New Releases 11/24/15

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Hardcovers

The Shards of Heaven by Michael Livingston

Julius Caesar is dead, assassinated on the senate floor, and the glory that is Rome has been torn in two. Octavian, Caesar's ambitious great-nephew and adopted son, vies with Marc Antony and Cleopatra for control of Caesar's legacy.

But as civil war rages from Rome to Alexandria, and vast armies and navies battle for supremacy, a secret conflict may truly shape the course of history: two sons of Caesar have set out on a ruthless quest to find and control the Shards of Heaven, legendary artifacts said to possess the very power of the gods -- or of the one God.

Caught up in these cataclysmic events, and the hunt for the Shards, are a pair of exiled Roman legionnaires, a Greek librarian of uncertain loyalties, assassins, spies, slaves . . . and the ten-year-old daughter of Cleopatra herself.

The Shards of Heaven reveals the hidden magic behind the history we know, and commences a war greater than any mere mortal battle.

Paperbacks

Mother Russia by Jeff McComsey

Stalingrad, 1943. In the middle of a zombie apocalypse, a Soviet sniper risks her life to protect something she hasn't seen in a long time: a perfectly healthy two-year-old baby boy.

E-Books

Three Hearts and Three Lions by Poul Anderson

A World War II freedom fighter is transported to a medieval realm of magic and myth to undertake a great but perilous quest in this classic fantasy adventure

Holger Carlsen is a rational man of science. A Danish engineer working with the Resistance to defeat the Nazis, he’s wounded during an engagement with the enemy and awakens in an unfamiliar parallel universe where the forces of Law are locked in eternal combat with the forces of Chaos. Against a medieval backdrop, brave knights must take up arms against magical creatures of myth and faerie, battling dragons, trolls, werewolves, and giants.

Though Holger has no recollection of this world, he discovers he’s already well-known throughout the lands, a hero revered as a Champion of Law. He finds weaponry and armor awaiting him—precisely fitted to his form—and a shield with three hearts and three lions emblazoned upon it. As he journeys through a realm filled with wonders in search of the key to his past, Holger will call upon the scientific knowledge of his home dimension—the destinies of both worlds hanging in the balance.

Before Thomas Covenant, Roger Zelazny’s Amber, and J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings, the great Poul Anderson introduced readers to the Middle World and the legendary hero Ogier the Dane. Inventive and exciting, Three Hearts and Three Lions is a foray into fantasy that employs touches of science fiction from an award-winning master of the speculative.

There Will Be Time by Poul Anderson

An unsuspecting time-traveler stumbles upon a horrific plot to alter the future in this classic science fiction adventure from one of the genre’s best

Born with a strange genetic mutation, Jack Havig can travel backward and forward in time at will. His unique gift enables him to visit ancient Rome, the Byzantine Empire, and the Wild West. He’s even seen the far future, when the ecology-minded Maurai Federation dominates a world nearly obliterated by nuclear war. Jack undertakes these voyages with one objective in mind: to find others who share his remarkable abilities.

In the shadow of the Crucifixion, Jack finally achieves his goal. But a terrible darkness clouds his admission into the secretive, time-traveling organization called Eyrie when the group’s true intentions become clear. For Eyrie’s plans include an unthinkable genocide designed to irrevocably alter the destiny of humankind—and Jack is the only one who can stop it. But he won’t be able to do it alone.

The prolific and remarkable Poul Anderson dazzles once again with a humanistic science fiction adventure that races across the boundaries of time. Lightning-paced and marvelously inventive, There Will Be Time is an unforgettable journey through the ages from one of the greats of twentieth-century science fiction.

This ebook includes the bonus stories “Progress” and “Windmill.”

To readers, authors and publishers...

Is your story going to be published in time for the next New Releases? Contact us at ahwupdate at gmail dot com.  We are looking for works of alternate history, counterfactual history, steampunk, historical fantasy, time travel or anything that warps history beyond our understanding.

