New Releases 6/25/13

Paperback

Cold Steel by Kate Elliott

Description from Amazon.

The fantastic conclusion to the Spiritwalker trilogy!

Trouble, treachery, and magic just won't stop plaguing Cat Barahal. The Master of the Wild Hunt has stolen her husband Andevai. The ruler of the Taino kingdom blames her for his mother's murder. The infamous General Camjiata insists she join his army to help defeat the cold mages who rule Europa. An enraged fire mage wants to kill her. And Cat, her cousin Bee, and her half-brother Rory, aren't even back in Europa yet, where revolution is burning up the streets.

Revolutions to plot. Enemies to crush. Handsome men to rescue.

Cat and Bee have their work cut out for them.

The Miss Education of Dr. Exeter by Jillian Stone

Description from Amazon.

From steam-powered bunkers to steamy boudoirs, paranormal detective Phaeton Black knows his way around Victorian London. But sometimes, when you slip down a rabbit hole, there's no turning back. . .

If The Portal's A-Rockin'

Phaeton Black is missing. Sucked into an alternative universe--courtesy of Professor Lovecraft's Trans-Dimensional Injection Portal--the illustrious investigator is nowhere to be found. Even the bewitching Miss America Jones, who's pregnant with Phaeton's child, has no clue to his whereabouts. But when a spy fly's microphone picks up Phaeton's voice in the parlors of Paris, she enlists his dearest friends to track him down--before his deadliest enemies find him first. . .

Don't Come A-Knockin'

Accompanied by the dashing Dr. Exeter, his delightful ward Mia, and a trusty duo of Nightshades, it's off to the City of Lights for the determined Miss Jones. Unfortunately, there is something about Paris in the fall that brings out the devil in Dr. Exeter--and the beast in mild-mannered Mia, whose animal urges transform her into a gorgeous panther. With physical reality unraveling on both sides of the cosmic rift, the good doctor must extract Phaeton Black from the clutches of a diabolical techno-wizard--or both could lose the women they love to love. . .forever.

E-book

The Summer Isles by Ian R. MacLeod

Description from Amazon.

Winner of the World Fantasy Award and the Sidewise Award for Alternate History: A pastel-hued yet chilling alternate vision of England, The Summer Isles views the nightmare that the country has become since Germany’s victory in the Great War, through the eyes of a man whose life lies close to the heart of history

In 1918 the Allies were defeated. A closeted gay teacher, Griffin Brooke has witnessed the monumental changes his nation has undergone since being crushed by Germany’s superior fighting forces twenty-two years earlier. First came the financial collapse and crippling inflation, then the fascist uprising in the thirties that brought John Arthur to power. Now, in 1940, England has resurrected itself—but at a terrible cost. With homosexuality decreed a serious crime against the state by the dictator who was once his most avid student, Griffin has remained silent while England’s gay population has mysteriously dwindled . . . along with the nation’s Jews.

But in the twilight of his years, elevated to the role of tutor in an Oxford college, Griffin is getting anxious. Thinking back on a life lived in shadow—and on his one great love affair with a young soldier during the height of the Great War—Griffin knows that revealing a secret he has guarded for decades could have devastating consequences for Britain, the world, and especially for the fascist tyrant Arthur, who cites his former teacher as a mentor and major influence.

Wake Up and Dream by Ian R. MacLeod

Description from Amazon.

Winner of the Sidewise Award for Alternate History: Nineteen-forties Hollywood is dazzlingly transformed and recreated in this alternate history fantasy noir about former screen actor–turned–private eye Clark Gable who investigates a deadly conspiracy in a neo-fascist Tinsel Town

In a different 1940, with Europe in flames and an anti-Semitic America creeping towards fascism, movie making has been revolutionized: A wondrous technological advancement made possible by the discovery of the Bechmeir field now transmits actors’ emotions directly into the minds of the audience—effectively ending the acting career of a cynical loner named Clark Gable.

No longer a handsome screen idol, Clark now makes his living as an unlicensed matrimonial private eye. When gorgeous April Lamotte contacts the low-rent gumshoe, he sees a golden opportunity to make some quick and easy cash. All he has to do is impersonate April’s wealthy,reclusive screenwriter husband, sign a contract for a new biopic, and then slip back into the shadows. But when someone tries to assassinate Clark and pass it off as a suicide, he realizes he’s gotten too deep into something deadly. And as more and more of the Hollywood elite start turning up dead, Clark must race to uncover the shocking truth behind the Bechmeir field’s origins, and expose a terrible secret that someone’s all too willing to kill for.

To fans, authors and publishers...

