Weekly Update #139

Editor's Note

I wanted to post my next entry in my World War I series last week, but with so much information coming in from NPR and Evans' article on counterfactuals I decided to postpone it so I can absorb all this new information. Don't worry, I still got plenty of great content on the way including some fun interviews and coverage on some World War I themed games.

As a reminder, you can support The Update's mission on providing the best news and reviews on alternate history by buying stuff through Amazon. Just click on the banner on the top right corner of the blog before you do so. You get to buy what you were going to buy anyway and we get to wet our beak a little in the process.

And now the news...

The Reviews Are In For 300: Rise of an Empire

Last week, 300: Rise of an Empire, sequel to the Frank Miller adaptation 300, was released. This  fictionalized retelling of the Battle of Salamis has done well at the box office, ensuring more sword and sandal films in the future. Whether that is a good or a bad thing, I leave up to the personal opinion of the reader. My personal opinion, strongly influenced from my viewing of The Immortals, is that it would be a a bad thing.

I will be honest: I don't have any intention of seeing this movie. Although I enjoyed 300 when I first saw it, the movie has not aged well for me. Luckily, several reviewers I respect have seen it for me and have shared their opinion of the flick on the Internet. Lets see what they had to say...

Let's start with the good:

• Matthew Stienberg: All in all though the film is really satisfying and I couldn't have enjoyed it more. I'd heartily recommend it to anyone who wants to see a damn good action film.
• The Man from Singapore: Go see it- I liked it but it could have been so much better.

And now the bad:

• Matthew Quinn: Great concept, but it didn't live up to its full potential. It's a good movie to see--at the dollar theater. (Check out his supplemental post on the film and the Athen state.)
• Sean Korsgaard: [I]t lacks the heart, the guts or the glory of the real deal, and ultimately betrays everything that made the previous film stand out.

So my hand picked reviewers are split on the film. What do you think?

Map Gallery

Now we will look at my three favorite maps of last week. First we have a beautiful map of sketchdoodle of the Brooke Kingdom of Sarawak & Sabah:

Not only is this a well drawn map, I like that it focuses on a part of the world often forgotten by alternate historians (except when the Japanese occupy it).

Next we have a world map from long time contributor Sean Korsgaard focusing on his Communist Confederacy timeline:

Great to see you producing more content for this world, Sean.

And we finish our trio of alternate history maps with a curious scenario featuring this 20th century Poland-wank by Zauis:

What I like about this wank is that it is quite believable. In this universe the Nazis do better against the Soviets, but still lose the war. The Soviets are confined to their 1939 border and a capitalist Poland is left in better shape to build a Eastern European coalition against the Soviets and any attempts by Germany (which I assume is not split in this timeline) to reclaim their old borders as well.

Submit your maps to ahwupdate at gmail dot com for a chance to be featured on next Monday's Weekly Update.

Video Gallery

And now the video portion of our weekly newsletter. First up, the book trailer for William Shakespeare's Star Wars: The Empire Striketh Back! by Ian Doescher:

If the trailer convinced you to pick up a copy, don't forget to click the link above to get it from Amazon. Next up, Cracked wants to inform you about the six myths you probably believe about the American Revolution:

Admittedly they over-simplified some of the reasons for the Revolution and completely ignored the fact that the French and Indian War was just another name for the Seven Years' War. If you want my take on the American Revolution, check out 6 Common Mistakes Every American Revolution Alternate History Makes.

Finally we end this week's video gallery with another video from friend of The Update Cody Franklin. He has the sequel to his what if the Soviets won the Cold War video:

Calendar

March 26: Jeff Greenfield will speak about his book If Kennedy Lived: The First and Second Terms of President John F. Kennedy: An Alternate History at the Clay Center in Charleston during the West Virginia University David C. Hardesty, Jr. Festival of Ideas.

April 1: Registration rates for Detcon1, the 2014 North American Science Fiction Convention, will go up.

Links to the Multiverse

Books and Short Fiction

“B-36”by Douglas W. Texter – Free Story Extract at Alt Hist.
Choosing A Favorite Historical Period by Miles Cameron at Bookworm Blues.
Egypt rules half the world in alternate history ‘three princes’ at Pop Mythology.
Excerpt: THE IRON JACKAL by Chris Wooding at SF Signal.
The Golem and the Jinni is a powerful masterpiece of historical fantasy by Andrew Liptak at io9.
Reaching back into the past to write the alternative present by Alison Morton at Alive on the Shelves.
Review: Then Will the Great Ocean Wash Deep Above by Ian Sales at UpComing4.Me.
Silk Road Fantasy and Breaking the Great Wall of Europe by Paul Weimer at SF Signal.
Table of Contents: THE CUTTING ROOM: DARK REFLECTIONS OF THE SILVER SCREEN Edited by Ellen Datlow at SF Signal.
This map describes the world of George Orwell's 1984—or does it? by Lauren Davis at io9.

Comics

Comic Review: Legenderry — A Steampunk Adventure at Amazing Stories.
The 5 Most Pointless “What If” Comics of All Time by Diana at Geek Pron.