* * *

Matt Mitrovich is the founder and editor of Alternate History Weekly Update, a blogger on Amazing Stories and a Sidewise Awards for Alternate History judge. When not writing he works as an attorney, enjoys life with his beautiful wife Alana and prepares for the day when travel between parallel universes becomes a reality. You can follow him on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. Learn how you can support his alternate history projects on Patreon.

Book Review: Time Wars edited by Poul Anderson, Charles Waugh & Martin Greenberg

After being disappointed by the last book I read, I decide to seek out new stories from the past. Thus I picked up a copy of Time Wars, an anthology of time travel stories focusing on conflicts, created by Poul Anderson and edited by Charles Waugh and Martin Greenberg. To be honest I was unsure why Poul Anderson got a "created by" credit on a book that had two additional editors as well. Did he come up with the idea, did he do any editing or did he get paid extra to have his name put on the cover to attract readers? My preliminary research couldn't find any answers, so if anyone knows the answer, please share it in the comments.

As I mentioned earlier, Time Wars is an anthology of short stories dealing with wars and conflicts involving time travel. The stories included in the anthology were originally published between the 1940s and 70s, making them old by today's standards. Since this is primarily a time travel anthology, there are only a few stories dealing with alternate histories (three to be exact) each written by a famous alternate historian. Since this is an alternate history blog, I will focus my review on them and hopefully you will see that, to be frank, they are the exact same story.

The first story is "Gunpowder God" by H. Beam Piper. Also know as Lord Kalvan of Otherwhen, this is the only Lord Kalvan tale and full-length novel in the Paratime series written by Piper. For those unfamiliar with the Paratime series, it tells the tale of Verkan Vall of the Paratime Police. His people have learned the secret of travel between the timelines and maintain their technological civilization by secretly exploiting their temporal neighbors. Verkan Vall and other officers of the Paratime Police, protect the secret of the multiverse from other civilizations and take down their own people if they go too far in their dealings with other timelines. The series has some odd elements to it. For one thing human civilization actually began on Mars and the different timelines are categorized by how successful the colonization of Earth went after society collapsed on Mars. Still even with the crazy ideas about ancient history, it still is a good series and I highly recommend it.

But what about "Gunpowder God" by H. Beam Piper? Well its a little short to be a novel, which makes me think it may have been an excerpt edited to fit into the anthology. It takes place after the events of the last Paratime story and features Verkan Vall in a few scenes. A Pennsylvania state trooper, by the name of Calvin Morrison, is accidentally transported into an alternate timeline where the Aryans crossed the Pacific Ocean and settled on the West Coast of North America, eventually expanding to the East Coast and by the time of the story have a Late Middle Ages/Early Renaissance level of technology. At first Calvin (or "Kalvan" as its pronounced by the natives) thinks he has traveled into some post-apocalyptic future, but begins to realize he may be living in a completely different history altogether. He ingratiates himself with the locals by helping them fight their enemies, teaching them how to make gunpowder and showing them some other tricks, like rifling. Meanwhile, Verkan Vall tracks him down and waits to see whether he will have to kill Calvin to protect the secret of the multiverse.

"Gunpowder God" has an old style of writing, but the pace is good and the worldbuilding is excellent. I like how Piper didn't hold the reader's hand while introducing his world. Also this may be one of the earliest appearances of the "strong, independent woman" character. All in all an enjoyable story that I can recommend that puts me in the mid of Lest Darkness Falls and other tales when some find themselves in a different time and decides to make the best of it.

