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New Releases 5/19/15

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

Hardcovers

The Hanged Man by P. N. Elrod

On a freezing Christmas Eve in 1879, a forensic psychic reader is summoned from her Baker Street lodgings to the scene of a questionable death. Alexandrina Victoria Pendlebury (named after her godmother, the current Queen of England) is adamant that the death in question is a magically compromised murder and not a suicide, as the police had assumed, after the shocking revelation contained by the body in question, Alex must put her personal loss aside to uncover the deeper issues at stake, before more bodies turn up.

Turning to some choice allies--the handsome, prescient Lieutenant Brooks, the brilliant, enigmatic Lord Desmond, and her rapscallion cousin James--Alex will have to marshal all of her magical and mental acumen to save Queen and Country from a shadowy threat. Our singular heroine is caught up in this rousing gaslamp adventure of cloaked assassins, meddlesome family, and dark magic.

"Murder, mayhem and tea--a well-bred Victorian urban fantasy thriller. Prepare, o reader, to be enthralled."--Patricia Briggs, #1 New York Times Best Selling Author of the Mercy Thompson series on P.N. Elrod's The Hanged Man

Illusionariumby Heather Dixon

What if the world holds more dangers—and more wonders—than we have ever known? And what if there is more than one world? From Heather Dixon, author of the acclaimed Entwined, comes a brilliantly conceived adventure that sweeps us from the inner workings of our souls to the far reaches of our imaginations.

Jonathan is perfectly ordinary. But then—as every good adventure begins—the king swoops into port, and Jonathan and his father are enlisted to find the cure to a deadly plague. Jonathan discovers that he's a prodigy at working with a new chemical called fantillium, which creates shared hallucinations—or illusions. And just like that, Jonathan is knocked off his path. Through richly developed parallel worlds, vivid action, a healthy dose of humor, and gorgeous writing, Heather Dixon spins a story that calls to mind The Night Circus and Pixar movies, but is wholly its own.

Radiant State by Peter Higgins

Peter Higgins's superb and original creation, a perfect melding of fantasy, myth, SF and political thriller, reaches its extraordinary conclusion.

The Vlast stands two hundred feet tall, four thousand tons of steel ready to be flung upwards on the fire of atom bombs. Ready to take the dream of President-Commander of the New Vlast General, Osip Rizhin, beyond the bounds of this world.

But not everyone shares this vision. Vissarion Lom and Maroussia Shaumian have not reached the end of their story, and in Mirgorod a woman in a shabby dress carefully unwraps a sniper rifle. And all the while the Pollandore dreams its own dreams.

Paperbacks

Professor Challenger: New Worlds, Lost Placesedited by J. R. Campbell and Charles Prepolec

"Science seeks knowledge! Let the knowledge lead us where it will, we still must seek it! To know once for all what we are, why we are, where we are, is that not in itself the greatest of all human aspirations?" - Professor G. E. Challenger, When the World Screamed

Brilliant, belligerent and bearded in equal measure, incapable of suffering fools, or journalists, gladly, the greatest scientific mind of his generation - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Professor George Edward Challenger - returns in ten all-new tales of scientific adventure and wonder. He is the discoverer of The Lost World, the prophet of The Poison Belt, the destroyer of The Disintegration Machine, and the man who made the World Scream! Who can deliver mankind from the shackles of ignorance? Who else but that great self-proclaimed champion of science? We give you, ladies and gentlemen, children of all ages, the one, the only, Professor George Edward Challenger!

This original anthology, from the authors and editors who brought you the Gaslight Sherlock Holmes series, sees Challenger and his stalwart company including the reporter Malone, big game hunter Lord John Roxton and the skeptical colleague Professor Summerlee, travel across space and witness the ravages of time, narrowly eluding a dinosaur's bite only to battle against the invasive red bloom of alien foliage, then plunge deep into the mysteries hidden within the Earth and reach out to the moon and into the heart of the unknown. Strap yourself in for chills, thrills and challenges to the unknown in exciting new worlds and lost places with literature's foremost scientific adventurer.

"The whole matter is very fully and lucidly discussed in my forthcoming volume upon the earth, which I may describe with all due modesty as one of the epoch-making books of the world's history." - Professor G. E. Challenger, When the World Screamed

E-Books

Dracula Unbound by Brian W. Aldiss

In a brilliant reimagining of Bram Stoker’s horror classic, an inventor travels back in time to save humankind from a nightmarish enslavement by vampires

Joe Bodenland has figured out how to manipulate time—a discovery that leads him to Utah and an impossible sixty-five-million-year-old human gravesite. It is here that he learns of the existence of a monstrous race of intelligent predators as old as the dinosaur, and of the remarkable “train” the undead creatures use to travel back and forth from a Paleolithic past to a monstrous far future in which Homo sapiens are enslaved cattle. With the fate of all humanity at stake, Joe commandeers the ghostly transportation and rides it back to Victorian England, where he enlists the aid of a powerful ally, the author Bram Stoker, in the battle to secure Earth. But to prevent the coming apocalyptic nightmare, they must first confront and destroy the most cunning and deadly being the world has ever known: Lord Dracula, the immortal vampire.

The recipient of numerous awards and honors, including multiple Hugo and Nebula Awards and the Prix Jules Verne, Grand Master Brian W. Aldiss puts a bold new science fiction spin on Bram Stoker’s classic tale of vampiric horror. An ingenious reinvention of the Nosferatu myth, Dracula Unbound is a breakneck thrill ride from one of the most revered names in science fiction and fantasy.

