to you, without any additional cost to yourself. Its a cheap and easy way to help an alternate historian out.

And now the news...

Amazon's The Man in the High Castle Ad Campaign Backfires

I am sure some of you are getting sick of me talking about Amazon's The Man in the High Castle constantly, but I just can't help myself. Everyone is talking about it! No other work of alternate history has gotten this much press and whether you either love it or hate it, you can't deny it hasn't made some kind of impact on popular culture.

Of course not all of that impact has been positive. Last week, Amazon made waves when they plastered an entire New York City subway car with flags and images from The Man in the High Castle. People were understandably shocked when they saw this and eventually Amazon took down the offending advertisements. Now the response I received on social media was generally negative reactions to Amazon's ad campaign, although there were a few people who didn't find the images necessarily offensive. On a personal level, I side with those who thought Amazon went too far, but perhaps not for the same reasons.

For one thing, there is a bit of false advertisement involved with the subway car ad. The only flag we have seen of the American Reich so far on the show is the classic American flag, except with a white swastika in place of the stars. On the subway car, they replaced that with an eagle clutching an Iron Cross. That, in my opinion, is proof that someone at Amazon thought it would be pushing it to include swastikas in their advertisement, but why they thought this would still be acceptable is a little bizarre.

I'm not going to lie, however, because the imagery does excite the alternate historian within in me. It is so rare to walk out into the real world and see something that could easily exist in an alternate timeline. Nevertheless, I do admit that not everyone can look at those ads and feel the same reaction that I did. Perhaps Paul Levinson put it best that when it comes to the other advertisements for The Man in the High Castle, whether they be billboards or pop-up ads, you can easily look away from them. A subway car full of Axis imagery, especially in the middle of rush hour, may be harder to avoid.

Thus we run into a common issue with free speech: everyone has a right to say what they want, but that doesn't mean everyone else is required to listen to it. As an alternate history blogger, I am not well placed to discuss this topic in more details, so instead I will end by saying that at the very least I am happy that people are thinking more and more about alternate history and how it can impact society as a whole.

If you want more interesting commentary on The Man in the High Castle, I recommend you check out counterfactual historian Gavriel D. Rosenfeld's fact check of the show's alternate history on Thrillist, this article from The Atlantic about why "Edelweiss" is a strangely appropriate opening theme and Slate's comparison of the Dick's original novel to Amazon's adaptation.

Video of the Week: The Man in the High Castle S1:E2 "Sunrise" Review

Thought I was done talking about The Man in the High Castle? No, you foolish fool! I still need to share my and Alana's review of Episode 2 "Sunrise":

Yeah I know I am cheating a little by calling this the "Video of the Week", but you guys just aren't getting excited about some of the other YouTube videos I share anymore. Just in case you haven't watched our review for Episode 1, go check it out here. It just surpassed 500 views. Thanks everybody!

I really am having fun doing these video reviews and may do some solo reviews in the future for other works.

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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.

Weekly Update #212! The Man in the High Castle premier and Australi.

Editor's Note

With the holiday season approaching, I know a lot of people are already buying gifts for friends and loved ones. If you haven't yet or are still shopping, remember to click through our banner to the right if you are buying through Amazon. For every purchase you make, Amazon gives us a small referral bonus and this requires no extra cost on your part. This is a quick and easy way to help support your favorite alternate history blog, so remember to visit us first before you do your online shopping.

And now the news...

The Man in the High Castle is here!

Well all ten episodes of Amazon's The Man in the High Castle are out and if you are interested in following my video review series on each episode, you can watch the first episode below:

Now on the off chance you want someone else's opinion on the show besides yours truly, you could always read one of the few negative reviews I came upon over at Inverse. Of course, if you already like the show and just want to learn more about, you can go here to find out how difficult it was to get The Man in the High Castle to the small screen in the first place or learn from Alexa Davos (who plays Juliana in the show) why you may end up sympathizing with Nazis after watching High Castle.

I would say that would be new, if Turtledove hadn't already done it with In the Presence of Mine Enemies. Of course, I prefer the original short story and if you can find a copy, read that version first. Anywho, I am looking forward to watching and reviewing the remaining episodes with my special guest host so stay tuned for more video reviews from me.

What is Australi by Timothy Wood and Thomas Wanke?

