Weekly Update #155

July 14, 2014, 9:00 am

≫ Next: Map Monday: American Quilt by Jordan Penny

≪ Previous: Flag Friday: Republic of Bangladesh

Editor's Note

Moving can be stressful, but it also can be rewarding. There are two positives about packing for a move that people don't think about. First, you discover just how much junk you really have and how cathartic it feels to finally throw it away. Second, you rediscover things you thought you lost and thus can treasure them all over again.

History is a lot like that. By studying it you realize just how much junk our shared record contains and why some of it needs to be thrown away. Sort of like books that are infected by bias or nationalism. That being said, by studying history we also discover tidbits that we have forgotten about, which opens up a whole new path of study.

More importantly, you don't need to pay movers to do any of the above. Every individual has the power to immerse themselves fully into history without anyone's help.

And now the news...

Paradox Interactive Reveals Fantastical Lineup for Gamescom 2014

Paradox Interactive announced the catalog of games that would be on display – and playable by attendees – at the Gamescom trade show in Cologne, Germany on August 13-17, 2014. Among many of the games announced, Paradox will be publicly showcasing Hearts of Iron IV, the highly anticipated World War II strategy war-game, for the first time ever in a live demonstration during Fan Gathering 2014, an annual event where Paradox Development Studio fans and devs alike can commingle and plot world domination together. Fan Gathering 2014 will take place in Cologne on August 14, 2014.

Fan Gathering 2014 will also play host to a guest panel of Paradox personnel, including CEO Fred Wester and Paradox Development Studio veteran Johan Andersson, which will be moderated by popular YouTuber Quill18. Hear banter on developing strategy games, ask Fred embarrassing questions about his love of karaoke, or just stare intently into Johan’s deep blue eyes.

Let us know at The Update how Hearts of Iron IV was if you happen to be attending Gamescom.

Links to the Multiverse

Books

5 Things You Didn't Know About Steampunk by Paul Di Filippo at Huff Post.
10 Science Fiction Novels You Pretend to Have Read (And Why You Should Actually Read Them) by Charlie Jane Anders at io9.
D.B. Jackson on The History Behind The Historical Fiction Behind the THIEFTAKER CHRONICLES at SF Signal.
Review: Alfred and Emily by Doris Lessing at mirabile dictu.
Reviews: The Chronicles of Light and Shadow 2 and 3: A Clockwork Heart, Sky Pirates by Liesel Schwarz at Falcata Times.
Reviews: The Enceladus Crisis and The Gravity of the Affair by Michael J. Martinez at The Qwillery.
Review: The Man in the High Castle by Philip K Dick at mirabile dictu.
Review: The Return of the Discontinued Man by Mark Hodder at Thinking about books.
Review: The Windsor Faction by DJ Taylor at mirabile dictu.
The Story Behind Alessandro Tarabotti's Cover Art by Gail Carriger.
Writing a Truly Dastardly Villain by Cindy Spencer Pape at Steamed.

Counterfactual and Traditional History (Plus News)

46 days to Cougar football: Alternate history, what if Toni Pole scored in the Apple Cup? by Mark Sandritter at SB Nation.
Birth control saves money. Lots of it. by Ezra Klein at Vox.
The Remarkable Predictions And Inventions Of Sir Winston Churchill by George Dvorsky at io9.
Sears, Walmart Pull Poster of Nazis' Dachau Camp by Susanna Kim at ABC News.
Steven Spielberg Triceratops ‘Trophy Shot’ Causes Backlash Against Director On Facebook by Treye Green at International Business Times.

Film and Television

'In the Event of a Moon Disaster' Offers Alternate History of Apollo 11 by Jennifer Lafferty at Stack Gamer.
Read Them Now, Watch Them Later: Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Adaptation Watch—The Stephen King Edition by John DeNardo at Kirkus.

Games

Insomnia RPG Playable Tech Demo Now Available by Julian Horsey at Geeky Gadgets.

Interviews

Ian Doescher at Geekadelphia.
Lavie Tidhar at SF Signal.
Jo Walton at Lightspeed.

Podcasts

Dissecting Worlds Series 8, Episode 7: Religion Feedback at Geek Syndicate.
Dissecting Worlds: Series 9 Running Order at Geek Syndicate.

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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.

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Map Monday: American Quilt by Jordan Penny

July 14, 2014, 2:05 pm

≫ Next: New Releases 7/15/14

≪ Previous: Weekly Update #155

Although this is an old map, it got a lot of press last week on io9 and thus I decided to talk about it on Map Monday. Check out "American Quilt" by Jordan Penny:

As you can probably guess, this is a balkanized North America timeline, but what makes this project unique is that it is not just a map, but an entire series of graphics set in this alternate universe. Check out this bank note from Louisiana:

Telling an alternate history entirely through images excites me and I will be following this project with interest. You can see more images from Jordan here. I am a little iffy on the POD. If you read the io9 article, Jordan described the American rebels as "insurgents", which doesn't really fit with the Revolutionary War. When 21st century Americans hear "insurgent" they think terrorist or guerrilla fighter. The Revolutionary War, however, was often fought through set piece battles between organized armies and while both sides used partisan warfare, in truth most partisans were Loyalists trying to combat the rebels where they were most numerous. It is a misconception of history that Americans fought like the Viet Cong, waging a war of attrition against the British Empire, while ignoring completely the contributions of France and other foreign powers.

Of course I could just be nitpicking by focusing on one word instead of looking at the project as a whole. All in all I like the world Jordan is building and I hope to see more in the future. Honorable mentions this week go to "Osman 2014" by Bruce Munro (based on this scenario) and "The Plum Blossom Blooms" by rvbomally. If you want to submit a map for consideration 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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New Releases 7/15/14

July 15, 2014, 9:00 am

≫ Next: Not another AH about Sealion!

≪ Previous: Map Monday: American Quilt by Jordan Penny

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

Hardcover

Last Ordersby Harry Turtledove

History is changed by one small act.

In an extraordinary saga of nations locked in war, master storyteller Harry Turtledove tells the story of World War II, which begins over Czechoslovakia rather than Poland, eleven months earlier than it really came. Now we have the final installment in Turtledove’s landmark World War II series.

Hitler’s Plan A was to win in a hurry, striking hard and deep into France. There was no Plan B. Now the war grinds on. Countries have been forced into strange alliances. The Nazis fortify thin lines with Hungarian and Romanian troops. England, finding its footing after the suspicious death of Winston Churchill and a coup d’état, fights back in Europe and on the seas of the North Atlantic. Jews fight on both sides of the war—in secret in German uniform, openly in Spain, France, and Russia. Into the standoff come new killing tools, from tanks to bazookas. In the Pacific, Japan prepares bombs filled with macabre biological concoctions to be dropped on Hawaii.

For the U.S., the only enemy is Japan, as there has been no casus belli for America in Europe. Then Hitler becomes desperate and declares war on the United States. But is it too late? His own people are rising up in revolt. The German military may have to put down the violence, even perhaps bomb its own cities.

In this epic drama, real men and women are shaped by the carnage, and their individual acts in turn shape history. Drawing on the gritty, personal reality of war and on a cast of unforgettable characters, Harry Turtledove has written an alternate history that intrigues, fascinates, and astounds.