Frankenstein Unbound by Brian W. Aldiss

A disruption of time and space sends a modern man back two hundred years to confront Dr. Frankenstein’s immortal monster in this brilliant reinvention of Mary Shelley’s classic tale

Some years into the twenty-first century, a newly devised weapon of mass destruction will do far worse than kill; it will disrupt time and space. Suddenly, land, buildings, animals, and people are falling through “timeslips” and being transported briefly back to earlier eras. One of these inadvertent time travelers, Joe Bodenland, is shocked when he finds himself parked outside a villa on the shore of Lake Geneva—and soon after, unbelievably, in the presence of nineteenth-century literary luminaries Lord Byron and Percey Shelley, along with Shelley’s very enticing fiancée, budding author Mary.

But when Joe comes face to face with a real, flesh-and-blood Victor Frankenstein and the monster the mad doctor brought into this world, the visitor from the future realizes that not only has time been disrupted, reality itself has been transmogrified. And this Frankenstein, it seems, is far from finished with his unholy endeavors, leaving it up to Joe to make it right for the sake of history—and for the bewitching lady novelist who has stolen his heart—before he is rudely thrust back to his own time.

An absolutely stunning reinvention of a cherished literary classic, Frankenstein Unbound proves once more that there are no limits to the unparalleled creative genius of science fiction Grand Master W. Brian Aldiss, one of the most revered names in the field of speculative fiction.

Report on Probability A by Brian W. Aldiss

An unending chain of surveillance crosses countless dimensions in this brilliant, disturbing, and groundbreaking “antinovel” by one of science fiction’s greatest practitioners

Mr. Mary and his wife are being observed from at least three vantage points as they go about their mundane home lives. G, the former gardener, watches them from a garden shed. Mr. Mary’s dismissed secretary, S, watches them from the top room of a brick outhouse in the back. The chauffeur, C, who no longer drives, watches the Marys from the garage. Each observer must file a report with his superiors in another continuum, pausing in his surveillance only long enough to eat identical meals alone at the deserted café across the street. But the watchers are themselves being observed by others who are, in turn, being watched across vast and infinite dimensional planes in an attempt to unravel the mysteries of the world known as Probability A.

This brilliant, experimental work by Grand Master Brian W. Aldiss is a perplexing and devastatingly haunting masterwork of speculative fiction, considered by many to be the greatest work in the long, prolific career of a true giant of the genre. Thought-provoking, confounding, and stylistically brilliant, Report on Probability A will burn its way into the reader’s mind and memory.

To readers, authors and publishers...

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

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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.

Videos for Alternate Historians #15

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This edition of Videos for Alternate Historians actually has a theme. That theme is popular alternate history tropes. Lets start with airships by watching the Game Grumps play Guns of Icarus:
Next up we have the 51st (or more) state by looking at what Test Tube has to say about Puerto Rico becoming an American state:
We continue with another popular trope: balkanization. For this one we look to Test Tube again to ask what if the European Union falls apart:
And we finish with the mother of all alternate history tropes...DESERET! What handsome and talented alternate historian will share his wisdom on this trope?
O yeah.

Got any videos or YouTube channels that you want to recommend? Let us know in the comments or at ahwupdate at gmail dot com.

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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.

Book Review: Proxima by Stephen Baxter

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Before the Sideways in Time Conference began, there was a pre-conference social event where Stephen Baxter and Adam Roberts were going to talk about their new books at a local Liverpool book store. Wanting to get an autograph from Baxter, but not having brought any books I owned due to the desire to pack light on an international trip, I decided to buy a book there and the one I picked up was Proxima, the first book in the series of the same name.

Set in the 22nd Century, Proxima tells the story of humanity's first interstellar colony. In this future mankind is split primarily between the Chinese led "Framework" and a federalized United Nations. Most of the inner Solar System is colonized and the outer system is well on its way to being developed as well. There are references to the "Jolts", a period of intense climate change that almost destroyed humanity, but that was prevented by the actions of the "Heroic Generation". As noble as that generation's name sounds, their "ends justify the means" attitude meant that by the time the story takes place the leaders of that generation are reviled and even their descendants can suffer legal consequences for the actions of their ancestors. Baxter never goes into too much details about what the Heroic Generation actually did, but you get the sense that they cared little for how much organic and artificial intelligence suffered at the hands of their own projects to save the planet.

The story is told from multiple points of views (including a sentient interstellar probe made up of nano-bots), but the primary protagonists are Yuri Eden and Stef Kalinski. Yuri is actually a member of the Heroic Generation who was cryogenically frozen on Earth and later thawed out on Mars far into the future. Never fitting in the new society he found himself in, Yuri is made an involuntary member of the UN backed plan to colonize a new planet that the colonists will call "Per Ardua", an extrasolar planet near Earth. He, and many other undesirables that are dumped on the alien planet, are told to start reproducing quickly if they have any hope of surviving. Stef, meanwhile, is a scientist and only child who studies "kernels". These are strange materials found under the crust of Mercury that make interstellar travel possible. No one really understands how they work and, frankly, many suspect they may not be natural at all. This is confirmed when the "Hatch" is discovered on Mercury. After Stef goes in alone to investigate it, she comes out with a twin sister that everyone assures her has been around since they were born.

I found myself absorbed into the story of Proxima almost immediately. It is an intense space opera with a lot of historical references, such as how Per Ardua is originally colonized by convicts, much like how Australia and Georgia were colonized in our history. On top of that the book does have a subtle sense of humor with references to SF works like Doctor Who, Futurama, Dune, the works of Lovecraft and others works I probably missed. That all being said, the book can be depressing in a The Martian Chronicles-esque kind of way. There were a couple times I had to take a break from the book because it made me pessimistic about the future. I still recommend this book, however, because not every space opera needs to be like Guardians of the Galaxy to be good.