Next up we have Poul Anderson's contribution to Time Wars: "Delenda Est". This universe also involves a temporal police force called the Time Patrol. They were formed by an advanced race of humans from the far future who recruited people from across history to protect history from the meddling of rogue time travellers. Because the Time Patrol is meant to keep history on the same track, alternate historical content is minimal in the series, but "Delenda Est" is one of the few exceptions. Take a look at the world map that goes with it:

Our hero, Manse Everard, is vacationing in prehistoric times at a ski lodge in the  Pyrenees when he decides he is bored and leaves with his half-Dutch, half-Indonesian Venusian friend Piet van Sarawak from the 24th century to look for some good times in Everard's 20th century New York. Things go awry when they arrive in a Manhattan full of Celts and Indians who use steam technology and still believe in magic. Manse and Piet are arrested and separated from their time machine, while the locals believe they are sorcerers and want to use their magic to fight in an upcoming war. Now they need to escape and find out what happened to their timeline. When Manse learns that the Roman Empire never existed in this history, he begins to suspect someone prevented the rise of Rome, but he still needs to find the right point of divergence so he can set things back the way they were.

The writing style is a lot better than Piper's "Gunpowder God" and I would argue the characters were more fleshed out as well. I don't want to spend this entire review comparing one story to the others, but I will say the people and nations in the Celtic-wank that Anderson created will be a lot more recognizable to the average alternate historian, but that won't necessarily make them good. Piper's cultures were much more original, while Anderson depended too heavily on space-filling empires. Still on its own, "Delenda Est" is a good story and another solid recommendation from yours truly.

The final story we are going to cover from Time Wars is "Run from the Fire" by Harry Harrison. In this story, an attorney by the name of Mark Greenberg is hired by two mysterious men to come with them to their warehouse and then leave and spend some time in New York City before returning. He goes with them, but when he leaves the building he discovers he has been transported to a New York City that is occupied by South Africa in a world where the polar ice caps is melting. After almost being killed by South African soldiers, Mark learns that the men (well one is actually a robot) are from a different timeline where the sun is going nova and they are hoping to resettle their people on a different timeline. The problem is that on most timelines the sun is or will be going nova, thus they are in a race against the hated sun to save as many people as they can by finding enough timelines where the sun is stable. Mark's actual job is to investigate a timeline where Europe is still under feudalism and the Iroquois dominate North America and find out what happened to one of their agents whose job it was to convince the Iroquois to leave their timeline (which will soon be destroyed by the sun) for another timeline where human life never arose.

Although there is no police force, "Run from the Fire" still features an organization that uses and protects travel between alternate timelines. The writing style is more similar to Piper (there I go again, I just can't help myself from comparing these stories), but the worldbuilding is also more like Piper's as well. Oddly enough, the South Africans of "Run from the Fire" reminded me of SM Stirling's Draka. Considering that "Run from the Fire" predates Marching Through Georgia, I wonder if Stirling got the idea for the Draka by reading this story. I couldn't find anything connecting the two stories, but I wouldn't be surprised if the story didn't have some influence on Stirling, if he actually read it. Anyway, "Run from the Fire" isn't a bad story, but it is the weakest of the three I read here. I think it still deserves a read, but you are going to have to be someone who really enjoys Harrison's writing (like myself) to enjoy this one.

As for the rest of the anthology, well I can honestly say I enjoyed it. All the stories were fun to read and only once was I actually confused and had to double back in an effort to understand the time travel logic. Time Wars was a fun, but quick, read and if you get a chance, I recommend you pick up a copy.

* * *

Matt Mitrovich is the founder and editor of Alternate History Weekly Update, a blogger on Amazing Stories and a Sidewise Awards for Alternate History judge. When not writing he works as an attorney, enjoys life with his beautiful wife Alana and prepares for the day when travel between parallel universes becomes a reality. You can follow him on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. Learn how you can support his alternate history projects on Patreon.

New Releases 6/2/15

You can support The Update by clicking the banner to your right or the links below if you are purchasing through Amazon!

Hardcovers

The Change: Tales of Downfall and Rebirth edited by SM Stirling

Now, in this startling new anthology, S. M. Stirling invites the most fertile minds in science fiction to join him in expanding his rich Emberverse canvas. Here are inventive new perspectives on the cultures, the survivors, and the battles arising across the years and across the globe following the Change.

