New Releases 7/19/16

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Hardcovers

Fallout: The Hot War by Harry Turtledove

The novels of Harry Turtledove show history balancing on single moments: One act of folly. One poor decision. One moment of rage. In this astounding new series, the unthinkable has come to pass. The Cold War turns hot—and the United States and the Soviet Union unleash their nuclear arsenals upon each other. Millions die. Millions more are displaced. Germans battle side by side with Americans, Polish freedom fighters next to Russian fascists. The genie is out of the bottle. And there’s no telling what fresh hell will come next.

At the heart of Fallout are Harry Truman and Josef Stalin. Even as Joe McCarthy rises in power, the U.S. president is focused elsewhere, planning to cut off the head of the Soviet threat by taking out Stalin. It’s a daring gambit, but the Soviets have one of their own. Meanwhile, Europe’s weak sisters, France and Italy, seem poised to choose the winning side, while China threatens to overrun Korea. With Great Britain ravaged and swaths of America in ruins, leaders are running out of options. When the United States drops another series of bombs to slow the Russian advance in Europe, Stalin strikes back—with horrifying results.

These staggering events unfold through the eyes of a sprawling cast of characters: a Holocaust survivor in a displaced persons camp in Washington; the wife of a bomber pilot and her five-year-old daughter starting a new existence; a savage Soviet fighter waging war by his own rules; a British pub owner falling in love with an American pilot. In the masterly hands of Harry Turtledove, this epic chronicle of war becomes a story of human struggle. As the armies of the world implode, the next chapter will be written by the survivors—those willing to rise up for an uncertain future.

Imprudence (The Custard Protocol) by Gail Carriger

From New York Times bestselling author Gail Carriger comes the delightful sequel to Prudence.

Rue and the crew of the Spotted Custard return from India with revelations that shake the foundations of England's scientific community. Queen Victoria is not amused, the vampires are tetchy, and something is wrong with the local werewolf pack. To top it all off, Rue's best friend Primrose keeps getting engaged to the most unacceptable military types.

Rue has family problems as well. Her vampire father is angry, her werewolf father is crazy, and her obstreperous mother is both. Worst of all, Rue's beginning to suspect what they really are... is frightened.

The Monster's Daughter by Michelle Pretorius

Somewhere on the South African veld, 1901: At the height of the Boer War, a doctor at a British concentration camp conducts a series of grim experiments on Boer prisoners. His work ends in chaos, but two children survive: a boy named Benjamin, and a girl named Tessa …

One hundred years later, a disgraced young police constable is reassigned to the sleepy South African town of Unie, where she makes a terrifying discovery: the body of a woman, burned beyond recognition.

The crime soon leads her into her country's violent past—a past that includes her father, a high-ranking police official under the apartheid regime, and the children left behind in that long ago concentration camp.

Michelle Pretorius’s epic debut weaves present and past together into a hugely suspenseful, masterfully plotted thriller that calls to mind Lauren Beukes’s The Shining Girls and Tana French’s The Secret Place. With an explosive conclusion, it marks the emergence of a thrilling new writer.

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.

* * *

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.

New Releases 11/3/15

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

Hardcovers

Made to Kill: A Novel by Adam Christopher

It was just another Tuesday morning when she walked into the office--young, as I suspected they all might be, another dark brunette with some assistance and enough eye black to match up to Cleopatra. And who am I? I'm Ray, the world's last robot, famed and feared in equal measure, which suits me just fine--after all, the last place you'd expect to find Hollywood's best hit man is in the plain light of day.

Raymond Electromatic is good at his job, as good as he ever was at being a true Private Investigator, the lone employee of the Electromatic Detective Agency--except for Ada, office gal and super-computer, the constant voice in Ray's inner ear. Ray might have taken up a new line of work, but money is money, after all, and he was programmed to make a profit. Besides, with his twenty-four-hour memory-tape limits, he sure can keep a secret.

When a familiar-looking woman arrives at the agency wanting to hire Ray to find a missing movie star, he's inclined to tell her to take a hike. But she had the cold hard cash, a demand for total anonymity, and tendency to vanish on her own.

Plunged into a glittering world of fame, fortune, and secrecy, Ray uncovers a sinister plot that goes much deeper than the silver screen--and this robot is at the wrong place, at the wrong time.

Made to Kill is the thrilling new speculative noir from novelist and comic writer Adam Christopher.

Manners & Mutiny by Gail Carriger

If one must flirt...flirt with danger.

Lessons in the art of espionage aboard Mademoiselle Geraldine's floating dirigible have become tedious without Sophronia's sweet sootie Soap nearby. She would much rather be using her skills to thwart the dastardly Picklemen, yet her concerns about their wicked intentions are ignored, and now she's not sure whom to trust. What does the brusque werewolf dewan know? On whose side is the ever-stylish vampire Lord Akeldama? Only one thing is certain: a large-scale plot is under way, and when it comes to fruition, Sophronia must be ready to save her friends, her school, and all of London from disaster--in decidedly dramatic fashion, of course.

What will become of our proper young heroine when she puts her years of training to the test? Find out in this highly anticipated and thrilling conclusion to the New York Times bestselling Finishing School series!

