You can support The Update by clicking the banner to your right or the links below if you are purchasing through Amazon! Hardcovers The Gentleman by Forrest Leo
A funny, fantastically entertaining debut novel, in the spirit of Wodehouse and Monty Python, about a famous poet who inadvertently sells his wife to the devil--then recruits a band of adventurers to rescue her.
When Lionel Savage, a popular poet in Victorian London, learns from his butler that they're broke, he marries the beautiful Vivien Lancaster for her money, only to find that his muse has abandoned him.
Distraught and contemplating suicide, Savage accidentally conjures the Devil -- the polite "Gentleman" of the title -- who appears at one of the society parties Savage abhors. The two hit it off: the Devil talks about his home, where he employs Dante as a gardener; Savage lends him a volume of Tennyson. But when the party's over and Vivien has disappeared, the poet concludes in horror that he must have inadvertently sold his wife to the dark lord.
Newly in love with Vivian, Savage plans a rescue mission to Hell that includes Simmons, the butler; Tompkins, the bookseller; Ashley Lancaster, swashbuckling Buddhist; Will Kensington, inventor of a flying machine; and Savage's spirited kid sister, Lizzie, freshly booted from boarding school for a "dalliance." Throughout, his cousin's quibbling footnotes to the text push the story into comedy nirvana.
Lionel and his friends encounter trapdoors, duels, anarchist-fearing bobbies, the social pressure of not knowing enough about art history, and the poisonous wit of his poetical archenemy. Fresh, action-packed and very, very funny, The Gentleman is a giddy farce that recalls the masterful confections of P.G. Wodehouse and Hergé's beautifully detailed Tintin adventures.
Ghost Talkers: a new novel from beloved fantasy author Mary Robinette Kowal featuring the mysterious spirit corps and their heroic work in World War I.
Ginger Stuyvesant, an American heiress living in London during World War I, is engaged to Captain Benjamin Hartshorne, an intelligence officer. Ginger is a medium for the Spirit Corps, a special Spiritualist force.
Each soldier heading for the front is conditioned to report to the mediums of the Spirit Corps when they die so the Corps can pass instant information about troop movements to military intelligence.
Ginger and her fellow mediums contribute a great deal to the war efforts, so long as they pass the information through appropriate channels. While Ben is away at the front, Ginger discovers the presence of a traitor. Without the presence of her fiance to validate her findings, the top brass thinks she's just imagining things. Even worse, it is clear that the Spirit Corps is now being directly targeted by the German war effort. Left to her own devices, Ginger has to find out how the Germans are targeting the Spirit Corps and stop them. This is a difficult and dangerous task for a woman of that era, but this time both the spirit and the flesh are willing…
It is 1943, the third summer of the new war between the Confederate States of America and the United States, a war that will turn on the deeds of ordinary soldiers, extraordinary heroes, and a colorful cast of spies, politicians, rebels, and everyday citizens. The CSA president, Jake Featherston, seems to have greatly miscalculated the North's resilience. But as new demonic tools of killing are unleashed, secret wars are unfolding.
The US government in Philadelphia has proof that the tyrannical Featherston is murdering African Americans by the tens of thousands in a Texas gulag called Determination. And the leaders of both sides know full well that the world's next great power will not be the one with the biggest army but the nation that wins the race against nature and science - and smashes open the power of the atom.
In order to hide from his unwanted fame as the spitfire pilot-monkey who emerged from a computer game to defeat the nefarious corporation that engineered him, the charismatic and dangerous Ack-Ack Macaque is working as a pilot on a world-circling nuclear-powered zeppelin.
But when the cabin of one of his passengers is invaded by the passenger's own dying doppelganger, our hirsute hero finds himself thrust into another race to save the world - this time from an aggressive hive mind, time-hopping saboteurs, and an army of homicidal Neanderthal assassins!
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.
You can support The Update by clicking the banner to your right or the links below if you are purchasing through Amazon! Hardcovers Eterna and Omega by Leanna Renee Hieber
Leanna Renee Hieber's gaslamp fantasy series continues and the action ramps up in Eterna and Omega.
In New York City, fearing the dangers of the Eterna Compound--supposedly the key to immortality--Clara Templeton buries information vital to its creation. The ghost of her clandestine lover is desperate to tell her she is wrong, but though she is a clairvoyant, she cannot hear him.