In his all-new story “Hot Night at the Hopping Toad,” Stirling returns to his own continuing saga of the High Kingdom of Montival. In the accompanying stories are fortune seekers, voyagers, and dangers—from the ruins of Sydney to the Republic of Fargo and Northern Alberta to Venetian and Greek galleys clashing in the Mediterranean.

These new adventures revisit beloved people and places from Stirling’s fantastic universe, introduce us to new ones, and deliver endlessly fascinating challenges to conquer, all while unfolding in a “postapocalyptic landscape that illuminates both the best and the worst of which our species is capable,”** “a world you can see, feel, and touch.”

Paperbacks

The Master Magician by Charlie N. Holmberg

Throughout her studies, Ceony Twill has harbored a secret, one she’s kept from even her mentor, Emery Thane. She’s discovered how to practice forms of magic other than her own—an ability long thought impossible.

While all seems set for Ceony to complete her apprenticeship and pass her upcoming final magician’s exam, life quickly becomes complicated. To avoid favoritism, Emery sends her to another paper magician for testing, a Folder who despises Emery and cares even less for his apprentice. To make matters worse, a murderous criminal from Ceony’s past escapes imprisonment. Now she must track the power-hungry convict across England before he can take his revenge. With her life and loved ones hanging in the balance, Ceony must face a criminal who wields the one magic that she does not, and it may prove more powerful than all her skills combined.

The whimsical and captivating follow-up to The Paper Magician and The Glass Magician, The Master Magician will enchant readers of all ages.

Multiverse: Exploring Poul Anderson's Worlds edited by Gardner Dozois and Greg Bear

A tribute to the late great science fiction icon Poul Anderson, and a wonderful collection of stories by some of the genres top writers! Authors include Tad Williams, Terry Brooks, Greg Bear, Raymond Feist, Larry Niven, and Eric Flint.

Poul Anderson was one of the seminal figures of 20th century science fiction. Named a Grand Master by the SFWA in 1997, he produced an enormous body of stand-alone novels (Brain Wave, Tau Zero) and series fiction (Time Patrol, the Dominic Flandry books) and was equally at home in the fields of heroic fantasy and hard SF. He was a meticulous craftsman and a gifted storyteller, and the impact of his finest work continues, undiminished, to this day.

 Here is a rousing, all-original anthology that stands both as a significant achievement in its own right and a heartfelt tribute to a remarkable writerand equally remarkable man. A nicely balanced mixture of fiction and reminiscence, this volume contains thirteen stories and novellas by some of today's finest writers, along with moving reflections by, among others, Anderson's wife, Karen, his daughter, Astrid Anderson Bear, and his son-in-law, novelist and co-editor Greg Bear. (Bear's introduction, "My Friend Poul," is particularly illuminating and insightful.)

The fictional contributions comprise a kaleidoscopic array of imaginative responses to Anderson's many and varied fictional worlds. A few of the highlights include Nancy Kress's "Outmoded Things" and Terry Brooks' "The Fey of Cloudmoor," stories inspired by the Hugo Award-winning "The Queen of Air and Darkness"; a pair of truly wonderful Time Patrol stories ("A Slip in Time" by S. M. Stirling and "Christmas in Gondwanaland" by Robert Silverberg); Raymond E. Feist's Dominic Flandry adventure, "A Candle"; and a pair of very different homages to the classic fantasy novel, Three Hearts and Three Lions: "The Man Who Came Late" by Harry Turtledove and "Three Lilies and Three Leopards (And a Participation Ribbon in Science)" by Tad Williams. These stories, together with singular contributions by such significant figures as Larry Niven, Gregory Benford, and Eric Flint, add up to a memorable, highly personal anthology that lives up to the standards set by the late—and indisputably great—Poul Anderson.

The Shadow Revolution: Crown & Key by Clay Griffith and Susan Griffith

A thrilling new Victorian-era urban fantasy for fans of Kevin Hearne’s Iron Druid Chronicles, the Showtime series Penny Dreadful, and the Sherlock Holmes movies featuring Robert Downey, Jr.