Of course, the big question is: why the hell am I talking about a space opera on an alternate history blog? Well that is because Proxima is actually an alternate history. Besides to mysterious edit to Stef's personal history, there is a moment of pure alternate history at the very end of the book, which I won't spoil since then I would have to give away the ending. The presence of an alternate history is much more evident so I hear in the sequel, Ultima, but since I haven't read it yet I can't really comment. Nevertheless, I do plan to pick up a copy soon and I hope you will join me as well.

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

Weekly Update #192

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Editor's Note

I have no idea what my schedule is going to be like in the foreseeable future. My department at the firm lost some people and it happened at the start of the summer, which is historically the busy season for us. So we are all feeling the pinch as we figure out how to handle all this extra work with a smaller staff. Although I did get a tiny raise and title change, which helps, but it also means all of my other side projects are going to suffer.

I still haven't started revising "Warping History", I have no idea when I will record a new episode for my channel and I probably going to miss posting again for several more days. Please bear with me as I try to find a new equilibrium. Look on the bright side, at least I am posting on Memorial Day.

Due to the epic amount of news regarding BBC's Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell and my desire to avoid spoilers, I once again created a special section in Links to the Multiverse for all of your magical news. I hope you guys enjoy it.

And now the news...

T.R. Knight Joins 11/22/63 On Hulu and Causes a Rant from Yours Truly
The title really says it all. T.R. Knight (Grey's Anatomy) will be playing Johnny Clayton in the alternate history mini-series based on Stephen King's 11/22/63. Johnny, a salesman in 1960s Texas, won't agree to divorce his estranged wife Sadie Dunhill (Sarah Gadon), even as she begins a relationship with time travelling Jake (James Franco), sparking a confrontation between the three characters.

For a book about saving JFK, Sadie's relationship with her disturbed and controlling husband highlights one of the important theme of 11/22/63: domestic abuse. Whether the show will treat the character and his relationship with Sadie the same remains to be seen. Its actually quite bizarre how certain news outlets are portraying the character. SPOILER ALERT: he is a crazy, abusive and sadistic asshole and if you read the book you would know that. Sadie describes to Jake how Johnny would make them sleep with a broom in between the bed and the only time they ever had any sexual intimacy was when Johnny would force her to give him a hand job. O yeah, when Johnny finds out Sadie is seeing Jake after she fled from him, he stalks her and then slashes her face with a knife.

And yet certain websites are describing Johnny's relationship with Sadie as just "complicated" and even going as far as describing him as a "romantic rival" to Jake. I don't usually swear on this blog, but what the holy fuck?!?! I am hoping that the writers of these articles just haven't read the book and thus in their ignorance have poorly interpreted the press release, but this eerily mimics certain characters in 11/22/63 who not only sympathized with Johnny's actions, but even went as far as to blame Sadie for the outcome because she was unable to control her man.

Again, I'm assuming the authors of the previously mentioned articles had the best intentions when they wrote about Knight joining the cast as Johnny, but I am starting to get a little worried about this show. I really hope that 11/22/63's producers don't water down the character to the point that the meaning behind him is completely lost.

Links to the Multiverse

BBC's Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell

6 Scenes from Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell We Can’t Wait to See Onscreen at B&N.
1864 and Jonathan Strange both suffer for being modern at New Statesman.
Bertie Carvel’s TV CV at RadioTimes.
A bit silly: Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell reviewed at The Spectator.
Bloomsbury boosted by new Harry Potter editions and Jonathan Strange at The Guardian.
Get to Know Mr Norrell: An Inside Look at Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell at Dread Central.
Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, BBC One at The Arts Desk.
Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell: episode one recap – The Friends of English Magic at The Guardian.
Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell: A Fairytale Education at Vintage.
Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell: “The Friends of English Magic” at Tor.
Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell preview: "could be something truly magical" at RadioTimes.
Peter Harness Interview: Adapting Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell at Den of Geek.
Plaudits for BBC drama Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell at The Press.
REVIEW: Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell at North Devon Journal.
TV Review (non spoiler): Jonathon Strange & Mr Norrell at Geek Syndicate.
Viewers are going mad for Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell, but what’s with the sound? at Metro.

Books & Short Fiction

Buy, Borrow, Bypass: Badass Ladies of Historical Fiction at Book Riot.
Open Road Announces Turtledove and Ford Titles at Amazing Stories.
Review: Gunpowder Empire by Harry Turtledove at Knowledge, Adventure and Wonder.
Review: Lion’s Blood by Steven Barnes at Afro Futurism.
Guest Blog by Michael J. Martinez - So what now? Leaving the series behind at The Qwillery.

Counterfactuals, History & News

After Jade Helm, Other Military-Takeover Operations Uncovered at The New Yorker.
Confirmed: Bin Laden was into conspiracy theories, including 9/11 conspiracy theories at Hot Air.
Dreaming a Different Apollo: Part Two at DSFP's Spaceflight History Blog.
Russian expansion: 'I went to bed in Georgia – and woke up in South Ossetia' at The Guardian.
Secret files reveal police feared that Trekkies could turn on society at The Telegraph.
So you think you can travel back in time and  kill Hitler at National Post.
This could be the official flag of Earth that we'll plant on Mars at Science Alert.

Film & Television

Is this a missing piece to Jodorowsky's Dune? at Boing Boing.
Mini About Lawman Bass Reeves In Works At HBO With Morgan Freeman Producing at Deadline.
‘Mr. Holmes’ Lawsuit: Arthur Conan Doyle Estate Sues Bill Condon & Distributors at Deadline.