In London, Harold Spire plans to send his team of assassins, magicians, mediums, and other rogue talents to New York City, in an attempt to obtain Eterna for Her Royal Majesty, Queen Victoria. He stays behind to help Scotland Yard track down a network of body snatchers and occultists, but he'll miss his second-in-command, Rose Everhart, whose gentle exterior masks a steel spine.
Rose's skepticism about the supernatural has been shattered since she joined Spire's Omega Branch. Meeting Clara is like looking into a strange mirror: both women are orphans, each is concealing a paranormal ability, and each has a powerful and attractive guardian who has secrets of his own.
The hidden occult power that menaces both England and America continues to grow. Far from being dangerous, Eterna may hold the key to humanity's salvation.
A thriller of war that never was—of survival in an impossible city—of surreal cataclysm. In The Last Days of New Paris, China Miéville entwines true historical events and people with his daring, uniquely imaginative brand of fiction, reconfiguring history and art into something new.
“Beauty will be convulsive. . . .”
1941. In the chaos of wartime Marseille, American engineer—and occult disciple—Jack Parsons stumbles onto a clandestine anti-Nazi group, including Surrealist theorist André Breton. In the strange games of the dissident diplomats, exiled revolutionaries, and avant-garde artists, Parsons finds and channels hope. But what he unwittingly unleashes is the power of dreams and nightmares, changing the war and the world forever.
1950. A lone Surrealist fighter, Thibaut, walks a new, hallucinogenic Paris, where Nazis and the Resistance are trapped in unending conflict, and the streets are stalked by living images and texts—and by the forces of Hell. To escape the city, he must join forces with Sam, an American photographer intent on recording the ruins, and make common cause with a powerful, enigmatic figure of chance and rebellion: the exquisite corpse.
But Sam is being hunted. And new secrets will emerge that will test all their loyalties—to each other, to Paris old and new, and to reality itself.
In the face of impossible odds, can one girl stem the tides of war?
It has been six months since clockwork engineer Petra Wade destroyed an automaton designed for battle, narrowly escaping with her life. But her troubles are far from over. Her partner on the project, Emmerich Goss, has been sent away to France, and his father, Julian, is still determined that a war machine will be built. Forced to create a new device, Petra subtly sabotages the design in the hopes of delaying the war, but sabotage like this isn’t just risky: it’s treason. And with a soldier, Braith, assigned to watch her every move, it may not be long before Julian finds out what she’s done.
Now she just has to survive long enough to find another way to stop the war before her sabotage is discovered and she’s sentenced to hang for crimes against the empire. But Julian’s plans go far deeper than she ever realized . . . war is on the horizon, and it will take everything Petra has to stop it in this fast-paced, thrilling sequel to The Brass Giant.
In 1944, as waves of German ninjas parachute into Kent, Britain's best hopes for victory lie with a Spitfire pilot codenamed Ack-Ack Macaque. The trouble is, Ack-Ack Macaque is a cynical, one-eyed, cigar-chomping monkey, and he's starting to doubt everything, including his own existence.
A century later, in a world where France and Great Britain merged in the late 1950s and nuclear-powered Zeppelins circle the globe, ex-journalist Victoria Valois finds herself drawn into a deadly game of cat and mouse with the man who butchered her husband and stole her electronic soul.
Meanwhile, in Paris, after taking part in an illegal break-in at a research laboratory, the heir to the British throne goes on the run. And all the while, the doomsday clock ticks towards Armageddon.
At the bitter end of the 1960s, after surviving multiple assassination attempts, President John F. Kennedy is entering his third term in office. The Vietnam War rages on, and the president has created a vast federal agency, the Psych Corps, dedicated to maintaining the nation's mental hygiene by any means necessary. Soldiers returning from the war have their battlefield traumas "enfolded" - wiped from their memories through drugs and therapy - while veterans too damaged to be enfolded roam at will in Michigan, evading the government and reenacting atrocities on civilians.
This destabilized version of American history is the vision of 22-year-old Eugene Allen, who has returned from Vietnam to write the book-within-a-book at the center of Hystopia. In conversation with some of the greatest war narratives, from Homer's Iliad to the Rolling Stones' "Gimme Shelter", David Means channels the voice of Allen, the young veteran out to write a novel that can bring honor to those he fought with in Vietnam while also capturing the tragic history of his own family.