Counterfactual/Traditional History

7 Utopias that Changed the Future by Annalee Newitz at io9.
10 Hardcore Female Military Leaders from History by Dan Wohl at The Mary Sue.
Best of Beyond Apollo I by David SF Portree at Wired.
British Jews in the first world war: spirit of the Maccabees by Adam Foulds at The Guardian.
Crowdsourcing Counterfactuals: NPR Asks: What If World War I Had Never Happened? by Gavriel D. Rosenfeld at The Counterfactual History Review.
The Latest Hitler Counterfactual: What If Hindenburg’s Last Will and Testament Had Come to Light? by Gavriel D. Rosenfeld at The Counterfactual History Review.
Really? Richard Evans Thinks Counterfactual History Is a "Waste of Time?" by Gavriel D. Rosenfeld at The Counterfactual History Review.

Films

Chrononaut script teaser by Zach Lipovsky at Vimeo.
Max Brooks' Harlem Hellfighters Graphic Novel Will Go To War For Sony by Nick Venable at Cinema Blend.

Interview

Mary Robinette Kowal at The Sword and Laser.
Jason Sharp at Three Cents Worth.
Dusty Wallace at Three Cents Worth.

Television

Elementary: Season 2, Episode 18. The Hound of the Cancer Cells at Thinking about books.
Syfy Greenlights 6-Hour Mini-Series ‘Ascension’ by Stuart Conover.
Revolution 2.16: The Manchurian Post-Blackout Patriot at Paul Levinson's Infinite Regress.

* * *

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 #138

Editor's Note

I like to remind readers that this is a blog about alternate history, not secret history, conspiracy theories, ancient aliens or other pseudo-histories. Alternate history deals with changes to history as we know it, for example, JFK surviving his assassination.

Those other types of histories only deal with different reasons for why history happened the way it did. So to use my JFK example again, a conspiracy theorist might suggest someone other than Lee Harvey Oswald killed Kennedy, but Kennedy will still be dead. His death will lead to LBJ, the Civil Rights Act, the Great Society, escalation in Vietnam, etc. Knowing the "truth" doesn't change the events of history, only our understanding of it.

Nevertheless, speculative fiction often uses secret history, conspiracy theories, ancient aliens or other pseudo-histories to tell a story. Alternate history fiction, is no exception, and while we may at times touch on these subjects, they are not in the same category as alternate history and thus should not be treated the same.

And now the news...

New Release: Emilie and the Sky World by Martha Wells

Last week Emilie and the Sky World by Martha Wells, the sequel to Emilie and the Hollow World, was released. For those who don't know, here is the description from Amazon:

When Emilie and Daniel arrive in Silk Harbor, Professor Abindon, an old colleague of the Marlendes, warns them that she’s observed something strange and potentially deadly in the sky, a disruption in an upper air aether current. But as the Marlendes investigate further, they realize it’s a ship from another aetheric plane. It may be just a friendly explorer, or something far more sinister, but they will have to take an airship into the dangerous air currents to find out. 

Emilie joins the expedition and finds herself deep in personal entanglements, with an angry uncle, an interfering brother, and an estranged mother to worry about – not to mention a lost family of explorers, the strange landscapes of the upper air, and the deadly menace that inhabits the sky world. 

Paul Weimer reviewed the book for SF Signal and said it was "[a] sequel that provides an entertaining second visit to Wells’ world and strengthens some of the weaknesses of the first novel." Pretty decent review for Sky World. If you would like to learn more check out Martha Wells' interview at Stellar Four and, as always, if you have read either of the books, let us know in the comments below or submit the review to be posted on The Update!

And don't forget if you are thinking of buying this or any other book, please click through the Amazon banner at the top right and put some wind in The Update's sails.

War of the Vikings Confirms Incoming Invasion on April 15

Real quick!

Paradox Interactive has confirmed the release date for War of the Vikings, the upcoming close combat game developed by Fatshark. War of the Vikings, currently available as a Steam Early Access title, will be fully released on April 15, 2014.

For more information, you can visit warofthevikings.com.

See, I told you it would be quick.

Map Gallery

Map time! First up, a map by Future8 inspired by current events where every host nation of the Winter Olympics invades a neighbor two weeks after the closing ceremony:

Wow, that was a lllloooonnnnggg one. Anywho, our next map is a balkanized North America from a new map maker to AH.com, EliBarrowBoy, that I thought was just really well done and featured a few twists on the old trope:

Finally we finish this week's map gallery with the winning entry to Europa Universalis's most recent Alternate History Friday: The Might of Japan (and Ukraine looks to be doing good as well)!

Submit your maps to ahwupdate at gmail dot com.

Video Gallery

Time now for some videos. Up first we have another video from Friend of The Update, Cody Franklin of the Alternate History Hub. This is the second alternate countries video he has created and though some of the countries showcased can be silly, I think you will enjoy it:

Next up, I have recently become a fan of Cinema Sins, a YouTube channel where popular movies are mercilessly dissected. They had two movies torn apart this week that I think alternate historians will enjoy. First is the most historically inaccurate film of all time, 300:

There have been a lot of 300 related stuff last week now that the sequel, 300: Rise of an Empire, is in theaters. I have decided, however, not to write anything on it until the next Weekly Update. If you are still interested though, here is a review of the film from The Philippine Star.

The second video this week from Cinema Sins featured a brutal review of this fan made film set in the Indiana Jones universe called Indiana Jones & The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull:

I mean that was a fan made film right? The one with the Harrison Ford look alike? I mean there is no way a talented director like Spielberg would attach his name to something that bad...he wouldn't...would he?

Calendar

March 24: Last day to fund Steampunked Time Machine - The Mad Scientist's Card Game on Kickstarter.

