Best of 2013

Another year of exploring the multiverse has come to an end. Its time once again to recap what we learned this year and pick out the best alternate history of the year.

Just a reminder, there really is nothing scientific about my selections. The works we honor could have been published this year or decades ago. I only honor subjects we covered this year. Some are picked using my own subjective opinion, while others are based on the most page views received. So without further ado (I'm on a budget so I was only able to buy a little ado this year) I bring you the BEST OF 2013!

Best Book

Out of all the books we reviewed this year, I felt the best reviewed book on The Update had to be Dominion by CJ Sansom, reviewed by Alison Morton. This alternate WWII book which features a Britain that made peace with Germany in 1940, won this year's Sidewise Award and was described by Alison as being "an exciting, but moving account of people who become heroic but remain very human."

Best Anthology

We didn't review many anthologies this year, but my vote has to go to Alt Hist 5 edited by Mark Lord. Although there were a couple stories you could skip, it was still another good entry for the only alternate history periodical on the Internet. Please continue to support original alternate history by either buying a copy or sending your own submission.

Best Short Story

I was split on this decision, so the honor for this year's short story goes to "43*" by Jeff Greenfield and "Adrift on the Sea of Rains" by Ian Sales. "43*" gets a shout out for the dubious distinction of being reviewed not once, but twice, on this blog. "Adrift", meanwhile, in my humble opinion should have won the Sidewise short form award. Go check this out.

Best Comic

The honor for this distinction has to go to Before Watchmen, which was reviewed in its entirety through a series of posts by longtime contributor Sean Korsgaard. Check out Sean's introduction to his reviews and read all of his opinions on the prequel to Watchmen using this tag.

Best Film

Although it might be debatable whether this is actually alternate history, Django Unchained gets the nod for best film this year. This revenge fantasy set in the Old South caused quite a bit a controversy, but it was rather entertaining movie. I certainly recommend it.

Best Television Series

I was surprised by how much traffic this review brought in this year so I could think of nothing better than Samurai 7 to pick as the best television series. Reviewed by Sean Korsgaard, who called it the "best anime I've ever seen" is a steampunk-retelling of Seven Samurai. So if you would like to see some steampunk not set in Victorian England, this is a good pick for you.

Best Map

Daniel Bensen submitted a lot of great maps to The Update, but his American Nation-States has to be the best:

Read the article to find out how the map was made.

Best Article

With so many alternate histories about whether the Nazis won World War II or whether the Confederacy won the American Civil War, it is refreshing to see a truly original what if like Ben Ronning's Alternate History and Superheroes. In this article Ben describes the comic industry's experimentation with counterfactuals over the years. Go and check it out now!

Best Interview

This was a difficult category to pick a winner, but if I had to pick the single most interesting person I interviewed this year it was podcaster Jordan Harbour. Host of Twilight Histories and the upcoming Battles of Rome podcast, Jordan has continued to produce great content and is a true fan of our favorite genre. More importantly, he is an interesting guy who has led a full life. Learn more by reading my interview and checking out his podcasts.

Best Contributor

This year's best contributor goes to...everyone who submitted a guest post to The Update in 2013. Yeah, maybe this is a cop out, but this year has been full of excellent guest posts. From contest entries, to author promotions and fan posts, I couldn't have provided such great contest all by myself. Thank you to everyone who submitted this year. I look forward to seeing more work from you, and hopefully new faces as well, in 2014.

Well that's it for year 2013. See you all next year when on January 6th, The Update returns to a full schedule.

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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.

Review: Alt Hist 5 edited by Mark Lord

Being a sub-genre of science fiction, you tend to see an occasional alternate history short story in a SF magazine. Still it does not happen as often as I would like. Are the editors to blame? Do they reject an inordinate amount of alternate history submissions? Or are the authors to blame? Does the lack of historical knowledge among SF writers prevent a larger short fiction library? Maybe it is the audience. They just aren't reading the stories.

That is why I like Alt Hist. It is probably the only publication out there that consistently publishes alternate history. That being said, the magazine could better be described as a publisher of alternative or weird history. Along with pure alternate history, there is steampunk, historical fantasy, time travel and even regular, old historical fiction. Still for those who like their speculative fiction having a historical flavor, you should check out Alt Hist.