Paperback

The Boleyn Reckoning by Laura Andersen

Perfect for fans of Philippa Gregory and Alison Weir, The Boleyn Reckoning heralds the triumphant conclusion of Laura Andersen’s enthralling trilogy about the Tudor king who never was: the son of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn—Henry IX—who, along with his sisters and those he holds most dear, approaches a dangerous crossroads.

The Tudor royal family has barely survived a disastrous winter. Now English ships and soldiers prepare for the threat of invasion. But William Tudor—known as Henry IX—has his own personal battles to attend to. He still burns for Minuette, his longtime friend, but she has married William’s trusted advisor, Dominic, in secret—an act of betrayal that puts both their lives in danger. Princess Elizabeth, concerned over her brother’s erratic, vengeful behavior, imperils her own life by assembling a shadow court in an effort to protect England. With war on the horizon, Elizabeth must decide where her duty lies: with her brother or her country. Her choice could forever change the course of history.

Look for special features inside. Join the Random House Reader’s Circle for author chats and more.

LAURA ANDERSEN’S NOVELS ABOUT THE IMAGINED SON OF HENRY VIII and ANNE BOLEYN ARE: “excellent . . . quick-paced” —Booklist (starred review) • “delectable and full of intrigue” —New York Times bestselling author Tasha Alexander • “impossible to put down” —award-winning author Stefanie Pintoff

Audio

The Boleyn Deceit by Laura Andersen

Named one of the best books of the year by RT Book Reviews

Perfect for fans of Philippa Gregory, Alison Weir, and Showtime's The Tudors, The Boleyn King is the first book in an enthralling trilogy that dares to imagine: What if Anne Boleyn had actually given Henry VIII a son who grew up to be king?

Just 17 years old, Henry IX, known as William, is a king bound by the restraints of the regency yet anxious to prove himself. With the French threatening battle and the Catholics sowing the seeds of rebellion at home, William trusts only three people: His older sister Elizabeth; his best friend and loyal counselor, Dominic; and Minuette, a young orphan raised as a royal ward by William's mother, Anne Boleyn.

Against a tide of secrets, betrayal, and murder, William finds himself fighting for the very soul of his kingdom. Then, when he and Dominic both fall in love with Minuette, romantic obsession looms over a new generation of Tudors. One among them will pay the price for a king's desire, as a shocking twist of fate changes England's fortunes forever.

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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Not another AH about Sealion!

July 16, 2014, 9:00 am

≫ Next: Flag Friday: People's Republic of Sweden

≪ Previous: New Releases 7/15/14

Guest post by Bernard Neeson.

Yes, but... how often does the seed for an AH story come from the pen of the main actor?

“There were some, indeed... who would like to have seen him try.”

These startling words can be found in Winston Churchill’s The Second World War, hidden away and rarely commented upon. Startling, because the received wisdom about Sea Lion, the Nazi plan for the invasion of England, is that Britain held on by its fingernails. The country was saved only by the bravery of the RAF’s fighter pilots, “The Few”.

Most historians now accept that if the Nazis had attempted an invasion in September 1940, they would have been heavily defeated, not by the RAF or the British Army, but by the Royal Navy.

At that time, the Royal Navy was ten times bigger than the German Kriegsmarine, repeat ten times! It was bloodied but unbowed after the battles in Norway and at Dunkirk. That may be true, but what about the Luftwaffe, you might ask? Would it not have been able to destroy the British fleet? Well, it tried, at Dunkirk, with only limited success. Undoubtedly, the Royal Navy would have suffered losses as it attacked the invasion fleet, especially if the RAF had been seriously weakened. But have a look at a map of the English Channel; then have a look at the specifications of the Bf109 and the Ju87, especially their limited range.

And think about the night. The Royal Navy’s capital ships could have stayed out of range of the Luftwaffe’s dive-bombers by day, then made the dash from the safety of East Anglia to the Channel and back to safe waters, all in the hours of the darkness. Except for a handful of extended-range Ju87s, the only aircraft that could have reached the Royal Navy’ ships there would have been the vulnerable, inaccurate level bombers, escorted by the just-as-vulnerable Bf110 twin-engined fighters. The Luftwaffe sent such a formation across the North Sea once, just once. It was a turkey shoot for the RAF’s Hurricanes.

Then imagine what those twenty or thirty cruisers and battleships would have done in a few hours of darkness to the barges and steamers of the German invasion fleet, as they tried to bring over the second echelon and supplies? What would their 15” guns have done to the German forces that had managed to get ashore in England? Think Omaha beach, but with German battleships rather than Allied doing the shore bombardment.

Deterrent forces rarely make as good headlines as forces in action, so it is understandable that there was little publicity for the Royal Navy’s vital role. It has also been suggested that, after a succession of crushing defeats on the continent, Churchill needed a victory. He needed to destroy the aura of German invincibility to bolster the nation for the hard struggle ahead, and the RAF’s pilots provided just that.

His words at the start of this article above reflect the likely outcome of an invasion. But who were the “some” who would like to have seen (Hitler) try. For me, the words are written in such an uncritical way, that the most likely candidate is Winston Spencer Churchill himself. If he had disapproved of the view, I believe that the sentiment would show. How far might he have been tempted to go? With his history of military gambles, from the Dardanelles to Norway, he was well capable of turning such a feeling into bold, even reckless plan of action.

In An Invitation to Hitler, I explore this possibility, in a fictionalized, dramatized and hopefully thought-provoking way.

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Bernard Neeson is a keen student of political and military history. Now retired after a long career in the technology industry, he lives in Dublin, Ireland where he indulges his pastimes of sailing and writing. His first novel, "An Invitation to Hitler" reached the quarter-finals of the 2014 Amazon Breakthrough Novel Awards, and the shortlist for the UK SpaSpa awards.

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Flag Friday: People's Republic of Sweden

July 18, 2014, 11:12 am

≫ Next: We're Moving!

≪ Previous: Not another AH about Sealion!

Originally posted on Sean Sherman's blog Other Times. Support an alternate historian by subscribing to his blog!

Sweden suffered greatly during the Great War. A British blockade and Russian invasion devastated the country to such a point that the government collapsed towards the end of the conflict in April 1896.

By the end of 1896 Sweden was proclaimed a People's Republic. The German Empire did not like having a communist country so close to it so they supported an Danish conquest of Ostlandet in a war from 30 January 1899 to 31 May 1899. During those few months Germany and Norway helped Denmark annex a portion of Swedish territory.

Germany and Norway again invaded the People's Republic of Sweden on 1 June 1904 to add a stretch of Swedish territory to Norway. Having never recovered fully from the Great War much less the Danish Conquest of Ostlandet, the Swedes were forced to surrender on 3 July 1905 with the loss of additional territory. The territory gained by Norway included Nord-Noreg and Trøndelag.

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Sean Sherman has been a fan of alternate timelines ever since seeing Spock with a goatee. By day he is a CPA, at night he explores the multiverse and shares his findings over at his blog, Other Times.

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We're Moving!