They are the realm’s last, best defense against supernatural evil. But they’re going to need a lot more silver.

As fog descends, obscuring the gas lamps of Victorian London, werewolves prowl the shadows of back alleys. But they have infiltrated the inner circles of upper-crust society as well. Only a handful of specially gifted practitioners are equipped to battle the beasts. Among them are the roguish Simon Archer, who conceals his powers as a spell-casting scribe behind the smooth veneer of a dashing playboy; his layabout mentor, Nick Barker, who prefers a good pub to thrilling heroics; and the self-possessed alchemist Kate Anstruther, who is equally at home in a ballroom as she is on a battlefield.

After a lycanthrope targets Kate’s vulnerable younger sister, the three join forces with fierce Scottish monster-hunter Malcolm MacFarlane—but quickly discover they’re dealing with a threat far greater than anything they ever imagined.

To readers, authors and publishers...

Is your story going to be published in time for the next New Releases? Contact us at ahwupdate at gmail dot com.  We are looking for works of alternate history, counterfactual history, steampunk, historical fantasy, time travel or anything that warps history beyond our understanding.

* * *

Matt Mitrovich is the founder and editor of Alternate History Weekly Update 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.

New Releases 12/30/14

You can support The Update by clicking the banner to your right or the links below if you are purchasing through Amazon!

Paperbacks

For a Few Souls More by Guy Adams

The thrilling conclusion to the Heaven's Gate Trilogy!

The uprising in Heaven is at an end and Paradise has fallen, becoming the forty-third state of America. Now angels and demons must learn to get along with humans.

The rest of the world is in uproar. How can America claim the afterlife as it’s own? It’s certainly going to try as the President sets out for the town of Wormwood for talks with its governor, the man they call Lucifer.

Hell has problems of its own. There’s a new evangelist walking its roads, trying to bring the penitent to paradise, and a new power is rising. Can anyone stand up to the Godkiller?

Hunter of Sherwood: The Red Hand by Toby Venables

Guy of Gisburne, knight and agent to Prince John, is all that stands between England and anarchy, fighting a shadow battle to protect the kingdom from those who would destroy it.

Returning to England after foiling a plot to destroy Jerusalem, Guy of Gisburne is arrested and hauled to the Tower of London; John, England's regent in the absence of its monstrous King, needs his knight once more. A killer has broken into the Prince’s most secure castle in the north and left a message, drawn on the skin of one of his victims: 'the circle is closing,' signed with a handprint in blood. Is the threat genuine? Who or what is the Red Hand? Someone is killing John's men, and the obvious culprit – the most dangerous man in the Kingdom, Hood himself – has an alibi even Guy can't deny.

Macaque Attack! by Gareth L. Powell

The Spitfire pilot monkey Ack-Ack Macaque faces a world on the brink in this adventure, the conclusion to his astonishing, award-winning trilogy.

In the thrilling conclusion of the Macaque Trilogy, the dangerous but charismatic Ack-Ack Macaque finds himself leading a dimension-hopping army of angry monkeys, facing an invading horde of implacable killer androids, and confronting the one challenge for which he was never prepared: impending fatherhood! Meanwhile, former journalist Victoria Valois fights to save the electronic ghost of her dead husband and reclaim his stolen soul from the sands of Mars.

E-books

The Corridors of Time by Poul Anderson

A young man from the twentieth century is recruited to fight in a war that rages throughout time in a classic science fiction adventure from a multiple Hugo and Nebula Award–winning master

College student, ex-marine, and martial artist Malcolm Lockridge is in prison awaiting his trial for murder when he receives an unexpected visit from an extraordinarily beautiful woman named Storm. Claiming to be a representative of the Wardens, a political faction from two thousand years in the future, Storm offers the astonished young man a proposition: freedom in return for his assistance in recovering an unspecified lost treasure. But it is not long before Malcolm realizes that, in truth, he’s been recruited as a soldier in the Wardens’ ongoing war against their rivals, the Rangers. And this war is different from any that has ever been fought, because the battlefield is not a place but time itself.

