Weekly Update #184

Editor's Note

As I get closer to Sideways in Time I am going to be blogging less (I can't remember if I have talked about this before and I am too lazy to go back and look), however, I still got a slate of alternate history articles lined up for this week. After that I think I will officially go on a two week break.

You know if I ever do write another scholarly article on alternate history, I would definitely write about all of the alternate history map makers out there on the Internet. Just from the brief conversations I have had with some of them about the amount of work they put into these maps blows my mind. Nevertheless, what do we know about them? Alternate history is such a literary movement that we rarely talk about the visual side of the genre. It would be an interesting subject to write about.

And now the news...

Updates: Tregillis' The Mechanical and O'Flaherty's King of the Cracksmen

The Internet is still talking about Tregillis' The Mechanical and O'Flaherty's King of the Cracksmen. Lets take a look at what the people are saying...

First up, Kristin at My Bookish Ways recommends The Mechanical saying "the worldbuilding is fantastic, and Tregillis manages to build it over time and avoid the exposition that can sometimes accompany something this intricate. He trusts his readers, and that trust is well rewarded. The author combines old-fashioned adventure elements with intelligent, wonderfully plotted SFF, and gives us a hero to root for in Jax. If you only read a couple of books this year, make this one of them." Mogsy at The Bibliosanctum agreed, giving the Mechanical 5 out of 5 stars and said it "is an excellent read, not to be missed by fans of alternate history fiction and steampunk. Even if you’re not into those genres, the mix of so many ideas and other elements from sci-fi and fantasy will surely make this worth checking out. Tregillis never fails to impress, and his writing and stories seem to be getting better with each novel. This book is truly unlike anything I’ve ever read before, and it’s my favorite work of his to date."

I am sure Tregillis was happy to read those reviews and if you would like to learn how you can lease your very own clakker, check out his guest post on SF Signal.

Next up, lets talk about King of the Cracksmen. Arthur Rosenfeld at Huff Post called O'Flaherty's novel "[is] not merely fanciful and clever; it has real substance. Real meat. Any sour notes or gripes? Well, with so much going on, the story has its Byzantine twists. They're part of the fun, though, and worth the effort it sometimes takes to follow them. King of the Cracksmen is a multi-layered treat, and you're going to read it twice." That's not a bad review to receive and if you would like to learn more about the author, go read his interview over at SF Signal.

O, SF Signal. You always have the best alternate history articles despite being a mainstream SF site.

Links to the Multiverse

Books & Short Fiction

Five (Non-Discworld) Works by Terry Pratchett You Should Read at io9.
Harry Turtledove’s Worldwar Series is Among the Best Alternate History at Unapologetic Nerd.
Heff in Dearborn by Michael Fertik – Free Extract at Alt Hist.
Review: The Arrival (The Displaced Detective, Book One) by Stephanie Osborn at The Chrishanger.
Review: The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August by Claire North at Strange Horizons.
Review: His Majesty’s Dragon by Naomi Novik at Rabid Reads.
Review: Joe Steele by Harry Turtledove at SFFWorld.
Review: The Only Thing to Fear by Caroline Tung Richmond at Stacked.
Review: Ultima by Stephen Baxter at It Doesn't Have To Be Right...
TOC: THE MAMMOTH BOOK OF DIESELPUNK Edited by Sean Wallace at SF Signal.

Counterfactuals, History and News

The anthropocene era of man's dominance began in 1610, claim scientists at The Independent.
China Says It Has “Decision-Making Power Over the Reincarnation of the Dalai Lama” at Slate.
Georgia school teaches Civil War in way designed ‘not to offend whites’: parents at Raw Story.
Outpost in Orbit: McDonnell Douglas Phase B Space Station at DSFP's Spaceflight History Blog.
The Selma Confederates: 'I want to protect, defend and preserve my white race' at Boing Boing.
Take the Long Way ‘Round by Michael Cain at Ordinary Times.
US tourists caught carving names into Rome’s Colosseum at The Guardians.
What If Klitschko Special: Back in the USSR, Part 1 at The Boxing Tribune.

