Map Monday: The Biomes of a Tilted Earth by Lowtuff

What if the North Pole was in Africa and Antarctica straddled the equator? That is the concept of "The Biomes of a Titled Earth" by Lowtuff:

A lot of the maps on this series are political, but not this one that was posted last week on Reddit's Imaginary Maps. It highlights the different biomes the Earth would have if the continents were titled on their side. In many ways it reminds me of SimEarth, a game I wasted many hours on in my youth. A part of me feels this easily could have been a scenario that a player could experiment with during the game.

Granted the map is not without its issues. For example, Greenland should be more of an archipelago if it was missing its ice sheet. Nevertheless, it is still a cool thought experiment. I know some might want to speculate about human civilization in a world like this, but personally I doubt humanity as we know it would evolve on such a planet. That is the problem with geological what ifs: you could easily wipe out of all humanity with them.

Honorable mentions this week goes out to "Origins of the States of the ASB" by Ben "False Dmitri" Carnehl. If you want more mappy goodness, check out Brillant Maps' article on an earlier proposal of the partition of India and Pakistan.

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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.

Map Monday: Commonwealth of New England 2014 House of Commons Election by ADS94

Today's featured map is from Reddit, specifically /r/ImaginaryMaps, which is quickly becoming my favorite subreddit. It is titled "Commonwealth of New England 2014 House of Commons Election" and was created by ADS94. Let's check it out below:

There is not much I can say about the story since I haven't read it in its entirety. From what I gleaned from the comments, this map is from ADS94's AlternateHistory.com timeline, "The Confederacy". Its a standard Confederate victory timeline, except told from the perspective of a British historian and the United States also fell apart after the Confederacy gains independence. The New England state and upper New York are apparently annexed by Britain, becomes a dominion and even gain some Canadian provinces.

Having not read the story its hard for me to comment on the plausibility, although even I doubt an independent New England would voluntarily join the British Empire. Close allies sure, but direct incorporation seems far fetched. Nevertheless, if you want to learn more on the actual election this map represents, you can read the faux-Wikipedia page ADS94 created for it.

As for the map itself, its fairly well done. I always liked looking at election maps and the multiple parties this alternate New England has means we get more colors instead of the standard reds and blues we see in our timeline's America. I liked the use of flags as well. If I had one major criticism, perhaps ADS94 could have centralized all of the county/riding names that were too big to fit on the map itself as they seem haphazardly placed. Otherwise its a good map.

No honorable mentions this week. Also I am no longer requesting submissions to Map Monday since I rather pick them myself. That being said, if you would like to submit a map and scenario to The Update, please email me at ahwupdate at gmail dot com.

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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.

Map Monday: The Pacific Republic of Cascadia, 2013 by Canyonjumper

I've been looking for new places to find alternate history maps besides AlternateHistory.com and Reddit has proven to be a good source, especially /r/ImaginaryMaps/. One of the maps I shared from there last week was The Pacific Republic of Cascadia, 2013 by Canyonjumper:

There isn't a full scenario that goes with this map, but looking at the what Conyonjumper said in the comments, the point of divergence (POD) is somewhere in the early 19th century after Napoleon's empire lasts slightly longer and because of this the British government isn't interested in developing the west due to the conflicts in Europe. This leads to the people of the Columbia District/Oregon Country deciding to declare independence rather than join the United States and/or Canada. Afterwards the capital of Cascadia is moved around a lot, the United States fell apart into separate states (Columbia and California being shown in this map), Canada also fell apart but got back together again as a Federation and Hawaii still has a monarchy although they are a part of Cascadia. Canyonjumper's DeviantArt page also features other Cascadias, but some of the info on them contradicts his comments on Reddit, suggesting his timeline has been revised multiple times.

While the map is well done, I'm not sold on the story. While a longer war with Napoleon might cause the British to have less interest in the Pacific coast of North America, I don't see how this stops the United States and "Manifest Destiny". In fact if the British don't care about Columbia, how does this stop America from taking the entire District? Canyonjumper mentions an earlier civil war, but such a civil war would need to happen very early in American history. How early depends on when or if California became a part of the United States before the break up. Still even without a fleshed out timeline, its still a pretty cool map.