March 25: Last day to fund Alternate Hilarities on Kickstarter.

March 28: Last day to fund Ripples in the Chalice on Kickstarter.

April 1: Last day to fund Cranky Ladies of History anthology on Pozible.

April 20: Last day to fund World War Cthulhu: A Collection of Lovecraftian War Stories with Illustrations on Indiegogo.

April 26: Friend of the Update, Chris Nuttall, will be at AuthorCon UK at the Elsewhen Press table.

May 11: Series premiere of Penny Dreadful on Showtime.

Links to the Multiverse

Books and Short Fiction

1636: Commander Cantrell in the West Indies – Snippet 01 by Eric Flint.
Altered America: Cover and Contents by Martin T. Ingham at Three Cents Worth.
Cover Reveal for Cherie Priest’s Maplecroft at Tor.
Gideon Smith and the Brass Dragon – Tor catalog copy by David Barnett at Postcards from the Hinterland.
Guest Post: Peter Higgins, author of Woflhound Century and Truth and Fear at My Bookish Ways.
History and science fiction theme to debut children's novel by Su Carroll at Western Morning News.
Steampunk Gorillas by Maeve Alpin at Steamed!
Tansy Rayner Roberts on “Cranky Ladies” at SF Signal.
What is Steampunk? And why I love it. by John Stanton.
Writing Historical Fantasy: Guest Post by Barb Galler-Smith at Suzenyms.

Counterfactual/Traditional History


5 Badass People Who Stood Up to Infamous Dictators by Pat Carnell and Eric Yosomono at Cracked.
5 Near Deaths That Would Have Changed the Face of History by Jacopo della Quercia and Matthew Moffitt at Cracked.
Counterfactual Constructions by Eve Bachrach at Boom.
Fur flies over 16th century 'rocket cats' warfare manual at The Guardian.
Let’s play the Niall Ferguson First World War Counterfactual Game by Jonathan Boff at Thoughts on the First World War.
Were the Spartans truly the greatest warriors of all time? by Esther Inglis-Arkell at io9.
Why a Nuclear Ukraine is an Empty Counterfactual by Anton Strezhnev at Casual Loop.

Films

6 Things Movies Don't Show You About Being an Archeologist by Robert Evans and Hadas Levine at Cracked.
‘300: Rise of an Empire’: Ancient history becomes fantasy-action movie by Brylle B. Tabora at Philippine Daily Inquirer.
Could You Travel Through Time Like They Do in Movies? by Kevin Carr at Film School Rejects.
H.P. Lovecraft Describes the Unspeakable Things He Witnessed in the Star Wars Films by Zack "Geist Editor" Parsons at Something Awful.
Let’s Unpack Zack Snyder’s Ugly, Mean-Spirited Terry Gilliam Slam by Jason Bailey at Flavor Wire.

Games

Call of Cthulhu: The Wasted Land Slithers on to Steam by Casey Douglass at Geek Syndicate.
Yes, This Nazi-Killing Video Game Hero Was Of Jewish Descent by Stephen Totilo at Kotaku.

Interview

Everett Maroon at Diversity in YA.
Ramona Wheeler at The Qwillery.

Podcasts

Dissecting Worlds: Series 8, Episode 3 ‘RPGs and Religion’ at Geek Syndicate.
Episode 180: Kelley Eskridge, Nicola Griffith, Hild, historicity and genre… at The Coode Street Podcast.

Reviews

Divide by William Overgard at Other Times.
Dominion by CJ Sansom at JulzReads.
Elementary 2.16 and 2.17 at Thinking about books.
Homeward Bound by Harry Turtledove at Geekbrarian.
Revolution 2.15 at Paul Levinson's Infinite Regress.

Televisions

BBC’s Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell by Noel Green.
Get Ready for Revolution's Dreamcatcher Episode with Featurettes and Clip by Erin Willard at SciFiMafia.com.
Sitcom Counterfactuals: Episodes from "The Big Bang Theory" and "Community" by Gavriel D. Rosenfeld at The Counterfactual History Review.
Steampunk on the Runway by Ray Dean on Steamed!

* * *

Matt Mitrovich is the founder and editor of Alternate History Weekly Update and a blogger on Amazing Stories. Check out his list of 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 #137

Editor's Note

Wow a lot of things to get through this week. Please bear with me.

First, thank you so much for making February The Update's second most viewed month. We ended the shortest month of the year with 15,912 page views (our highest was last June with 22,031 page views). I can't express how grateful I am for the support you guys have shown this tiny blog. Hopefully I can continue to live up to your expectations and surpass that record in March.

Speaking of surpassing those expectations, I am planning a multi-series of posts covering World War I alternate histories to commemorate the 100 year anniversary of the start of that tragic war. It will be somewhat in the style of my popular 6 Common Mistakes Every American Revolution Alternate History Makes article, but instead of just talking about mistakes, I will be breaking down all the different scenarios that alternate historians have created around the war. I hope you enjoy it and if you have any suggestions of your own, or would even like to participate with your own submission, let me know at ahwupdate at gmail dot com.

I am wrapping this editorial up with another thank you to those who bought books from Amazon through this blog. Its a start to my dream of making this blog self-sufficient and for those who haven't tried it yet, it is an easy way to support your favorite alternate history blog without having to cough up the extra cash. If you are already planning to buy a book, comic, game, film, etc., why not click on the banner at the top right before making your purchase? You get what you were already planning to buy and we wet our beak a little, which allows me to make The Update an even better place for alternate historians.