The critic James Wood has written that Means' language "offers an exquisitely precise and sensuous register of an often crazy American reality". In Hystopia, his highly anticipated first novel, David Means brings his full talent to bear on the crazy reality of trauma, both national and personal. Outlandish and tender, funny and violent, timely and historical, Hystopia invites us to consider whether our traumas can ever be truly overcome. The answers it offers are wildly inventive, deeply rooted in its characters, and wrung from the author's own heart.
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.
Editor's Note I was so happy to get one of my two big announcements out of the when I revealed my Capricon 35 schedule. I plan to make the second this week, so stay tuned for some more big news.
Not sure if I talked about this yet, but I am going to be doing something different for the rest of the year. Occasionally I have experimented with "theme" months, but this year I am going to put a little more effort into it. You will learn more about what I am planning later either at the end of the week or next Monday.
And now the news...
What do the critics think of Agent Carter?
I know The Man in the High Castleis still on all of your minds and trust me I didn't forget about it. In fact I made another special link dump for it below under the Links to the Multiverse section. We still don't know when we are going to get a new episode, so if you need your alternate history television fix, why don't you check out Agent Carter?
According to Wikipedia: In 1946, Peggy Carter must balance the routine office work she does for the Strategic Scientific Reserve (S.S.R) while secretly assisting Howard Stark, who finds himself framed for supplying deadly weapons to the top bidder. Carter is assisted by Stark's butler, Edwin Jarvis, to find those responsible and dispose of the weapons.
Now I have always held that the Captain America films and their spin-offs, like Agent Carter, blur the lines of comic book universe and alternate history. Even if it is not a true alternate history, there is no denying it has a dieselpunk aesthetic to it (and if you want some unexpected dieselpunk, go watch The Grand Budapest Hotel). But is it any good?
Well so far the reviews I have seen have been positive. Liz Bourke of Tor said she is in love with the show, but she may be predisposed to liking to show because of her "pro-ladies-hitting-people-with-snappy-dialogue" personality. Meanwhile Vix from Geek Syndicate gave episode three a 4 out of 5 star review and praised the show for being a trailblazer in bringing more female leads to the Marvel universe.
Have you watched Agent Carter yet? Tell us what you think in the comments.
“El Dorado” Expansion for Europa Universalis IV Lets You Go For Gold
Yeah I didn't come up with that title, but I thought it was amusing. Anywho, Paradox Development is bringing the genocide adventure and politics of the Spanish conquest to life with the "El Dorado" expansion for Europa Universalis IV.
This expansion’s historical focus will be on the Central American and South American theaters. According to the press release, you can play "[a]s the Aztecs, [and[ subject the Mexican plain to your rule but make sure you have enough vassal kings to sacrifice to your angry gods. As the Europeans, push deeper into the jungles of the Amazon, following rumors of lost cities and magical fountains. Defer to the Pope as he intervenes to divide the New World among squabbling empires."
The centerpiece mechanic of "El Dorado" is the Nation Designer, a tool that let’s you customize your starting nation in a campaign. You choose your starting capital and neighboring provinces, modify your starting culture and leader and then play as this nation in the game. Sounds like a useful tool when crafting an alternate history scenario.
Learn more by watching the trailer:
Europa Universalis IV: El Dorado will be available on major digital delivery platforms for Windows, Mac and Linux next month.
Videos for Alternate Historians Its time for some more YouTube videos that bend the borders of reality. We begin with Game Theory's look at the Pokemon multiverse:
Learn more about the game's plot here and see how violent the game is here. And finally, we end by asking is time travel possible with some of the most seductive British accents Doctor Who can provide:
Links to the Multiverse Amazon's The Man in the High Castle
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.
You can support The Update by clicking the banner to your right or the links below if you are purchasing through Amazon! Paperbacks For a Few Souls More by Guy Adams
The thrilling conclusion to the Heaven's Gate Trilogy!
The uprising in Heaven is at an end and Paradise has fallen, becoming the forty-third state of America. Now angels and demons must learn to get along with humans.
The rest of the world is in uproar. How can America claim the afterlife as it’s own? It’s certainly going to try as the President sets out for the town of Wormwood for talks with its governor, the man they call Lucifer.
