New Covers for Matthew Quinn's Picking Up Plans in Palma and The Beast of the Bosporus

Matthew Quinn has informed me that there are two new covers for his alternate history short stories. First up, here is the updated cover for "Picking Up Plans in Palma":

And here is the updated cover for "The Beast of the Bosporus":

Both covers were designed by Alex Claw, who also designed the original covers. Quinn said he decided to change the covers because he "wanted something more detailed" and calls the new covers "significantly improved over the older ones." What do you guys think about the new covers? Let us know in the comments.

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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.

Freedom, Tyranny, and Technology: The Message of the Afrikanerverse

Guest post by Matthew W. Quinn.

Hey everybody, it’s Matthew W. Quinn again. I’m taking advantage of a recent opportunity afforded by our friend Mr. Mitrovich to discuss my alternate history spy tale, “Picking Up Plans In Palma.”

I’ve got a friend who is rather more zealous in religion than me who once said every work of fiction has a message. I strongly disagree with him on this issue, since I never wrote any of my short fiction with the intention of making a point.

(Okay, “The Beast of the Bosporus” is basically “don’t mess around with things beyond human comprehension,” but most Lovecraftian stories have that due to the nature of the beings involved.)

However, “Picking Up Plans In Palma” is the one exception thus far. The Afrikanerverse in which it is set began as a challenge to create a cold war between the U.S. and an Afrikaner power in the vein of S.M. Stirling’s Draka, so this world is ultimately a homage to the Drakaverse. However, like many others, I had plausibility issues with the Drakaverse. One of the biggest ones is how a society in which 90% of the people are chattel slaves (and most of those are illiterate) can equal or exceed a coalition of free societies, even after the enormous non-Draka “own goal” that was the Eurasian War.

Imagine if American slavery lasted another generation. George Washington Carver’s career as an inventor would have been greatly stunted if ever got off the ground in the first place (his former masters educated him but if they ran into financial trouble he might’ve ended up sold south and working in a field somewhere) and both the USA and the world would be so much poorer for it.

Although the Afrikaner Confederation does not practice slavery, “better than the Confederacy” is damning with faint praise. The die-hard colonialists of Rhodesia limited secondary education for blacks, while for much of its history apartheid South Africa provided blacks with only the education to do menial jobs. The education system in the Jim Crow South similarly failed to develop the talents of the African-American population and successful blacks risked victimization up to and including lynching by jealous whites, which no doubt contributed to the South’s endemic poverty. Though the Confederation’s black underclass is not as grotesquely impoverished as in our world’s South Africa or Mississippi, the same issue remains (and also applies to the Indian lower castes and the Southeast Asian peasantry, also under Afrikaner rule).

On top of not developing (when not actively repressing) the full potential of its non-whites, the later Confederation makes the same mistake (to a much lesser degree) with the white female population. Due to the influence of the Theonomic Party (modeled on Christian Reconstructionism), there comes a fair bit of cultural pressure against women seeking careers and even higher education. This prompts journalist Katje de Lange (lover of “Palma” protagonist Connor Kelly) to immigrate to the United States, thus enriching the Confederation’s great rival at the Confederation’s expense. That reminds me of a quote from the Ottoman Sultan Bayezid II on the “wisdom” of Spain’s expelling of the Jews.

(Amy Chua wrote a whole book, Day of Empire, on the economic benefits of ethnic, religious, etc. tolerance. I recommend reading it.)

The result of all this is that the Confederation stagnates while the United States prospers, especially in the exploitation of space. This ultimately results in the nuclear war depicted in my short story “Coil Gun” (available as part of Pressure Suite: Digital Science Fiction #3) that bloodies the U.S.-led League of Democracies but completely destroys the Confederation and its traditionalist allies.

So if this gets into “too long, didn’t read” territory, here’s the gist. Limiting the opportunities for education and advancement of part of your population (be it in the name of an economic system that only benefits part of the supposed ruling class or a misinterpretation of religion) is shooting your community or your country in the foot, if not dooming it outright.

Review: Picking up Plans in Palma by Matthew Quinn

Guest post by Sean Korsgaard.

We've reviewed a number of author and fellow blogger Matthew Quinn’s stories in the past, and for those of you who, like myself, have developed a taste for his tales, we have a treat for you. Hot on the heels of his last AH story set in his Afrikanerverse, "Coil Gun", today I’m taking a look at the his next, "Picking up Plans in Palma".

While the back story and alternate history of the Afrikanerverse is a long and interesting one, the short version is that a radical Calvinist and staunchly traditionalist state centered in Southern Africa founded in the late 1500s has expanded to include much of the Indian Ocean rim, and is locked in the midst of an intense Cold War with the United States. The year of the story is 1998, and is a tale of international espionage set deep within the Afrikaner Confederation.

American OSS Agent Conner Kelly, following some scandal caused by his bosses finding out he’s in a relationship with an Afrikaner political refugee, is sent on a dangerous mission in the heart of enemy territory. The mission? To recover plans for the Afrikaner’s newest orbital battle station, and escape with them back to friendly soil. Of course, like all spy games, the stakes are high, the odds are long, and the obstacles between Kelly and a clean getaway are both numerous and dangerous. Kelly will have to evade and overcome everything from sadistic secret police to predatory river sharks if he wants to make it home in one piece – with the awareness that if he does, he’ll have upset the balance of the ongoing Cold War in a critical way.

If "Coil Gun" was a tale of World War III waged in space, masterfully capturing the tension and horror of unleashing orbital bombardment on ones enemies with the push of a button, "Picking up Plans in Palma" is a taut spy-thriller that captures the cloak and dagger affairs that proceeded it, all the while dropping hints at the horrific conflict to come. In addition, much more than "Coil Gun", we get our first wider glimpses of the Afrikanerverse itself, on a personal level with the thoughts and concerns of Agent Conner Kelly, and a street view of the Afrikaner Confederation, which thanks to several marvelous little details throughout the story, we get our first real glimpses into its inner workings and national character, always a highlight of any alternate history story.