A new graphic novel caught my eye last week. It is called Australi and it was conceived by filmmakers Timothy Wood and Thomas Wanke. Here is the description of Australi from their successful Kickstarter page:

We follow the story of Maloo, a young Aboriginal boy searching for his people and a place to call home.

Set twenty years after the European, Chinese and Middle Eastern empires first set foot on Australi's shores, Maloo must navigate a new world, full of unique and dangerous trials. 

Maloo unwillingly becomes the hope of his people when an old prophecy is handed down. Now with not only the British empire after him, but also pirates, poachers and mercenaries, Maloo must find his inner spirit to fulfil the heavy burden placed upon him. 

As the land becomes scarred by foreign war machines and the great animal spirits are captured as poachers prizes, Australi grows sick and its magical beauty fades. Ancient magic brews on all sides of the battle, with one boy and his odd band of destined heroes all that's left to save it.

A fantasy Australia divided by European and Asian empires? Sounds fun and if you would like to learn more, you can read this interview with Tim Wood over at The Mary Sue.

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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.

New Releases 11/17/15

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

Paperbacks

The Man in the High Castle by Philip K. Dick

It's America in 1962. Slavery is legal once again. The few Jews who still survive hide under assumed names. In San Francisco, the I Ching is as common as the Yellow Pages. All because some twenty years earlier the United States lost a war—and is now occupied by Nazi Germany and Japan.

This harrowing, Hugo Award–winning novel is the work that established Philip K. Dick as an innovator in science fiction while breaking the barrier between science fiction and the serious novel of ideas. In it Dick offers a haunting vision of history as a nightmare from which it may just be possible to wake.

The Order of the Forge by Victor Gischler

Before he fathered a nation, young George Washington forged his legend in blood! Imbued with the mystical powers of America's original inhabitants, George--along with his friends Ben Franklin and Paul Revere--must stop an evil governor who wishes to rule an empire!

War of the Worlds: The Anglo-Martian War of 1895 by Mike Brunton

On one terrible night in August 1895, the world changed for ever. Southern England became the landing site of a group of mysterious grey cylinders that came hurtling down from the stars. Nobody could have guessed that these strange objects would herald the most desperate and important conflict in the history of mankind. The war pitted man against machines from space and no quarter was asked for or given on either side. The outcome would be decided by the smallest of things...

This is the essential guide to the Anglo-Martian conflict of 1895, offering unique comparison of the two belligerents, English and alien. It looks at the forces available to each and evaluates their respective tactics and strategies. Finally, it tells the full story of those fateful fifteen days, punctuated by the best and worst possible human experiences. It is a story of hope and despair, courage and terror, victory and defeat.

E-Books

Char by Dale Cozort

It was a routine murder investigation, except that the main suspect was a cave woman from an alternate reality.

Char of the Real People is the ultimate smart outsider, trying to figure out modern society while running from a relentless county sheriff's murder investigation. How much can a cave woman understand about us by the sheer power of her mind? How long can she escape the law enforcement net closing around her?

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.

Weekly Update #211! The Man in the High Castle and Surrounded by Enemies

Editor's Note

I will be going through a minor medical procedure today so that's the reason you are seeing this Weekly Update posted a little earlier than usual. Don't worry, its nothing serious, but I couldn't guarantee I would be around to promote this on social media like I usually do. Hopefully everything goes well so I can get back to the alternate history. I have two new videos for the channel, plus an upcoming series of videos that I am going to talk about more below.

And now the news...

Amazon's The Man in the High Castle Premiers This Friday

Well we finally made it guys. Amazon will be premiering the ten episodes of its adaptation of The Man in the High Castle this Friday. If you follow me on Facebook or Twitter, you have probably seen me talk a lot about this show (by the way, you're welcome Amazon for all the free publicity) and I'm going to talk more about it in the weeks to come.

I am going to be releasing vlogs for every episode on my YouTube channel where I and a special guest will discuss what we liked and didn't like about each episode. I'm not sure what the schedule is going to be for these reviews. It may be weekly, daily or just whenever we can find the time to film them. Nevertheless, I am really looking forward to it, especially after watching Dominic Patten's review of the entire series on Deadline where he recommended the show as an excellent adaptation of Philip K. Dick's original work.

Be excited guys. I really hope I am not jinxing myself, but I think we are finally going to see a quality work of alternate history from Hollywood. In the meantime, if you want more High Castle content, check out this list from FanSided of the 20 things you need to know about the series.

