Weekly Update #157

Editor's Note

So it looks like I will once again fail in my goal to read all of the Sidewise nominated works before the awards are announced. I just was unable to read 1920: America's Great War by Robert Conroy in time. O well it happens. Perhaps I will get to it eventually and if Conroy wins I will especially make an effort to read and review it.

Thanks again to everyone who buys through Amazon by clicking on our banner. We don't receive much from Amazon, but every little bit helps us continue to bring the best alternate history news from across the Internet.

And now the news...

Cosmonaut Anatolii Artsebarskii to appear at Loncon 3 

Those interested in the history of space exploration will be please to hear that former cosmonaut Anatolii Pavlovich Artsebarskii will be attending Loncon 3 and has agreed to participate in the program. He will speak on Sunday, August 17th.

Born on September 9, 1956, Artsebarskii was the commander of the Soyuz TM-12 mission in 1991. He flew it to the Mir space station with crew Sergei Krikalev and British astronaut Helen Sharman, and spent a total of 144 days in space. Artsebarskii carried out six spacewalks, with a total time of more than 32 hours, most of which was spent building the Sofora space tower onto Mir's engine control module.

Artsebarskii and Krikalev were in orbit during the attempted Soviet coup in August 1991. He also holds the awards of Hero of The Soviet Union, Pilot-cosmonaut of the USSR, the Order of Lenin, and the medal "For accomplishments in exploration of outer space".

And if you are interested in the alternate history of space exploration, may I recommend Ian Sales' "Adrift on the Sea of Rains", "The Eye with Which the Universe Beholds Itself" and "Then Will The Great Ocean Wash Deep Above" (all of which I reviewed).

Out Now: Necropolis by Chris Nuttall

Friend of The Update Chris Nuttall has a new book out. It is called Necropolis and its the third book of the Royal Sorceress series. Here is the description from Amazon:

The British Empire is teetering on the brink of war with France. A war that may, for the first time, see magicians in the ranks on both sides. The Royal Sorceress, Lady Gwendolyn Crichton, will be responsible for the Empire’s magical resources when the time comes. Still struggling to overcome prejudice within the Royal College of Sorcerers, she has at least earnt the gratitude of much of the aristocracy, if not their respect. Just when Gwen needs to be firmly focussed on training new sorcerers, her adopted daughter Olivia, the only known living necromancer, is kidnapped. Her abduction could signal a terrible new direction in the impending war. But Intelligence soon establishes that it was Russian agents who took Olivia, so an incognito Gwen joins a British diplomatic mission to Russia, an uncertain element in the coming conflict. Once she has arrived in St Petersburg, she discovers that the Tsar is deranged and with the help of a mad monk has a plan that threatens the entire world. 

Immediately following on from ‘The Great Game’, ‘Necropolis’ sees Gwen thrust into the wider international arena as political unrest spreads throughout Europe and beyond, threatening to hasten an almighty conflict. Once again Christopher Nuttall combines exciting fantasy with believable alternate history that is almost close enough for us to touch.

Videos for Alternate Historians

Only one video this week per se. Its a review of the WWI action-adventure game Valiant Hearts done by History Respawned:

However it did remind me that Yahtzee of Zero Punctuation fame did an earlier review that I never showed you before:

Still very cool that someone made a video game about World War I.

Links to the Multiverse

Books

1636 The Viennese Waltz – Snippet 10 and 11 by Eric Flint.
The Baskerville Affair by Emma Jane Holloway at The Qwillery.
Eric Brown on the exploration of change in steampunk at A Fantastical Librarian.
The Mechanical – the stunning new Ian Tregillis novel at Orbit.
This Month's Book Pick ~ Clockwork Heart by Dru Pagliassotti by Gail Carriger.
The Story Behind Hild by Nicola Griffith: Freed by Constraint at Upcoming4.Me.
Up Now–Necropolis (The Royal Sorceress III) by Chris Nuttall at The Chrishanger.

Counterfactuals, History and News

Can an Independent Kurdistan Reshape the Middle East? by Jonathan Foreman at Newsweek.
Ron Rosenbaum on Whether the Holocaust Would Have Happened Without Hitler by Gavriel D. Rosenfeld at The Counterfactual History Review.
The Weirdest Micronations That Have Ever Existed by Vincze Miklos at io9.

Film and Television

10 Alternate Versions Of Characters That Were Better Than The Originals by Charlie Jane Anders at io9.
Check Out These Incredible Unused Jurassic Park Posters by John Alvin at IGN.
STARZ "Outlander" combines genres in a satisfying mash-up by AK Easton at Examiner.com.
Stunning Concept Art From The Battlestar Galactica You Never Saw by Charlie Jane Anders at io9.
Undead: ‘Pride And Prejudice And Zombies’ Resurrected With Lily James, Sam Riley, Bella Heathcote To Star by Nancy Tartaglione at Deadline.

Games

80 Days is the Alternate-Reality, Anti-Colonialism Adventure We All Deserve by Jess Joho at Kill Screen.
Dwarf NORAD: A Glimpse of Counterfactual Computing History by Peter Christiansen at Play the Past.

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Matt Mitrovich is the founder and editor of Alternate History Weekly Update and a blogger on Amazing Stories. Check out his short fiction. When not writing he works as an attorney, enjoys life with his beautiful wife Alana and prepares for the inevitable zombie apocalypse. You can follow him on Facebook or Twitter.