Interview

Michael J. Martinez at SFFWorld.

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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.

Map Monday: League of the Defiant by Zalezsky

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I like finding new alternate cartographers and featuring their work on Map Monday. Case in point, Zalezsky and his map of the "League of Defiant":
There really isn't a lot of background about this scenario given to us by Zalezsky. Essentially several Native American tribes unite to stop European encroachment on their lands and with the help of Genoese traders gets the guns to actually stop them. Through success and setbacks, everything eventually comes to a climax at the Battle of Watala...or Waterloo. If you haven't figured it out from the map itself, that name alone should really give you hint of what era of history this scenario is paralleling. It is very subtle and I love it. The story is told from the art itself and the detail is great (go here to see a map you can zoom in on).

Honorable mentions this week go out to Rvbomally's "Empire of the Sun" and Bruce Munro's "World of the Yiddish Policeman's Union" (see a longer description here). Don't forget to check out the map of the most popular book set in each state. 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 and a blogger on Amazing Stories. Check out his short fiction. When not writing he works as an attorney, enjoys life with his beautiful wife Alana and prepares for the inevitable zombie apocalypse. You can follow him on Facebook or Twitter.

New Releases 5/26/15

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

Paperbacks

1636: Commander Cantrell in the West Indies by Eric Flint and Charles E. Gannon

New York Times and Wall Street Journal best-selling alternate history series. Book #18 in the Ring of Fire series created by Eric Flint.

Eddie Cantrell, now married to the king of Denmark’s daughter, is sent by Admiral Simpson to the Caribbean to secure access to the most valuable commodity on that continent—not the gold and silver which the Spanish treasure, but the oil which up-time machines and industry need. The admiral has also provided Eddie’s small task force with the new steam-powered frigates that have just come out of the navy’s shipyards.

Even with the frigates, a giant obstacle stands in his way: the Gulf-girdling Spanish presence in the New World. So a diversion is needed, carried out by an up-time car mechanic and a down-time mercenary colonel who also happens to be the last earl of Ireland. Their mission: grab the oil fields on Trinidad, and so distract the attention of Spain’s New World governors.

While the Spanish galleons and troops head for Trinidad, Commander Cantrell’s smallest and fastest steam sloop will make a run to the Louisiana coast. There, her crew will wind their way up the bayous to the real New World prize: the Jennings Oil Field.

But Cantrell’s plans could be wrecked in a multitude of ways. He faces often-hostile natives, rambunctious Dutch ship captains, allied colonies on the brink of starvation, and vicious social infighting that can barely be contained by his capable and passionate new wife. When the galleons finally come out in force to engage his small flotilla, Eddie will discover that the Spanish aren’t the only enemies who will be coming against him in a fateful Caribbean show-down.

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

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

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

To readers, authors and publishers...

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

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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.

RIP: Tanith Lee (1947-2015)

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Yesterday it was announced that British SF&F author Tanith Lee passed away. According to Wikipedia, she was the author of over 90 novels and 300 short stories, a children's picture book (Animal Castle) and many poems. She also wrote two episodes of the BBC science fiction series Blake's 7. The fact that she managed to write all of that and overcome dyslexia is doubly impressive. She was also the first woman to win the British Fantasy Award best novel award for her book Death's Master.

Tanith contributed to the alternate history genre as well. According to Uchronia she is the author of Piratica: Being a Daring Tale of a Singular Girl's Adventure Upon the High Seas and Piratica II: Return to Parrot Island. Set in an alternate 1800s in a world where Great Britain is a republic and France is a monarchy, the alternate history content is minimal, but having not read either book I can't really comment anymore on the series. If you have read one or both of the books, please let us know what you thought of them in the comments.

That being said, it is always a sad day when we lose another alternate historian. If the reactions across the Internet are telling, Tanith was obviously an important woman to many people whose work took people on amazing journeys. Tanith, you will be missed.

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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.

Videos for Alternate Historians #16

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I think I like the idea of themed Videos for Alternate Historians. With that in mind, here is a slate of videos featuring Wolfenstein: The Old Blood, the stand-alone prequel to Wolfenstein: The New Order. First up, Achievement Hunter shows us six Easter eggs you can find in the game:
Our next video is also from Achievement Hunter. Lets watch Ryan and Michael try to finish the first hidden nightmare level:
But is the game good? Well...lets see what Yahtzee of Zero Punctuation thinks:
Got any videos or YouTube channels that you want to recommend? Let us know in the comments or at ahwupdate at gmail dot com.

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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.

Interview: Rvbomally

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For the next installment in my my interview series featuring my favorite alternate cartagraphers, I got a chance to talk with Rvbomally of AlternateHistory.com. He is the author of "Ad Astra Per Aspera", but I wanted to talk to him primarily for his map work. Check out what he had to say below:

Who is Rvbomally?

Just some random guy on the Internet.

What got you interested in alternate history?

I was first introduced to the concept by the Dawn of Victory mod. At that point, I was far more interested in conventional science fiction, so the WWII powers in space was a new concept that really got me interested in the genre. I then found out about Timeline-191, which I then picked up and fell in love with. And the rest, they say, is history.

What inspired you to write "Ad Astra Per Aspera"?

No one thing inspired me to write AAPA, although Fallout, 1984, and Warhammer 40K are clear influences. AAPA is, in a way, the final evolution of my science fiction musings dating back to at least 2006. The setting back then was far different, involving space Texans attacking robots on Mars, of all things. It gradually evolved into a more conventional space opera, where the primary civilization was the Holy Dominion of Christendom, a galaxy-spanning theocratic empire that enslaves any aliens it encounters, at war with a communist insurgency.