Is you 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.

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Matt Mitrovich is the founder and editor of Alternate History Weekly Update and a blogger on Amazing Stories. His new story "The Enchanted Bean" can be found in Once Upon a Clockwork Tale from Echelon Press. When not writing he works as an attorney, enjoys life with his beautiful wife Alana and prepares for the inevitable zombie apocalypse. You can follow him on Facebook or Twitter.

Interview: Ian R. MacLeod

I now present my interview with multiple Sidewise Award winning author Ian R. MacLeod:

Can you tell us a bit about yourself?

I’m from Birmingham, England, and grew up wandering the suburbs, reading SF and listening to prog rock when both were still thought pretty cool. In a way, I’m still recovering from these two obsessions. I always rather fancied being a writer. That, or a footballer, or a musician. But I was rubbish at both.

What got you interested in alternate history?

My early experience in reading SF broadened into liking many kinds of fiction, but one of my all-time favourite books remains Pavane by Keith Roberts. If any you haven’t read this masterpiece, which is one of the great works of post-war English fiction, you really should. Changing history seemed to me to be a way of turning a key into a strange and wonderful world, whilst leaving the door open to the characterisation, atmosphere and detail that you more often find in mainstream fiction. Nowadays, I don’t think “I’ll write this as an alternate fiction”. More that it’s a tool to finding something that I want to express and exploring an interesting and challenging world.

What is Wake Up and Dream about?

It’s set in the USA, and to a degree it’s about American fascism, just as my previous Sidewise-award winning novel The Summer Isles was about English fascism. In neither case were any invading Nazis, or much goose-stepping, involved. The setting is early 1940s Los Angeles, and the main character is a down-at-heel unlicensed private eye called Clark Gable. The guy once nearly made it as an actor, but a new technology called the "feelies", which essentially allows emotions to be recorded and transmitted for the purposes of entertainment, got in the way. Essentially, it’s a noir-ish Los Angeles conspiracy thriller with some wondrous science or supernatural mystery (you can really take your pick) thrown in.

How did the Liberty Party came to be in Wake Up and Dream?

The USA in the 30s was in political turmoil. There was a serious plot by senior Wall Street figures to overthrow Roosevelt because his New Deal was considered too "socialist" and put up some kind of unelected "national unity government" - this is well-documented. Then there's eugenics, and there was still black/white segregation in public places in many states. The nice new housing developments which were going up in places like Los Angeles had clear "no blacks and no Hispanics" policies. Oh, and have I mentioned the Klu Klux Klan? With all of this, and more, the idea of a right wing party taking a step towards electoral respectability, and in particular playing on staying out of the war in Europe in the hope that the Nazis would deal with communist Russia, was an easy step to take.

How easily do you think it is for a nation to swing that way politically?

It's when people start looking around from someone else to blame when things start to go wrong. Which can happen anyway, as it's really nothing but human nature writ large.

What inspired you to write the novel?

Partly, it was the idea of the feelies themselves. Although it doesn’t really happen that way, it makes a kind of sense to imagine we pick up basic feelings, from lust to anger to excitement to love, when we’re nearby others. Hence love at first sight. Hence the behaviour of crowds. So, I wondered, how would it work if these feelings could be recorded, and then replayed? The LA setting, once you start thinking in terms of the entertainment industry, seemed pretty obvious. Hardly new for this kind of thing, but the layering and approach of my book is, I hope, fresh and inventive. I love thrillers, and then, the idea of writing about something through the eyes of Clark Gable… who wouldn’t want to have a go at that?

What sources were particularly helpful when researching for the novel?

There’s a book called the A to Z of Los Angeles by two guys called Pitt, which was a very useful reference. That, and The Whole Equation, a History of Hollywood by David Thompson. And all those old black and white movies, and The Player by Michael Tolkin, which is one of the great Hollywood novels. Then, I have to say, Google. If I wanted to see a particular street, I could click right to it. Of course, things have changed since the 1940s, and my world’s an alternate one. So if reality got in the way, that wasn’t an insuperable problem.

Who designed the cover?

Ben Baldwin. That took a while to get right, but Ben was very receptive and imaginative, and I’m pleased with the result.

How did it feel to win the Sidewise Award again?

Well, I’ve been lucky enough to be nominated for and win quite a few awards over the years. But I’ve come to expect not to win, or be nominated, for the awards I might reckon a piece of mine could have a chance with, and to occasionally win awards which I’ve already decided I’m obviously not going to get. I’ve had SF awards and nominations for horror stories, fantasy awards for SF stories… You name it. Not that I’m complaining, of course. So, I was pretty proud of what I did with Wake Up and Dream. But, seeing as it really is an alternate history novel (although it’s other things as well) I was chuffed and surprised in about equal measure when it won the Sidewise Award.