Hell has problems of its own. There’s a new evangelist walking its roads, trying to bring the penitent to paradise, and a new power is rising. Can anyone stand up to the Godkiller?
Guy of Gisburne, knight and agent to Prince John, is all that stands between England and anarchy, fighting a shadow battle to protect the kingdom from those who would destroy it.
Returning to England after foiling a plot to destroy Jerusalem, Guy of Gisburne is arrested and hauled to the Tower of London; John, England's regent in the absence of its monstrous King, needs his knight once more. A killer has broken into the Prince’s most secure castle in the north and left a message, drawn on the skin of one of his victims: 'the circle is closing,' signed with a handprint in blood. Is the threat genuine? Who or what is the Red Hand? Someone is killing John's men, and the obvious culprit – the most dangerous man in the Kingdom, Hood himself – has an alibi even Guy can't deny.
The Spitfire pilot monkey Ack-Ack Macaque faces a world on the brink in this adventure, the conclusion to his astonishing, award-winning trilogy.
In the thrilling conclusion of the Macaque Trilogy, the dangerous but charismatic Ack-Ack Macaque finds himself leading a dimension-hopping army of angry monkeys, facing an invading horde of implacable killer androids, and confronting the one challenge for which he was never prepared: impending fatherhood! Meanwhile, former journalist Victoria Valois fights to save the electronic ghost of her dead husband and reclaim his stolen soul from the sands of Mars.
A young man from the twentieth century is recruited to fight in a war that rages throughout time in a classic science fiction adventure from a multiple Hugo and Nebula Award–winning master
College student, ex-marine, and martial artist Malcolm Lockridge is in prison awaiting his trial for murder when he receives an unexpected visit from an extraordinarily beautiful woman named Storm. Claiming to be a representative of the Wardens, a political faction from two thousand years in the future, Storm offers the astonished young man a proposition: freedom in return for his assistance in recovering an unspecified lost treasure. But it is not long before Malcolm realizes that, in truth, he’s been recruited as a soldier in the Wardens’ ongoing war against their rivals, the Rangers. And this war is different from any that has ever been fought, because the battlefield is not a place but time itself.
Traveling backward and forward through corridors connecting historical epochs separated by thousands of years, Malcolm is soon embroiled in a furious conflict between the forces of good and minions of evil. But the deeper he is pulled into this devastating time war, the clearer Malcolm’s ultimate role in humankind’s destiny becomes, causing the troubled young soldier from the twentieth century to question whether he’s been chosen to fight on the side of good or evil . . . and if such a distinction even exists.
A fantastic tale of intrigue, love, war, magic, and swashbuckling adventure set in an alternate universe where fairies mingle freely with Englishmen and all of Shakespeare’s fictional characters are real
Welcome to an alternate civil-war-torn seventeenth-century England—a world where Hamlet once brooded and Othello jealously raged. Here faeries and sprites gambol in English woods, railroads race across the landscape while manned balloons float above the countryside, and the most respected historian of all is one William Shakespeare of Stratford-upon-Avon.
The year is 1644, and the war between the Roundheads and the Cavaliers rages. When Rupert, nephew of King Charles I, is taken captive by Cromwell’s troops and imprisoned in a Puritan home, he is immediately smitten with the beautiful Jennifer Alayne, his captor’s niece. Escaping with the help of his newfound beloved and the loyal trooper Will Fairweather, Rupert leads Jennifer deep into the forest, where the faerie folk who dwell there have a vested interest in the outcome of the great and bloody conflict. Though the lovers must soon part—with the prince undertaking a dangerous mission for his magical benefactors that could turn the tide of war—Rupert and his lady love will be forever joined by the rings presented to them by King Oberon and Queen Titania. And despite the strange, twisting pathways and turbulent seas they are destined to encounter, they will always be able to find each other again . . . as long as their love remains true.
Nominated for the World Fantasy Award and winner of the Mythopoeic Award, Poul Anderson’s A Midsummer Tempest is a titanic achievement—a delightful alternate-history fantasy that brings the fictional worlds of Shakespeare’s plays to breathtaking life with style, wit, and unparalleled imagination. 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.
