New Releases 7/1/14

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Hardcovers

A1 Presents: The Weirding Willows Vol.1 by Dave Elliott and Barnaby Bagenda

After years of studying under scientists like Charles Darwin and reading the essays of Doctor Victor Frankenstein, Doctor Philippe Moreau moved to the country to continue his experiments in artificially advancing evolution.

His wife left him, and took with her their daughter, Alice.
All her life, all Alice has known the Weir across from the Wild Woods.

Aged 9, Alice wandered into the Wild Woods and made her first startling discovery. A portal to another world. A world called Wonderland.

Now aged 18, Alice has found three more portals in the Woods, with rumors amongst the intelligent animals that inhabit the Weir of many more.

Along with a team comprised of Badger, Mole, Ratty, Toad, Frankenstein's Monster, Mowgli, Benjamin Bunny, Peter Rabbit and the White Rabbit, Alice now guards these gateways from those who would exploit them - or those who would invade our world through them!

All Those Vanished Engines by Paul Park

In All Those Vanished Engines, Paul Park returns to science fiction after a decade spent on the impressive four-volume A Princess of Roumania fantasy, with an extraordinary, intense, compressed SF novel in three parts, each set in its own alternate-history universe. The sections are all rooted in Virginia and the Battle of the Crater, and are also grounded in the real history of the Park family, from differing points of view. They are all gorgeously imaginative and carefully constructed, and reverberate richly with one another.

The first section is set in the aftermath of the Civil War, in a world in which the Queen of the North has negotiated a two-nation settlement. The second, taking place in northwestern Massachusetts, investigates a secret project during World War II, in a time somewhat like the present. The third is set in the near-future United States, with aliens from history.

The cumulative effect is awesome. There hasn’t been a three part novel this ambitious in science fiction since Gene Wolfe’s classic The Fifth Head of Cerberus.

William Shakespeare's The Jedi Doth Return by Ian Doescher

Hot on the heels of the New York Times best seller William Shakespeare’s Star Wars comes the next two installments of the original trilogy: William Shakespeare’s The Empire Striketh Back and William Shakespeare’s The Jed Doth Return. Return to the star-crossed galaxy far, far away as the brooding young hero, a power-mad emperor, and their jesting droids match wits, struggle for power, and soliloquize in elegant and impeccable iambic pentameter. Illustrated with beautiful black-and-white Elizabethan-style artwork, these two plays offer essential reading for all ages. Something Wookiee this way comes!

Paperbacks

Before Watchmen: Ozymandias/Crimson Corsair by Len Wein, Jae Lee and John Higgins

A New York Times Best Seller!

Discover what happened before WATCHMEN. The team of legendary writer Len Wein and acclaimed artist Jae Lee--in his first DC Comics' work in nearly a decade--delve into the mind of the smartest man in the world: Ozymandias. How does one go from the son of immigrant parents to becoming the world's smartest man? Adrian Veidt begins his journey, both spiritual and physical, that will one day make him one of the most pivotal players in the world-changing events of WATCHMEN.

Collects BEFORE WATCHMEN: OZYMANDIAS #1-6, "Curse of the Crimson Corsair."

Gilded Lily by Delphine Dryden

HIDDEN IDENTITIES, SCANDALOUS SECRETS…
DEADLY ATTRACTION.

Frederique Murcheson’s introduction into society hasn’t gone smoothly—some would even call it a disaster. Only Freddie considers her debut a success. Her scheme to become a makesmith has gone off flawlessly. The only thing that could upset her plans now would be if someone discovered that brilliant tinker Fred Merchant is, in fact, a lady in disguise.

Wooing a spoiled heiress is not exactly Barnabas Smith-Grenville’s idea of high espionage. However, considering his brother disappeared on the job, supposedly into the most iniquitous of opium dens, he cannot expect much better. At least the assignment will afford him time to search for his brother, whom he suspects is in spy-related trouble rather than a drug-addled haze.

But when Freddie proves to be both irresistible and the key to the answers he seeks, Barnabas finds himself not only entwined in a scandalous mystery involving lethal submersibles and deranged dirigibles, but also in a dangerous game of the heart…

The War of the Grail by Geoffrey Wilson

The third volume in this enthralling alternative-history series takes the English rebels led by Jack Casey to a head-on clash with the occupying Indian forces who have conquered Britain in the 1860s

In Land of Hope and Glory Geoffrey Wilson imagined a world in which an Indian empire rules Europe through the power of magic. Here, Jack Casey—an old soldier who never meant to be a hero—became England's only hope. Now it is 1856, King John is dead, and the war that Jack has dreaded since the start of the English rebellion has finally begun. Regiments of Rajthanan troops are massing to the south of free Shropshire while to the north, refugees bring stories of attacks by the devil himself. Both friends and enemies fear that unless Jack can find the elusive Holy Grail, there is no hope. A strange set of maps that Jack discovered in Scotland could hold the key to England's freedom. Kanvar, the rebels' enigmatic Sikh ally, believes the charts will unlock the secrets of the Rajthanans' magic and perhaps guide Jack to the Grail itself. But can Jack harness the power of the Grail before the conqueror's overwhelming forces destroy the dream of a free England forever?