Video of the Week: Talking with Surrounded by Enemies Author Bryce Zabel

This week's featured video is Cody Franklin's interview of Bryce Zabel, author of Surrounded by Enemies, on the Alternate History Hub:

Its something different from Cody and hopefully we will see more videos like this in the future. You guys can also check out my interview with Bryce from last year here.

Honorable mention this week goes out to Brooke Johnson reading an excerpt from her book, The Brass Giant.

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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.

Weekly Update #208! The Counterfactual Zeitgeist, Silver on the Road and The Book That Started It All for Turtledove.

Editor's Note

I have been writing less than I should lately. To be frank its hard to keep this blog going sometimes. Its not laziness exactly, more like lack of motivation. I find myself interested in other projects, like my YouTube channel or my own ficition. I always thought there may be a time when I leave the blog for good and with the 5 year anniversary coming up, that may be a good time to call it quits and move on to something else. I don't want to do that, but I also feel that if I am not enjoying what I am writing then what is the point of forcing myself to do it?

I don't know. There could numerous other reasons why I don't have the energy to blog and maybe I will return to my full schedule in the near future. We shall see. Anywho, this Weekly Update is catching us up with the events of the last two weeks so there is a lot more alternate history goodness to devour. Enjoy!

And now the news...

Headline: Is Alternate History Going Mainstream or Is It Just the Uniforms?

Since I have started this blog I have read, commented on and written numerous articles myself about whether alternate history will ever go mainstream. This article in The Independent written by author David Barnett (Gideon Smith) is no exception, although he does approach it in a more skeptical fashion than most.

David points to the upcoming television series based on The Man in the High Castle from Amazon and SS-GB which will premiere on BBC as evidence of alternate history's prominence in the mainstream. The Man in the High Caslte has certainly been getting a lot of attention lately, especially with the new trailer releases and the promotional campaign Amazon has been doing with the cast and producers. With two major TV shows forthcoming and others hinted at by other networks, it does feel that alternate/counterfactual history has entered the "zeitgeist".

David, however, is quick to advise restraint. He quoted Kim Newman (Anno Dracula) who argues most alternate histories will remain a hard sell to the TV watching audience, thus the genre will remain a niche market for the foreseeable future (which means my sitcom about a gay couple from New England in Russian America will not be getting a producer anytime soon). David also quoted famed counterfactual history critic Richard Evans (Altered Pasts) who said that while alternate histories can be entertaining, their educational value is minimal. Barnett, however, also argued that another reason why we shouldn't get excited about the popularity of alternate history because the attention toward the aforementioned shows may have more to do with the Nazi aesthetic that many audiences take a macabre interest in. If that's true, plots that do not diverge during WWII may have little chance of being seen on major networks.

In general I agree with David's comments, but that doesn't mean I don't have some optimism. Dismissing alternate history television as a niche market is a little short-sighted since almost everything today is a niche market. Shows are getting renewed with numbers that would have gotten themselves cancelled decades ago. Its easier (relatively speaking) to find work as a writer then it has been in the past and there are a variety of mediums for a show to reach an audience (network television, cable, streaming, YouTube, etc.). While our favorite genre may never get out of its niche, there is nothing stopping said niche growing a few more sizes.

Book of the Week: Silver on the Road by Laura Anne Gilman

The book that got a lot of attention from you guys over the last two weeks was Silver on the Road by Laura Anne Gilma, who I believe was SM Stirling's former editor. Here is the description of her book from Amazon:

A heroic fantasy by an award-winning author about a young woman who is trained in the art of the sinister hand of magic, but at what price?

Isobel, upon her sixteenth birthday, makes the choice to work for the devil in his territory west of the Mississippi. But this is not the devil you know. This is a being who deals fairly with immense—but not unlimited—power, who offers opportunities to people who want to make a deal, and they always get what they deserve. But his land is a wild west that needs a human touch, and that’s where Izzy comes in. Inadvertently trained by him to see the clues in and manipulations of human desire, Izzy is raised to be his left hand and travel circuit through the territory. As we all know, where there is magic there is chaos…and death.

Paul Weimer of SF Signal gave this book 4 1/2 stars and said Silver on the Road has "[s]trong characterization, particularly of the main characters Isobel and Gabriel; excellent sense of place;  author’s prose hits on all cylinders; striking cover art that the book lives up to." That is a pretty good recommendation. I may have to pick up a copy when I get the chance.