And now the news...

RIP Aaron Allston

It is with a heavy heart that I announce the passing of author Aaron Allston, who died on February 27 of heart failure. Andrew Liptak wrote a very moving article where he described Allston as "friendly, excited to meet fans and happy to talk with us about the characters and stories he constructed."

Allston, who was born on December 8, 1960, was an American game designer and author best known for his many novels set in the Star Wars Expanded Universe. As a child I consumed many Star Wars books, but Allston was always my favorite author in the universe. His novel Starfighters of Adumar is still my favorite Star Wars book and one of the few I kept after I purged my collection. Its combination of action and humor made it an enjoyable read and probably the only tie-in novel I ever read more than once.

This is, however, an alternate history blog and I would be remiss not to mention Allston's contribution to the genre. According to Uchronia, Allston wrote two alternate history novels (Doc Sidhe and Sidhe-Devil) set in the same universe where thousand of years ago Earth separated into a "dark" and "fair" world. Our Earth was the dark world, while the fair world is ruled by magic. Sadly, both books are out of print and links to them on the Baen Free Library are not working.

Allston, thank you so much for the adventures you took me on as a kid. I will never forget them.

Wolfenstein Demo is Review by Gamers

Although it is not coming out until May, Bethesda's alternate history shooter Wolfenstein: The New Order is already getting praised by game reviewers who have played the demo. Set in the 1960s where the Nazis won World War II, The New Order is the next installment in the long running Wolfenstein series, which lets you blast Nazis to your heart's content.

Enough introduction, what are the reviewers saying about the demo? Brian Albert at IGN said: "It seems like a solid shooter with lots of action and fun stealth mechanics. The story, while generic in some aspects, seems too concerned with shoving a gun into your hands to let some of its finer moments breathe." That is a tad disappointing for me, since I am story driven person in general, but Phil Hornshaw at Game Front had a better opinion of the story saying it "tells an affecting story, while leaning on the best of the past and what works from the present." Although he sort of passes over the part where Nazi technology unexpectedly spiked and thus allowed them to be victorious. Didn't someone else already try that?

Michael Rougeau from Complex Gaming probably summed up the game the best by saying: "It's hard to say at this point whether The New Order will turn out to be a beloved retro throwback to old school shooters with modern production values (the guitar-heavy music in particular seems promising)—or a linear mess of different play styles and themes that makes little sense and ultimately goes nowhere." Hopefully it does go somewhere as the genre could use a good alternate history game. Those interested in learning more about The New Order can check out these screenshots from Yahoo.

Map Gallery

I love maps! Mappy mappy maps! (Editor's Note: I was on my fourth cup of coffee when I wrote this.) Enjoy our first map from Goldstein featuring all of the world's irredentist claims fulfilled:

Next we have a curious map from Errnge showing early British settlement in Virginia, along with the borders and claims of the local Native American tribes:

We finish the week with a map from Thanksforallthefish showing what happened to Argentina in the Fallout universe:

Send your maps to ahwupdate at gmail dot com for a chance to be featured in the next Weekly Update!

Video Gallery

This week in videos we begin with The 11 Most Badass (American) Presidential Facts from Cracked:

We follow that up with a honest trailer from perhaps the most historically inaccurate film of all time, 300:

And to round off the week, here is the book trailer for The Time Traveler's Almanac:
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Okay, Blogger is being ridiculous and is not letting me embed the video (a video on a platform that owned by the same parent company as Blogger). Sigh, just click on this link to see the video.

Perhaps its time I migrate The Update somewhere else...

Calendar

March 5: Gail Carriger at WORD Bookstore, Brooklyn, NY.

March 7: Last day to fund Thom Pratt's Shadowbinders Kickstarter.

March 7-9: Wild Wild West Steampunk Convention in Tucson, AZ.

March 12: Gail Carriger begins participating in the Twitter Fiction Festival.

March 21-23: Gail Carriger will be Guest of Honor at ConDor, San Diego, CA.

July 31: Last day to submit your story to the Kayelle Press alternate history anthology.

Plus, check out these steampunk events happening in March, cataloged by the good people at Tor.

Links to the Multiverse

Articles

Anachrocon Reorganizes Amid Controversy Surrounding Chairman at Steampunk Chronicle.
Poll: what should the British flag look like if Scotland goes independent? at The Guardian.
Swedish Neo Nazis Invade Ukraine by Stephen Green at PJ Media.
Why I’m all into Regency right now by Carrie Vaughn at Filling the Well.
World's longest aircraft is unveiled in UK by Richard Westcott at BBC.

Books and Short Fiction

Alt Hist Issue 6 Published – just about! by Mark Lord at Alt Hist.
The dystopia of 1984 is no longer relevant by Annalee Newitz at io9.
Gideon Smith and the Brass Dragon – the US cover by David Barnett at Postcards from the Hinterland.
On Hild, Female Readers of Genre Fiction, and Not Being Game of Thrones by Zan Romanoff at The Toast.
PRUDENCE: THE CUSTARD PROTOCOL BOOK 1 by Gail Carriger Gets a Cover at SF Signal.
PUNKTOWN by Jeffrey Thomas Gets Reissued With a New Cover at SF Signal.

Comics

Dynamite Announces Historical Fantasy Blood Queen With Fritz Casas and Sparkshooter’s Troy Brownfield at ComicBook.com.
Top Ten Superhero-Free Dystopian Comics by PipedreamerGrey at SF Signal.