When I found out about Warhammer 40K, I decided to do something different, so I decided to make a space Cold War story, while retaining some elements of the original "Dominionverse" story. The Dominion became the Coalition of Western Republics, which was pitted against a Sino-Soviet Collective that later became the Conseil. The Technocracies were added later as a neutral kingmaker. You could see some of this evolution in early draft maps I have since posted to my deviantArt account, and I plan on revisiting the first two incarnations of AAPA in a remake.

When did you start creating alternate history maps?

A long time ago! I'd say about 2008, possibly even earlier. Those initial maps were utter garbage; nonsensical recolors of the Wikipedia basemap. Of course, I got better.

What do you think people like about alternate history maps?

For me, it shows a radically different world at a glance. When I see different borders, and different alliances on a key, I start thinking about how different that world's history, culture, and politics must be from our own. It's a very efficient and very effective form of telling a worldbuilding-heavy story.

What software do you use to create maps?

For my oneshots, a combination of Adobe Photoshop and Microsoft Paint. Photoshop isn't strictly necessary for the process, it just makes things like adding lots of text, choosing colors and outlining countries easier. All of my oneshots can be replicated on Paint alone. When I decide to get fancy, I use Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator.

What is your favorite map that you ever created?

That's a tough one. I tend to adopt a favorite and then drop it. For example, right now I'm a big fan of my cover of Transparent Blue's "Last Living Souls". But my all time favorite would have to be my Union of American Federal Republics map. I love how it turned out!

[Editor's Note: And it was featured on Map Monday.]

Where can people go if they wanted you to commission a map from you?

Nowhere, unfortunately. I'm typically a busy guy, with only enough time to make maps for myself. I'm trying to get through a large list of maps I'd like to make at the moment. I'm still making maps for ideas I had back in 2013. If you like what you see, however, feel to give me a tip on patreon.

Any other map makers you would like to recommend?

Yes! B_Munro/QuantumBranching, ToixStory, RoyalPsycho, vongreif, zalesky, 1Blomma, and Silas-Coldwine are some of my favorites. Check them out!

Any other projects that you are working on now?

Aside from my Oneshot Scenarios, I'm working on "Space Cadet", another science fiction setting which is my attempt to take just about every genre of science fiction at once and stick it in a blender.

What books are you reading?

These days, nothing but boring textbooks and legal codes, unfortunately.

Any advice for aspiring alternate cartographers?

The best way to learn is by trying to imitate maps you like. Most of my progress has been made trying to replicate an aesthetic I see on a map thread, or even on a map in real life. I find that I never replicate the aesthetic perfectly, but I learn a lot in the process, and it helps me develop my own style. Oh, and tutorials are helpful.

Weekly Update #193

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Editor's Note

I was staring down a ton of tedious linking, mostly because of BBC's adaptation Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, and I thought "screw this". I didn't set out to be a writer just to spend my day creating long list of links that can take hours to complete.

So say goodbye to the Links to the Multiverse section because this will be the last time you see it. I remember holding a poll a while back and people voted in favor of it, but I need to make an executive decision regarding the future of The Update. Does that mean I won't be sharing all the alternate history posts from the week? No, of course not. Instead of linking it to the Weekly Update post, however, I am going to be sharing them as I find them directly on Facebook and Twitter. So if you don't follow me on those sites, now is the time to do it.

So what does this mean for the Weekly Updates? How will I decide to what to write about if I am not collecting and categorizing articles and posts in my usual manner? Well that is the beauty of my new plan. YOU will decide what the subject(s) of the Weekly Update will be on Monday. After the week is over I will look through the posts on social media that got the most likes, comments, shares, replies, favorites, retweets, etc. and summarize them here on the blog and give my opinion (because everyone obviously loves to hear that). I may even apply the same formula to other long-running segments, like Map Mondays and Videos for Alternate Historians.

Does that all make sense? If not, don't worry, I will iron out the kinks as I get used to the new procedure. Hopefully this will make Weekly Updates easier to write and more fun for you all to read.

And now the news...

LXG Strikes Back
LXG sucked. It was the worst adaptation of an Alan Moore comic and it caused Sean Connery to quit acting. Nevertheless, it still made a lot of money, so that is probably why Fox decided to go ahead and reboot the franchise. According to Variety, John Davis (The Blacklist) will produce, Jayson Rothwell will write the script and Ira Napoliello and Matt Reilly are overseeing (whatever that means) the remake/reboot.

I sort of agree with Katharine Trendacosta of io9 reaction to this news. Since the original film was so bad, there really is no where to go but up for this reboot. Considering as well the high quality films and TV we have seen in the last couple years, audiences are demanding better content from the big studios. Whether they will actually create something that is watchable remains to be seen, but I am cautiously optimistic.

Links to the Multiverse

Books & Short Fiction

5 Great Steampunk Writings that Aren't Actually Steampunk at Pornokitsch.
6 Absolutely Magical Alternate Histories at B&N.
How Mowery (The Parallel Lives of Elizabeth Ann) Found Herself in Fantasy Land at SF Signal.
Review: At the Ruin of the World by John Henry Clay at Falcata Times.
Review: SS-GB by Len Deighton at Past Offences.
Why The Most Powerful Time Travel Stories Aren’t About Changing The Past at io9.