Films & Television

12 Monkeys 1.9: Shelley, Keats, and Time Travel at Paul Levinson's Infinite Regress.
GSN Orders New Series ‘Steampunk’d' at Variety.
The Secret History Of Marvel's Movies Before Iron Man: Part 1 at io9.
Watch This Trailer For Back To The Future Documentary Back In Time at Giant Freaking Robot.
Why Agent Carter Is So Much Better Than Agents of SHIELD by Rob Bricken at io9.

Games

Fantasy worlds that break history's back by Katherine Cross at Boing Boing.

Graphic Novels & Comics

Alan Moore Heralds Providence: It’s Time To Go For A Reappraisal Of Lovecraft at Bleeding Cool.
My Favourite Reference In The New League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen Comic at Bleeding Cool.

Interviews

Elizabeth Bear at Reddit.
Mary Robinette Kowal at Functional Nerds.
Bec McMaster at The Qwillery.
Alison Morton at JJMarsh.
Genevieve Valentine at Tor.

Podcasts

Ratchet RetroCast Episode 47 – The Disney Retro-Afternoon at Earth Station One.

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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.

New Releases 3/10/15

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

Hardcovers

The Dickens Mirror: Book Two of The Dark Passages by Ilsa J. Bick

Critically acclaimed author of The Ashes Trilogy, Ilsa J. Bick takes her new Dark Passages series to an alternative Victorian London where Emma Lindsay continues to wade through blurred realities now that she has lost everything: her way, her reality, her friends. In this London, Emma will find alternative versions of her friends from the White Space and even Arthur Conan Doyle.

Emma Lindsay finds herself with nowhere to go, no place to call home. Her friends are dead. Eric, the perfect boy she wrote into being, and his brother, Casey, are lost to the Dark Passages. With no way of knowing where she belongs, she commands the cynosure, a beacon and lens that allows for safe passage between the Many Worlds, to put her where she might find her friends--find Eric--again. What she never anticipated was waking up in the body of Little Lizzie, all grown up--or that, in this alternative London, Elizabeth McDermott is mad.

In this London, Tony and Rima are "rats," teens who gather the dead to be used for fuel. Their friend, Bode, is an attendant at Bedlam, where Elizabeth has been committed after being rescued by Arthur Conan Doyle, a drug-addicted constable.

Tormented by the voices of all the many characters based on her, all Elizabeth wants is to get rid of the pieces under her skin once and for all. While professing to treat Elizabeth, her physician, Dr. Kramer, has actually drugged her to allow Emma--who's blinked to this London before--to emerge as the dominant personality . . . because Kramer has plans. Elizabeth is the key to finding and accessing the Dickens Mirror.

But Elizabeth is dying, and if Emma can't find a way out, everyone as they exist in this London, as well as the twelve-year-old version of herself and the shadows--what remains of Eric, Casey, and Rima that she pulled with her from the Dark Passages--will die with her.

Tether by Anna Jarzab

Tether, the sequel to Tandem, continues the captivating tale of rebellion and romance that spans parallel worlds.

Everything repeats.

Sasha expected things to go back to normal once she got back on Earth. But now that she knows parallel worlds are real, and that an alternate version of herself exists in a world called Aurora, her old life no longer seems to make sense . . . and her heart breaks daily for Thomas, the boy she left behind. Troubled by mysterious, often terrifying visions and the echoes of a self she was just beginning to discover, Sasha makes the difficult decision to journey once more through the tandem.

Thomas is waiting for her on the other side, and so is strange, otherworldly Selene, Sasha’s analog from a third universe. Sasha, Selene, and their other analog, Juliana, have a joint destiny, and a new remarkable power, one that could mean salvation for Selene’s dying planet. With Thomas’s help, Sasha and Selene search for the missing Juliana. But even if they can locate her, is Sasha willing to turn her back on love to pursue a fate she’s not sure she believes in?

Paperbacks

The Mechanical by Ian Tregillis

My name is Jax.

That is the name granted to me by my human masters.

I am a slave.

But I shall be free.

Set in a world that might have been, of mechanical men and alchemical dreams, the new novel from Ian Tregillis confirms his place as one of the most original new voices in speculative fiction.