Counterfactual/Traditional History

9 Terrifying Urban Legends From Victorian London at BuzzFeed.
Alexander the Great’s success depended on the fact that the Persian Empire was there for the taking at Isegoria.
America's first settlers were trapped in Beringia for 10,000 years by George Dvorsky at io9.
The audacious rescue plan that might have saved space shuttle Columbia by Lee Hutchinson at Ars Technica.
Five “unusual” amendments that never made it into the Constitution by Scott Bomboy at Yahoo.
Footsteps to Mars by David SF Portree at Wired.
How Germany and Japan Could've Won (Part I and Part II) by Miguel Faria at Real Clear History.
Maps Show the Long History of Nicaragua’s Canal Dreams by Greg Miller at Wired.

Films

Bryan Singer Discusses Sentinels, Quicksilver, and Time Travel From the Set of ‘X-Men: Days of Future Past’ by Russ Fischer at Slash Film.
The Ending to A Terry Gilliam Version of Watchmen is... Well, It’s Different? by Emily Ahser-Perrin at Tor.
Incredible Concept Art From The Most Amazing Sci-Fi Movie Never Made by Jordan Kushins at Gizmodo.

Games

A Beautiful 1880s Geography Game for the "Rising Generation" by Rebecca Onion at Slate.
Classic 90s RPG Mutant Chronicles Returns, with Demons and Megacorps by Ed Grabianowski at io9.
Ironclad Tactics Now At MGS at Inside Mac Games.
Medieval Warfare Is Better With Giants by Gergo Vas at Kotaku.
Witches, Wise Women, and Widows: A Cultural Look at Viking RPG The Banner Saga by Becky Chambers at The Mary Sue.

Interviews

Lauren Beukes at SLiP.
Martha Wells at Stellar Four.

Reviews

The Anubis Gates at The Skiffy and Fanty Show.
Jazzpunk at Joystiq.
Revolution 2.14 at Paul Levinson's Infinite Regress.
V-S Day by Allen Steele at Tor.
The Wind Rises at The Denver Post.

Television

Battling Super Sleuths: The Awkward Case of Elementary, Sherlock, and Building the Better Adaptation by Emily Asher-Perrin at Tor.
'Heroes: Reborn': We are never, ever getting back together. Probably. by Jeff Jensen at Entertainment Weekly.
Ripper Street Saved in Deal Between BBC and Amazon at Geek Syndicate.
Sci Fi Time Travel Project COLLIDER Gets Emmy Nomination by Christophe Montoya at Geek Syndicate.
‘Vikings’ blends history, mythology into fantasy drama by Kimberly Henrickson at Student Life.

* * *

Matt Mitrovich is the founder and editor of Alternate History Weekly Update and a blogger on Amazing Stories. Check out his list of 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 #136

Editor's Note

Hey everybody, I got some great news. In my quest to improve the quality of the content and appearance of The Update, I have come to the stark realization that I need money to realize my goals. I have tried to do this in the most unobtrusive way possible, but my current model of generating revenue just isn't cutting it.

Luckily, changes to my home state's laws mean that the Amazon Affiliate program has once again been reinstated in Illinois. What does this mean? I have formed a partnership with Amazon to share revenue from products purchased through The Update. So if you click on the banner at the top right or one of the Amazon links embedded in an article and then purchase the book/comic/game/etc., The Update will share a small piece of the sale.

The good news is no one is under any obligation to buy anything they already weren't planning to buy. If you are going to buy something, however, please click on the banner or links you find here on The Update and support our mission to bring the best possible alternate history news and reviews to the Internet. If I make enough money off this I hope to invest it in a writing staff, a new domain main, new original fiction, books for monthly giveaways and more.

So please, if you see something you like, click on the Amazon links and help support Alternate History Weekly Update.

And now the news...

Rush and BOOM! Studios think big with Clockwork Angels comic

BOOM! Studios announced the March debut of a comic book version of Clockwork Angels by Kevin J. Anderson. Based on the band Rush’s concept album of the same name, Nick Robles will be the interior artist and Hugh Syme will be the cover artist.

“Rush is one of our all-time favorite rock bands here in the office, so we immediately jumped at the chance to work on Clockwork Angels,” said BOOM! Studios Editor-in-Chief Matt Gagnon. “The icing on the cake is that author Kevin J. Anderson is somebody we've always wanted to work with, so this is an all-around thrill. Mr. Anderson and Mr. Peart have brought us a breathtaking story that illustrator Nick Robles has beautifully visualized.”

For those who don't know, here is the description of tClockwork Angels from the press release:

Owen Hardy, like all the people of Albion, has lived his whole life under the rule of The Watchmaker. His entire life has been planned down to the exact second. But what happens when a young boy decides that things should not always goes as planned?

Clockwork Angels #1 arrives in comic shops on March 19th, the four-year anniversary of the album’s initial announcement by the band members, with a cover price of $3.99. The first issue will ship with two variant covers including a subscription cover and a retailer incentive. ECW Press will release the paperback version in May.

Now I have talked about Clockwork Angels a lot in the past, but are you looking forward to seeing it adapted into a comic book? Let us know in the comments below.

Age of Shiva is James Lovegrove’s newest Pantheon novel

James Lovegrove's Pantheon series, which spawned the "Godpunk" genre, will draw to a close with Age of Shiva. The final book in the series will be released by Solaris on March 26 in the US and Canada; and April 10 in the UK.