If there’s any complaint to be had it’s that I really wish this could have been fleshed out into a full novella – not only does it have the makings of a solid spy story, but there is a real lack of such espionage thrillers in the alternate history genre. Still, the short length doesn't hinder the story, through it certainly leaves you wanting more – hopefully we’ll see more from the Afrikanerverse in the near future, especially if we can join Conner Kelly on his next misadventures.

As we should have come to expect from Matthew Quinn by now, once again, we have a solid short story at an absolute steal of a price – if you’re a fan of spy thrillers or alternate history, this is a must buy, and if you’re curious about Quinn or the Afrikanerverse, this comes highly recommended. All in all, "Picking up Plans in Palma" is a potent short story I urge you to pick up yourselves!

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Soldier, scholar, writer and web-voyeur, Sean CW Korsgaard has been active in the alternate history community since 2006, and was recently elected to succeed Mitro as President of the Alternate History Online Facebook group. In addition to his contributions at the Alternate History Weekly Update, he writes for several websites, including his own, which can be found here.

The Good and Quirky: Alternate History from AH.Com

Guest post by Matthew Quinn.

Over the years I've collected links to interesting scenarios from AH.com’s discussion forum. As part of my Very Merry Blog Tour, I’m bringing them to you.

Pre-1900

Europe of the Three Empires-The Roman Empire does better when it’s united, conquering Germania and the entirety of Britain. Although it still splits on east-west lines, both survive in the long run, with the west competing with a unified Russo-Scandinavia for North America while the east expands into Africa and the Middle East. Not a lot of specific details, but a lot of interesting concepts.

Basicilius Sicilia-Instead of becoming Holy Roman Emperor, Frederick II the “Stupor Mundi” uses Sicily as a springboard for establishing a Mediterranean empire. The consequences include the Venetian Republic incorporating Constantinople as a sister city, a surviving Angevin empire, and the Byzantine successor state of Trebizond reconciling with the Nestorian heresy and adopting cannon from Nestorian Mongols.

An Age of Miracles: The Revival of Rhomanion-Many historians believe the Fourth Crusade inevitably doomed the Byzantine Empire. The author posits that had one of the post-Byzantine statelets had an emperor born without epilepsy, he could have taken down the Latin Empire of Constantinople a generation early and begun a conquest of Asia Minor from the Muslim Turks. And things get more interesting from there. Notable for having its own TVTropes page and lots of “Lord of the Rings” jokes. [Editor's Note: See Sean's showcase of the same timeline.]

Post-1900

Guam-FDR has Guam fortified during the 1930s and it becomes a bone in the throat of the Japanese Empire in the aftermath of Pearl Harbor. For want of a nail indeed.

Anglo-American-Nazi War-Due to some better early decisions, the Nazis manage to knock the Soviet Union out of the war in 1942-43. It’s now up to the Western Allies to liberate Continental Europe. It’s incredibly detailed and very, very dark. The author said his goal was to show just how awful the Nazis would have been if they’d won. It’s 315 pages. The complete scenario is in the Timelines and Scenarios forum if you want to skip the discussions.

How Silent Fall The Cherry Blossoms-The Japanese use aircraft-carrying submarines that in our history weren’t finished on time to drop plague bombs on Los Angeles in 1944. The resulting epidemic leads to Hitler making some different decisions. Highlights include elaborate plots by Emperor Hirohito to make peace with the United States behind the backs of his fanatical War Cabinet, an early start to the Civil Rights movement, and some very nasty Nazi technological toys.

Whiskey on the Rocks: The Soviet-Swedish War of 1981-Think Sweden is a weak Scandinavian social democracy the Great Soviet Bear could push around? Think again. I didn’t think the Swedes could stand a chance against the USSR, but the author makes a strong case that they could.

Able Archer 83-In our history, although the Able Archer military exercise frightened the Soviets into a higher level of alert, nothing happened. In this timeline, the Soviets decide to strike first. The amount of detail is fascinating.

Lines In The Sand: A History of the Gulf War-Saddam Hussein goes to war a month later, goes straight on into Saudi Arabia after conquering Kuwait, and has Yemen attack Saudi Arabia from the south. In order to defend its oil supplies the United States has to fight the ground war without six months to build up and then six weeks to flay the Iraqis from the air. And Osama bin Laden gets involved…

Quirky

These weren’t as grand as the others, but they’re quite original.

(Partially) Wiccan Tibet-There were some discussions about what neo-paganism might look like in a society with little influence from the Abrahamic religions. I challenged board members to come up with a scenario involving a large number of Wiccans in Tibet. Someone managed. The gist of it is that India becomes a Dominion of the British Empire, Tibet becomes a protectorate, and Wicca founder Gerald Gardner travels there to investigate occult beliefs.

Alexander The Great…In Japan-Someone challenged board members to get Alexander the Great into Japan. The gist is that Alexander escapes a coup in Persia and wanders across Asia with his most fanatical loyalists, intermarrying with horse tribes and serving as mercenaries for the warring states of China. He eventually conquers Korea and dies after fighting Japanese pirates.

Vikings of the Balearics-A Norse king on his way to Crusade in the Holy Land is delayed by a storm and ends up fighting the Muslims in Spain and the Mediterranean instead. He manages to establish a Viking empire centered on various islands, deposes Popes, etc. It’s very cool.

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Matthew W. Quinn is a freelance writer and editor. He has both short fiction available on Amazon.com and a popular blog, The World According To Quinn.