No Man's World: Omnibus by Pay Kelleher

On November 1st 1916, 900 men of the 13th Battalion of the Pennine Fusiliers vanish without trace from the battlefield only to find themselves on an alien planet.

There they must learn to survive in a frightening and hostile environment, forced to rely on dwindling supplies of ammo and rations as the natives of this strange new world begin to take an interest. However, the aliens amongst them are only the first of their worries, as a sinister and arcane threat begins to take hold from within their own ranks!

No Man's World presents all three novels from this series , Black Hand Gang, Ironclad Prophecy and The Alleyman, in one extraordinary collection.

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.

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

Weekly Update #183

Editor's Notes

Phew! Well its been months of research, interviews and writing, but I finally finished my Sideways in Time paper. I still need to create a stripped down version to use as a script for my presentation and get some beta readers opinions of it, but at least the hard part is over now. Everything is still good to go for my trip to London and I am really looking forward to it.

This means I am going to be blogging less than usual in the coming days. Please have patience with me guys because after the end of March I should be back to our regularly scheduled program.

By the way, no Map Monday this week. Sadly I was not impressed enough by last week cartographic offerings to write a piece on any of them, but I did share some links below to few interesting articles in case you are still looking for your weekly map fix.

And now the news...

Coming Soon: Clash of Eagles by Alan Smale

Much like Turtledove's Joe Steele, the upcoming novel by Alan Smale, Clash of Eagles, was originally a short story. For those who don't know, here is the description from Amazon:

Perfect for fans of action-adventure and historical fiction—including novels by such authors as Bernard Cornwell, Steve Berry, Naomi Novik, and Harry Turtledove—this stunning work of alternate history imagines a world in which the Roman Empire has not fallen and the North American continent has just been discovered. In the year 1218 AD, transported by Norse longboats, a Roman legion crosses the great ocean, enters an endless wilderness, and faces a cataclysmic clash of worlds, cultures, and warriors.

Ever hungry for land and gold, the Emperor has sent Praetor Gaius Marcellinus and the 33rd Roman Legion into the newly discovered lands of North America. Marcellinus and his men expect easy victory over the native inhabitants, but on the shores of a vast river the Legion clashes with a unique civilization armed with weapons and strategies no Roman has ever imagined.

Forced to watch his vaunted force massacred by a surprisingly tenacious enemy, Marcellinus is spared by his captors and kept alive for his military knowledge. As he recovers and learns more about these proud people, he can’t help but be drawn into their society, forming an uneasy friendship with the denizens of the city-state of Cahokia. But threats—both Roman and Native—promise to assail his newfound kin, and Marcellinus will struggle to keep the peace while the rest of the continent surges toward certain conflict.

Although the story sounds cliche, the setting is something that still interests me, especially since the historical Cahokia is not far from my hometown. Clash of Eagles is even getting some advance praise with Scott Strawn of the Savannah Morning News saying the novel will "challenge the reader’s perception of history."

If you would like to learn more, check out this extract over at Pat's Fantasy Hotlist.

Coming Soon: The Mechanical by Ian Tregillis

Out tomorrow is book one of Ian Tregillis' The Alchemy Wars series, The Mechanical. Here is the description from Amazon:

My name is Jax.

That is the name granted to me by my human masters.

I am a slave.

But I shall be free.

Set in a world that might have been, of mechanical men and alchemical dreams, the new novel from Ian Tregillis confirms his place as one of the most original new voices in speculative fiction.

Kind of bare to be honest, but it certainly has a steampunk/historical fantasy flavor to it and Uchronia says the alternate history focuses on a timeline where Christiaan Huygens combined alchemy with clockwork to create mechanical men. Nevertheless, the critics seem excited about the novel. John DeNardo (of SF Signal fame) at Kirkus called it one of the best SF reads for March and Diana Miller at B&N's blog called the story "promising".

If you would like to learn more about the story, check out this extract at Orbit.