July 21, 2014, 9:00 am

≫ Next: New Releases 7/22/14

≪ Previous: Flag Friday: People's Republic of Sweden

As I warned you all earlier this month, my wife and I are moving to our new home at the end of this week. Due to all the work that still needs to get done before the move, I will be posting sporadically or not at all. This has also caused me to put Voices from Alternia on hiatus until the dust finally settles.

Please have patience as I plan to return next month with a bunch of new articles, interviews, reviews and other alternate history goodies. If you have submitted a guest post it may be some time before it is published, but I will work with you to the best of my ability so that the wait is not unreasonably long.

In the meantime, our calendar has been updated and you may want to check out Map Monday: American Quilt by Jordan Penny, which was the most viewed article last week. I have an interview with the creator scheduled and I hope to finish that soon.

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New Releases 7/22/14

July 22, 2014, 9:00 am

≫ Next: Flag Friday: New England (Guest Post)

≪ Previous: We're Moving!

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

Paperbacks

Charlemagne and the Paladins by Julia Cresswell

Symbolically, the quintessential English feudal monarch is King Arthur, but stories of Charlemagne and his Knights' quests throughout Christian Europe had a much wider impact. Amidst the chaos and violence of Europe in the eighth century, Charlemagne became king of the Franks and slowly established an empire the likes of which had not been seen since the days of the Romans. As Charlemange's power grew, so did the stories attached to his name.

This book explores the myths and legends of the great king Charlemagne, from the stories about his mother, Bertha Bigfoot, and his youthful adventures with the thief, Basin, to his fantastical journeys to Jerusalem and Constantinople. It also retells the stories of his most famous knights, the Paladins. These brave warriors were all heroes in their own right, and included many famous names such as Roland, Ogier the Dane, Oliver, Archbishop Turpin, and Renault of Montalban who rode the famous steed, Bayard. Together with his Paladins, Charlemagne established a court to rival Camelot and led the Christian kingdoms of Europe in their ongoing struggles with the armies of the East. Although this great ruler eventually passed away, quietly in his bed, the legends say that he now sits on his golden throne beneath the mountain, waiting until the need of his people calls him forth again.

Prophet of Bonesby Ted Kosmatka

Ted Kosmatka's sensational new thriller, Prophet of Bones, thrusts readers into an alternate present.

Paul Carlson, a brilliant young scientist, is summoned from his laboratory job to the remote Indonesian island of Flores to collect DNA samples from the ancient bones of a strange, new species of tool user unearthed by an archaeological dig. The questions the find raises seem to cast doubt on the very foundations of modern science, which has proven the world to be only 5,800 years old, but before Paul can fully grapple with the implications of his find, the dig is violently shut down by paramilitaries.

Paul flees with two of his friends, yet within days one has vanished and the other is murdered in an attack that costs Paul an eye, and very nearly his life. Back in America, Paul tries to resume the comfortable life he left behind, but he can't cast the questions raised by the dig from his mind. Paul begins to piece together a puzzle which seems to threaten the very fabric of society, but world's governments and Martial Johnston, the eccentric billionaire who financed Paul's dig, will stop at nothing to silence him.

Theatre of the Gods by Matt Suddain

Steampunk space opera? Damn right.

This is the story of M. Francisco Fabrigas, explorer, philosopher, heretical physicist, who took a shipful of children on a frightening voyage to the next dimension, assisted by a teenaged Captain, a brave deaf boy, a cunning blind girl, and a sultry botanist, all the while pursued by the Pope of the universe and a well-dressed mesmerist.

Dark plots, demonic cults, murderous jungles, quantum mayhem, the birth of creation, the death of time, and a creature called the Sweety: all this and more waits beyond the veil of reality.

First in a sequence of at least three titles.

To fans, authors and publishers...

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Flag Friday: New England (Guest Post)

July 25, 2014, 9:00 am

≫ Next: Flag Friday: Confederation of the Rio Grande and Texas

≪ Previous: New Releases 7/22/14

Editor's Note: I have two Flag Fridays today. The first is from Sam McDonald:

This is the flag of New England from a world in which the Embargo Act was never repealed and New England declared independence in 1812. Eventually, New England went on to join the European Union, which in this world had a considerably broader definition of "European" given that they also admitted Morocco. The flag is a combination of the European Union flag with a smaller version of the original New England flag in the upper left hand corner. This is all in keeping with New England's motto: "Remember the past, Prepare for the Future and Live for Today."

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Sam McDonald is a college student from Shreveport, LA. When not involved with his studies he can be found making and posting maps across the web and working on short stories that he hopes to have published in magazines such as Lightspeed, Strange Horizons, and the Escape Artists Podcasts.

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Flag Friday: Confederation of the Rio Grande and Texas

July 25, 2014, 12:00 pm

≫ Next: Amazon Studios to Produce Pilot of Philip K Dick's The Man In The High Castle

≪ Previous: Flag Friday: New England (Guest Post)

Originally posted on Sean Sherman's blog Other Times. Support an alternate historian by subscribing to his blog!

During the Battle of San Jacinto on 21 April 1836 Antonio López de Santa Anna was killed during the fighting. The war for Texan independence continued but the Mexicans suffered major setbacks after that battle. In 1837 another collection of Mexican states declared independence as the Republic of the Rio Grande. The battered Mexican Army gained made renewed attacks into the rebellious territory, but intervention by Sam Houston and his Texan forces secured the independence of the sister republic.

Having fought together against a common foe and facing an uncertain future together the two new republics formed the Confederation of the Rio Grande and Texas as a means to mutual defense and cooperation.

The flag of the Confederation has four stars - one for each of the states: Texas, Coahuila, Nuevo León, and Tamaulipas.

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Amazon Studios to Produce Pilot of Philip K Dick's The Man In The High Castle

July 28, 2014, 9:00 am

≫ Next: New Releases 7/29/14

≪ Previous: Flag Friday: Confederation of the Rio Grande and Texas

The big news from last week (since I don't have the time to write up a complete Weekly Update) was that Amazon Studios was creating a pilot for a series based on Philip K. Dick's Hugo Award-winning novel The Man in the High Castle.

For those who don't know, The Man in the High Castle is set in a 1962 where the Axis Powers were victorious in World War II. The United States is occupied between a Nazi East Coast, a Japanese West Coast (known as the Pacific States of America) and a neutral "Rocky Mountain States" lumped in a middle as a buffer between the two power blocs.

The novel is considered by some to be the precursor to the modern alternate history genre as it brought the what if game out of the pulpy tales of time travel, magic and parallel universes and allowed for a serious tale of alternate history without any ASBs (although the genre certainly has plenty of that still).

According to Deadline, The Man In the High Castle is a joint project of Frank Spotnitz (The X-Files) and Ridley Scott's (who also adapted Dick's Blade Runner) Scott Free Productions. The pilot will be written by Spotnitz and be directed by David Semel (Legends). The project originally was set up as a four-hour miniseries Syfy last year, but it looks like the cable channel passed.

While I am sort of happy Syfy won't get the chance to ruin one of the classic works of alternate history, I am still worried about how long this project is taking to get made. The longer a project languishes in development, the worse it is likely to be. That being said, getting rid of cable like I did a couple of months ago is looking like an even better idea.