Tales from the Loop by Simon Stålenhag

Simon Stålenhag’s Tales from the Loop is a wildly successful crowd-funded project that takes viewers on a surprising sci-fi journey through various country and city landscapes―from small towns in Sweden and the deserts of Nevada to the bitter chill of Siberia―where children explore and engage with abandoned robots, vehicles, and machinery large and small, while dinosaurs and other creatures wander our roads and fields. Stålenhag’s paintings and stories take place in an alternate version of Sweden in the ’80s and ’90s, primarily in the countryside of Mälaröarna, a string of islands just west of Stockholm, and how this reality came about: the development of the Loop, a large particle accelerator and the side effects of the massive project. These incredibly captivating works and accompanying text capture perhaps a not-too-distant reality that is both haunting and imminent: addressing the many ways developing technology and nature can create havoc and wonder in our world―plus, its impact on the next generation. This is the English edition of the first book in Swedish that sold out in its initial printing.

E-Books

Alt Hist Issue 8: The magazine of Historical Fiction and Alternate History edited by Mark Lord

The eighth issue of the popular magazine of historical fiction and alternate history contains six great new short stories. Alt Hist Issue 8 includes new stories in the Battalion 202 series set in the aftermath of a successful German invasion of Britain, as well as tales featuring bridge burning in the American Civil War, a secret mission against the Suez Canal in the World War One, a story that speculates what if the atom bomb hadn’t been dropped on Japan, and taking us back to the Middle Ages, a story that follows the dreams and reality of a peasant girl caught up in the brutal Hundred Years War.

Stories include:

Dewey Defeats Truman by Mark Devane
A Sword by Andrew Knighton
The Retreat Proceeded Orderly, at Least by Kenan Orhan
The Fullness and the Hollowness by Jonathan Doering
Small Miracles by Jonathan Doering
His Last Day by Richard Buxton

Surrounded by Enemies: A Breakpoint Novel by Bryce Zabel

What if Kennedy survived Dallas?

President John F. Kennedy has lived through the ambush in Dealey Plaza. America holds its collective breath, seeing its president nearly executed in broad daylight. But as the country marches on, the office of the President finds itself under a much more insidious type of fire. Political scandal, an endless war, and a country coming apart at the seams take the 1960’s in a terrifying new direction, and both John and his attorney-general brother, Bobby, struggle to stay ahead of their enemies, political and otherwise, and steer America toward a greater future.

Bryce Zabel is a master of the cover-up and the conspiracy, creating the Emmy-award winning series DARK SKIES. SURROUNDED BY ENEMIES is the first novel in the new Breakpoint series—each book exploring seminal moments in popular history and taking readers on a journey into a mirror world where events are both unexpected yet startlingly believable.

This savvy, fiercely intelligent novel, perfect for readers of Harry Turtledove, brings together elements of political thriller and page-turning history, enthralling readers with a sharply written take on the America that was, and the America that could have been.

WINNER OF THE 2013 SIDEWISE AWARD FOR ALTERNATE HISTORY

The Time Travel Chronicles edited by Crystal Watanabe

Time travel. Humanity has long imagined what it would be like to be able to create a time machine, what we might see if we could travel into the future, or be transported to the distant past. And what if it were possible to travel into our own, more recent past? Would we be able to change our present, or are we prisoners of predestination? Is fate what we make of it?

In this latest title in the acclaimed 'Future Chronicles' series of speculative fiction anthologies, fourteen authors confront the question of time travel and its consequences, exploring a landscape where past, present and future all become imaginable destinations.

"The Time Travel Chronicles" features stories by science fiction grandmaster Robert J. Sawyer (Calculating God), Amazon bestselling author Rysa Walker (the Chronos series), Best American Science Fiction notable Samuel Peralta (Faith), plus eleven more of today's top authors in speculative and science fiction.

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.

* * *

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 10/6/15

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

Hardcover

Against a Brightening Sky by Jaime Lee Moyer

By 1919 the Great War has ended, peace talks are under way in Paris, and the world has been forever changed. Delia Martin, apprentice practitioner of magical arts, and her husband, Police Captain Gabriel Ryan, face the greatest challenge of their lives when fragments from the war descend on San Francisco.

As Delia prepares to meet friends at a St. Patrick's Day parade, the strange ghost of a European princess appears in her mirror. Her pleasant outing becomes a nightmare as the ghost reappears moments after a riot starts, warning her as a rooftop gunman begins shooting into the crowd. Delia rushes to get her friends to safety, and Gabe struggles to stop the killing-and to save himself.

Delia and Gabe realize all the chaos and bloodshed had one purpose-to flush Alina from hiding, a young woman with no memory of anything but her name.

As Delia works to discover how the princess ghost's secrets connect to this mysterious young woman, and Gabe tracks a ruthless killer around his city, they find all the answers hinge on two questions: Who is Alina...and why can't she remember?

Against a Brightening Sky is the thrilling conclusion to Jaime Lee Moyer's glittering historical fantasy series.

Onward, Drake! edited by Mark L Van Name

TOP AUTHORS PAY TRIBUTE TO A MASTER. David Drake has left an indelible mark on the science fiction and fantasy genres. He is considered the Grand Master of Military Science Fiction. Now, top authors in the field pay tribute to the man and his work in this all-new collection of stories and essays.

David Drake has left an indelible mark on the science fiction and fantasy genres. Now, top authors in the science fiction and fantasy field pay tribute to the man and his work in this all-new collection of stories and essays.

Best-selling author David Drake has been creating topnotch military science fiction, space opera, and fantasy novels and stories for decades. In this all-original collection that appears as Drake is a Special Guest of the 2015 World Fantasy Convention, a stellar line-up of writers pays tribute to Drake with stories as broad in range as his own fiction. Each one comes with an illuminating afterword explaining the connection of the story to Drake and his work.