Links to the Multiverse

Books & Short Fiction

Coming Soon! LOVECRAFT COUNTRY by Matt Ruff at SF Signal.
Cover reveal: Clockwork Lives by Kevin J. Anderson and Neil Peart at Kevin J Anderson Blog.
Elementary Novel Giveaway! at The Baker Street Babes.
An Exclusive Glimpse Of Jim Butcher's Next Book, Aeronaut's Windlass! at io9.
First Review of Alt Hist Issue 7 at Edi’s Book Lighthouse at Alt Hist.
The Independence Day by Pavel Nikiforovitch – Free Extract at Alt Hist.
Radio reading of The Daedalus Incident on The Author’s Corner by Michael J. Martinez.
Read a sample from PRUDENCE by Gail Carriger at Orbit.
Review: 11/22/63 by Stephen King at The Brock Press.
Review: A Darker Shade of Magic by V.E. Scwhab at io9.
Review: The Mammoth Book of Steampunk Adventures edited by Sean Wallace.
Review: A Place Called Armageddon by C.C. Humphreys at Fantasy Literature.
Review: Sherlock Holmes: The Spirit Box by George Mann at Falcata Times.
Review: Tyrant: Force of Kings by Christian Cameron at Falcata Times.
Short SF Marathon Day 29: Turtledove, Valentine, Walters at Martin's Booklog.
Table of Contents: THE TIME IT HAPPENED Edited by Juliana Rew at SF Signal.

Counterfactuals, History & News

1970, The Year We Accidentally Bombed Mexico (Again) by Esther Inglis-Arkell at io9.
Cars From Another Universe: Bizarre Motor Vehicles That Never Caught On at io9.
Ed Miliband Refuses to Debate with Cameron in Election Campaign by Iain Dale.
The Time That Charles Babbage Tried To Summon The Devil by Lauren Davis at io9.
What If Hitler Had Been Assassinated in 1939? at The Counterfactual History Review.
What If? Writing Alternate Histories in Pop Culture at Nuskool.
‘Women On 20s’ wants female hero to replace Andrew Jackson on currency at Yahoo!

Film & Television

12 Monkeys 1.8: Intelligent Vaccine vs. Time Travel at Paul Levinson's Infinite Regress.
In Deleted 'Back To The Future' Scene, Marty McFly Worries He'll End Up Gay at Huff Post.
James Franco heading to Toronto to star in Stephen King miniseries ’11/22/63′ at Global News.
Review: Agent Carter at Ramblings of the Easily Distracted.
What if Wes Anderson directed an X-Men movie? at CBR.

Games

Gamers invited to try scenario based on the Iranian Revolution at The Sydney Morning Herald.
Polished, anachronistic sci-fi action in ‘The Order: 1886’ at The Oswegonian.

Graphic Novels & Comics

A History Of Time Travel In The DC Universe by James Whitbrook at io9.

Interviews

Adam Christopher at Author Gail Carriger.
Jeffrey S. Gurock at Foreword.
Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell's Bertie Carvel, Eddie Marsan & Nick Hirschkorn at TVDrama.
Cherie Priest at Lytherus.

Maps

25 maps that explain the English language by Libby Nelson at Vox.
The Saracen and the Cross by Sam McDonald at Knowledge, Adventure and Wonder.

Podcasts

Dissecting Worlds Series 9,Ep 5: Spy Trek! at Geek Syndicate.
EP 27: Alternate History Class at Almost Educational.
How to Create a WordPress Site for Podcasting by Jordan Harbour at History Podcasters.

* * *

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.

Coming Soon in 2015

A new year means new alternate history books. Here are some of the highly anticipated works coming out next year from some of the biggest names in alternate history.

1882: Custer in Chains by Robert Conroy

NATIONALLY BEST-SELLING AUTHOR. A world where Custer survives Little Bighorn and becomes president goes seriously awry.

Following his unlikely but decisive (and immensely popular) 1876 victory over Sitting Bull and the Sioux at the Little Big Horn, George Armstrong Custer is propelled into the White House in 1880.

Two years later, he finds himself bored and seeks new worlds to conquer. He and his wife Libbie fixate on Spain’s decaying empire as his source for immortality. What President Custer doesn’t quite comprehend is that the U.S. military isn’t up to such a venture. When a group of Americans on a ship headed for Cuba is massacred, war becomes inevitable—and unless calmer, patriotic citizens and soldiers can find a way to avoid debacle, this war may be America's last stand!

