Preview: Age of Shiva by James Lovegrove

Holy crap! I won a copy of Age of Shiva by James Lovegrove, the last book in the Pantheon series, from My Bookish Ways (who I link to often in my Weekly Update posts as they are a great source for alternate history literature). I just received my paperback copy in the mail and you guys can enjoy a review of this book. Here is the description from Amazon:

A team of godlike super-powered beings based on the ten avatars of Vishnu from Hindu mythology is assembled, but are they in fact a harbinger of apocalypse?

The latest standalone novel in the best selling Pantheon series.

Zachary Bramwell, better known as the comics artist Zak Zap, is pushing forty and wondering why his life isn’t as exciting as the lives of the superheroes he draws. Then he’s shanghaied by black-suited goons and flown to Mount Meru, a vast complex built atop an island in the Maldives. There, Zak meets a trio of billionaire businessmen who put him to work designing costumes for a team of godlike super-powered beings based on the ten avatars of Vishnu from Hindu mythology. 

The Ten Avatars battle demons and aliens and seem to be the saviours of a world teetering on collapse. But their presence is itself a harbinger of apocalypse. The Vedic “fourth age” of civilisation, Kali Yuga, is coming to an end, and Zak has a ringside seat for the final, all-out war that threatens the destruction of Earth.

Stay tuned to either The Update or Amazing Stories for my upcoming review (although I am likely to post my review The Adjacent first). Thanks again to My Bookish Ways for this wonderful opportunity.

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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.

DBWI Writing Contest Winners

So it took me a while to get to this point, but I am now ready to announce the winners of the Double-Blind What If Writing Contest! Just to remind you all, this contest had three categories: fiction, non-fiction and reviews. Sadly there were no entries in the review category, which disappoints me since I thought there was really some room for imaginative works. Nevertheless we had some great entries and its time we end the suspense and announce the winners.

First up is the fiction category. I defined fiction as two or more characters interacting with each other. The entries that came under this category are:

Chronicles of the Socialist Republic by Dimas Aditya Hanandito
Eckener Topic of Discussion at Yearly WTW Conference by Zach Anderson.
Midterm Exam, History 412: Modern North America, 1847-Present by Kyle Owenby
The President That Never Was: A DBWI Alternate History by Tyler “tbguy1992” Bugg
Travaillis Republique Democratique Never Existed by Sean Sherman.

And the winner is...Midterm Exam, History 412: Modern North America, 1847-Present by Kyle Owenby!

Finally, we get to the non-fiction category, or the essay category. While these works are fictional in the sense that they are set in the alternate history, I differentiated them from the entries above because there is no interaction between numerous characters. Instead you just have an author speaking to an imaginary audience in the form of an essay/article/etc. With that in mind, the entries in this category are:

Coronation Special: Looking back at the Anglo-Dutch Civil War by Matthew Tuck
Worlds Apart: What if Marvel Never Merged With DC? by Ben Ronning

And the winner is...Worlds Apart: What if Marvel Never Merged With DC? by Ben Ronning!

Congrats to both of our winners. I will be contacting you shortly about receiving your prize. Thank you to everyone who participated, they were all excellent submissions and I wish I could reward you all for your hard work. Meanwhile, I know there were few people who were working on submissions, but missed the deadline. If you are still looking for a place to publish your story, feel free to contact me at ahwupdate at gmail dot com.

I have some upcoming contests planned, but I want to give everyone a breather so I do not overload you guys with competition like I did earlier in the year. I do recommend, however, that cartographers out there consider what they might like to submit to The Update in the near future...

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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.

And the winners are...

The deadline has passed and now it is time to announce the two winners who will receive an e-book copy of Substitution Cipher in our first ever book giveaway contest (applause).

Before I announce the winners, I would like to thank the people who made this possible. First, thanks to Tyler Bugg. Tyler is an author and contributor to Weekly Update who was kind enough to think of me when it was time to send out review copies. Stay tuned next week when I will be publishing an interview with Tyler .

Thanks also to Kate Sullivan over at Candlemark & Gleam, who not only sent me a review copy of Substitution Cipher but also offered to provide copies to be used in this contest.

So without further ado...

The winners...

Of the Substituiton Cipher...

E-book give-away contest are...

Adrian Cook and Mark Anthony Henderson. Congratulations you two. You will be contacted by someone from Candlemark & Gleam shortly to receive your new book. Enjoy!

Win free e-book copies of Substitution Cipher!

Alternate History Weekly Update is proud to announce our very first book giveaway. The kind people at Candlemark & Gleam have made available two e-book copies of their upcoming alternate history, espionage anthology Substitution Cipher, featuring the debut short story of AHWU's own Tyler Bugg.

So how do you win? Since this is our first contest I am not going to make you jump through that many hoops. Just email me at ahwupdate at gmail dot com with the word "Contest" in the subject line. Deadline is 2 pm CST on 11/5/12. The two winners will be selected at random by me and announced on 3pm CST.

Don't forget to spread the word about this contest through Facebook, Twitter or other social media. I want to give as many people as possible the chance to win.

Good luck everybody and thank you for being our fans!

Breaking News: Banner Contest

Alternate History Weekly Update would like to announce a new contest for anyone with some graphics skill.  As the blog grows and evolves we believe it is now time that we get a new banner for the top of the page.  Right now it is just a large line of text, but we are hoping for something more artistic.

If you wish to submit a banner of your design, here are the guidelines:

• You must incorporate "Alternate History Weekly Update" into the design.  Script and look is up to you, but the name of the blog must be clearly visible.
• Colors are up to you, although I am partial to the blue and white backgrounds of the blog.
• Nothing offensive or copyrighted.
• There is no deadline.  The winner will be notified by email before the banner is posted on the blog. 