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New Releases 7/29/14

July 29, 2014, 9:00 am

≫ Next: Game Over, Continue? The Alternate Console Wars, Part One

≪ Previous: Amazon Studios to Produce Pilot of Philip K Dick's The Man In The High Castle

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

Hardcovers

The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Century by Alan Moore

The nineteenth century, expiring with a flourish of Moriarty and Martians, has left the division of Military Intelligence commanded by Mina Murray in a state of disrepair. While she and her lover Allan Quatermain have achieved a measure of eternal youth, recruiting new talents such as the trans-gendered immortal Orlando, the ghost-finder Thomas Carnacki, and the gentleman thief A.J. Raffles to replace their deceased or missing colleagues, former associate Captain Nemo has retired to his Pacific pirate island to decline in surly isolation. Now it is the early years of a new and unfamiliar century, and forces are emerging that appear to promise ruin for the Murray group, the nation, and, indeed, the world, even were it to take a hundred years for this apocalyptic threat to come to its disastrous fruition. From the occult parlours and crime-haunted wharfs of 1910, through the criminal, mystical, and psychedelic underworlds of 1969 to the financially and culturally desolated streets of 2009, the disintegrating remnants of Miss Murray and her League must combat not only the hidden hand of their undying adversary, but also the ethical and psychological collapse accompanying this new era. And a lot of things can happen in a CENTURY!

Paperbacks

Jani and the Greater Game by Eric Brown

Jani and the Greater Game is the first book in a rip-roaring, spice-laden, steampunk action adventure series set in India and featuring a heroine who subverts all the norms...

It’s 1910 and the British rule the subcontinent with an iron fist – and with strange technology fuelled by a power source known as Annapurnite – discovered in the foothills of Mount Annapurna. But they rule but at the constant cost of their enemies, mainly the Russians and the Chinese, attempting to learn the secret of this technology... This political confrontation is known as The Greater Game.

Into this conflict is pitched eighteen year old Janisha Chaterjee who discovers a strange device which leads her into the foothills of the Himalayas. When Russians spies and the evil priest Durja Das find out about the device, the chase is on to apprehend Janisha before she can reach the Himalayas. There she will learn the secret behind Annapurnite, and what she learns will change the destiny of the world for ever...

Online Originals

"Brisk Money" by Adam Christopher

Raymond Chandler famously hated science fiction, saying “They pay brisk money for this crap?” However, it has recently come to light that Chandler secretly wrote a series of stories and novels starring a robot detective. He then burnt all the manuscripts and went on writing his noir masterpieces. Unknown to Chandler, his housekeeper had managed to save some of these discarded manuscripts from the grate in his study, preserving the tales for future generations.

The first of these stories was recently unearthed by author Adam Christopher. On the topic of how the manuscript made its way from Chandler’s study in California to Christopher’s home in England, Christopher is suspiciously quiet.

This novelette was acquired and edited for Tor.com by editor Paul Stevens.

To fans, authors and publishers...

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Game Over, Continue? The Alternate Console Wars, Part One

July 30, 2014, 9:00 am

≫ Next: Genesis Does What Nintendon’t. The Alternate Console Wars, Part Two

≪ Previous: New Releases 7/29/14

Guest post Ben Ronning.

No one can argue that video games have not made an impact on popular culture worldwide. What started as a primitive electronic version of table tennis has blossomed into a multibillion-dollar industry whose releases rival Hollywood blockbusters in terms of hype and anticipation. The medium itself has been a childhood staple for Generation Xers, and Millennials like myself who made blowing dust from our cartridges a ritual (before I learned that the enzymes in my saliva slowly corroded the pin.) I recently purchased a Nintendo Wii U and I could not help but appreciate the fact that such an action would have appalled my younger self twenty years ago.

You see, dear reader, I was born in 1984 and the great 16-Bit Wars waged by Nintendo and then-rival Sega is a vivid memory to me. Back in Christmas of 1993, my parents bought me a Sega Game Gear and a Genesis (better known as the Mega Drive on the opposite sides of the Pacific and Atlantic) the year after. I was an avid fan of Sega and joined their camp in a war waged on the schoolyards across North America. My birth year is also an important touchstone for the industry, because that is year the industry collapsed, toppling the titan known as Atari and bringing the second generation of video games to a close. Atari’s fall brings up an interesting question: “what would have happened if the market did not collapse in 1983-4?” As does the final fall of Sega fifteen years later where the company bowed out of the hardware market to focus on becoming a third-party game developer. Could Sega have prevented it?

To answer the former question: Atari’s ability to prevent the crash depended on a number of factors. First and foremost, is that Atari’s corporate policy did not allow its employees to take credit for the games they programmed. Many programmers, such as David Crane, creator of Pitfall, left the company to form their own studios. Unfortunately, the rise of third-party developers led to a loss of quality control, which deluged the market with sub par games. Unfortunately, Atari also overhyped games that underperformed such as the infamous E.T. The Extraterrestrial and 2600 adaptation of Pac-Man. Atari produced 12 million cartridges despite having sold on 10 million 2600 consoles at the time, which resulted in the now-confirmed burial of the surplus carts. Several other companies like Mattel, Coleco, Bally, and Fairchild produced their own systems that varied in quality. Unfortunately, as noted by TV Tropes, the wide array of choices hindered their ability to succeed in the long term.

“Dirty Laundry: An Alternate 80s” by Andrew T manages to create such a scenario where the video game industry avoids the crash of 1983. While the timeline focuses on pop culture in general, Atari plays a significant part. How did Atari survive the crash? By building a better version of E.T. based on Steven Spielberg’s vision for the game, which he imagined as similar to Pac-Man. (So does that mean we swap Power Pellets for Reese’s Pieces?) Warner Communications, which then owned Atari, CEO, Steve Ross ordered Ray Kassar to replace Howard Scott Warshaw, the programmer of the game in our timeline, with Carla Meninsky over a matter of two hundred grand plus expenses. The game itself becomes the best-selling title for the 2600. Still, despite this aversion, Mattel and Coleco both bow out of the console wars as they did in ours.

However, one other interesting consequence is that Nintendo partnered with Atari to distribute the Famicom in territories outside of Japan. It was something that nearly happened in real life until Jack Trammel killed the deal in 1984. In terms of the games Nintendo produced, such as the iconic Super Mario Bros. and Legend of Zelda, very little would have changed. However, in terms of hardware, the mention of non-volatile random access memory in one post possibly means that players would possibly be able to save their game data on the cartridge itself. That means gamers in North America would not need to use lengthy passwords for games like Metroid and Kid Icarus. The long-term repercussions of a successful Atari/Nintendo partnership are still unknown.

One of the main reasons Nintendo dominated the industry in the late eighties and early nineties are its restrictive policies towards developers that prevented them from releasing games for competing systems. This “quality control” (though reviewers like an infamous nerd with anger issues would argue otherwise) allowed Nintendo to prevent another deluge of shovelware that plagued the previous generation with its lockout chip, though companies such as Tengen (Atari Games) and Wisdom Tree managed to bypass it. Nintendo also enacted strict censorship on the games it published. As noted by Douglas Crockford, Nintendo was quite selective in the language used in their games. Would the partnership be less restrictive in its policies towards third-party companies? Perhaps. Nintendo would have a captive Japanese market but Atari’s attempts to stem third party software were flimsy at best. If Nintendo still controlled the production of the cartridges, then I would not see a significant change in that respect.