Before I end this Map Monday I should mention that a modern Cascadian independence movement exists that seeks to take British Columbia, Washington and Oregon from their respective countries, along with other territories, and form a new state. How much support this idea has is debatable, but Jordan Harbour of Twilight Histories suggests Cascadia is more of an America idea and has little support in British Columbia. To be fair there was a 2005 poll that showed a third of British Columbians interested in seceding from Canada, but it said nothing about joining Cascadia. If the Columbians did secede, it is likely they would go their own way or join with other former Canadian provinces to form a new state rather then join up with former Americans.

Honorable mention this week goes out to Rascallite's British Argentina. If you want to submit a map for the next Map Monday, email me at ahwupdate at gmail dot com with your map attached and a brief description in the body of the email.

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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.

Map Monday: A map where Europe never discovered America by liminalsoup

This Map Monday is unique because it doesn't come from AlternateHistory.com (what the hell is going on here?!?!). It is actually from Reddit and was posted by a user named ScientiaOmniaVincit, but the author is actually called liminalsoup. Its title is very self-explanatory: "A map where Europe never discovered America".

Very similar to Daniel Bensen's "American Nation-States", this map features a world where Europeans never discovered America and thus were able to develop into what appears to be modern nation-states. To be honest the map isn't very plausible, but the comments to the map on Reddit already explain a lot of the issues, including nations appearing in areas where the tribe they are based in aren't local too or featuring tribes/peoples who disappeared long before the arrival of Europeans, like the Olmecs. That being said, its still nice to see alternate histories featuring Native Americans. We need to see more of these and even one with mistakes still deserves some recognition.

Honorable mention this weeks goes to the cartographers working at The Washington Post for creating maps for that publication's coverage of the India/Bangladesh border dispute resolution (so many enclaves!). If you want to submit a map for the next Map Monday, email me at ahwupdate at gmail dot com with your map attached and a brief description in the body of the email.

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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.

150,000 Page Views!

Earlier today The Update surpassed 150,000 page views! Wow, just wow. The last time we reached such a milestone was when we surpassed 120,000 page views on 12/7/12.  Thanks to all of our contributors and fans who made this possible. I have decided that after reaching this goal  I will not do this celebratory post again until we reach 200,000 page views.

On a side not, be careful when searching "150,000" on Google at work. Some NSFW pictures come up.

First up, let us look at the top posts of all time (the list on the left is only for the month):

1) Review: "Red Inferno 1945" by Robert Conroy by Sebastian Breit.

2) Preview: Before Watchmen by Sean Korsgaard.

3) How to Write and Publish a Novel in Eight Easy Steps by Chris Nuttall.

4) Showcase: Images of 1984 - Stories from Oceania by Sean Korsgaard.

5) Review: Star Trek: The Next Generation/Doctor Who: Assimilation 2 by Chris Nuttall.

6) A first look at NBC's Revolution by Sebastian Breit.

7) January 2013: The Month of No Americans by Matt Mitrovich.

8) Review: Spike's Alternate History by Matt Mitrovich.

9) Civilization II: Eternal War by Matt Mitrovich.

10) Weekly Update #82 by Matt Mitrovich.

Seb upsets fan favorite Sean to take the top spot, but as usual I have the most article on the list (it helps when you are also the editor and most prolific contributor). Alright lets move on to the state of our social networking presence:

• We had 60 Google followers on 12/7/12, now we have 63 (Goal: 100 by 6/13, 63% complete).
• We had 185 Facebook fans on 12/7/12, now we have 207 (Goal: 300 by 6/13, 69% complete).
• We had 74 members in our Facebook group on 12/7/12, now we have 80 (Goal: 150 by 6/13, 53% complete).
• We had 273 Twitter followers on 12/7/12, now we have 319 (Goal 300 by 6/13, 100% complete)
• We have 13 Networked Blogs followers on 12/7/12, now we have 14 (Goal: 15 by 6/13, 93% complete).
• We have 5 Reddit subscribers on 12/7/12, now we have 6 (Goal: 25 by 6/13, 24% complete)

Thank you to our Twitter fans for helping us reach are goal so early. Hopefully we can break our Facebook page and Networked Blogs goal before June as well. Please, if you use either service, follow us and help us reach our goal before our two year anniversary. Also, members of our Facebook group, don't forget you can invite your friends to the group. If you know someone out there who likes alternate history, introduce them to the Update. As for subscribers on Reddit, I promise to share more links to the subreddit. My goal is to post everyday in the afternoon.