In Eric Flint’s “A Flat Affect” a king is no match for a pair of storytellers

Gene Wolfe takes us to a strange and wondrous future in “Incubator”

Larry Correia examines what it’s like to face Hammer’s Slammers from “The Losing Side”

S.M. Stirling offers an insider’s view of “Working with Dave, or, Inmates in Bellevue”

Mur Lafferty shows what happens when a fairy visitor receives an unexpected welcome in “The Crate Warrior, the Doppelganger, and the Idea Woman”

The book also features two new pieces from Drake himself: “The Great Wizard, Cabbage,” a comic historical fantasy, and “Save What You Can,” the first new Hammer’s Slammers story in nearly a decade!

With more stories from editor Mark L. Van Name, Cecelia Holland, T.C. McCarthy, Barry N. Malzberg, Sarah Hoyt, Tony Daniel, John Lambshead, Hank Davis, Eric S. Brown, and Sarah Van Name, as well as appreciations from Baen Publisher Toni Weisskopf and Tor founder and Publisher Tom Doherty, Onward, Drake! is a collection that fans of Drake’s fiction—and anyone who enjoys a good story—will not want to miss!

Paperbacks

Waistcoats & Weaponry by Gail Carriger

Class is back in session....

Sophronia continues her second year at finishing school in style--with a steel-bladed fan secreted in the folds of her ball gown, of course. Such a fashionable choice of weapon comes in handy when Sophronia, her best friend Dimity, sweet sootie Soap, and the charming Lord Felix Mersey hijack a suspiciously empty train to return their chum Sidheag to her werewolf pack in Scotland. But when Sophronia discovers they are being trailed by a dirigible of Picklemen and flywaymen, she unearths a plot that threatens to throw all of London into chaos. With her friends in mortal danger, Sophronia must sacrifice what she holds most dear--her freedom.

Gather your poison, your steel-tipped quill, and the rest of your school supplies and join Mademoiselle Geraldine's proper young killing machines in the third rousing installment in the New York Times bestselling Finishing School series by steampunk author Gail Carriger.

E-Books

Blaise Maximillian: Bitter Defeat by Matthew Sylvester

For 8 long years the Great War has raged. Blaise Maximillian has been there from the start. A bright-eyed and fearful young Ensign, the realities of war change him into a hard-bitten soldier and an even harder policeman.

Detective Inspector Blaise Maximillian of the Combined Imperial Special Intelligence Bureau, now works to protect the British Empire any way he can. Nothing will stop him from carrying out his duty. Not the law, not morals, not even ethics. A flawed man, he will do anything it takes.

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.

* * *

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 3/17/15

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

Hardcovers

Clash of Eagles by Alan Smale

Perfect for fans of action-adventure and historical fiction—including novels by such authors as Bernard Cornwell, Steve Berry, Naomi Novik, and Harry Turtledove—this stunning work of alternate history imagines a world in which the Roman Empire has not fallen and the North American continent has just been discovered. In the year 1218 AD, transported by Norse longboats, a Roman legion crosses the great ocean, enters an endless wilderness, and faces a cataclysmic clash of worlds, cultures, and warriors.

Ever hungry for land and gold, the Emperor has sent Praetor Gaius Marcellinus and the 33rd Roman Legion into the newly discovered lands of North America. Marcellinus and his men expect easy victory over the native inhabitants, but on the shores of a vast river the Legion clashes with a unique civilization armed with weapons and strategies no Roman has ever imagined.

Forced to watch his vaunted force massacred by a surprisingly tenacious enemy, Marcellinus is spared by his captors and kept alive for his military knowledge. As he recovers and learns more about these proud people, he can’t help but be drawn into their society, forming an uneasy friendship with the denizens of the city-state of Cahokia. But threats—both Roman and Native—promise to assail his newfound kin, and Marcellinus will struggle to keep the peace while the rest of the continent surges toward certain conflict.

Past Futures: Science Fiction, Space Travel, and Postwar Art of the Americas by Sarah J. Montross

From the 1940s to the 1970s, visionary artists from across the Americas reimagined themes from science fiction and space travel. They mapped extraterrestrial terrain, created dystopian scenarios amid fears of nuclear annihilation, and ingeniously deployed scientific and technological subjects and motifs. This book offers a sumptuously illustrated exploration of how artists from the United States and Latin America visualized the future. Inspired variously by the "golden age" of science fiction, the Cold War, the space race, and the counterculture, these artists expressed both optimism and pessimism about humanity's prospects.

Past Futures showcases work by more than a dozen artists, including the biomorphic cosmic spaces and hybrid alien-totemic figures painted by the Chilean artist Roberto Matta (1911--2002); the utopian Hydrospatial City envisioned by Argentine Gyula Kosice (1924--); and Incidents of Mirror-Travel in the Yucatan, in which Robert Smithson (1938--1973) layered tropes of time travel atop Mayan ruins. The artists respond to science fiction in film and literature and the media coverage of the space race; link myths of Europeans' first encounters with the New World to contemporary space exploration; and project futures both idealized and dystopian.

The book, which accompanies an exhibition at the Bowdoin College Museum of Art, also includes an essay by the editor and curator mapping central themes; an exploration of how Latin American artists have depicted astronomic phenomena, utopian projects, and the modern machine; an essay on space-age art in Argentina during the 1960s; and a study of Smithson and science fiction.