E-books

"The Color of Paradox" by A.M. Dellamonica

"The Color of Paradox", by A.M. Dellamonica, is a science fiction story about one of a series of time travelers sent back to the past in order to buy more time for the human race, which in the future is on the verge of extinction.

The Gutbucket Quest by Piers Anthony and Ron Leming

Slim’s a Texas bluesman of a certain age, down on his luck and just about broke—but hey, that’s what the blues are all about. He loves his music: “Not the popular blues, homogenized, synthesized, and zombilized; but the real down-home gut-bucket blues.” Then one day the music loves him back. In a single hot burst of lightning that comes straight up out of the ground, Slim finds himself in Tejas. It’s a little bit magic and a whole lot different, but the blues are the same.

And the blues—manifest here in the form of a maple-necked, pearl-gray Fender Stratocaster with blue-chrome pickups, aka the Gutbucket—need him and need him bad. The Strat’s fallen into the hands of T-Bone Pickens and his Vipers, who want to suck up all its power and turn it to evil. Slim’s off and running on the Gutbucket Quest, with the help of his new mentor, rhythm guitarist Progress T. Hornsby, and a purely unstoppable blues singer named Nadine.

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.

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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.

Review: The War of the Grail by Geoffrey Wilson

This is the conclusion to Geoffrey Wilson's alternate English history that began with Land of Hope and Glory and The Place of Dead Kings. For those who don't know, the Land of Hope and Glory series is an alternate history (with some fantasy and steampunk elements...probably should just call it gunpowder fantasy) series where the European empires never developed.

Instead, Europe was conquered early on by the Moors who converted most of the continent to Islam except for the British isles (and maybe Eastern Europe, but that is left ambiguous). They are eventually replaced by an Indian empire known as Rajthana, one of many such nations from the sub-continent that compete for influence over the world. England fell to Rajthana, but the English didn't take to colonialism well (who knew?) and rebelled during the events of Land of Hope and Glory. The rebellion is not going well and by The War of the Grail, the English rebels are getting desperate.

Okay, enough with the backstory. Our hero, Jack Casey, has returned from Scotland no closer to finding the Holy Grail, the one weapon that saved the English twice in the past. The English's Sikh ally, Kanvar (whose people appear to play the Russian role in this universe's Great Game), believe that certain maps Jack brought back with him from Scotland may hold the final clue. They need to hurry though, because the Rajthanans have made their final move to crush the last pocket of English resistance. Meanwhile, a monster is terrorizing the countryside and may have a part to play in the battle to come.

I found The War of the Grail to be a satisfying conclusion to the series (although Wilson has hinted this may not be the last book set in this universe). It was darker in tone than its immediate sequel and had more in common with its progenitor, Land of Hope and Glory, a book I thoroughly enjoyed. Wilson didn't skimp on the horrors of war and, because this was the third book in the trilogy, there was a mass grave of minor characters.

Readers who like pure alternate history, without magic or steampunk, probably won't enjoy The War of the Grail. Those who just want a good story, however, should definitely pick it up...although you probably want to check out the previous books just so you know what is going on. I look forward to future books set in this universe, hopefully set somewhere a little more exotic, maybe even this timeline's India.

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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.

Preview: The War of the Grail by Geoffrey Wilson

I have a new book to add to my to read list: The War of the Grail by Geoffrey Wilson. The third book in the Land of Hope and Glory series. Set in a world of steam and magic where Europe was conquered by the Moors and later the Indians, here is the description from Amazon:

In Land of Hope and Glory Geoffrey Wilson imagined a world in which an Indian empire rules Europe through the power of magic. In The Place of Dead Kings, Jack Casey—an old soldier who never meant to be a hero—became England's only hope. Now it is 1856, King John is dead, and the war that Jack has dreaded since the start of the English rebellion has finally begun. Regiments of Rajthanan troops are massing to the south of free Shropshire, while to the north refugees bring stories of attacks by the devil himself. Both friends and enemies fear that unless Jack can find the elusive Holy Grail, there is no hope. . . A strange set of maps that Jack discovered in Scotland could hold the key to England's freedom. Kanvar, the rebels' enigmatic Sikh ally, believes the charts will unlock the secrets of the Rajthanans' magic and perhaps guide Jack to the Grail itself. But can Jack harness the power of the Grail before the conqueror's overwhelming forces destroy the dream of a free England forever?

I have already read and reviewed the first two books in the series, Land of Hope and Glory and The Place of Dead Kings, so you can check those out. I also interviewed Geoff a while back in case you want to learn more about the author. In the meantime, stay tuned for my review.

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Matt Mitrovich is the founder and editor of Alternate History Weekly Update and a blogger on Amazing Stories. His new short story "Road Trip" can be found in Forbidden Future: A Time Travel Anthology. 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.