The largest flaw I see with "Dirty Laundry" is that it only half complete and thus has not fully explored the implications of a video game market without the crash. While Andrew T confirms that Mattel bows out of the race and Coleco remains on its trajectory towards bankruptcy as it did in our timeline, there is little mention of any video game platforms to challenge Atari/Nintendo outside of the Intellivision III, now produced by Tandy. The platform itself boasts a Motorola 68000 processor (the same chip used by the Mega Drive/Genesis) with wireless controllers and boasts the ability to display 3D graphics for the low, low price of $599.99 plus tax. Andrew T leaves the system’s fate to the reader’s imagination, but it probably went the same route of another technically superior system with a similar price point in the nineties. Still, polygonal graphics still have the potential to be a game changer that could affect the next generation of consoles, particularly the Sega Mega Drive/Genesis and the successor to the Atari Nintendo System, but will need to wait a while. Andrew T last updated last May so the next update may take weeks perhaps even months. I recommend giving the thread a look; if not for the video games, then do it for pop culture in general. You will not regret it.

Alas, there are only a few pop culture alternate histories with a point of divergence predating 1982. Brainbin’s "That Wacky Redhead" focuses on video games a handful of times but it is only a sideshow to the larger cultural and even political trends. However, there are a few elements I liked, notably that a licensed Star Trek arcade game was one of Syzygy’s (as Atari is known as in that timeline) earliest hits. It also appears that several genres that rose to prominence in the nineties, like fighting and adventure games, became popular earlier with a fighting game with Bruce Lee as its main character and an adaptation of Mission Impossible as the template for adventure games. As with "Dirty Laundry", it appears that with greater emphasis on creating a quality product will mean that the market will not crash in "That Wacky Redhead". While the eighties were formative for the fledgling industry, I believe that the console wars of the next decade set the tone for the industry and its players as well as provide fertile ground for alternate historians.

Next up, Genesis Does What Nintendon’t…

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Aspiring writer and platypus enthusiast Ben Ronning has lurked the AH.com boards since June 2006. When he is not roaming the multiverse, he can be found at his blog, Thoughts of a Platypus.

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Genesis Does What Nintendon’t. The Alternate Console Wars, Part Two

July 31, 2014, 9:00 am

≫ Next: Could Eric Flint's 1632 Series Be Coming to Television?

≪ Previous: Game Over, Continue? The Alternate Console Wars, Part One

Guest post Ben Ronning.

I openly admit that I am more a child of the nineteen-nineties and my own nostalgia for the decade likely colors my judgment when I reflect upon the fourth generation of video game. Some call it the “16-Bit Wars” and for good reason. Despite its failure to gain a foothold during the previous generation, Sega finally managed to challenge the seemingly invincible Nintendo and almost brought the giant to its knees. Yet the company itself made some questionable decisions--notably creating peripherals like the Sega CD and 32X to extend the life cycle of the aging Genesis. However, intra-company rivalries between the Japanese and American branches also played a role in the company’s downfall, giving the narrative the air of a biblical parable or a Shakespearean tragedy.

As former Sega president Tom Kalinske said in an interview with Sega-16:

“In hindsight, I think there probably was. I don’t believe there was from 1991-1993. I think somewhere in the mid ’90s, ’94 or ’95, they built up a great deal of resentment, and I didn’t realize it at the time, until probably the latter part of 1995, when one of my colleagues in Japan, who I knew well and had a good relationship with, said to me something to the effect of “you don’t understand how browbeat and annoyed the Japanese executives here are because of your success. Every meeting we go into, Nakayama asks us why can’t you do things the way the Americans and Europeans did? Why aren’t you guys as successful as they are? We’ve been around longer.” I think the local executives didn’t appreciate that he’d take that tone with them. Apparently, he also beat them up over Sonic, which was never as successful in Japan as it was in the U.S. and Europe (to this day, that’s the case), and I think he was always throwing that in their faces too. So clearly, by late ’95 there was great resentment built up: jealously, resentment, and kind of a desire to get back at those Americans that Nakayama kept throwing in their faces.”

What few people realize is that Sega and Sony could have released what would have become the PlayStation as a joint venture, but Sega of Japan rejected the idea in the belief that, “Sony doesn't know how to make hardware.” Similarly, Silicon Graphics, the company that designed the CPU for the Nintendo 64, approached Sega first, but again, Sega of Japan vetoed the idea. Ultimately, it was the Sony PlayStation and Nintendo 64 that felled the Sega Saturn during the fifth generation, which contributed to the fall of the Dreamcast in the sixth.

Nintendo was not without its hubris as well. Many gamers are aware of the origins of the Sony PlayStation; the company originally partnered with Nintendo to produce a CD peripheral for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. The company also built a prototype PlayStation, which was effectively a SNES with a CD-ROM drive attached. However, problems arose over the issue of royalties. Sony wanted the royalties from any CD-based games produced for the system while Nintendo would take royalties from cartridge-based games. As such, Nintendo broke their deal with Sony to partner with their competitor, Phillips after Sony announced the SNES-CD as CES 1991. Ultimately, nothing came out of Nintendo’s partnership with Phillips, aside from games that received derision from the fans, and Sony became Nintendo’s chief competitor.

Cronus Invictus by Thande is one of the more popular video game alternate histories on AH.com despite its comparative shortness and over four years of inactivity. Every once in a blue moon when the cows practice their high jumps, a random poster will try to revive the thread no avail. Video game history in Invictus diverges when Hiroshi Yamauchi, President and Chairman of Nintendo at the time, reads the contract made with Sony and both party manage to renegotiate the terms and Nintendo and Sony release the SNES-CD, dubbed the “Super CD”, add-on in 1993. However, there are some interesting deviations that occur before the release.

If you are a Sonic fan, then chances are you are aware of the Simon Wai Prototype of Sonic the Hedgehog 2where incomplete levels (notably the Hidden Palace Zone, and to a lesser extent, the Wood Zone) intrigued fans for well over a decade. Hidden Palace, as well as the never-completed Genocide City Zone, made it to the final product. Thande even references the time travel element that ultimately went to Sonic CD being reworked into a teleportation gimmick for the Hidden Palace boss. Additionally, Sega produced Sonic games based on the 1993 “SatAM” animated series and the UK-published Sonic the Comic. However, the timeline is not a complete Sega wank, despite what the title would suggest. Atari comes roaring back with the Cougar, marketed towards young adults and NEC still continues with its PC Engine/TurboGraphix line.

To my relief, the disastrous 32X never saw release and Sega instead released the Radical as the 32-bit enhanced Sega CD add-on as their response to the SNES CD. However, Thande stopped work on the timeline before he could elaborate on the next generation aside from vague rumblings of Sega’s Project Saturn and Nintendo’s Project Reality, which became the Nintendo 64 in our timeline, thought the timeline’s title implies whose system triumphs. Cronus Invictus, though inactive, serves as the template for other timelines to wax the nostalgic about what games could have been.