Video of the Week: Harry Turtledove on the book that helped him find his writing...and his wife!

Video of the week goes out the master himself: Harry Turtledove. Lets learn about the book that started it all for him (including his marriage):


For some reason Blogger wouldn't let me add the video in the usual way, but at least you got to see it. Lucky for you, I can also present you with my recent video:

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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.

Weekly Update #201! New Zealand's Flag, Doctor Q, The Man in the High Castle and More

Editor's Note

Happy Monday everyone. I am not sure how your weekend went, but mine involved watching the map I covered for the last Map Monday go viral for all the wrong reasons. People were sharing it across the Internet as a map of North America before European colonization and using it to criticize the American educational system. I completely agree with them that the way America teaches history is sorely lacking because none of these do-gooders realized they were sharing a map of a North America that was never colonized by Europeans. In factthe number of people who posted this map on their pages who should have known better is astounding as well. This incident shows us how much of an uphill battle it is to promote alternate history to the masses.

I want to give a big thank you to Sean Sherman for becoming my first patron! If you guys haven't already, go check out his personal website and his alternate history blog, Other Times. He hasn't posted there in a while, but a lot of good scenarios can still be found there. Remember, you can also support my alternate history projects by either becoming one of patrons on Patreon or purchasing books from Amazon by clicking on the banner to the right.

And now the news...

Headline: New Zealand Needs a New Flag

Changing the flags for countries is a popular pastime among alternate historians, but what happens when a nation wishes to change their flag in this timeline? Well in the case of New Zealand they are looking for a new flag that will distance themselves from their colonial past, while better differentiating themselves from Australia (the only major difference now between the two flags is the color of the stars).

What you see above are the finalists, although they weren't the only designs submitted to the campaign to change the flag. Which of the flags above do you think is the best fit for New Zealand? Let us know in the comments above.

Alternate Historian(s) of the Week: Enrique Velazquez (aka DJ Doctor Q)

The alternate historian of the week honor goes out to Enrique Velazquez, also know as DJ Doctor Q and Dr. Quincy Erasmus Quartermain. For those who don't know. he is the director of the Dragon Con Alternate History Track and he has been working hard to prepare for the convention next month. Just look at this lineup of guests. You can learn more about the track at the interview Doctor Q gave the Steampunk Chronicle and his guest spot on the Dragon Con Media Relations Podcast. Also you can check out the interview I did with him in 2012.

Honorable mention this week goes to author John Barnes for his critical essay on alternate history.

TV Show of the Week: Amazon's The Man in the High Castle

I have mixed feelings about this honor, because there really is only one alternate history show currently on the air. Still there was a lot of news regarding Amazon's adaptation of The Man in the High Castle last week so I really had to talk about it.

The big news is that they cast Brennan Brown as Robert Childan. According to the Wikipedia article on the book, Childan owns American Artistic Handcrafts, an Americana antiques business that sells authentic and counterfeit items, mostly to the Japanese occupiers. Childan has adopted the manners, cadences of speech in English, aesthetics, and ways of thinking of the Japanese occupiers, but still admires the Nazis. Despite his deference to the Japanese, he is privately contemptuous of them, retaining his pre-war racist beliefs that non-whites are inferior to whites (despite the fact that he lives in the Japanese occupied West Coast). I'm curious to see how close the character in the adaptation will resemble the character from the book.

If you want more info on the The Man in the High Castle television series, check out Den of Geek's interview with executive producers Frank Spotnitz, Isa Dick-Hackett, and David W. Zucker; and read my review of the pilot on Amazing Stories.

Video of the Week: What if the Crusades Never Happened? by Alternate History Hub

The Crusades are an intriguing time period of European history. This was perhaps the first instance of European imperialism and although the Crusaders were eventually driven from the Holy Land, it left Europe with a taste for the outside world that would come to shape all of history thereafter.

But what if the Crusades never happened? Cody Franklin of the Alternate History Hub answered that question in one of his recent videos:

I find his idea of a more violent and yet more tolerant Europe to be quite original and I also enjoyed the artwork he included in this video as well. More importantly, I am glad to see that we are getting more videos from the Hub when months before we could go weeks before seeing one.

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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.