World Premiere of Theatrical Production of Tim Powers' The Anubis Gates at Loncon 3

The stage adaptation of The Anubis Gates by Tim Powers will premier at the ExCeL Exhibition Centre in London's Docklands this August at this year's Loncon 3, the 72nd World Science Fiction Convention. Check out the trailer here.

The Philip K Dick Award-winning novel is to be performed by Current Theatrics, a theater company based in Las Vegas and New York. According to the press release, the play features ancient Egyptian wizards, modern American magnates, holes in the river of time, Horrabin the Clown's puppet show, werewolf-like creatures, cheeky urchins, and California literature professors, not to mention famous Romantic poets Lord Byron, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and William Ashbless. It is set mainly in London in 1810 but spans 200 years of time jumping. See more of the plot summary on Wikipedia.

The Las Vegas-based cast have been in rehearsal since Tim Powers approved the project in December 2013. The six-member cast comprises Erik Amblad, JJ Gatesman, Brandon Oliver Jones, Johnny Miles, Ariana Helaine, and Geo Nikols, all of whom are playing several roles - a task made easier by the novel's story line, which involves body switching.

Now a flight and hotel stay in London is a little to rich for this blogger's blood, but if any of our readers are going to check it out, let us know.

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Matt Mitrovich is the founder and editor of Alternate History Weekly Update and a blogger on Amazing Stories. Check out his short fiction. When not writing he works as an attorney, enjoys life with his beautiful wife Alana and prepares for the inevitable zombie apocalypse. You can follow him on Facebook or Twitter.

Weekly Update #115

Editor's Note

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.

Well Mike has been busy promoting his novel across the interweb. He was interviewed over at Skiffy and Fanty and wrote a guest post at John Scalzi's blog. Mike also has wrote some interesting articles on his own blog about Daedalus ranging from why he thinks August 13 was the true release day and how difficult it is to find his book in bookstores. Go check it out!

Loncon 3 is Less Than a Year Away

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!"

Calendar

August 20-21: See a steampunk version of Macbeth at Fort Lee, NJ.

August 23: Last day to fund Reality Check by Chris Buchal Kickstarter.

August 23-24 and 30-31: See a steampunk version of Romeo and Juliet at Ringgold, GA.

September 14: Last day to fund Amerika by Historical Board Gaming Kickstarter.

October 31: Angry Robot takes over Forbidden Planet’s London Megastore.

Links to the Multiverse

Articles

1636: The Devil’s Opera by Eric Flint – Snippet 34.
The Alternation of Rome by Alison Morton.
Atlanta ranks No. 1 for steampunk by Jackson Reeves at Atlanta Magaine.
James Lovegrove Defines Godpunk at SF Signal.
Read the Book Inspired by Total War: Rome II by Matt Farr at Geek Syndicate.
Story Idea: The Tesla Colonies by Alfonso Posadas Jr. at SciFi Ideas.
Take Five With Liesel Schwartz, Author 'A Clockwork Heart' by Matt Staggs at Suvudu.
Ten Things I’ve Learned Since I started Writing Steampunk And Venturing into the Steampunk Community by Cindy Spencer Pape at Steamed!
TOC: “The Time Traveler’s Almanac” Edited by Ann VanderMeer and Jeff VanderMeer (Plus: US and UK Covers!) at SF Signal.
A Very Merry Blog Tour Is Beginning by Matt Quinn at The World According to Quinn.

Book Reviews

After Earth by Peter David at Thinking about books.
The Aylesford Skull by James Blaylock at Steampunk Scholar.
The Draka Series by SM Stirling at Amazing Stories.
The Woken Gods by Gwenda Bond at SF Signal.

Comics

Grant Morrison claims Alan Moore secretly killed the Joker in 1988 by Rob Bricken at io9.

Counterfactual History

A 1909 Plan For Superfast Elevated Transit Between LA and SF by Adrian Glick Kudler at Curbed.
An Alternate History Of Fenway Park by Rick McNair at Bosox Injection.
Filling In New York City Rivers Was A Popular Idea In the 1800s by Jessica Dailey at Curbed.
Fun Maps: Neu-York – What if Germans had conquered Manhattan in WWII? by Zoe Mendelson.
L. A. Counterfactual: How the City's Architectural Development Might Have Been Different by Gavriel D. Rosenfeld at The Counterfactual History Review.
Rare documents unveiled by State Library of NSW showing Spanish quest to find Australia by Sally Block at ABC News.
What If? A Counterfactual SOMA Portfolio by Michael Fleming, Deborah Leonard, Grant Long, and Julie Remache at Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
Would the Nazis Have Gone to the Moon? by Ray Villard at Discovery News.

Games

Jukebox Heroes Extra: A chat with City of Steam's composer by Justin Olivetti at Massively.
The Order: 1886 preview – God Of War dev rewrites history to sex up Victorian London at PlayStation UK.
Paradox still the grand master of grand strategy with Europa Universalis IV (review) by Jason Wilson at Gamesbeat.

Interviews

Major Jack Union at Geek Syndicate.

Television

The Ultimate Guide to this Fall's Science Fiction and Fantasy TV! by Charlie Jane Anders at io9.

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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.