I am proud to say the Update averages more than 10k views a month, and we continue to grow.  Those interested in advertising with us should check out our Advertise page for more details. If our readers like one of our advertisements I highly recommend that you click on it and help support Weekly Update.  Please check out our Amazon page as well to purchase a subscription (first 14 day free) for your Kindle (or Kindle app) or write a review (still need to update the page with a new screenshot). All proceeds go to help pay contributors who submit fiction, non-fiction and reviews to The Update.

If you would like to contribute, I encourage you to contact me at ahwupdate at gmail dot com.  The Update would not have grown to become what it is today without the help of the contributors who routinely submit articles to be enjoyed by you, the reader.  All contributors will be given the opportunity to promote their current projects, plus a link to their website(s) in the "Our Favorites" section on the left had side of the blog. If you are struggling for ideas, check out our Submissions page for current writing contests.

Thank you once again for being a fan of The Update and I hope that we can continue to provide top quality content for years to come.

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Matt Mitrovich is the founder and editor of Alternate History Weekly Update, a blogger on Amazing Stories and a volunteer editor for Alt Hist magazine. His fiction can be found at Echelon Press, Jake's Monthly and The Were-Traveler. 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.

Civilization II: Eternal War

The year is 3991 AD.

The polar ice caps have melted.  Nuclear war has rendered most of the Earth uninhabitable. Only 15 million people still call the planet home, most of humanity having died off from radiation, flooding and famine.  Almost all of them are part of the last three nations on Earth (the theocratic Americans, the communist Neo-Celts and the theocratic Neo-Vikings) who have been locked in a two thousand year war for the last remaining resources on the wounded planet.

Modern technology has made ICBMs obsolete, but that has not stopped tactical and suitcase nuclear weapons from being used on the modern battlefield.  Democracy and individual liberty are a thing of the past, but almost every generation a doomed rebellion is launched that accomplishes nothing but insure that some soldiers die at home instead of on the stalled fronts that have become a hell on Earth.

In this bleak future there are a few reformers who want to use humanity's advanced technology to save the planet, but when the choice is either feed your people or total annihilation, there really is not much of choice. So the factories pump out their war machines with little hope of victory or salvation from a slow death as our world dies.

This grimdark future is brought to you by...Civilization II?!?!

That's right kids.  Around 10 years ago a Reddit user by the name of "Lycerius" started a game of Civilization II that he has been playing on-and-off ever since.  Somehow, completely unintentionally, the world came to closely resemble Orwell's 1984.  After sharing his nightmare with Reddit, news of his marathon gaming exploded across the Internet and was covered by such publication as The Huffington Post and PC Gamer.

The game has inspired its own subreddit where people discuss the implications of the game and share their own fan fiction set in the universe.  Someone even recently created a Wiki, though there is not much content there...yet.

What I find most intriguing about this game is how eerily it resembles Orwell's future of eternal war and absolute state oppression.  Now I know some are thinking that this was a fluke and Civilization II is just a computer game.  Nevertheless in a world where a World of Warcraft glitch can realistically portray a global epidemic, who is to say that we are not seeing the outcome of what happens when we compete with other nations for scare resources without any consideration of the good of mankind?

Either way I am going to go dig up my old Hearts of Iron game where I conquered the world as a fascist US and see what happens next!

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Matt Mitrovich is the founder and editor of Alternate History Weekly Update, a volunteer editor for the Alt Hist magazine and a contributor to Just Below the Law. One of his short stories will be published in the upcoming Echelon Press anthology, Once Upon a Clockwork Tale (2013). When not writing he works as an attorney in the state of Illinois and enjoys life with his beautiful wife Alana.

Weekly Update #26

Editor's Note

We beat our monthly page view record from August!  This could not have been done without the help of our fans.  Our new record (that I have every intention of beating in November) is at 10:53 AM CST...3360!

In the meantime, I am reading Prologue by Greg Ahlgren.  It is an alternate history/time travel novel where scientists and rebels from a timeline where the Soviet Union won the Cold War attempt to change history by travelling back to the 1960s and preventing President Kennedy from making the choices that led to America's defeat.  An intriguing POD, I hope to post a review of the novel eventually and Greg has graciously agreed to do an interview as well.  Along with that upcoming interview, author Dale Cozort has also agreed to an interview.  So you have two interviews to look forward to in the near future.