Player Two Start, a joint timeline by Nivek and RySenkari, is one such timeline that uses the same premise as Cronus Invictus. Nintendo and Sony produce the SNES-CD, but builds on the format by writing it in the form of fictional articles, quotes, and reviews. The pair also goes into greater detail into the content of the games, notably the sequel to Super Mario World where they list the themes of the various worlds and the nature of the boss battles. To give you an idea of how enhanced the SNES-CD is in Player Two Start, the author states that the fictional system is more powerful than the Neo Geo AES, the most powerful system at the time. The link provided should give you an idea of the graphical capabilities of the SNES-CD in this timeline, which is to say amazing considering the graphical power of a non-enhanced SNES and Genesis. Thus far, Player Two Start has only reached 1993 but the timeline is still ongoing, but considering how updates can be months apart, it may be a while before we see the next installment. However, with the cliffhanger the latest installment ends on, I am certain it will be worth the wait.

And lastly, we come to Beyond the Genesisby Confortius, which I recommend because of my shameless partiality towards Sega. Like Player Two Start its format is partly reviews, but it is most mostly descriptions of games that could have been and bits of news. Sega avoids the damage caused by the intra-company rivalries by focusing its next-generation system uses the Silicon Graphics’ SGI MIPS4000i in lieu on its efforts with the Sega CD and 32X. While I do not find Beyond the Genesisas immersive as Player Two Start, there are enough surprises to raise a few eyebrows. For those who were addicted to Pokemon as children in the late nineties, expect a bigger grudge match between Pokemon and Digimon with Sega’s merger with Bandai, which collapsed in our timeline.

However, video game alternate histories are ultimately a niche subject. Despite the industry having its fair share of big personalities and corporate intrigue (as the Nintendo/Sony debacle had shown us), writing a novel-length story on an alternate console war would be a challenge to say least. It is definitely possible but highly improbable, so write them? As the aforementioned beta version of Sonic 2has shown us, the incomplete levels made fans curious about what could have been. The inclusion of a revamped Hidden Palace Zone for the iOS/Android releases of the game finally gave us an answer. If Tim Pratt could win a Hugo Award for a short story featuring a video store from an alternate timeline, why now video games?

Get cracking, fellow gamers-cum-alternate historians.

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Aspiring writer and platypus enthusiast Ben Ronning has lurked the AH.com boards since June 2006. When he is not roaming the multiverse, he can be found at his blog, Thoughts of a Platypus.

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Could Eric Flint's 1632 Series Be Coming to Television?

August 1, 2014, 9:00 am

≫ Next: Weekly Update #156

≪ Previous: Genesis Does What Nintendon’t. The Alternate Console Wars, Part Two

Hot on the heels of Amazon's announcement that they are producing an adaptation of Dick's The Man in the High Castle, author Eric Flint had this to say on his blog and Facebook:

Mammoth Screen is renewing their option on the 1632 series for another year. They've hired a well-known screenwriter and have the script for the first episode. They've also made a deal with ITV Studios for worldwide distribution. This is important because ITV is a big deal in the UK. We’re still a long ways from an up-and-running TV series, but things are looking good.

Fans of 1632 are no doubt happy about this news, but if you are unfamiliar with the series, 1632 is about a small mining town in West Virginia that is transported to the middle of Germany during the Thirty Years War. If you think this sounds similar to Stirling's Island in the Sea of Time, you are not far off, but ISOT does predate 1632.

A strength (and weakness) of this series in regards to television is that it has a large canon and a diverse cast of fictional and historical characters to draw from. Unlike Stirling's Nantucket Trilogy, Flint opened 1632 to both professional and amateur authors who have contributed numerous novels and short stories. From a literary point of view its easy to get burned out on this series (I personally stopped at 1635: The Cannon Law), but I still highly recommend 1632 for its plausibility and humor.

Having such a complex (and growing) canon, however, could be a detriment to the series, especially if the producers want to take the show in a different direction than what is in the books or cut fan favorite characters from the show. With the 1632 show still in the early stages of its development, only time will tell about how the final product will look...if it even gets made in the first place.

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Weekly Update #156

August 4, 2014, 9:00 am

≫ Next: Map Monday: Pasadena-D by David Johnson

≪ Previous: Could Eric Flint's 1632 Series Be Coming to Television?

Editor's Note

WE'RE BACK!!!

I am writing this at Alternate History Weekly Update's new world headquarters...which is the fancy title for the half-unpacked, spare bedroom in my new home. Still the move went as smooth as it could have and I am a little less stressed out. I even find myself with some rare free time so I sat down and wrote out a Weekly Update.

Sadly sacrifices had to be made. All the research I collected on news and events of the last couple of weeks had to be deleted. Thus nothing, absolutely nothing, happened between 7/14 and 7/27 in the world of alternate history, steampunk, time travel, etc.

O by the way, I got a promotion at work, which means a little more financial security, but possibly a little less time to give to The Update. I will keep you posted on the details, but expect some small blackouts as I get accustomed to my new responsibilities.

And now the news...

Preview: California Bones by Greg van Eekhout

I mentioned California Bones by Greg van Eekhout in New Releases 6/10/14 and several Weekly Updates, but this week the alternate fantasy got some shout outs on a couple sites of note so I decided to give a little more detail on the novel.

In his guest review on SF Signal, Ben Blattberg said "I wouldn't want to live in van Eekhout’s grim, magical LA, but it’s a fantastic place to visit; and despite a few hiccups, the book is a fun thrill-ride." Meanwhile, Greg was a guest on the Adventures in SciFi Publishing podcast, the fourth time he has been on the show (although his voice is used in the podcast intro, so technically he has been present for a lot more episodes).

If you have read California Bones please let us know. We would love to post your review here on The Update.

Videos for Alternate Historians

This week is a special film edition of Videos for Alternate Historians. First up, a NSFW trailer for Hot Tub Time Machine 2:

Huh...I guess there wasn't enough cash, cocaine or hookers to get John Cusack to sign up for the sequel. Sad really, I liked the original. It was a dumb, but entertaining, movie that was just self-aware enough to upend some old time travel cliches. Next up, something probably a little more thoughtful. Here is the new trailer for Nolan's Interstellar:

I'm still holding out hope that some of the early rumors that this film would involve parallel universes are true. Finally we end with what could have been the greatest comic book movie that was never made. I bring you the test footage for Deadpool:

Let me know if you can't see anything. Seems like Fox is trying to purge all mentions of it from the Internet.

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

Links to the Multiverse

Books and Short Fiction

Author’s fantasy novel marks centenary of Great War by John Herring at Newbury Today.
Cover & Synopsis: A DARKER SHADE OF MAGIC by V. E. Schwab at SF Signal.
Defining Steampunk with Authors Pip Ballantine and Tee Morris at Bitten by Books.
Review: Flashing Steel Flashing Fire by Matthew Quinn at The M.
Review: The Language of Stones by Robert Carter at Fantasy Book Review.
Review: Maplecroft: The Borden Dispatches by Cherie Priest at Publishers Weekly.
Review: Napoleon in America by Shannon Selin at Other Times.
Sealed by Noeleen Kavanagh – Free Story Extract at Alt Hist.
Table of Contents: WARS TO END ALL WARS: ALTERNATE TALES FROM THE TRENCHES Edited by N.E. White at SF Signal.

Comics

How to promote a feminist/action/alt. history graphic novel? by Michael Munro at io9.