Set in a world where the Hindu gods hold sway, here is the description from the press release:

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

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

The Guardian has described the Pantheon series as being: “[t]he kind of complex, action-oriented SF Dan Brown would write if Dan Brown could write”. Wow, what a sick burn on Dan Brown. But do you think the series is as good they say? You know the deal, leave a message in the comments.

Vampires, Ghosts and Lady Detectives in Chuck Miller’s Vionna and the Vampires

Author Chuck Miller, creator of The Black Centipede, has a new novel from Pro Se Productions for those who enjoy pulpy, mash-ups: Vionna and The Vampires: Moriarty, Lord of the Vampires. Here is the description from the press release:

Vionna Valis and Mary Jane Kelly are a pair of hard working psychic detectives experiencing a run of bad luck. A new detective agency, the Femmes Fatales, is taking most of their business. Things seem to change for the better in the form of a new client named Scudder Moran, a wealthy young man with a unique problem; He has been targeted by the very, very late Professor James Moriarty—the Napoleon of Crime in another century, now Lord of the Vampires! 

Vionna and Mary find themselves in the middle of a case where everything is both improbable and impossible. How will they find their way to the truth? Unexpected help arrives in the ghostly person of the Great Detective himself, and they set about unraveling a tangled web of lies and secrecy that reaches deep into each of their lives. Can they find the light before Moriarty unleashes his final, most horrific scheme?

“Chuck Miller,” says Tommy Hancock, Partner in and Editor-in-Chief of Pro Se Productions, “is by far one of the most unique talents in Genre Fiction today. He takes the staples and standards of several different types of stories and doesn’t just mix them together. Somehow he intricately weaves usually disparate parts into the wildest trip on fiction I think any reader has ever taken. The Black Centipede stands out as a vastly distinct character from the rest of his masked cohorts and You’ll most definitely discover that Vionna and her cast of cohorts shine in their own deliciously dark way as well.”

Vionna and the Vapires will be the first volume in the Moriarty, Lord of the Vampires trilogy and is currently available where books are sold.

Map Gallery

In today's Map Gallery we begin with a fan map of the Stargate universe by Heisenberg. Specifically when the nations of the world joined the Stargate Program:

Next up I have my first map from the Alternate History Wiki to feature. It is a map of the Mayan Empire from the Principia Moderni II Map Game posted by CourageousLife that I just thought looked really cool:

We finish up with a very curious map from the webcomic Stand Still, Stay Silent. Don't know much about the story, just saw the map at AH.com and thought it looked neat. Enjoy:

If you would like to submit a map to our weekly Map Gallery, email me at ahwupdate at gmail dot com.

Video Gallery

Alright, we have a lot of videos to get through. Fist up we have another video from my new favorite YouTube channel, the Alternate History Hub. This week we learn how the world would be different without Nintendo:

Stay tuned for an interview with the channel's creator, Cody Franklin, that I hope to post this week. Next up, ever wonder how they make the sound effects in Europa Universalis:

Now on to meat of this Video Gallery. Two important video game trailers came out last week. First, the PlayStation horror game The Order: 1886 released two new videos. We begin with their new trailer:

And we follow that up with some gameplay and other info on the game:

Finally we wrap this gallery up with the new Wolfenstein: The New Order trailer:

Any other videos you would like to recommend? Let us know at ahwupdate at gmail dot com.

Calendar

March 1: Membership rates to join Loncon 3, the 2014 World Science Fiction Convention, will increase.

March 1: Last day to fund the Zeppelin Attack! Kickstarter by Fred Hicks / Evil Hat Productions.

March 11: Last day to fund the Delta Green: Tales from Failed Anatomies Kickstarter by Arc Dream Publishing.

March 15: Last day to fund the That Ain't Right: Historical Accounts of the Miskatonic Valley Kickstarter by Jeremy Zimmerman.

March 15: Last day to fund the Storms of Lazarus Kickstarter by Karen Kincy.

March 31: Last day to enter the Southern Cross: Annuit Coeptis giveaway on Goodreads. (And don't forget to check out my review.)

Links to the Multiverse

Articles

Author (Harry Turtledove) tells tale of alternate history by Wes Higgins at The Oracle.
Brief History of Mexican Steampunk at Merenarios de DIOS.
Satellite Earth by Zadokofpavis at Alternaties Corporation.
Steampunk, Dieselpunk and Stereotype Threats at Anachrocon!' at Chronicles of Harriet.
Time travellers: please don’t kill Hitler by Dean Burnett at The Guardian.
Writers’ Workshops – Find one that works for you by Fran Wilde at Apex.

Books and Short Fiction

Alt Hist – Latest News by Mark Lord at Alt Hist.
Altered America: New Cover Reveal by Martin T. Ingham at Three Cents Worth.
Apex Magazine submissions update by Michael Matheson at Apex.
Cover Reveal for Jay Lake’s The Last Plane to Heaven at Tor.
PERFIDITAS joins INCEPTIO as a B.R.A.G. Medallion honoree! by Alison Morton.
Peter Higgins on Alternate History of the Disreputable Kind at SF Signal.
Table of Contents: STEAMPUNK WORLD Edited by Sarah Hans at SF Signal.
Table of Contents: THE WORLDS OF PHILIP JOSÉ FARMER 4: VOYAGES TO STRANGE DAYS Edited by Michael Croteau at SF Signal.