So I learned that I might have bitten off a little more than I could chew with this double rate of posting. I am still going to do the Map Mondays, Flag Friday and Amazing Stories announcement every Tuesday; but What If Wednesday and Timeline Thursday are being downgraded to "when I can get to it". If anyone would like to take those two posts over for me, I would appreciate it.
Got some good posts coming at you this week. I wax about a world where the Soviets win the Cold War and Mark Appleton returns with another atompunk sampler. That is just a taste of what I have coming up.
And now the news...
Dramatic Audio Rights Sale for David Barnett Steampunk Trilogy
According to a press release from John Jarrold, GraphicAudio will be producing dramatic audio editions (abridged audio with a full cast, sound effects, and music) of David Barnett’s Gideon Smith steampunk trilogy, having acquired the rights from Tor US.
Claire Eddy, Senior Editor at Tor Books in New York, acquired World English Language rights deal for the books in 2011. Gideon Smith and the Mechanical Girl (which I reviewed at Amazing Stories) was released by Tor (and by Snowbooks in the UK) in September 2013. The sequel, Gideon Smith and the Brass Dragon, will follow in September 2014.
The only audio book I have ever listened to was the full cast reading of World War Z, although it did not have sound effects or music, it did have several great voice talents. If the Gideon Smith books can live up to that kind of quality, I will certainly check it out.
Japanese deal for Gareth L. Powell’s Ack-Ack Macaque
For our Japanese readers out there (and I know there are a few of you) Tokyo Sogensha Co., Ltd. has acquired the Japanese rights for Ack-Ack Macaque by Gareth L. Powell from Corinne Shioji of The English Agency (Japan) Ltd in Tokyo, representing the John Jarrold (see above) Literary Agency. The book was published in the UK and US by Solaris in 2012.
Ack-Ack Macaque has been shortlisted for the British SF Award for Best Novel, which will be announced over the Easter weekend. The sequel, Hive Monkey, was published in 2013. A third volume will follow early in 2015.
So congrats Japan, you have some more steampunk coming your way.
Coming in June: Pinocchio, Vampire Slayer complete in one volume!
For those who enjoy fictional mash-ups, artist Dusty Higgins (Knights of the Living Dead) and writer Van Jensen (Green Lantern Corps) will be releasing the complete collection of Pinocchio, Vampire Slayer through Top Shelf. You can see the 12-page preview here.
This puppet may not be a real boy… but he just might be a real hero. When bloodthirsty monsters invade Pinocchio’s hometown and kill his father Geppetto, Pinocchio discovers a new benefit to his magical nose: telling lies produces a never-ending supply of wooden stakes to combat the vampire hordes! Will Pinocchio be able to defeat these horrors, avenge his father, and save his friends?
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.
So last week I posted a question on the Alternate History Online Facebook group asking the member what they thought was the one alternate novel all fans, regardless of whether they are beginners or hardcore, should read. I got a lot of responses and I had the idea of creating a list based on them. So as I narrowed it down, trying to only include the works that got the most positive mentions, when I discovered something: they were all about World War II or the American Civil War.
This disappoints me. I'm not saying that those books aren't good, only that we seem as fans (at the least the English speaking ones) to move beyond some of the stereotypes of the genre. Perhaps I am reading too much into the outcome of my informal poll, but I would like to branch out into the unexplored corners of the genre. To accomplish said goal, I am resurrecting an early idea I had when The Update was still young.
This is a call for action. I am looking for alternate history fans who are native speakers of a language other than English. I want to know more about alternate history (published or amateur) in other tongues. Danish, French, German, Hebrew, Italian, Japanese, Nederlands, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Swedish and others, I don't mind. You can send me a full article or just email me some opinions/comments so I could build an article to ahwupdate at gmail dot com. Please, I want to hear from as many of you as I can.
And now the news...
Third Gareth L. Powell Ack-Ack Macaque novel to Solaris
Jonathan Oliver, commissioning editor of Solaris Books, has acquired a third Ack-Ack Macaque novel by Gareth L. Powell. The novel will be delivered in summer 2014, for an early 2015 publication. The agent was John Jarrold, and the deal was for UK/US rights. The title is Macaque Attack.