Counterfactuals, History and News

The 1944 science fiction story that predicted the atomic bomb at Boing Boing.
Bill Clinton's Lost Tape: I Could Have Killed Osama Bin Laden at NBC.
The Bukharin Alternative Part One and Part Two by Scott Blair at The World According to Quinn.
Federal Employee Gets Fired After Writing An Article Criticizing Nukes by Mark Strauss at io9.
If Ireland was treated like Palestine - An alternate history by Andrew Flood at Workers Solidarity Movement.
Lockport’s Steampunk costume gala combines Victorian era, science fiction by Erin Gallagher at Southtown Star.
A Map Of The U.S., If There Had Never Been A Mexican-American War by Mark Strauss at io9.
Watch The European Colonization Of North America In Just 14 Seconds by Mark Strauss at io9.

Film and Television

Ascension: An Alternate History About a Planned Community in Space by Katharine Trendacosta at io9.
Outlander: is this the next Game of Thrones? by Charlotte Runcie at The Telegraph.

Games

The Order: 1886 – A Game That Combines History with Fantasy at The Fuse Joplin.

Interviews

Gail Carriger at The Murverse Annex.
Alyx (A M) Dellamonica at Functional Nerds.
Jacopo della Quercia at The Qwillery.

Podcasts

Dissecting Worlds Series 8, Ep 7b: Religion Conclusions at Geek Syndicate.

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Map Monday: Pasadena-D by David Johnson

August 4, 2014, 1:00 pm

≫ Next: New Releases 8/5/14

≪ Previous: Weekly Update #156

This Map Monday is brought to you by David Johnson. If you have your own maps you would like to submit, let us know at ahwupdate at gmail dot com.

"Pasadena-D" is a timeline (as seen here on my website...along with a lot of other stuff) where the U.S. got a lot of bad breaks - no Lincoln, a more revengeful Reconstruction, multiple Presidents during the Great Depression and no WWII to have a boom afterwards. Thus, in a lot of ways, it is several decades behind our U.S.

The first map "Freeways Schematic", a simplified road map of major highways in the Los Angeles Basin, reflects this:

Fewer freeways, no Eisenhower Interstate plan (so Route 66 is still the big road east/west), population of California is about 2/3s OTL (no WWII for troops to come through on their way to the Pacific and go "hey, this place is great. Maybe I'll move here after the war..."). Along with highways, the MTA in the area also runs several trolley lines. "Metro Schematic" shows this:

And since WWII didn't move them out, and the economy hasn't done well enough for the massive port expansion of OTL, the Japanese village on Terminal Island remained, eventually becoming the full city of "Furusato," which is what the final two maps show, one showing the cities:

And the other in a "Google Maps" format:

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New Releases 8/5/14

August 5, 2014, 9:00 am

≫ Next: Comic Review: The Royals: Masters of War by Rob Williams and Simon Coleby

≪ Previous: Map Monday: Pasadena-D by David Johnson

Paperbacks

The City of Fear: Bk.3 by Andrew Beasley

Victorian London is ruled by fear. The bloodthirsty Legion have captured the Queen and walled off the city, ushering in a reign of terror. Only Ben Kingdom and his motley band of rebels can stop them, but in the darkest pit of hell, evil creatures are stirring, ready to be called forth...

The Great Abraham Lincoln Pocket Watch Conspiracy by Jacopo della Quercia

This historical thriller is an equal-parts cocktail of action, adventure, science-fiction and comedy. The book follows a globe-trotting President Taft and Robert Todd Lincoln in a race to solve a mystery stretching back to the Civil War and the Lincoln assassination. Based on true events, readers will find themselves swept into a vast conspiracy spanning four continents and three oceans during the turn of the century. Fascinating technologies will be harnessed, dark secrets revealed, true villains exposed, and some of the most famous figures in history will take the stage. With surprises lurking around every corner, and a vast cast of characters to root for, Jacopo della Quercia's The Great Abraham Lincoln Pocket Watch Conspiracy is a heart-pounding adventure that only history could have made possible.

To fans, authors and publishers...

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Comic Review: The Royals: Masters of War by Rob Williams and Simon Coleby

August 6, 2014, 8:00 am

≫ Next: Maps of The United Nations of America

≪ Previous: New Releases 8/5/14

Guest post Chris Nuttall.

There are certain concepts that need a good writer to do them full justice. The Royals: Masters of War, did not have that writer. As a comic series, the artwork is first-rate, but the storyline falters badly and eventually collapses under its own contradictions. In short, The Royals: Masters of War is a poor story.

The basic background is simple. Royal blood grants superpowers. The purer the blood, the greater the power. What this means is that the kings, queens and royal children all have some form of superpower for themselves. And yet – and this is where my suspension of disbelief failed – the storyline is set in an alternate World War Two where very little has changed, save for the various Royal Families having superpowers.

This makes no sense to me. Princes Henry and Arthur are Superman-type flying bricks, while their sister Princess Rose is a telepath and their father is a flying energy-manipulator with vast powers. If this is the case, why are people like Hitler, Stalin and Roosevelt still in command of their nations? Why did the Americans manage to declare independence and make it stick when George III can presumably beat the crap out of George Washington? I am reminded of an Elseworlds story where one of Superman’s ancestors ended up working for the British Crown and stopping American independence stone-dead. Why – exactly – are the world’s political entities the same as they are in OTL when there is such a vast change in the background?

But, leaving that aside, the story still seemed promising. It’s 1940 and the Blitz is on, with Germany bombing the UK heavily. The carnage stirs the heart of the idealistic young Prince Henry, who ignores his father’s orders and flies out to rip the German bombers from the skies. Unfortunately for him, the various Royal Families had a treaty, an agreement that they (and their superpowers) would not become involved in the commoner’s war. Now, thanks to Henry, that treaty is a dead letter. The way is open for the other superhumans to join the fight, including the most powerful of them all, the Emperor of Japan.

The alternate Royal Family is a thoroughly dysfunctional one. Prince Arthur is very much a cynical apoiled brat, complete with superpowers. Prince Henry is meant to be the better person – to the point where he intervenes in the fighting – but he’s very definitely in an incestuous relationship with his sister, Princess Rose. His mother is a madwoman with telekinetic powers and strange moments of insight. And his father is very determined that, come what may, the family will survive.

As the war gets worse, so do they. Henry becomes bitter and driven, Arthur drinks himself into despair (he murders at least one person out of drunken frustration), Princess Rose is driven mad and their father betrays his entire country. (To be fair to the writer, that was one of the points that surprised me at the time, but was completely predictable in hindsight.) In the end, almost all of the superhumans die in nuclear blasts. Arthur deserves note for coming up with the funniest line in the comic, asking Hitler to get him a drink.

There are moments to like in this comic, but there are also too many issues to easily surmount. For example, how were the Nazis and the Communists able to kill off their Royal Families? There are only a handful of surviving Russian and German Royals, all very weak compared to the British or Japanese. Where did the handful of very weak American Royals come from? And why did the Japanese still lose the war if their ruler is vastly more powerful? Coming to think of it, where did the superpowers come from in the first place?

Maybe the ultimate lesson is that humanity has spent years learning how to kill more dangerous creatures than the average human <grin>.