Counterfactual/Traditional History

3 Supervillain-Worthy Origin Stories of Famous Presidents by Daniel O'Brien at Cracked.
African Samurai, Tom Cruise, and Bloody Swords: What You Didn't Know About Japan's Famous Warrior Class by Matt Staggs at Suvudu.
How WWI shaped the 20th century and beyond by Angus Mackinnon at Yahoo.
Indian history textbooks claim Japan nuked the United States in 1945 by Charlie Jane Anders.
Thinking About Historic Preservation by Bailey Bradford at Making History.
Wait, they had a word for that? 1811 Slang by Gail Carriger.
What H.G. Wells Got Wrong When He Predicted the Atomic Bomb by Charlie Jane Anders at io9.
Who’s Afraid of a Counterfactual (Part II)? What if Leningrad Had Surrendered to the Nazis in World War II? by Gavriel D. Rosenfeld The Counterfactual History Review.

Films

6 Conspiracy Theories That Inspired Sci-Fi and Horror Movies by Ryan Lambie at Den of Geek.
Trailer for 'Jodorowsky's Dune' Gives a Peek of One of the Craziest Movies Ever Proposed by Max O'Connell at Indiewire.

Interview

Dan Lind at Matchsticks for my Eyes.
Daniel Suarez at Publishers Weekly.

Reviews

The Adjacent by Christopher Priest at Thinking about books.
Invention of Love at Steampunk.com.
Fiddlehead by Cherie Priest at Amazing Stories.
Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld at Chaos Theory.

* * *

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 #135

Editor's Note

Still having trouble reaching my goal of five articles a week. My job has been extremely busy this week as my firm has just brought on some highly successful real estate attorneys and clearing them through conflicts has been a nightmare. What I really need is a contributing blogger. Someone who can submit articles on a regular basis to help fill in the gaps. But how do I encourage someone to volunteer for such a role?

Well...I actually have a small budget to pay for a staff writer. I am thinking either a flat rate per article or a few cents per word deal. Nothing in concrete yet, but if you are interested, shoot me an email at ahwupdate at gmail dot com. Since I am creating a position out of thin air here, I am willing to consider any and all proposals as long as they meet the subject matter of the blog.

And now the news...

Coming Soon: The Enceladus Crisis by Michael J. Martinez

Friend of The Update, Michael J. Martinez, was in the news a lot last week. Although his next book The Enceladus Crisis (sequel to The Daedalus Incident) does not come out until May, already review copies are being sent to the usual SF sites. For those who don't know about The Enceladus Crisis, here is the description from Amazon:

Two dimensions collided on the rust-red deserts of Mars—and are destined to become entangled once more in this sequel to the critically acclaimed The Daedalus Incident. 

Lieutenant Commander Shaila Jain has been given the assignment of her dreams: the first manned mission to Saturn. But there’s competition and complications when she arrives aboard the survey ship Armstrong. The Chinese are vying for control of the critical moon Titan, and the moon Enceladus may harbor secrets deep under its icy crust. And back on Earth, Project DAEDALUS now seeks to defend against other dimensional incursions. But there are other players interested in opening the door between worlds . . . and they’re getting impatient. 

For Thomas Weatherby, it’s been nineteen years since he was second lieutenant aboard HMS Daedalus. Now captain of the seventy-four-gun Fortitude, Weatherby helps destroy the French fleet at the Nile and must chase an escaped French ship from Egypt to Saturn, home of the enigmatic and increasingly unstable aliens who call themselves the Xan. Meanwhile, in Egypt, alchemist Andrew Finch has ingratiated himself with Napoleon’s forces . . . and finds the true, horrible reason why the French invaded Egypt in the first place. 

The thrilling follow-up to The Daedalus Incident, The Enceladus Crisis continues Martinez’s Daedalus series with a combination of mystery, intrigue, and high adventure spanning two amazing dimensions.

Paul Weimer of SF Signal said in his early review of the novel that it "manages to improve on the first in significant ways but doesn't quite leap to the next quantum level." Still he did give it 4 out 5 stars, so I will take that as a recommendation. Those wishing to learn more about Michael can check out his interview over at the Functional Nerds and, for those aspiring authors out there, check out his original query letter to Michael's agent to find out what a successful query letter looks like.

Update: Nemo: Heart of Ice by Alan Moore

Alan Moore has a new entry in his successful League of Extraordinary Gentlemen series. Titled Nemo: Heart of Ice, here is the description from SF Signal:

Moore revisits the world he created in The League of Extraordinary Gentleman in a new book, Nemo: Heart of Ice, which focuses on Janni Dakkar, daughter of Captain Nemo, and her trek across Antarctica to prove herself by recreating Nemo’s own Antarctic expedition. Moore draws from several sources, including H.P. Lovercraft, to create a dark and mysterious continent full of dangers and madness. As a character, Janni feels the weight of the Nemo name and legacy set squarely on her shoulders, and struggles throughout the book to come to terms with that.

Patrick Hester (of SF Signal Podcast fame) reviewed the comic for Kirkus and said "[f]ans of Moore's League will enjoy the book as an addition to the bigger universe, but for me, it fell a little flat. I wanted something more." So a disappointing review for someone like me who has read several books from the series, but I am still likely to read this one. What do you think?