The novel is a sequel to Ack-Ack Macaque which Solaris published in 2013 and Hive Monkey, which will appear in January 2014. Check out the description of the new novel below:
Having saved the world twice, Ack-Ack Macaque finds himself at the head of a dimension-hopping monkey army, facing an invading horde of implacable killer androids and a final reckoning with his creator, the infamous Dr. Nguyun. Meanwhile, former journalist Victoria Valois fights to save the electronic ghost of her dead husband and reclaim her stolen soul from the sands of Mars.
Gareth Powell said: “I’m absolutely delighted to be working with Solaris Books on a third monkey adventure, and this one promises to be his biggest and wildest outing yet!”
Dark Hall Press presents The Bloodline: Birth of the Vampir
A curious book came to my attention called The Bloodline: Birth of the Vampir by Shaun McGinnis and Rod Garcia and published by Dark Hall Press. Bloodline has been described as "a dark tale of innocence lost and monstrosity born." Set in 13th century Europe, the book chronicles the fall of a Transylvanian Lord (hmm...wonder who he is based on) and his people at the hands of a ruthless Archdeacon in search of the Holy Grail. Cursed and exiled from their land, the former citizens of Erdely soon find themselves in the grips of a transformation, becoming something the world has never seen before—the first vampires.
The Bloodline: Birth of the Vampir is available for purchase via Amazon and other retailers. What interested me about this book, however, is not only its historical (dark) fantasy setting, but also the possibilities of how history could be changed with the rise of a "vampire nation". Not sure if the authors will actually go that route, but for ASB fans like me, it is fun to speculate...
Update: The Daedalus Incident by Michael J. Martinez
I have talked about The Daedalus Incident before and even got a chance to interview its author, Michael J. Martinez. In case you don't know, however, here is the description from Amazon:
Mars is supposed to be dead…
Bizarre quakes are rumbling over the long-dormant tectonic plates of the planet, disrupting its trillion-dollar mining operations and driving scientists past the edges of theory and reason. However, when rocks shake off their ancient dust and begin to roll—seemingly of their own volition—carving canals as they converge to form a towering structure amid the ruddy terrain, Lt. Jain and her JSC team realize that their routine geological survey of a Martian cave system is anything but. The only clues they have stem from the emissions of a mysterious blue radiation, and a 300-year-old journal that is writing itself.
Lt. Thomas Weatherby of His Majesty’s Royal Navy is an honest 18th-century man of modest beginnings, doing his part for King and Country aboard the HMS Daedalus, a frigate sailing the high seas between continents…and the immense Void between the Known Worlds.
With the aid of his fierce captain, a drug-addled alchemist, and a servant girl witha remarkable past, Weatherby must track a great and powerful mystic, who has embarked upon a sinister quest to upset the balance of the planets—the consequences of which may reach far beyond the Solar System, threatening the very fabric of space itself.
In less than a year, Worldcon returns to London. A mere forty-nine years after Loncon 2 in 1965, Loncon 3 will take place in the ExCeL conference centre in London's Docklands, from 14-18 August 2014. Its Guests of Honour cover the fields of fiction, comics, art, criticism, publishing and fandom: Loncon 3 will celebrate the work of the late Iain M Banks, John Clute, Malcolm Edwards, Chris Foss, Jeanne Gomoll, Robin Hobb and Bryan Talbot. This is also where the 2013 Sidewise Awards will be presented.
Co-chair Alice Lawson said, "Loncon 3 will include the standard Worldcon fare, including a huge multi-track programme of panel discussions and talks, a world class art show, a huge area for dealers and exhibits, performances including dances, plays, and a masquerade, and of course the 2014 Hugo awards."
She added, "Loncon 3 will also innovate. A massive hospitality space will bring the North American party scene and the European-style fan bar together in one place. In addition, Loncon 3 will present the Retro-Hugo Awards for 1939, celebrating the science fiction of the time of the very first Worldcon, held in New York 75 years before."
Co-chair Steve Cooper said, "With twelve months to go, membership uptake for Loncon 3 is outstanding. We currently have more than double the number of members that most Worldcons have twelve month out. All indications are that Loncon 3 will be the largest Worldcon ever held outside the United States."
"The key word that I keep hearing as we plan Loncon 3 is "Awesome" - that's exactly what this convention will be!"
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.
Made some big changes to the renamed Submissions page. I'm hoping to encourage more fiction and non-fiction submissions for the blog. Who knows? Maybe one day I will even start paying for submissions...