The most recent issue (#5) is a solid entry with a few good stories. I didn't particularly enjoy "The Stiff Heart" by Meredith Miller, a tale of post-Civil War New England. It was an odd read that is overly poetic and can be confusing when the point of view changes to second person at one point. Another story you can pass on is "AD 1929" by Douglas W. Texter where F.T. Marinetti convinces Al Capone to go into politics. The portrayal of several historical figures and the era in general was so over the top that it entered the realm of implausibility.

Despite those goose eggs, there were still several good stories you could check out. "After Mary" by Priya Sharma was a unique tale of a Frankenstein-esque character and his "monster" with enough twists and turns that the ending is unexpected. "The Bridge" by Micah Hyatt was a neat story about the construction of a suspension bridge and its connection to a biblical horror.

Then there is "Rotten Parchment Bonds", another entry in Jonathan Doering's the Battalion 202 series that appeared in the previous issue of Alt Hist. It is another story happening in the same British town under occupation by the Germans in World War II. I can already hear the plausibility hounds barking, but it is an good story about how regular people deal with extraordinary circumstances. If you can suspend some disbelief, I think you might enjoy it. One wonders how many more entries we will see and whether Doering has plans for a full novel...

Although there are a couple of stories that can be skipped, Alt Hist 5 was still an enjoyable read. Hopefully more alternate historians will support this publication so we will not need to wait so long for the next issue.

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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.

Preview: Alt Hist Issue 5 edited by Mark Lord

In the interest of full disclosure, I have received a review copy of Alt Hist Issue 5 edited by Mark Lord and will be posting a review in the near future. Here is the description from Amazon:

Alt Hist Issue 5 features stories covering a variety of historical periods from the 1800s to post-War USA. This issue includes five new original works of fiction including stories about Al Capone and Italian Futurism, the aftermath of the American Civil War, the real Frankenstein, the Bridge that consumes the souls of men, and the latest instalment in a series of stories about a successful Nazi invasion of Britain. Alt Hist is the magazine of Historical Fiction and Alternate History, published twice a year by Alt Hist Press. Stories featured in Alt Hist Issue 5: 

Priya Sharma’s “After Mary” is set in the mid-1800s and is the story a scientist with dreams of greatness who lives alone in his country house with only his assistant, Isobel, and servant Myles. Then his friend comes to the house and leaves a copy of Frankenstein, which changes everything. 

“AD 1929” by Douglas W. Texter is a story describing a meeting of artistic guile and criminal muscle. This is a tale of what might have happened if the Italian Futurist F.T. Marinetti had come to America and gone to work for Al Capone. 

Meredith Miller is the author of “The Stiff Heart” which draws its title from a poem by Emily Dickinson. Meredith’s piece is a story about life under the surface, in New England in the 1870s where secrets and fears and desires sometimes refuse to behave properly. Not everyone joins in the self-satisfied complacency of this prosperous post-Civil War community. 

Micah Hyatt is the author of “The Bridge”. Throughout history men have risked their lives to achieve great feats of engineering: The pyramids of Giza. The Empire State building. The Panama canal. But those who build The Bridge risk their very souls. 

“Rotten Parchment Bonds”, the latest story in the Battalion 202 series by Jonathan Doering, features Harold Storey, a quiet man praying for a quiet life after the horror of the First World War trenches. But his prayers are cruelly crushed by the German Invasion of Britain in 1941. As a police officer he is forced to co-operate with Nazi officials and is thrown into moral turmoil by the accommodations that start to be made. But perhaps there is one good man amongst the enemy ranks?

Alt Hist Issue 5 currently has a 4.4 on Amazon and a 3.67 on Goodreads. Edi from Edi's Book Lighthouse reviewed the anthology saying " Mark Lord put together a well mix of stories which show the variety of alternate history. You get exactly what has been promised. It is a great opportunity to discover not so well known but promising alternate history authors." We will see if I will say the same thing...

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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.