Essays Sarah Montross, Rodrigo Alonso, Rory O'Dea, Miguel Ángel Fernández Delgado

Artists includeRudy Ayoroa, Luis Benedit, Marcelo Bonevardi, Enrique Careaga, Enrique Castro-Cid, Vija Celmins, Carlos Colombino, Juan Downey, Fred Eversley, Mario Gallardo, Dan Graham, Nancy Graves, Raquel Forner, Peter Hutchinson, Alejandro Jodorowsky, Gyula Kosice, Roberto Matta, Emilio Renart, Robert Smithson, Michelle Stuart, Rufino Tamayo, Horacio Zabala

Prudence by Gail Carriger 

Introducing the Custard Protocol series, in which Alexia Maccon's daughter Prudence travels to India on behalf of Queen, country...and the perfect pot of tea.

When Prudence Alessandra Maccon Akeldama ("Rue" to her friends) is bequeathed an unexpected dirigible, she does what any sensible female under similar circumstances would do -- she christens it the Spotted Custard and floats off to India.

Soon, she stumbles upon a plot involving local dissidents, a kidnapped brigadier's wife, and some awfully familiar Scottish werewolves. Faced with a dire crisis (and an embarrassing lack of bloomers), Rue must rely on her good breeding -- and her metanatural abilities -- to get to the bottom of it all...

Paperbacks

Perilous Journey of the Not-So-Innocuous Girl by Leigh Statham

Lady Marguerite lives a life most 17th century French girls can only dream of: Money, designer dresses, suitors and a secure future. Except, she suspects her heart may be falling for her best friend Claude, a common smithie in the family's steam forge. When Claude leaves for New France in search of a better life, Marguerite decides to follow him and test her suspicions of love. Only the trip proves to be more harrowing than she anticipated. Love, adventure and restitution await her, if she can survive the voyage.

E-Books

Metal Emissary by Chris Paton
Struggling to regain the Queen’s favour, the British Royal Navy despatch Lieutenant Jamie Hanover on a mission to uncover the rumour of a French secret weapon located in the mountains of Afghanistan.

As the Great Game takes shape in Central Asia, Jamie is helped by the strange mystic, Hari Singh, as he tracks a metal monster leaving a trail of destruction and chaos in its wake. The two men join forces to fulfil their respective missions. Ambushed in the mountains, they fight side by side as they travel through the infamous Khyber Pass.

Following in the destructive footsteps of the metal emissary, Jamie and Hari’s journey takes them from Peshawar to Adina Pur where the uncovering of secrets and the culmination of their mission demands a heavy price.

Metal Emissary is a Steampunk Adventure set in Central Asia in the 1850s full of weird machines, exotic characters, dust, snow and blood.

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.

* * *

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.

Weekly Update #167

Editor's Note

Even though my Halloween celebrations prevented me from posting the next Weekly Update, I have no regrets. Not only did we surpass 500,000 page views, we also broke our monthly page view record AGAIN. The new record is 24,095. Thanks again everybody.

Well enough chat. Make sure you check out the Links to the Multiverse. There are a lot of them from the past two weeks.

And now the news...

Out Now: A Man Lies Dreaming by Lavie Tidhar

Out in the UK now is a new alternate history novel by Lavie Tidhar called A Man Lies Dreaming. Here is the description from Amazon:

Deep in the heart of history's most infamous concentration camp, a man lies dreaming. His name is Shomer, and before the war he was a pulp fiction author. Now, to escape the brutal reality of life in Auschwitz, Shomer spends his nights imagining another world - a world where a disgraced former dictator now known only as Wolf ekes out a miserable existence as a low-rent PI in London's grimiest streets.

An extraordinary story of revenge and redemption, A Man Lies Dreaming is the unforgettable testament to the power of imagination.

So what do the reviewers think of this book? Adam Roberts of The Guardian called it a "twisted masterpiece". Meanwhile, Mahvesh Murad of Tor said "[t]here is eloquence and gravitas in the sparselness and brevity of noir fiction when it is good, and Tidhar’s is quite incredible." Finally David of Blue Book Balloon said it was "[b]y far and away the best book I've read this year."

Wow that is some high praise, although Americans might have to wait a while before we can get our hands on a copy.

Out Now: Waistcoats and Weaponry by Gail Carriger

For steampunk fans, Gail Carriger's Waistcoats and Weaponry is out as well. Here is the description from Amazon:

Class is back in session...

Sophronia continues her second year at finishing school in style--with a steel-bladed fan secreted in the folds of her ball gown, of course. Such a fashionable choice of weapon comes in handy when Sophronia, her best friend Dimity, sweet sootie Soap, and the charming Lord Felix Mersey stowaway on a train to return their classmate Sidheag to her werewolf pack in Scotland. No one suspected what--or who--they would find aboard that suspiciously empty train. Sophronia uncovers a plot that threatens to throw all of London into chaos and she must decide where her loyalties lie, once and for all. 

Gather your poison, steel tipped quill, and the rest of your school supplies and join Mademoiselle Geraldine's proper young killing machines in the third rousing installment in the New York Times bestselling Finishing School Series by steampunk author, Gail Carriger.

So what do the critics have to say? John DeNardo of SF Signal fame listed as one of the books you should check out in November. Karin Kross of Tor, on the other hand, said it wasn't the strongest entry in the series, but Karin did like the "depiction of friendship among a group of very different young women."