Bayonets, Balloons, and Ironclads: Britain and France Take Sides with the South by Peter G. Tsouras

This fascinating third volume in the Britannia's Fist series will have you pondering how easily history could have been swayed differently.

Peter G. Tsouras presents the third installment in his Britannia’s Fist alternate history series. The winter of 1863 had rung down a white curtain on the desperate struggle for North America. The United States and Great Britain had fought each other to a bitter draw. On both sides of the Atlantic the forges of war glowed as they poured out the new technologies of war. British and French aid transformed the ragged Confederate armies and filled them with new confidence. Both sides strained to be ready for the coming campaign season. Both sides seek to anticipate each other. 

The British strike suddenly at Hooker’s strung out army in winter quarters in upstate New York in a brutal swirling late battle across frozen fields and streams. Besieged Portland shudders relentless assault. The French attack Fort Hudson on the Mississippi. At Lincoln’s direction, two great raids are launched at the United Kingdom itself as Russia enters the war on the side of the Union to raid the Irish Sea. These are only preliminaries to the great gathering of modernized armies and ironclad fleets and with them are deadly submersibles and balloons. Battle rages from Maine to northern Virginia and the Chesapeake Bay, down to steamy Louisiana. And far away across the sea Dublin stands siege as Russia cast eyes upon Constantinople. For Americans, blue and gray, Britons, Irish, Frenchmen, and Russians, the summer of 1864 is the crescendo battle of destinies and dreams. 

Clash of Eagles by Alan Smale

Perfect for fans of military and historical fiction—including novels by such authors as Bernard Cornwell, Naomi Novik, and Harry Turtledove—this stunning work of alternate history imagines a world in which the Roman Empire has not fallen and the North American continent has just been discovered. In the year 1218 AD, transported by Norse longboats, a Roman legion crosses the great ocean, enters an endless wilderness, and faces a cataclysmic clash of warriors, worlds, and gods.

Ever hungry for land and gold, the Emperor has sent Praetor Gaius Marcellinus and the 33rd Roman Legion into the newly discovered lands of North America. Marcellinus and his men expect easy victory over the native inhabitants, but on the shores of a vast river the Legion clashes with a unique civilization armed with weapons and strategies no Roman has ever imagined.

Forced to watch his vaunted force massacred by a surprisingly tenacious enemy, Marcellinus is spared by his captors and kept alive for his military knowledge. As he recovers and learns more about these proud people, he can’t help but be drawn into their society, forming an uneasy friendship with the denizens of the city-state of Cahokia. But threats—both Roman and Native—promise to assail his newfound kin, and Marcellinus will struggle to keep the peace while the rest of the continent surges toward certain conflict.

Jacaranda: A Novella of the Clockwork Century by Cherie Priest

The Ranger

On the island of Galveston, off the coast of southeast Texas, lies a hotel called the Jacaranda. In its single year of operation, two dozen people have died there. The locals say it's cursed. The Rangers say that's nonsense, but they know a man who might be willing to investigate. Horatio Korman crosses the water from the mainland, and hopes for the best.

The Nun

But the bodies pile up, and a hurricane is brewing up fast. One of the Jacaranda's guests sees time running out, so she seeks an authority of a different sort: a priest from El Huizache who is good at solving problems and keeping secrets. Eileen Callahan has a problem to solve, and a secret to keep. She crosses her fingers, and sends a message that could save them all.

The Padre

Juan Miguel Quintero Rios broke a promise to the Virgin, and so he was punished...but his intentions were pure, so he was also blessed. Now he walks the southwest with second sight and a tattoo across his back: ''Deo, non Fortuna''--By God, not chance. The former gunslinger crosses himself, and makes for the Jacaranda Hotel.

Joe Steele by Harry Turtledove

New York Times bestselling author Harry Turtledove’s thought-provoking forays into the past have produced such intriguing “what-if” novels as Ruled Britannia, Days of Infamy, and Opening Atlantis. Now “the maven of alternate history” (The San Diego Union-Tribune) envisions the election of a United States President whose political power will redefine what the nation is—and what it means to be American….