Counterfactuals, History & News

If Africa, Asia, and Europe Declared War on the U.S., Who Would Win? at Slate.
Forays into “What If” History: An After Action Report at American Historical Association.
This OS Almost Made Apple an Entirely Different Company at Wired.
Scotland Yard Feared Trekkies And Sci-Fi Fans In The Late 90s at ScienceFiction.com.
U.S. Army's New Battle Blimp Takes Flight at Popular Mechanics.
A White House without dogs? An alternate history of presidents minus the pups at Yahoo.
Why We'd Be Better Off if Napoleon Never Lost at Waterloo at Smithsonian.

Films & Television

Captain America 2 Animatics Reveal An Alternate Fate For Arnim Zola at io9.
George Miller’s Justice League Would Have Changed Superhero Movies Drastically at Tor.
Review: Outcast at Medievalists.Net.

Games

Once Upon A Timeline is a free game about time travel at PC Gamer

Graphic Novels & Comics

The Line it is Drawn #242 – Golden Age Versions of Modern Superheroes! at CBR.

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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.

Map Monday: Confederation of Nations by Rvbomally

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I hope you guys enjoyed my interview with Rvbomally. I actually have another of his maps that I wanted to cover for Map Monday. Check out his "Confederation of Nations" map below:
This is one of those maps where the concept of it intrigues me more than the artwork. In this alternate/future history, the Nationalists defeat the Communists in the Chinese Civil War, leading to a very different Cold War that eventually births the "Confederation of Nations". This world government dominates most of the planet, but there are still a few hold outs who maintain their independence. I like this scenario because world governments are either dismissed as highly implausible or categorized with the worst kind of conspiracy theories. Nevertheless, I feel this trope does not get enough coverage and I like it when more alternate historians cover it.

Honorable mention this week go out to Lynn Davis'"Workers of the World, Unite!" and don't forget to check out New England in Crimea. 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 and a blogger on Amazing Stories. Check out his short fiction. When not writing he works as an attorney, enjoys life with his beautiful wife Alana and prepares for the inevitable zombie apocalypse. You can follow him on Facebook or Twitter.

New Releases 6/2/15

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

Hardcovers

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

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

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

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

Paperbacks

The Master Magician by Charlie N. Holmberg

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Shadow Revolution: Crown & Keyby Clay Griffith and Susan Griffith

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

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

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

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

To readers, authors and publishers...

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

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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.

Videos for Alternate Historians #17

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Today's theme is "lets watch Mitro play catch up so he can be prepared for his new style of writing blog posts". It may be a moutful, but it still counts as a theme! We begin with the always informative and entertaining Cody Franklin from the Alternate History Hub. He created a video asking what if New Zealand was not colonized by Europeans?
Fun fact: he actually created this video in conjunction with Test Tube. They asked how powerful is New Zealand?
Okay enough learning, time to battle...rap battle that is! Epic Rap Battles of History returns with "Lewis and Clark vs Bill and Ted".
Got any videos or YouTube channels that you want to recommend? Let us know in the comments or at ahwupdate at gmail dot com.

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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.

Top 5 Posts from May 2015

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In terms of page views, May wasn't one of our best months, but we still had a lot of great articles. Lets take a look at the Top 5:

1) The Audio File: The Drabblecast by Sam McDonald.

2) Historians talk about Rome all the time, but what if Ancient Egypt never fell? by Rebecca Stirling.

3) Map Monday: League of the Defiant by Zalezsky by Matt Mitrovich.

4) Weekly Update #190 by Matt Mitrovich.

5) Map Monday: Dutch's America by Bruce Munro and Mumby by Matt Mitrovich.

Glad to see some of guest contributors take the top spots.

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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.

Review: The World That Wasn't podcast

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You can probably tell I am a big fan of Jordan Harbour's Twilight Histories (it is a featured podcast after all). Nevertheless, I would like to see more alternate history podcasts since I feel there is a lot room for new and unique shows. There have been attempts in the past like Nicholas Pardini's What If History and the multiple incarnations of the AlternateHistory.com Podcast, but nothing that has lasted as long as Twilight Histories. Occasionally an SF or history podcast will have a lone alternate/counterfactual history episode, but never enough to satisfy the hunger of a hardcore alternate historian. So, of course, I was happy to discover the first episode of The World That Wasn't.

TWTW follows a format similar to Pardini's What if History in that it is essentially just two guys (Nicholas Davidge and Jamie Toll...and I hope I spelled Jamie's name right since I couldn't find it listed anywhere) as they discuss various what if questions. What is unique is that they also have a guest historian and include sounds effects, music and even short skits, so the level of professionalism is up there with Harbour's Twilight Histories, yet it is different in that it is not a second person narrative, but an alternate history discussion.

I probably shouldn't spend all my time comparing TWTW to other podcasts, because that is hardly fair. Instead lets talk about the first and, so far, only episode where our hosts talk about what if Germany won the Battle of Britain. Not a bad start, although they do inevitably talk about a successful Operation Sealion, which is (for those who don't know) the inspiration for the term "alien space bats". To our hosts' credit they did have Sonja Ostrow of Vanderbilt University on to reign them in when they go too fantastical and they also discussed other potential scenarios such as a failed Operation Sealion, the evacuation at Dunkirk failing and Britain making a negotiated peace with Germany. I also liked how they tried to stay on the overall topic and not go on too many tangents into other periods of history.

There is not much else to say after that. I think I can say without any trepidation that I will certainly subscribe to TWTW and look forward to next month's episode.

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

Weekly Update #194

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Editor's Note

So this week we begin the new format not only for Weekly Updates, but also for other long running series like Map Monday and Videos for Alternate Historians. Thanks to my new social media strategy, I will be factoring your reaction to alternate history news, maps videos and other posts when I decide what to feature on the main blog. Please be patience as I iron out all the kinks, but I think you guys are going to like what you see in the coming weeks.