This week Korsgaard will be doing a showcase on Green Antarctica and I will also be posting another Airship Update.  Sorry I do not have more info on future posts, but I promise that if you keep an eye out for new posts you will not be disappointed.

And now the news..,

Coming Soon: Wild Cards film

Syfy Films, the theatrical division created in December 2010 as a joint venture between Syfy and Universal Pictures, has acquired the screen rights to Wild Cards.  For those who do not know, Wild Cards is a science fiction and superhero anthology series set in a shared universe. The series was created by a group of New Mexico science fiction authors, but it is mostly pulled together and edited by best-selling author George R. R. Martin (who will be an executive producer on the film) with assistance by Melinda Snodgrass, also a contributor to the series (who will be writing the screenplay and be executive producer as well). 

The POD is as follows: in 1946, a genetically-tailored virus from outer space was released in Earth's stratosphere, killing many but giving super powers to others.  The series documents many effects of the virus during the ensuing decades as super-heroes and super-villains appear all over the world, but history does not change as much as you would think.  Nevertheless, with comic books movies and Martin's Game of Thrones being so popular, this alternate history may have a good chance of being made.

John Birmingham Update!

John Birmingham has been busy recently.  His new novel Angels of Vengeance, the final book in a trilogy chronicling the events that happened after a wave of energy wipes out human life across much of North America on the eve of the Iraq War, is going to be published in Australia.  Those in the States, however, will have to wait until April 10, 2012 to get their issue.

In the meantime, you can read an excerpt from the novel and catch an interview with Birmingham on Shearer's Books Blog.

Alternate History on reddit

You can find alternate history communities everywhere on the Internet, and reddit is no exception.  For those who do not know, reddit is a social news website where the registered users submit content, which could either be links or a text "self" post. Other users then vote the submission "up" or "down," which is used to rank the post and determine its position on the site's pages and front page.  The site is divided into "subreddits" where people can post specific types of content.

So what alternate history related subreddits are there?  Well first there is HistoricalWhatIf, which acts as the Alternatehistory.com of reddit.  Users can post what ifs and other users can discuss them in the comment section.  No links though, if you want to post links to other AH sites you will have to go to Uchronie or Althistory.  You may notice that I have begun posting links to Alternate History Weekly Update in those two subreddits, so that is another place to stay updated on what is happening on this blog.

Finally, we have the subreddit for the proposed film Rome, Sweet Rome.  Some of you may remember a recent Weekly Update how a pitch for an alternate history film was picked up after it received significant number of votes of reddit.  If you want to stay updated on that film, you can do so by subscribing to that subreddit.

Perhaps in the future I will make a subreddit for Alternate History Weekly Update...

Convention Update: Stirling at CoreCon

Those alternate historians living in and around Fargo, ND/Moorhead, MN should check out CoreCon, which is scheduled for May 4-6, 2012.  Alternate history author S. M. Stirling will be the guest of honor and since he generally does not leave the West Coast all that often, now is the time to take advantage of his foray into the cold MidWest and go and meet him.

Links to the Multiverse

Articles

Counterfactual: What if David Davis Had Been Elected Leader of the Conservative Party in 2005? by Iain Dale at Dale & Co.

Counterfactual: What If The UK Had Not Gone to War in Iraq in 2003? by Tony McNulty at Dale & Co.

Get a sneak peek at the multiverse by Alan Boyle at msnbc.

Waiting For New Universes by Adam Frank at NPR.

Books

Atlantis and Other Places (audiobook) by Harry Turtledove reviewed by Jackson District Library.

The Big Switch by Harry Turtledove reviewed by Books for a Buck.

The Greyfriar (Vampire Empire #1) by Clay Griffith & Susan Griffith reviewed by Dawn at Absolute Forest of Words.

Comics

Ben Towle gives steampunk a fresh twist by Brigid Alverson at CBR.

The Great Northern Brotherhood of Canadian Cartoonists by Seth reviewed by Ian Daffern at Quill & Quire.

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Mitro is founder, editor and contributor of Alternate History Weekly Update. When he is not busy writing about his passion for alternate history, he spends his time working as a licensed attorney in the state of Illinois and dreams of being a published author himself one day.