Do you plan to write any sequels to Wake Up and Dream?

The end of the book, although things are wrapped up, does leave that door ajar, if not fully open. I don’t like repeating myself, but we’ll see — especially if people start money at me to do so!

Do you have any other projects you are working on?

Yeah — first of all, there’s a young adult novel which I’m currently looking for some beta-testing readers for. It’s called Lisa Moon and the Leonardo Timepiece. So, any adults and/or young people who are at all curious should get in touch and I’ll happily send them an extract with no strings attached other than a hope for a little feedback. Here’s the link to the contact page on my site, so just mail me through that to let me know...

Otherwise, I’m also at work on a big, dark, history-spanning vampire novel. Seeing as I don’t honestly believe in vampires, who are essentially magical beings, there are probably a few threads of alternate history in there as well.

Since you are working on vampire novel, have you read any of the Anno Dracula series by Kim Newman?

You've just reminded me that I should!

What are you reading now?

I’m just finishing The Sick Rose by Erin Kelly — a more than decent psychological thriller. That, and I greatly enjoyed White Bicycles by Joe Boyd — Boyd was an important figure in the British music scene in the 1960s, and also remembers enough to be able to write about those times.

Do you have advice for would-be authors?

Talent matters far less than application and drive. Most writers I've talked to agree that you do probably need some basic linguistic skills and a willingness to think a little outside the box, but the rest comes from wanting to write and get published to a stupid extent. When I get rejection slips (and, like almost all writers, I still do) my reaction is, somehow, to want to write something else, or improve on what I've already done. You really have to be determined and give it your all. Not that that’s going to get you fame and riches, but it might just get you a little noticed by someone else, somewhere out there in the big, wide, world.

I agree completely with wanting to write more after getting a rejection letters. I still have a few rejection letters saved in an email folder. Do you remember your first rejection letter?

Yeah - it was from The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. A standard one, when I was about 15, but the did have a nice colour print of a cover on the far side, which I was a neat touch.

Review: Wake Up and Dream by Ian R. MacLeod

Guest post by Kieran Colfer.

Hollywoodland, 1940. The age of the "Talkies" is over. Just like talking pictures replaced the silent movies, the talkies have been replace by the "Feelies", a new breakthrough in cinema technology. Meanwhile, war clouds are gathering in Europe, while at home an unpopular President Rooselvelt is facing a new challenge by the new far-right Liberty Party. Down-on-his-luck actor-turned-private-investigator Clark Gable has just been given a a rather strange case by a woman whose husband, a famous but reclusive screenwriter, has disappeared. Instead of finding him however, his job is to impersonate him and sign a contract for his latest film. Piece of cake, right? You know what they say though about jobs that look too good to be true....

The AH aspect of Wake Up and Dream by Ian R. MacLeod (winner of the for 2011 Best
Long-Form Alternate History Sidewise Award)  is quite subtly worked into the narrative. After an initial "setting the scene", the first half is the sort of pure detective story that any fan of Elmore Leonard, Raymond Chandler or James Ellroy would be familiar with. For me, not being a fan of this genre, this is the one part of the novel that dragged a bit, but things pick up again once the "conspiracy" starts to be revealed - why was Daniel still doing research when the screenplay was already written, and what is "thrasis"?

Gradually a world slightly different from ours starts to be revealed, how the movie empires we are familiar with have crumbled, and how life is great for a white man in California, but no so great if you're black, Jewish or Hispanic. Along the way we get to meet some other familiar former Hollywood icons as minor characters, like "Howie" Hughes, the maintenance man in the local lunatic asylum. We also get to see an interesting side to the actor's (or former-actor's) personality: how easy it is to go from the verge of stardom to complete obscurity, and how the lines between the actor and the character they are playing can sometimes become blurred. And as things build up to a climax, there are some nice plot twists that will keep you in the dark until right up to the end. Is there an element of the supernatural behind all this? Is up to you to figure out.

All in all, this was an enjoyable read, although there was one element in it I would have liked to see a bit more of. In the novel, we see an America cheerfully sleep-walking itself into fascism, but there's no mention of where the Liberty Party came from, or how it got to be as big as it is. Its use in the narrative as just something everyone knows about already is well worked in, but it does leave you (well, me anyway) wanting to know more about it. Maybe there's another novel there?

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Kieran Colfer is a member of the AH Weekly Update Review Team.