Moving on to other projects of mine. I think I have decided that a video once a month for my channel is a reasonable goal for me once I factor in my personal schedule. This month, I will be making a video review of Wild Cards III: Jokers Wild edited by George R.R. "I will destroy everyone you love" Martin. So stay tuned for that one.

And now the news...

People love Dick's The Man in High Castle

They was a lot of excitement when I shared pictures from the set of Amazon TV's The Man in the High Castle. Here is a brief taste below:
And why wouldn't they be excited? It is a classic work of science fiction and alternate history. Plus the pilot episode was a hit with both audiences and critics. Now that Amazon is producing a full season of the show, alternate historians everywhere are obviously excited. This may actually be the show that treats are favorite genre seriously and helps break it into a mainstream audience.

If you need other reasons why you should read The Man in the High Castle, just take a look at this edition from 1975 that is being sold for $250. Or how about this beautiful edition from The Folio Society that John DeNardo of SF Signal called the "definitive volume" of the novel. Just look at some of the illustrations you can find in the Folio Society edition:
Very jealous of John right now.

Paradox announces Crusader Kings II: Horse Lords and releases the final dev diary of Europa Universalis IV: Common Sense

Fans of grand strategy games will be happy to learn that Paradox has announced the eighth expansion for Crusader Kings II called The Horse Lords. In this expansion you can play as the powerful nomadic hordes who built massive empires across Asia and Europe. Check out the trailer below:
Features include an expanded map, nomads that resist settlement, revised interface, clan politics, the Silk Road, tributaries, forts and new rules for successions and trade. Horse Lords, however, is not the only expansion Paradox has coming out and last week they showed the final developer diary for Europa Universalis IV: Common Sense:
You can check out the text version they posted on their forum here. Additionally, a patch featuring additional content for Europa Universalis IV will be available to all players free and without having to purchase Common Sense, which will launch across all territories for Windows, Mac, and Linux tomorrow on June 9th.

What you may have missed...

We end today's Weekly Update with brief comments on some of the popular articles from the week before. First, go read The Times of Israel's coverage on Dr. Jeffrey S. Gurock's new book: The Holocaust Averted: An Alternate History of American Jewry, 1938-1967. I think this article and book highlight an important rule of alternate history, which is that averting a horrible historical tragedy doesn't necessarily make the world a better place for everyone.

I also highly recommend you guys check out SciFi Ideas'list of alternate history scenarios. It was one of the most viewed links on our Facebook page and its author, Mark Ball, was even nice enough to drop by to chat. Most importantly, it has with it probably one of the most awesome flag designs I have ever seen (see right).

Meanwhile, for those writing timelines that don't feature Christianity becoming a dominant religion, check out this fun article from Rick Paulas of Pacific Standard that asks "what year would it be without Christianity?" Its a good question because, honestly, there is no real standard date, even today among the different nations and cultures of the world. In fact the lessons from the article can apply to anyone who is creating their own fictional calendar.

Finally, for those who like traditional history (and let's be honest, you wouldn't be here if you didn't) don't forget to check out this informative article on Viking armor on io9. Spoiler alert: not only did they not where horned helmets...they also didn't wear much protection to begin with.

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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.

Map Monday: Aztec/Chinese Britain by Anekcahdep

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Just like the Weekly Updates, how I write Map Mondays will be changing as well. They still will read the same and I will be making the final decision on what are the best maps of last week, but now I am taking your opinion into account as well. I will post maps that catch my fancy on Facebook and Twitter, so don't forget to follow me there if you haven't already. I share a lot of other stuff on social media that I don't always feature on The Update so that is another reason to follow me as well.

Anywho, once I see what people have to say about the maps I share I will make my decision on what map deserves the Map Monday crown. So congrats to Anekcahdep for his map of Britain divided between the Chinese and Aztecs:
I wish I could come up with a better title for the map, but Anekcahdep wasn't forthcoming about what he called it. Even the file name was just the map contest it was created for. Regardless, in this timeline Mohammed was never born and thus the Middle Ages never ended for Europe. The rest of the world, however, progresses rather rapidly and eventually China and the Aztec Empire begin to divide up the world, including the bickering states of Britain and Ireland. The Aztecs get Ireland, Scotland and northern England, while the Chinese take Wales and the rest of England.

What I like about this map is that it features a fun scenario that you don't see very often in alternate history. Timelines where Europe is divided up between non-European empires gives us a lesson in what colonialism is like that can't always be taught in the history books. If you want to read other timelines that show Europe being gobbled up by alternate imperialistic powers, check out Easternized World on the AltHistory Wiki.

Honorable mention this week goes out to SoaringAven's Ukrainian Crisis. 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 and a blogger on Amazing Stories. Check out his short fiction. When not writing he works as an attorney, enjoys life with his beautiful wife Alana and prepares for the inevitable zombie apocalypse. You can follow him on Facebook or Twitter.

New Releases 6/9/15

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

Hardcover

The Iron Assassin by Ed Greenwood

On an Earth that is not our own, Victoria never ascended the throne; the House of Hanover held England only briefly before being supplanted by the House of Harminster. It is a time of gaslamps and regularly-scheduled airship flights, of trams and steam-driven clockwork with countless smoke-belching stacks. London the capitol of the Empire of the Lion, is a filthy, crowded, fast-growing city where a series of shocking murders threatens the throne itself. Energetic young inventor Jack Straker believes he has created a weapon to defend the crown: a reanimated, clockwork-enhanced corpse he can control. He introduces 'the Iron Assassin' to the highly-placed Lords who will decide if Straker's invention becomes a weapon of the Lion - or something to be destroyed. It quickly becomes apparent that the Iron Assassin is more self-willed than Straker intended, and that the zombie's past life is far more sinister than the Straker thought. Has he created a runaway monster? Or the best guardian the Lion could ever hope for?