Solaris commission Paul Kearney novel

Jonathan Oliver, commissioning editor of Solaris Books, has commissioned The Wolf in the Attic, a new historical fantasy novel by Paul Kearney. The novel is set in early 1930′s Oxford and features well-known fantasy authors JRR Tolkien and CS Lewis as characters. It is told from the point of view of a lonely, Greek refugee girl who one day discovers a Romany boy in her attic. The boy is a shape-shifter, and becomes her friend. The two begin to explore the world around Oxford, discovering things they never imagined existed. The girl, Anna, is obsessed by the Odyssey, and likens the Romany boy, Luca, to Odysseus. Here are the author’s thoughts:

“This story has been rattling around in my head for a long time. The genesis of it was a visit to Turkey some years ago, when I saw the magnificent ruins at Ephesus. I knew the ancient history of Asia Minor quite well, but its more recent reincarnation as Turkey was pretty much a mystery to me, so I started reading into it. The one event that really stuck in my mind during my research was the sack of Smyrna in 1922, a ghastly, shameful catastrophe that the world has completely forgotten about. The more I read about the forced exodus of the Ionian Greeks, the more I felt I wanted to say something about them. But how? I put the idea to one side.

“Then, several years later I went back to Oxford for the first time in almost two decades. The place I had known as a teenager was both similar and jarringly different to the memories I had been holding on to, and I had the oddest sense of being dislocated, ghost-like, remembering places and things that no longer existed. That powerful, stubborn mental grasp of a place that was no longer there in some respects made me think about the tenacity of memory, and the way it can mislead and deceive.

“Finally, back at home, I was simply walking the dogs along the beach, and the character of Anna  came to me in a rush. All those dislocated and disparate factors seemed suddenly to mesh, and I had the heart of a story unlike any other I’ve ever tried to tell.”

The novel will be published in autumn 2015. The agent was John Jarrold, and the deal was for UK/US rights.

Map Gallery

Only two maps caught my eye last week. The first is from one of my favorite timelines on AH.com, "A Crack at Draka" by Municipal Engine. That timeline's Great War has just concluded and here is what the world looks like in 1914:

Finally we have a non-AH map, but one I found highly amusing. It is a fan map by "theantilove" featuring the location where every animated Disney movie was set:

Which map did you think was the best? Let us know in the comments below.

Video Gallery

Got some good videos this week. First up, a curious gem I found through Unleash the Fanboy called Project Arbiter which has been described as a "diselpunk Captain America":

Next up is the weirdest "-punk" I have ever featured on The Update. Watch Adam and Joel from Rooster Teeth infiltrate Jazzpunk:

And now our gallery closes for the week with another episode from my new favorite alternate history channel, the Alternate History Hub, simply titled "What if the United States Lost the Revolution":

Know of any other videos alternate historians will enjoy? Let us know in the comments below.

Calendar

February 18-19: Harry Turtledove visits the University of South Florida for a reading, book signing and an  interdisciplinary discussion of alternate history.

March 31: Deadline to submit to Resurrection House's short fiction anthology.

July 17-20: The North American Science Fiction Convention (NASFiC), is held in years when the World Science Fiction Convention (Worldcon) is held outside of North America. This year it will take place in Detroit, Michigan and will be known as Detcon1.

Links to the Multiverse

Books

The Michael Moorcock Collection: An Inside View by John Davey at Gateway.
Read the first 4 chapters. Obsidian Eyes by @AWExley #steampunk at The Masquerade Crew.
Which Gideon Smith Character Are You? by David Barnett at Postcards from the Hinterland.

Comics

Bendis & Oeming Offer First "United States of Murder Inc." Details by Albert Ching at CBR.
GRAPHIC NOVEL PREVIEW: Madame Frankenstein at Geek Syndicate.
​How do you make World War II worse? Add royalty with superpowers by Rob Bricken at io9.
NEWS: Watchmen, Sandman, Chu, Russia and the Clown-Shoes of Cthulhu by Neil Gaiman.

Counterfactual/Traditional History

Alternate Great Lakes by Sean Sherman at Other Times.
Democrats, Media Slam President Romney Over Health Care Law Changes by Charles C. W. Cooke at National Review Online.
Game of Thrones looks like a sideshow next to these real historic events at New.com.au.
Hitler's Secret Science by Alex Michael Bonnici at Far Future Horizons.
The Road Not Taken: It may seem like Alex Rodriguez was destined to be a baseball villain, but he very nearly wasn’t by Rany Jazayerli at Grantland.

Films

What if the Nazis Had Destroyed Paris? Volker Schlöndorff's New Film, "Diplomacy" by Gavriel D. Rosenfeld at The Counterfactual History Review.

Games

Hearts of Iron IV has learned from CKII and EUIV by Mike Holmes at Gamereactor.

Interviews

Eleri Stone at My Bookish Ways.
Lavie Tidhar at Amazing Stories.
Lynn Viehl at The Qwillery.
Harry Turtledove at Eating Authors.

Podcasts

Writing Excuses 9.6: The Experience of Time at Writing Excuses.

Reviews

11/22/63 by Stephen King at SF Signal.
Code Red at Technology Tell.
Dimensions at Paul Levinson's Infinite Regress.
Sherlock 3.3 at Thinking about books.
The Shining Girls by Lauren Beukes at Bookworm Blues.
V-S Day by Allen Steele at Locus Online.

Television

History's Most Famous People Re-Imagined as Weapons by Richard Eisenbeis at Kotaku.
What if “Doctor Who” Was an American Show? at Geeks are Sexy.

* * *

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.