The creator of the chosen design will be announced in a special post after the banner is posted. If you have any questions or wish to submit an entry, please email me at ahwupdate@gmail.com.  Best of luck to all who are interested and I look forward to seeing your work!

Weekly Update #31

Editor's Note

We broke our monthly page view record last month.  The most page views in a single month is now at 4404.  That is the second time in the row this blog has broken the record and I assure you we are going for three in the row this month.  Got some good stuff coming to you this week in an effort to reach that goal, including a new showcase by Korsgaard.  War Blogger also might have some posts next week once he finishes writing the first chapter to the sequel of Wolf Hunt.

If you have not seen it already, take a look at the new poll in the right side column.  I am planning on putting ads up on this blog, but I wanted to get the readers' opinion on this.  So please, answer the poll and help me make an important decision about the future of this blog.

Meanwhile we got our first reader from Thailand, Saudi Arabia and Blangadesh.  Welcome!

And now the news...

What Can President Gingrich Do For Alternate History?

I and others have mentioned before that alternate history is an obscure genre.  It helps, however, when a well known mainstream author, like Stephen King, writes an alternate history novel.  The spotlight shines on everyone who works in the genre, but only for a little while.

So...what if an alternate history author becomes President of the United States of America?

For those not paying attention to the upcoming United States presidential election of 2012, one of the current front runners for the Republican nomination is former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich.  Not only is Gingrich a history professor, but he is also an author of alternate history.  He has co-authored several alternate history novels with William R. Forstchen and Albert S. Hanser, usually set in either the American Civil War and World War II.

Now that Gingrich has become the new front runner in the Republican race, the news agencies have been buzzing about his alternate history credentials.  Mark Whittington at Yahoo! Voices discussed several of Gingrich's works and said they symbolized Newt's "fascination about how history can be shaped by individual decisions by people who happen to be in the right place at the right time." William Bradley at The Huffington Post described Gingrich's alternate histories as being "filled with colorful mavericks, technophilia, loathing for bureaucratic norms, and an evident zest for conflict."  Otis L. Sanford at The Commercial Appeal, however, has a different view of Gingrich's fondness for alternate history when he quotes Andrew Ferguson by saying "a counterfactual account of history appeals especially to people who are disappointed in the real thing. Settled fact is unsatisfying; history as it occurs seems somehow a cheat...It is true that history hasn't worked the way Newt Gingrich envisioned it."

This blogger cannot help but speculate what would happen if Gingrich not only won his party's nomination, but also defeated President Obama in 2012.  What would a President Gingrich do for the genre?  Would his novels act as gateways to a larger library of fiction as people read them to see what the new President did before he was elected?  As I have stated before, Alternate History Weekly Update has a "No Cross, No Crown" policy, but such a future does not seem that bad to this blogger.

Coming Soon: Boneshaker the film

Perhaps the film industry is experiencing a love affair for alternate history films.  Just last week I learned that Hammer Films has acquired the rights to make a film based on Cherie Priest's Boneshaker.  According to Uchronia, Boneshaker is a steampunk adventure set in a world in which the American Civil War has dragged on for 20 years...and there are zombies!  While the idea of steampunk zombies hunters in a war-torn America excites me to no end, we should not get our hopes up.  Many successful novels are optioned all the time and are never made into films, it is just part of the business.  Still I congratulate Priest on her success and if Hammer films notices that there is  a strong interest in this film being made we might just see Boneshaker on the big screen.

You can learn more about this story here and here.

Baen Books Christmas Carol Contest

Baen Books is holding a contest to see who can make the best alternate history Christmas Carol.  Submissions should include at least a verse and chorus. You also have to name the OTL traditional carol on which your lyrics are based.  Alternate history author Robert Conroy and the Baen editorial staff will pick the winning submission.  Lyrics will also be published in the January newsletter. The winner will receive an advanced reading copy and hardcover of Robert Conroy’s Himmler’s War, both signed by the author.

If you plan to enter the contest, please inform Alternate History Weekly Update.

Links to the Multiverse

Articles

Alternate History: A Lesser Known Genre Of Literature Which I Love by Dan Levy at Levy News Network.

Some Thoughts on Writing Steampunk Fiction by Frank Chadwick at Space 1889 Blog.

In an alternate reality, this pyramid is the Lincoln Memorial by Cyriaque Lamar at iO9. 

When novels change history by Stuart Kelly at The Guardian.

Online Alternate History

A counterfactual history of Tim Tebow as a Jacksonville Jaguar by Jeremy Stahl at Slate.

What if ... the FIFA World Cup had been played in a different year by Adam Bate at SI.com

Books

Lois Tilton reviews Short Fiction, late November (two alternate history short stories are present in the review)

Review of 11/22/63 by Stephen King, reviewed by Ron Capshaw at Big Hollywood.

Review of The Guns of the South by Harry Turtledove, reviewed by Rosboch Book Reviews.

Review of The Iron Thorn by Caitlin Kittredge, reviewed by San Jose Public Library.

Well Lit: Alternate histories by Umapagan Ampikaipakan at New Straits Times.

Video Games

Preview: BioShock Infinite by Duncan Geere at Wired.co.uk.

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Mitro is founder, editor and contributor of Alternate History Weekly Update. When he is not busy writing about his passion for alternate history, he spends his time working as a licensed attorney in the state of Illinois and dreams of being a published author himself one day.