So not as great of praise as was received for Lavie's book, but fans of the series probably won't be disappointed,

Videos for Alternate Historians

Two trailers were the talk of the web over the last two weeks. First up is the new trailer for Assassin's Creed: Unity:

So it looks like we are going to see some time travel to World War II. Interesting. Next up, a new teaser trailer was released for Iron Sky: The Coming Race. Let's check it out:

It looks like they are going for the lizard people/hollow Earth conspiracy theories. Will it work? I guess we will just have to find out.

Links to the Multiverse

Books and Short Fiction

7 Reasons Why Steampunk Is Totally "Now" by Desirina Boskovich at Huffington Post.
Cover & Synopsis: CROOKED by Austin Grossman at SF Signal.
Cover Reveal: The Temporal Element II by Martin T. Ingham at Three Cents Worth.
Harry Harrison! Harry Harrison! (Excerpt) by Harry Harrison at Tor.
Hell with the Lid Off — The Perfect Setting for Steampunk by Gail Z. Martin and Larry N. Martin at Risingshadow.
Lisa Mantchev: "It Started with a Pocket Watch" at Amazon Blogs.
New Story Live and More by Lauren C. Teffeau (he has a story in The Change).
Review: The Allied Invasion of France 1942-1943 by Paul Robinson at The Wargamer.
Review: Curious Notions by Harry Turtledove at The Great Adventure.
Review: The Time Roads by Beth Bernobich at Mania.
Richard Ellis Preston, Jr. on Airship Versus Flying Kraken Battle Tactics: A Steampunk Primer (Plus: Bonus Deals and Content) at SF Signal.
"Ruins of Time" wins Chinese sci-fi award at English.news.cn.
Table of Contents: CRANKY LADIES OF HISTORY Edited by Tehani Wessely and Tansy Rayner Roberts at SF Signal.
Up Now–The Mind’s Eye by Chris Nuttall at The Chrishanger.
The Well-Mannered Woman’s Guide to Kicking Ass Whilst Wearing a Corset by Gail Z. Martin at Dwelling in Probabilities.

Comics

Comic Review & Interview: Creature Cops: Special Varmint Unit by Bob Leeper at Nerdvana.

Counterfactuals, History and News

5 Backup Plans That Would Have Changed Modern History by Evan V. Symon at Cracked.
11 Intriguing Ways World War I Could Have Turned Out Differently by George Dvorsky at io9.
Alternate History: What If Catherine of Aragon Agreed to the Divorce With Henry VIII? by Alexandria Ingham at Wizzley.
Bob Dylan Wanted to Make an Album With the Beatles and Rolling Stones by Andy Greene at Rolling Stones.
Did A Pope And An Emperor Team Up To Erase 300 Years Of History? by Esther Inglis-Arkell at io9.
Friedman's Counterfactual Comparison of ISIS and Vietnam by Gavriel D. Rosenfeld at The Counterfactual History Review.
How One Soviet Submarine Commander Averted World War III by Mark Strauss at io9.
It's Looking More and More Likely That We Live in a Multiverse by Annalee Newitz at io9.
Ned Kelly Under the Microscope unravels bushranger myths by Cris Kennedy at The Sydney Morning Herald.
The One Basic Fact About History That Time Travelers Always Forget by Annalee Newitz at io9.
The Plots to Destroy America by Kurt Eichenwald at Newsweek.
Revealed: How the Soviets Planned To Go To War with America's Navy by Sam Roggeveen at The National Interest.
Vladimir Putin's Batshit Crazy Attempt To Create an Alternate History by George Dvorsky at io9.
What if ...? by Ron Eachus at Statesman Journal.
What Would Two Floridas Look Like? by Dallas Jensen at Slate.
Who Would Have Health Insurance if Medicaid Expansion Weren't Optional by Kevin Quealy and Margot Sanger-Katz at The New York Times.

Film and Television

1983: The Brink of Apocalypse at Far Future Horizons.
Just How Different Was Nolan's Third Batman Movie Supposed To Be? by Kit Simpson Browne at Movie Pilot.
Man Conquers Space by Alex Michael Bonnici at Far Future Horizons.
Review: Doctor Who, S8, E10: In the Forest of the Night and E11: Dark Water at Geek Syndicate.
Will 'Marco Polo' Be Netflix's 'Game of Thrones'? by Laura Rosenfeld at Tech Times.
You Have Chosen…Poorly: A Ranking Of Alternate Horror Film Endings by Mark Strauss at io9.

Games

'Dust.Evolution' Announced, Seeks Crowd Funding - Trailer by Rainier at Worth Playing.
Why Gandhi Is Such An Asshole In Civilization by Luke Plunkett at io9.

Interviews

Richard J. Evans at  Dublin Festival of History 2014.
Nicola Griffith at Tor.
Dan Jones at Word & Film.
Alison Morton at Unusual Historicals.
Diana M. Pho at Tor.
Anne Valente at The Collagist.

Podcasts


The 17 Greatest Movie Scenes Deleted from History at Cracked.
Dissecting Worlds Series 9 Episode 2: Game of Shadows (of the Apt) at Geek Syndicate.

* * *

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.

New Releases 11/5/13

New Hardcovers

Curtsies & Conspiracies by Gail Carriger

Description from Amazon.

Does one need four fully grown foxgloves for decorating a dinner table for six guests? Or is it six foxgloves to kill four fully grown guests?

