Weekly Update #150

Editor's Note

So if everything goes well, The Update should surpass 400,000 page views this week. I will do my usual State of Blog post so we can all see how far The Update has grown. To help spur us on to this milestone I got a slate of new posts planned I think you will enjoy.

In other news I plan to record the first episode of Voices from Alternia this coming Saturday. If everything goes well we should have the show published early July.

And now the news...

Successio Launched!

Friend of The Update Alison Morton celebrated the release of her new novel Successio, the third book in her Roma Nova trilogy, last week. You can check out the description and book trailer on last week's New Releases.

Well Alison has of course been busy promoting Successio all over the place. She was in London for the launch day and has been guest posting at other author's sites including David Ebsworth and Joanne Philips. Tomorrow she will be at Tunbridge Wells Library in Kent if you are in the area and want to meet the author. Alison has even promised to send a guest post my way so expect an article from her in the near future.

If you want to read Successio before purchasing it, you can check out three excerpts on her blog (I, II and III). And thanks to whoever bought the entire trilogy by clicking through our Amazon banner!

Gaie Sebold steampunk sequel commissioned by Solaris

It has been announced that Jonathan Oliver, commissioning editor of Solaris Books, has commissioned Sparrow Falling, a sequel to steampunk novel Shanghai Sparrow by Gaie Sebold. The novel will be delivered in December 2014, for a summer 2015 publication. The agent was John Jarrold, and the deal was for UK/US rights.

Here is the description of Sparrow Falling from the press release:

Between the activities of her school for young ladies and her connections with the Folk, Eveline Duchen is somewhat busy. She finds herself between a rock and a hard place when she is recognised as being a wanted felon and her friend Lin is put into peril by the leader of the Chinese Folk, the Dragon. She must use her native cunning and ingenuity as never before to find a way out…

If you have read Shanghai Sparrow, why not send us your review for a chance to be published on The Update?

Video Gallery

We start this weeks Video Gallery with literary smack down between Edgar Allen Poe and Stephen King:

And we end it with a lesson in why time travel in films is rarely scientific:

Links to the Multiverse

Books

11 Totally Bizarre Takes On The Western Genre by John Joseph Adams at Huff Post.
Collaborating with Terry Pratchett by Stephen Baxter.
Cover & Synopsis: FOR A FEW SOULS MORE by Guy Adams (PLUS: HEAVEN’S GATE TRILOGY Cover Gallery!) at SF Signal.
Craig Cormick on “Creating an Alternate History World” at Bibliotropic.
Review: TRUTH AND FEAR by Peter Higgins at SF Signal.

Comics

REVIEW: Albert Einstein: Time Mason #1″Brain Game” at Geek Syndicate.
Sherwood, TX – Robin Hood Meets Texas Biker Gangs! at Geek Syndicate.

Counterfactual and Traditional History (Plus News)

Classic Anti-Fascist Photomontages from the 1930s and 40s by Vincze Miklós at io9.
Counterfactually Assessing the Impact of Primo Levi’s Death on his Writing by Gavriel D. Rosenfeld at The Counterfactual History Review.
No, TARP Didn’t Prevent a Second Depression by Stephen Moore at The Daily Signal.
What If we Reinstated the Draft? by David Fazekas at Yahoo.
What might have been: If Eisenhower had failed at D-Day by Mike Sarzo at All Voices.

Films and Television

10 Reasons You Need To Be Watching Penny Dreadful by Genevieve Valentine at io9.
Christopher L. Bennett Guest Post–”The Problem with Sherlock in a Post-Elementary World” at Locus.
It Happened Here or Why Alternate History Can Be Terrifying by R. Graeme Cameron at Amazing Stories.
Watch: Da Vinci's Demons' Tom Riley talks finale, series three and Peter Capaldi's twelfth Doctor by Kathryn Williams at Wales Online.

Interviews

Ian Rankin at My Bookish Ways.

Short Fiction

Apex Magazine Currently Closed to Submissions by Lesley Conner at Apex.
Harry Turtledove’s Tor.com Original Among 2014 Sidewise Nominees at Tor.
Interest gauge: anthology of Mormon alternate history by William Morris at A Motley Vision.
New "Beast of the Bosporus" Cover by Matthew Quinn at The World According to Quinn.
Review: Tales of the Venia Woods by Robert Silverberg at Pointless Philosophical Asides.
Table of Contents: TIME TRAVEL: RECENT TRIPS Edited by Paula Guran at SF Signal.
The U.S. Government Inflicted Horrible Atrocities On Cthulhu's Followers by Charlie Jane Anders at io9.

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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.