So I took down the poll for the March contest because it looked like "steampunk" was going to win. So the tentative theme for March is steampunk. I say tentative because I am not sure whether I am going to keep doing these monthly themes because the number of submissions for No Americans and Balkanize Me have been disappointing. Perhaps I am not promoting these things well enough. I guess we will see how next month goes before I make a decision.
Need to do some self-promotion here. I hope you guys have checked out the now live Amazing Stories. My new articles on Balkanized North America is now up for your enjoyment. Also congrats to contributor Tyler Bugg (author of Industria, Tecnologia, Potenza) whose short story "From Enigma to Paradox" appeared in the anthology Substitution Cipher, which came in #11 in the Preditors & Editors Poll.
It has been a while since I welcomed readers from a new country. Today I get to say hi to our first fan from Congo [DRC]. Welcome!
And now the news...
Ack-Ack Macaque by Gareth L. Powell
Interested in reading about a Nazi fighting monkey? Of course you are. Check out the description for Ack-Ack Macaque by Gareth L. Powell:
In 1944, as waves of German ninjas parachute into Kent, Britain’s best hopes for victory lie with a Spitfire pilot codenamed ‘Ack-Ack Macaque.’ The trouble is, Ack-Ack Macaque is a cynical, one-eyed, cigar-chomping monkey, and he’s starting to doubt everything, including his own existence.
A century later, in a world where France and Great Britain merged in the late 1950s and nuclear-powered Zeppelins circle the globe, ex-journalist Victoria Valois finds herself drawn into a deadly game of cat and mouse with the man who butchered her husband and stole her electronic soul. Meanwhile, in Paris, after taking part in an illegal break-in at a research laboratory, the heir to the British throne goes on the run. And all the while, the doomsday clock ticks towards Armageddon.
Eric Brown at The Guardian called it "an explosive narrative with brilliant cliffhangers and brings the lot to a satisfying conclusion" and Jim Higgins of Journal Sentinel called it "an over-the-top, verbally caffeinated adventure story with smart, nasty ideas and plenty of pulp." What more can you want?
The Aylesford Skull by James P Blaylock
How about the return of a steampunk legend? James Blaylock returned to his Langdon St. Ives series with his new novel The Aylesford Skull:
It is the summer of 1883 and Professor Langdon St. Ives - brilliant but eccentric scientist and explorer - is at home in Aylesford with his family. However, a few miles to the north a steam launch has been taken by pirates above Egypt Bay; the crew murdered and pitched overboard. In Aylesford itself a grave is opened and possibly robbed of the skull. The suspected grave robber, the infamous Dr. Ignacio Narbondo, is an old nemesis of Langdon St. Ives.
When Dr. Narbondo returns to kidnap his four-year-old son Eddie and then vanishes into the night, St. Ives and his factotum Hasbro race to London in pursuit...
Falcata Times did some coverage last week on the young adult, parallel universe adventure story Planesrunnerby Ian MacDonald. Here is a brief description of the novel:
There is not one you. There are many yous. There is not one world. There are many worlds. Ours is one of billions of parallel earths.
When Everett Singh's scientist father is kidnapped from the streets of London, he leaves young Everett a mysterious app on his computer. Suddenly, this teenager has become the owner of the most valuable object in the multiverse the—Infundibulum— the map of all the parallel earths, and there are dark forces in the Ten Known Worlds who will stop at nothing to get it. They've got power, authority, and the might of ten planets—some of them more technologically advanced than our Earth—at their fingertips. He's got wits, intelligence, and a knack for Indian cooking.
To keep the Infundibulum safe, Everett must trick his way through the Heisenberg Gate his dad helped build and go on the run in a parallel Earth. But to rescue his Dad from Charlotte Villiers and the sinister Order, this Planesrunner's going to need friends. Friends like Captain Anastasia Sixsmyth, her adopted daughter Sen, and the crew of the airship Everness.
Can they rescue Everett's father and get the Infundibulum to safety? The game is afoot!
Their review said "young readers will find hard to put down" and the novel has "top notch dialogue." It must have been a nice compliment because the author himself wrote a guest post where he discusses why he likes creating alternate worlds over alternate histories. Paradox news
Two big Paradox announcements for fans of grand strategy games. First, Crusader Kings II: The Republic Expansion was released on Tuesday.