Sophronia's first year at Mademoiselle Geraldine's Finishing Academy for Young Ladies of Quality has certainly been rousing! For one thing, finishing school is training her to be a spy--won't Mumsy be surprised? Furthermore, Sophronia got mixed up in an intrigue over a stolen device and had a cheese pie thrown at her in a most horrid display of poor manners.

Now, as she sneaks around the dirigible school, eavesdropping on the teachers' quarters and making clandestine climbs to the ship's boiler room, she learns that there may be more to a field trip to London than is apparent at first. A conspiracy is afoot--one with dire implications for both supernaturals and humans. Sophronia must rely on her training to discover who is behind the dangerous plot-and survive the London Season with a full dance card.

In this sequel to New York Times bestselling Etiquette & Espionage, class is back in session with more petticoats and poison, tea trays and treason. Gail's distinctive voice, signature humor, and lush steampunk setting are sure to be the height of fashion this season.

Iron Winter: The Northland Trilog by Stephen Baxter

Description from Amazon.

Praised as “not only a gifted storyteller but also a master of speculative fiction” (Library Journal), bestselling author Stephen Baxter brings his epic Northland trilogy to a close as a once-thriving civilization faces winter without end....

Many generations ago, the Wall was built to hold back the sea. A simple dam, it grew into a vast linear city, home to scholars, builders, and merchants. Northland’s prosperity survived wars and unrest—and brought the whole of Europe together.

But now darkness is falling. Days grow shorter, temperatures colder, and in the wake of long winters come famine, destruction, and terror. As a mass exodus to warmer climes threatens to fracture Northland, one man believes he can outwit the cold, and even salvage some scraps of the great civilization—before interminable gloom settles over the land; before the fires of war lay waste to an empire; before the ice comes....

The Night Boat by Robert McCammon and Les Edwards

Description from Amazon.

The Night Boat, Robert McCammon's third published novel, first appeared as a paperback original in 1980. Following on the heels of Baal and Bethany's Sin, it offered further proof that a writer of great narrative power and limitless potential--a writer who would achieve a significant position in modern popular fiction--had arrived.

The story begins with a vividly written prologue in which a German U-boat--sometimes known as an 'Iron Coffin'--attacks an unsuspecting merchant vessel, and is itself attacked by a pair of Allied sub chasers. The action then shifts to the present day and to the idyllic Caribbean island of Coquina, where life is about to change in unimaginable ways. David Moore, a young man with a tragic and haunted past, is skin-diving in the waters off Coquina, searching for the salvageable remnants of shipwrecks. He accidentally detonates a long-unexploded depth charge, uncovering and releasing a submarine that has lain beneath those waters, virtually intact, for decades. The battered vessel that rises to the surface contains a bizarre and terrifying cargo that will transform a once peaceful island into a landscape of unrelenting nightmare.

The Night Boat is a story of cannibalism, ancient voodoo curses, and shambling, undead entities filled with a bottomless rage and an equally bottomless hunger. But it is also the story of a past that refuses to die, that lies in wait just beneath the surface of the unsuspecting present. Furiously paced and viscerally frightening, this horrific early gem is both an outstanding entertainment in its own right and a harbinger of the masterpieces to come.

New Paperbacks

Gossamer Wing by Delphine Dryden

Description from Amazon.

A SPY. AN AIRSHIP. AND A BROKEN HEART.

After losing her husband to a rogue French agent, Charlotte Moncrieffe wants to make her mark in international espionage. And what could be better for recovering secret long-lost documents from the Palais Garnier than her stealth dirigible, Gossamer Wing? Her spymaster father has one condition: He won’t send her to Paris without an ironclad cover.

Dexter Hardison prefers inventing to politics, but his title as Makesmith Baron and his formidable skills make him an ideal husband-imposter for Charlotte. And the unorthodox undercover arrangement would help him in his own field of discovery.

But from Charlotte and Dexter’s marriage of convenience comes a distraction—a passion that complicates an increasingly dangerous mission. For Charlotte, however, the thought of losing Dexter also opens her heart to a thrilling new future of love and adventure.

Sherlock Holmes: The Will of the Dead by George Mann

Description from Amazon.

A young man named Peter Maugram appears at the front door of Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson’s Baker Street lodgings. Maugram’s uncle is dead and his will has disappeared, leaving the man afraid that he will be left penniless. Holmes agrees to take the case and he and Watson dig deep into the murky past of this complex family.

A brand-new Sherlock Holmes novel from the acclaimed author of the Newbury & Hobbes series.

New E-books

Balfour and Meriwether in The Incident of the Harrowmoor Dogs by Daniel Abraham

Description from Amazon.

When a private envoy of the queen and member of Lord Carmichael's discreet service goes missing, Balfour and Meriwether are asked to look into the affair. They will find a labyrinth of dreams, horrors risen from hell, prophecy, sexual perversion, and an abandoned farmhouse on the moors outside Harrowmoor Sanitarium. The earth itself will bare its secrets and the Empire itself will tremble in the face of the hidden dangers they discover, but the greatest peril is the one they have brought with them.

Balfour and Meriwether in the Incident of the Harrowmoor Dogs is the first novella length work in the Balfour and Meriwether stories by Hugo, Nebula, and World Fantasy Award nominated author Daniel Abraham.

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.

* * *

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.