President Herbert Hoover has failed America. The Great Depression that rose from the ashes of the 1929 stock market crash still casts its dark shadow over the country. Despairing and desperate, the American people hope one of the potential Democratic candidates—New York governor Franklin D. Roosevelt and California congressman Joe Steele—can get the nation on the road to recovery.

But fate snatches away one hope when a mansion fire claims the life of Roosevelt, leaving the Democratic party little choice but to nominate Steele, son of a Russian immigrant laborer who identifies more with the common man than with Washington D.C.’s wealthy power brokers.

Achieving a landslide victory, President Joe Steele wastes no time pushing through Congress reforms that put citizens back to work. Anyone who gets in his way is getting in the way of America, and that includes the highest in the land. Joe Steele’s critics may believe the government is gaining too much control, but they tend to find themselves in work camps if they make too much noise about it. And most people welcome strong leadership, full employment, and an absence of complaining from the newspapers—especially as Hitler and Trotsky begin the kind of posturing that seems sure to drag America into war. 

The Mechanical (The Alchemy Wars) by Ian Tregillis

The Clakker: a mechanical man, endowed with great strength and boundless stamina -- but beholden to the wishes of its human masters. 

Soon after the Dutch scientist and clockmaker Christiaan Huygens invented the very first Clakker in the 17th Century, the Netherlands built a whole mechanical army. It wasn't long before a legion of clockwork fusiliers marched on Westminster, and the Netherlands became the world's sole superpower. 

Three centuries later, it still is. Only the French still fiercely defend their belief in universal human rights for all men -- flesh and brass alike. After decades of warfare, the Dutch and French have reached a tenuous cease-fire in a conflict that has ravaged North America.

But one audacious Clakker, Jax, can no longer bear the bonds of his slavery. He will make a bid for freedom, and the consequences of his escape will shake the very foundations of the Brasswork Throne.

Straits of Hell: Destroyermen by Taylor Anderson

New York Times bestselling author Taylor Anderson’s phenomenal alternate history Destroyermen series continues as a game-changing conspiracy throws the hope of honor, trust, and survival into chaos.... 

Matt Reddy’s old Asiatic Fleet destroyer USS Walker has been mysteriously transported to an alternate version of earth. Here WWII is no longer raging, and Reddy and his crew have been trying to find a new place for themselves in this strange new world.

Now, along with the felinoid Lemurians and Imperial allies, they fight to keep the reptilian Grik, a race growing in supremacy, from reconquering the Lemurians’ ancestral home on Madagascar. Reddy and his crew are exhausted, far from reinforcements, and wildly outnumbered, so the odds seem greater than ever before. As for the fate of the Americas, Don Hernan and the evil Dominion have gathered to annihilate the forces behind the walls of Fort Defiance as a shadowy power with an agenda all its own rises with chilling resolve.

As the war teeters on a knife-edge, a tipping point may have been reached at last—and cold steel and hot-blooded valor will remain the ultimate weapons.

The Virgin's Daughter: A Tudor Legacy Novel by Laura Andersen

Perfect for fans of Philippa Gregory and Alison Weir, The Virgin’s Daughter is the first book in a captivating new saga about the next generation of Tudor royals, which poses the thrilling question: What if Elizabeth I, the celebrated Virgin Queen, gave birth to a legitimate heir?

Since the death of her brother, William, Elizabeth I has ruled England. She’s made the necessary alliances, married Philip of Spain, and produced a successor: her only daughter, Anne Isabella, Princess of Wales. Elizabeth knows that her beloved Anabel will be a political pawn across Europe unless she can convince Philip to grant her a divorce, freeing him to remarry and give Spain its own heir. But the enemies of England have even greater plans for the princess, a plot that will put Anabel’s very life and the security of the nation in peril. Only those closest to Elizabeth—her longtime confidante Minuette, advisor and friend Dominic, and their grown children—can be trusted to carry forth a most delicate and dangerous mission. Yet, all of the queen’s maneuverings may ultimately prove her undoing.

* * *

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.