I've often thought about a story where magical societies accidentally become involved in World War Two (and some people argue that happened in Harry Potter’s backstory) but it would have to change the entire world. But if magic exists, it would change history unpredictably. And the Germans should have had magic themselves. This universe should have gone the same way.

In many ways, it reminds me of Ex Machina. An ending that is ambiguous, a storyline that jumps around far too much and, in the end, doesn't live up to its promise.

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Christopher Nuttall is a long-standing alternate history fan and writer, author of The Royal Sorceress (alternate history/fantasy) and numerous Kindle books. His webpage can be found here.

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Maps of The United Nations of America

August 7, 2014, 7:09 am

≫ Next: What are the Sidewise Awards for Alternate History?

≪ Previous: Comic Review: The Royals: Masters of War by Rob Williams and Simon Coleby

Guest post by Alan Gratz.

When I was a kid, I loved books with maps in them. And I still do! So when I began developing the idea for my forthcoming alternate history middle grade steampunk adventure, The League of Seven, I started with a map.

My world is steampunk because there are giant, ancient monsters in it called the Mangleborn (think Lovecraftian creatures like Cthulhu) that feed on electricity. Every time human civilization discovers electricity and covers the world with generators and electric lines, the monsters rise up and destroy the world. Seven archetypal heroes rise each time to put the Mangleborn back in their prisons beneath the earth and the sea, but in time people forget, the Mangleborn become creatures of myth and legend, and we do it all over again. Mu, Lemuria, Atlantis, Rome, they've all conquered the world, discovered electricity, and been destroyed by the Mangleborn.

To break the cycle, a group called the Septemberist Society arose after the last cataclysm with a dual mission: keep an eye on the Mangleborn, and keep humanity from rediscovering and developing electricity again. They've been successful in the Americas, but in Europe they failed. Most alternate histories I've read have one pivotal point where history diverged from what we know, and although my world history is very different (Mu, Lemuria, and Atlantis were all real civilizations, originating in China, South America, and North America, respectively), my world of 1875 America has a lot of similarities to the real America of the 1870s. (Because that's more fun, right?)

In my world, the Mangleborn rose in Europe in 1770. The moon turned blood red, the seas became choppy an impassable, and all contact with the Old World was lost. Stranded, starving, and alone, the thirteen colonies turned to the Iroquois League and became their seventh “tribe”—the Yankee tribe. In time, more First Nations joined the league, and by 1875 the United Nations of America stretches from the Atlantis Ocean in the east to the Mississippi River in the west and the Gulf of Mexico in the south to Acadia in the north.

New Spain still exists in the south—they had a much stronger foothold there by 1770 than did the English in North America by that time. Louisiana is a monarchy, ruled by Queen Theodosia, daughter of King Aaron Burr, whose conspiracy to conquer New Orleans was never stopped by the fledgling United States of America in my world. Texas and California are their own countries (naturally), and the Japanese have a colonial foothold in the Pacific Northwest, pushed east by the rise of Mangleborn in China (Cathay). Between the United Nations and California are the remaining unaffiliated tribes of North America, all of whom are nations unto themselves. But these are not the American Indians of the Westerns—they are the remnants of a once-great Atlantean civilization, with rayguns and steam engines and advanced cities all their own.

When I sold the book to Tor/Starscape, they redesigned the map for the front of the book. I changed some of the tribe names as I did more research and clarified who would be where by 1875. I also added a few more Native American cities, like Cahokia, Sonnionto, and Broken Arrow, all of which really had been large settlements prior to the coming of Europeans. The Tor map doesn't have the benefit of color like my original map, unfortunately; it had to be black and white to be printed in the book. Still, I'm just excited to have a map in one of my books at last. After seven published novels for young readers, this will be my first with a map in it—and it's definitely one I would have pored over as a kid.

The League of Sevendebuts on August 19, 2014. I'm partnering with my local indie bookstore, Malaprop's Bookstore in Asheville, North Carolina, to publish a special prequel short story called “Join, or Die,” that's about the formation of the United Nations of America. It also has Benjamin Franklin battling a sea serpent during a very different version of the Boston Tea Party. The prequel chapbook is available exclusively to folks who pre-order The League of Seven from Malaprop's Bookstore. For more information about the book and links to get it and the free chapbook, please visit www.septemberistsociety.com.

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Alan Gratz is the author of a number of books for young readers, including Samurai Shortstop, The Brooklyn Nine, and PrisonerB-3087, none of which, alas, include maps.

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What are the Sidewise Awards for Alternate History?

August 8, 2014, 7:22 am

≫ Next: Flag Friday: Amikejo

≪ Previous: Maps of The United Nations of America

Believe it or not, the Sidewise Awards for Alternate History are one of the reasons why I created Alternate History Weekly Update. I had followed the nominees and winners for years, but was amazed by the number of so called fans who were completely ignorant of the prizes. In an effort to help educate fans about the genre, I created this blog. Yet with another round of Sidewise winners ready to be announced, I find myself once again running into fans who have no clue about these awards. So below are a few frequently asked questions that I hope will clear everything up.

(Disclaimer: I am not affiliated with the Sidewise Awards or any of the individuals associated with presenting and maintaining the prize. I am a just an alternate historian who appreciates what they stand for. Some of what I might say could be misleading or false. I based these answers from what sources I have been able to find on the Internet.)

What are the Sidewise Awards?

The Sidewise Awards for Alternate History are an annual award given out every year at Worldcon for the best alternate history publication of the previous year.

What are the categories?

There are two major categories, the Short-Form Award and the Long-Form Award. Short-form works are those publications under 60,000 words and long-form is for publications over 60,000 words. There is also a special achievement award that is given out occasionally.

What are the requirements?

All works must have been published in the English language the year prior to when the awards are presented. Thus if a book is published in 2014, it won't be eligible for the Sidewise Awards until 2015. There is some wiggle room on this requirement if the work was published outside the United States, but wasn't available there until much later.

How is a short story/book nominated?

Review copies need to be submitted to all of the judges. These include friend of The Update Steven Silver and well-known author Stephen Baxter.

What does "Sidewise" mean?

The Sidewise Awards take their name from Murray Leinster's "Sideiwse in Time", which introduced the concept of travelling between alternate realities to pulp fiction.

When will the next Sidewise Awards be announced?

The 2013 Sidewise Awards will be announced at Loncon 3 on August 16th at 8 pm. It will not be live-streamed.

Why wasn't [insert book title here] nominated?

I don't know. Perhaps the judges didn't like it, the author never submitted their work for consideration or it was ineligible due to when/where it was first published. Direct all inquiries to Steven Silver (shsilver at sfsite dot com).

What about games, film and TV? Why aren't they considered?

Again, I don't know. Go ask Steven.

Why should I care?

As far as I know there are no other organized awards that celebrate literary accomplishments in alternate history. AlternateHistory.com and the AltHistory Wiki both have their own awards, but they are informal and focus only on the accomplishments of the members of their community. The Sidewise Awards focus on the professional literary side of the genre and help identify the best works of alternate history ever published. You can't go wrong by recommending a Sidewise winner (or even a nominee) to someone when they ask for a book recommendation.

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