Crusader Kings II: The Republic introduces the great merchant Republics of medieval Europe as playable entities for the first time. A fresh, new experience from playing as a feudal region in Crusader Kings II, players adopt the role as the head, or Patrician, of one of the great merchant families of medieval Europe: Venice, Genoa, Pisa, Gotland and the Hansa. Build trade posts and expand your mercantile empire by controlling the sea-lanes and coasts of Europe... and defend it against rival Patricians, Republics and greedy feudal lords.
Check out the launch trailer:
Crusader Kings II: The Republic is out now from all major digital download portals for $9.99. Patch 1.09 for Crusader Kings II has also been released today.
Next, armies are on the move in new March of the Eagles video developer diary. March of the Eagles is a strategy wargame set in the turbulent Napoleonic Wars. You can lead any of the dozens of European powers in a quest to establish yourself as the most dominant power on land and sea. Take control of any one nation of Europe in this geopolitical barfight, dispatch armies and envoys, raid supply lines, form coalitions and get with the times, already.
Published on the official forums, these developer diaries gave details on the major nations, the art of Napoleonic combat, the subtle game of diplomacy and how to master the seas among other topics. Read all the March of the Eagles developer diaries here.
Now the development team has released their first video developer diary. This three minute video shows the map changing through seasons and other on screen action as Designer Chris King walks you through the finer points of the supply system in March of the Eagles. Learn how this two tiered model of feeding and arming your troops can lead to difficult decisions about what to build and where to expand.
With its early 2013 release soon upon us, it is time to learn all you can about the field of battle and how to keep your armies from wasting away on the Russian steppe.
Things to do
I know not all alternate historians like steampunk, but here is something that should make everyone happy. The guest of honor for Steamcon V (Oct 25-27, Bellevue, WA) is none other then S.M. Stirling! He is the author of one of my favorite alternate history books The Peshawar Lancers, which does not get enough credit as a steampunk work...until now.
Meanwhile, Tor has come up with a good list of steampunk conventions in case you are interested in learning what the big deal is with this whole literary/aethstetic movement. Apparently IBM thinks its a big deal (more tomorrow on that story).
Interested in a little magic? Kim Harrison will be doing a book tour for her new novel Ever After, the 11th book in the Hollows series. You can find the full details from Harper Voyager.
Have fun!
Call for Submissions
Two new announcements for the past-oriented writer. First, the award winning dynamic duo, Ann & Jeff VanderMeer, have put out a call for stories for the Time Traveler’s Almanac a time travel anthology. Deadline is Feb 28 and the word count max is 10,000.
Then we have something fun for the people who like the pillage and plunder on the high seas. Kerlak Publishing is looking for pirate stories between 2k and 9k words. Deadline is June 15.
New Releases Paperback The Nanking War by Ryan McCall
The Nanking War is a work of alternate history, a scenario that would lead to the Japanese atrocities at Nanking being even more exposed to the world at large and leading to a war by the western powers to aid China against Japan.
E-books
Barbarossa Reloadedby A non
An alternative military history of the war on the Eastern Front in Russia in World War Two.
Rink Rash by James Desborough
After the a-bombs dropped at the end of WWII the world was shattered. A rock-and-roll post-apocalypse emerges from the glowing ashes and with it a new sport, a violent version of roller derby.
Shadows Will Fall: The Spear of Destiny: Part Three of Three by Trey Garrison.
Part Three of three in The Spear of Destiny, the steampunk, horror, alternate history, action-adventure series set in a 1920s where the Nazis have begun their subjugation of the world using the occult, advanced science, and a holy relic with awesome powers.
Something In The Blood by M, J. Kukla
It’s Halloween night 1943 and Hollywood’s original vampire Bela Lugosi is alone and broke and involved in yet another badly written vampire movie. Lugosi longs for his days of glory as a star of Broadway and film and decides the only way back is to find his old friend and "Dracula" director Tod Browning, a Wes Craven-style film director, who disappeared mysteriously from Hollywood in 1939.
Audio
Dawn Crescentby David Dvorkin
In 1991, at the beginning of Desert Storm, the defeat of American forces at the battle of Khafji is the signal for a broad and bloodily successful anti-Western uprising. In this alternate history, America faces endless war in the Middle East, a resurgent Soviet Union, and growing tyranny at home.
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 andThe 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.