Weekly Update #101

Editor's Note

So I wasted an hour yesterday trying to make a video for you guys, but the webcam feature YouTube provided kept failing and deleting everything I made. I tried using the generic recorder my computer came with but the quality was so bad I gave up. I need to do some more research into making videos for YouTube before I try this again.

I am doing a batch of posts for Amazing Stories on steampunk. It starts with a quick overview of the genre so check it out if you are interested. Tomorrow's post is a review on The Difference Engine by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling. My next topic is going to be music in SF literature for those wondering. I also been talking with Twilight Histories host Jordan Harbour. You will see my interview with him later this week and perhaps an in-depth discussion about the genre on his podcast sometime in the future.

And now the news...

Update: The River of No Return by Bee Ridgway

I don't want to forget about time travel, so now is a good time to bring it up with some info on this book that caught my attention last week: The River of No Return by Bee Ridgway. Here is the description from Goodreads:

In Bee Ridgway’s wonderfully imaginative debut novel, a man and a woman travel through time in a quest to bring down a secret society that controls the past and, thus, the future. 

“You are now a member of the Guild. There is no return.” Two hundred years after he was about to die on a Napoleonic battlefield, Nick Falcott, soldier and aristocrat, wakes up in a hospital bed in modern London. The Guild, an entity that controls time travel, showers him with life's advantages. But Nick yearns for home and for one brown-eyed girl, lost now down the centuries. Then the Guild asks him to break its own rule. It needs Nick to go back to 1815 to fight the Guild’s enemies and to find something called the Talisman. 

In 1815, Julia Percy mourns the death of her beloved grandfather, an earl who could play with time. On his deathbed he whispers in her ear: “Pretend!” Pretend what? When Nick returns home as if from the dead, older than he should be and battle scarred, Julia begins to suspect that her very life depends upon the secrets Grandfather never told her. Soon enough Julia and Nick are caught up in an adventure that stretches up and down the river of time. As their knowledge of the Guild and their feelings for each other grow, the fate of the future itself is hanging in the balance.

Sounds interesting, doesn't it? And it has a 4.22/5 on Goodreads as I write this post. Turns out, however "Bee Ridgway" is just a pen name. The author's real name is Bethany Schneider. You can catch her interview over at The Qwillery and read her article on writing time travel novels over at Psychology Tomorrow.

Update: Etiquette & Espionage by Gail Carriger

Found a couple more reviews on Gail Carriger's new novel Etiquette & Espionage, book one of the Finishing School series. First, here is the description from Amazon:

It's one thing to learn to curtsy properly. It's quite another to learn to curtsy and throw a knife at the same time. Welcome to Finishing School. 

Fourteen-year-old Sophronia is a great trial to her poor mother. Sophronia is more interested in dismantling clocks and climbing trees than proper manners--and the family can only hope that company never sees her atrocious curtsy. Mrs. Temminnick is desperate for her daughter to become a proper lady. So she enrolls Sophronia in Mademoiselle Geraldine's Finishing Academy for Young Ladies of Quality. 

But Sophronia soon realizes the school is not quite what her mother might have hoped. At Mademoiselle Geraldine's, young ladies learn to finish...everything. Certainly, they learn the fine arts of dance, dress, and etiquette, but the also learn to deal out death, diversion, and espionage--in the politest possible ways, of course. Sophronia and her friends are in for a rousing first year's education. 

Set in the same world as the Parasol Protectorate, this YA series debut is filled with all the saucy adventure and droll humor Gail's legions of fans have come to adore. 

Flipping the Page described the novel as "a unique book" and "a keeper!", but the review did say you can get lost in the background information. Sarah Bruch at SFcrowsnest also gave a good review for the book and concluded "[t]his is another series for lovers of Carriger filled with her dry wit, fabulous characters and her own take on the steampunk world, definitely one to put on the to be read pile."

Now generally I do not read YA books, but for the younger readers of this blog who like a little steam in their alternate history, this might be a series for you.

Update: After Earth

The upcoming SF, alternate history film After Earth (the POD being a space ship crash landing on Earth in 1908) is premerieng this summer on June 7. A new trailer for the film came out last week, let's watch it below:

Rob Bricken of io9 wasn't particularly impressed by the trailer, pointing out that 1000 years is too short of a time for evolution to change Earth's wildlife so drastically. Personally I am less than thrilled about this film by M. Night Shyamalan, but Charlie Jane Anders of io9 seems hopeful that "legendary control freak Will Smith" can keep the plot from spiraling out of control. We shall see, but I think I won't see until I can watch it free on Netflix.

NBC Renews Revolution

NBC announced it has ordered a new season for the sci-fi drama Revolution from Eric Kripke and J.J. Abrams for the 2013-2014 season. Alternate historians were less than impressed when the show first aired, but it has grown in popularity with the rest of fandom. Paul Levinson in his review of episode 14 called Revolution "one of J. J. Abrams' best franchises." To tell you the truth I still haven't watched the show, but do you agree?

Crusader Kings II: The Old Gods and Europa Universalis IV

A new trailer for Crusader Kings II: The Old Gods (out on May 28) has been released. The latest trailer for The Old Gods is the first trailer to show gameplay from the expansion:

The Old Gods is the fourth full expansion for Crusader Kings II, Paradox’s strategy/RPG of medieval scheming, dynastic fortunes and crusades against the unbeliever. The Old Gods expansion lets the player start two hundred years earlier than the Crusader Kings II base game, at the height of Viking power and when Christianity had yet to penetrate many of the dark forests of the continent, and the power of Islam was still on the rise. You can read the developer diaries to get more information on this upcoming expansion.