Traveling backward and forward through corridors connecting historical epochs separated by thousands of years, Malcolm is soon embroiled in a furious conflict between the forces of good and minions of evil. But the deeper he is pulled into this devastating time war, the clearer Malcolm’s ultimate role in humankind’s destiny becomes, causing the troubled young soldier from the twentieth century to question whether he’s been chosen to fight on the side of good or evil . . . and if such a distinction even exists.

A Midsummer Tempest by Poul Anderson

A fantastic tale of intrigue, love, war, magic, and swashbuckling adventure set in an alternate universe where fairies mingle freely with Englishmen and all of Shakespeare’s fictional characters are real

Welcome to an alternate civil-war-torn seventeenth-century England—a world where Hamlet once brooded and Othello jealously raged. Here faeries and sprites gambol in English woods, railroads race across the landscape while manned balloons float above the countryside, and the most respected historian of all is one William Shakespeare of Stratford-upon-Avon.

The year is 1644, and the war between the Roundheads and the Cavaliers rages. When Rupert, nephew of King Charles I, is taken captive by Cromwell’s troops and imprisoned in a Puritan home, he is immediately smitten with the beautiful Jennifer Alayne, his captor’s niece. Escaping with the help of his newfound beloved and the loyal trooper Will Fairweather, Rupert leads Jennifer deep into the forest, where the faerie folk who dwell there have a vested interest in the outcome of the great and bloody conflict. Though the lovers must soon part—with the prince undertaking a dangerous mission for his magical benefactors that could turn the tide of war—Rupert and his lady love will be forever joined by the rings presented to them by King Oberon and Queen Titania. And despite the strange, twisting pathways and turbulent seas they are destined to encounter, they will always be able to find each other again . . . as long as their love remains true.

Nominated for the World Fantasy Award and winner of the Mythopoeic Award, Poul Anderson’s A Midsummer Tempest is a titanic achievement—a delightful alternate-history fantasy that brings the fictional worlds of Shakespeare’s plays to breathtaking life with style, wit, and unparalleled imagination.

To fans, authors and publishers...

Is your story going to be published in time for the next New Releases? Contact us at ahwupdate at gmail dot com.  We are looking for works of alternate history, counterfactual history, steampunk, historical fantasy, time travel or anything that warps history beyond our understanding.

* * *

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

New Releases 5/6/14

You can support The Update by clicking the banner on the top right or the links below if you are purchasing through Amazon!

Hardcovers

Deadly Shores: Destroyermen by Taylor Anderson

National bestselling author Taylor Anderson’s explosive WWII alternate-history series continues as a do-or-die battle is waged that risks far more than anyone bargained for. 

The long-planned raid on the heart of the Grik Empire has grown more ambitious—and dangerously ill defined. Only Matthew Reddy, commander of the old destroyer USS Walker, seems focused on its original intent.

Many Lemurians see an opportunity to reconquer their sacred homeland, which was stolen long ago, and have no intention of simply striking a blow and then pulling back. Others, Lemurian and human, have their own agendas—which may not be in the best interests of the Alliance. Complicating matters further is Reddy’s suspicion that his task force is being stalked by an unknown power bent on aiding the Grik for reasons of its own.

As the raid begins and chaos reigns, Reddy has no choice but to go all-in, risking everything in a desperate act that results in a sprawling, nightmarish battle on the beaches of “Grik City,” on the very decks of Walker, and in the labyrinthine passageways of the Celestial Palace itself.

The final cost could be more than Matt Reddy—or the Alliance—can bear.

Multiverse: Exploring Poul Anderson's Worlds edited by Greg Bear and Gardner Dozois

Poul Anderson (1926-2001) was one of the seminal figures of 20th century science fiction. Named a Grand Master by the SFWA in 1997, he produced an enormous body of standalone novels (Brain Wave, Tau Zero) and series fiction (Time Patrol, the Dominic Flandry books) and was equally at home in the fields of heroic fantasy and hard SF. He was a meticulous craftsman and a gifted storyteller, and the impact of his finest work continues, undiminished, to this day.