Next on the agenda, Paradox is preparing to once again provide the global conquest gamers have hungrily desired with their upcoming empire-building game, Europa Universalis IV. The award-winning series that has sold over a million copies and redefined grand strategy gaming is returning in Q3 2013. Now, Paradox is sending out a Call to Arms to their greatest fans, and asking for their help to win the world’s hearts and minds for the Europa Universalis army in an epic community-building campaign. Europa Universalis fans all over the world can recruit their friends and receive exclusive rewards.

The Call to Arms Rewards for loyal fans include bonus in-game DLC, a Developers Strategy Guide, Compendium Universalis, the e-books The Art of War and The Prince, and a copy of Europa Universalis III Chronicles. The “World Conqueror” rewards for the most loyal fans include exclusive beta access to Europa Universalis IV, a mention in the game credits, and a trip to Stockholm to play multiplayer with the developers.

“Over the years, you have all helped us build one of the most dedicated game communities available. We wouldn’t have come this far if not for the loyalty of our strategy fans everywhere, and we want you to know that,” said Thomas Johansson, project lead for Europa Universalis IV at Paradox Development Studio. 

“As we prepare to launch our empire-building game Europa Universalis IV, we want to bring even more strategy fans into our community. We want you all to experience the drama that only the grand stage of history can provide. So if you want to support Europa Universalis IV, please spread the word and invite your friends – if you believe that they long to conquer the world. Strategy Gamers of the World – this is our Call to Arms.”

Calender

May 1-Oct 31: Strange Chemistry open for unagented submissions.

May 30: Deadline for submissions of It Came From the North, a Finnish speculative fiction anthology.

June 15: Steampunk inspired exhibit at The Lockwood-Mathews Mansion Museum in Fairfield County, Connecticut ends.

You also might be interested in checking out the current list of guests for 2013 Dragoncon and the list of upcoming summer conventions made by the good folks at io9.

Links to the Multiverse

Articles

5 Ridiculous Myths Everyone Believes About the Wild West by J. Wisniewski at Cracked.
Alternate Geology by S-Sherman at Other Times.
Cover & Synopsis: “Luminous Chaos” by Jean-Christophe Valtat at SF Signal.
Doc Savage: His Apocalyptic Life – New Revised Deluxe Hardcover Edition at Meteor House.
Duck and Covers: Can you believe I’m not going to rip one of these? by Justin at Staffer's Book Review.
The Great Man of History … An Implied Counterfactual by Brooks D. Simpson at Crossroads.
How to have a successful blogtour by Alison Morton.
I Prefer My Steam Punked by Jared Axelrod at Steamed!
If media covered America the way we cover foreign cultures by Jahanzeb Hussain at Keeping Sane.
Imagine by Kassy Tayler at Steamed!
Lavie Tidhar’s Top 5 Five Weird Trips to Mars at SF Signal.
Paul Levinson on the The Tricky Business of Time Travel at SF Signal.
Speculative Fiction's Love Affair with Sherlock Holmes-It's not a Mystery (Part 2) by John DeNardo at SF Signal.
That time Polish partisans stole a Nazi V2 rocket by George Dvorsky at io9.
US tries new aerial tools in Caribbean drug fight by Ben Fox at Yahoo!
What if the Tsarnaevs Had Been the "Boston Shooters"? by John Cassidy at The New Yorker.
Woman Time Travels Into Iconic Scenes at Yahoo! Shine.
Zero-Magic Fantasy by Felicity Savage at Amazing Stories.

Book Reviews

The Alteration by Kingsley Amis at Tor.com.
The Mine by John A. Heidt at Tonight's Reading.
Necessary Evil by Ian Tregillis at Pat's Fantasy Hotlist.
Prophet of Bones by Ted Kosmatka at io9.

Comics

Review: ‘Amala’s Blade’ #1 at Bloody Disgusting.

Films

SAFETY NOT GUARANTEED - An Awesome Time Travel Sci-Fi Romance at The Galaxy Express.
Steampunk kung-fu epic Tai Chi Hero: the Cure for Boring Action Movies at io9.

Games

Counterfactual History in a New Video Game (BioShock Infinite) by Robert Whitaker at Not Even Past.
The Most Atmospheric Steampunk Video Games by Gergo Vas at Kotaku.
Snail Games bringing fantasy, steampunk together in 'Black Gold' at E3 this year by Pamela Blalock at Examiner.com.

Podcasts

AH Inquirer Podcast Ep.3: The Comintern.
GSN PODCAST: Dissecting Worlds Series 7 Episode 2: Robin Hood, Robin Hood!
SFBRP #186 – Harry Turtledove – Worldwar – In The Balance.
SF Squeecast Episode 23: A Squishy Little Shield (with special guest Cherie Priest).

Interview

James Blaylock at SF Signal.
Clay & Susan Griffith at Literary Escapism.
Scott Westerfeld on The ABC.

Television

Bruce Boxleitner & Trevor Crafts: a new 'Lantern City' cast member is announced by John Collins at Examiner.com.
Steampunk Partners Announce the Launch of the TINKER Web Series Kickstarter at SBWire.

* * *

Matt Mitrovich is the founder and editor of Alternate History Weekly Update, a blogger on Amazing Stories and a volunteer editor for Alt Hist magazine. His fiction can be found at Echelon Press, Jake's Monthly and The Were-Traveler. 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.