Multiverse: Exploring Poul Anderson's Worlds is a rousing, all-original anthology that stands both as a significant achievement in its own right and a heartfelt tribute to a remarkable writer--and equally remarkable man. A nicely balanced mixture of fiction and reminiscence, Multiverse contains thirteen stories and novellas by some of today's finest writers, along with moving reflections by, among others, Anderson's wife, Karen, his daughter, Astrid Anderson Bear, and his son-in-law, novelist and co-editor Greg Bear. (Bear's introduction, My Friend Poul, is particularly illuminating and insightful).

The fictional contributions comprise a kaleidoscopic array of imaginative responses to Anderson's many and varied fictional worlds. A few of the highlights include Nancy Kress's 'Outmoded Things' and Terry Brooks' 'The Fey of Cloudmoor,' stories inspired by the Hugo Award-winning 'The Queen of Air and Darkness;' a pair of truly wonderful Time Patrol stories ('A Slip in Time' by S. M. Stirling and 'Christmas in Gondwanaland' by Robert Silverberg); Raymond E. Feist's Dominic Flandry adventure, 'A Candle;' and a pair of very different homages to the classic fantasy novel, Three Hearts and Three Lions: 'The Man Who Came Late' by Harry Turtledove and 'Three Lilies and Three Leopards (And a Participation Ribbon in Science)' by Tad Williams. These stories, together with singular contributions by such significant figures as Larry Niven, Gregory Benford, and Eric Flint, add up to a memorable, highly personal anthology that lives up to the standards set by the late--and indisputably great--Poul Anderson.

Twenty Trillion Leagues Under the Sea by Adam Roberts

Adam Roberts revisits Jules Verne's classic novel in a collaboration with the illustrator behind a recent highly acclaimed edition of The Hunting of the Snark

It is 1958 and France's first nuclear submarine, Plongeur, leaves port for the first of its sea trials. On board, gathered together for the first time, are one of the Navy's most experienced captains and a tiny skeleton crew of sailors, engineers, and scientists. The Plongeur makes her first dive and goes down, and down and down. Out of control, the submarine plummets to a depth where the pressure will crush her hull, killing everyone on board, and beyond. The pressure builds, the hull protests, the crew prepare for death, the boat reaches the bottom of the sea and finds nothing. Her final dive continues, the pressure begins to relent, but the depth guage is useless. They have gone miles down. Hundreds of miles, thousands, and so it goes on. Onboard the crew succumb to madness, betrayal, religious mania, and murder. Has the Plongeur left the limits of our world and gone elsewhere? Contains 33 full page pen and ink illustrations.

Paperbacks

The Enceladus Crisis by Michael Martinez

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.

The Place of Dead Kings by Geoffrey Wilson

Can England be liberated if the Holy Grail is found? The hero of Land of Hope and Glory begins an epic quest to Scotland to find out.

It is 1855. The English revolt has failed, and brutal General Vadula governs England now. Only a few small bands of English rebels still hold out against the Rajthanan empire. Jack Casey survives in remote Shropshire, training young rebels to use the conqueror's magic, but he is gravely ill, with only two months to live. Then refugees bring with them news of a rogue Indian sorcerer in Scotland. Mahajan has discovered a mysterious power in the uncharted country to the north—a power that could be the legendary Holy Grail. The Rajthanans have already assembled an army to capture Mahajan. Jack has nothing to lose now. He agrees to lead his own men, disguised as porters for the conquerors, on the same grueling march. Their hope is to find a weapon that will free England from her oppressors. But they will find something even more powerful.

To fans, authors and publishers...

Is your story going to be published in time for the next New Releases? Contact us at ahwupdate at gmail dot com.  We are looking for works of alternate history, counterfactual history, steampunk, historical fantasy, time travel or anything that warps history beyond our understanding.

* * *

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