Paperbacks

Beneath London by James P. Blaylock

The collapse of the Victoria Embankment uncovers a passage to an unknown realm beneath the city. Langdon St. Ives sets out to explore it, not knowing that a brilliant and wealthy psychopathic murderer is working to keep the underworld’s secrets hidden for reasons of his own. 

St. Ives and his stalwart friends investigate a string of ghastly crimes: the gruesome death of a witch, the kidnapping of a blind, psychic girl, and the grim horrors of a secret hospital where experiments in medical electricity and the development of human, vampiric fungi, serve the strange, murderous ends of perhaps St. Ives’s most dangerous nemesis yet.

Born of Deception by Teri Brown

Perfect for fans of Libba Bray and Anna Godbersen, this thrilling historical suspense novel—and sequel to Born of Illusion—tells the story of a teen illusionist who must harness her special powers and navigate the underworld of magic before her murderous enemies catch up with her.

After scoring a spot on a European vaudeville tour, Anna Van Housen is moving to London to chase her dream and to join an underground society for people like her with psychic abilities. But when Anna arrives, she finds the group in turmoil—one of its members has been kidnapped, and members of the society are starting to turn on one another. Her life in danger and her relationship with her boyfriend, Cole, fizzling, can Anna track down the kidnapper before he makes her his next victim—or will she be forced to pay the ultimate price for her powers?

Lovers of historical fiction and stories filled with romance and intrigue will fall for Born of Deception and its world of magic set in Jazz Age London.

The Clockwork Crown by Beth Cato

Rich in atmosphere, imagination, and fun, the action-packed, magic-filled sequel to The Clockwork Dagger is an enchanting steampunk fantasy, evocative of the works of Trudi Canavan and Gail Carriger.

Narrowly surviving assassination and capture, Octavia Leander, a powerful magical healer, is on the run with handsome Alonzo Garrett, the Clockwork Dagger who forfeited his career with the Queen’s secret society of spies and killers—and possibly his life—to save her. Now, they are on a dangerous quest to find safety and answers: Why is Octavia so powerful? Why does she seem to be undergoing a transformation unlike any witnessed for hundreds of years?

The truth may rest with the source of her mysterious healing power—the Lady’s Tree. But the tree lies somewhere in a rough, inhospitable territory known as the Waste. Eons ago, this land was made barren and uninhabitable by an evil spell, until a few hardy souls dared to return over the last century. For years, the Waste has waged a bloody battle against the royal court to win its independence—and they need Octavia’s powers to succeed.

Joined by unlikely allies, including a menagerie of gremlin companions, she must evade killers and Clockwork Daggers on a dangerous journey through a world on the brink of deadly civil war.

RUSH's Clockwork Angels: The Graphic Novel by Neil Peart and Kevin J. Anderson

The graphic novel adaptation of the unprecedented concept album and novel from the multi-platinum, Rock & Roll Hall of Fame music legends RUSH and NY Times Bestselling author Kevin J. Anderson!

Owen Hardy, like all the people of Albion, has lived his whole life under the rule of The Watchmaker. His entire life has been planned down to the exact second. But what happens when a young boy decides that things should not always goes as planned? Rush’s CLOCKWORK ANGELS is a testament to the band’s creative versatility—it has been successful as a concept album, novel, and international tour. Now, Rush drummer and lyricist Neil Peart and New York Times bestselling author Kevin J. Anderson are bringing the story of CLOCKWORK ANGELS to comics, where newcomer artist Nick Robles will bring the journey of Owen Hardy to visual life! Die-hard Rush fans have longed for Peart’s narrative songwriting to be adapted into comic book form for decades, but fans of steampunk fantasy will enjoy journeying into the world of Albion thanks to Anderson’s skilled storytelling. Collects the complete story originally published in CLOCKWORK ANGELS #1-#6.

E-Books

Agent of Byzantium by Harry Turtledove

A dashing master spy takes on the enemies of the Byzantine Empire and discovers impossible inventions like gunpowder and telescopes in a magnificent romp from the maestro of alternate-history science fiction

In another, very different timeline—one in which Mohammed embraced Christianity and Islam never came to be—the Byzantine Empire still flourishes in the fourteenth century, and wondrous technologies are emerging earlier than they did in our own. Having lost his family to the ravages of smallpox, Basil Argyros has decided to dedicate his life to Byzantium. A stalwart soldier and able secret agent, Basil serves his emperor courageously, going undercover to unearth Persia’s dastardly plots and disrupting the dark machinations of his beautiful archenemy, the Persian spy Mirrane, while defusing dire threats emerging from the Western realm of the Franco-Saxons. But the world Basil so staunchly defends is changing rapidly, and he must remain ever vigilant, for in this great game of empires, the player who controls the most advanced tools and weaponry—tools like gunpowder, printing, vaccines, and telescopes—must certainly emerge victorious.

A collection of interlocking stories that showcase the courage, ingenuity, and breathtaking derring-do of superspy Basil Argyros, Agent of Byzantium presents the great Harry Turtledove at his alternate-world-building best. At once intricate, exciting, witty, and wildly inventive, this is a many-faceted gem from a master of the genre.


In an alternate America that runs on magic, a potential environmental disaster plunges an overworked bureaucrat into a deadly conspiracy of evil gods and darkest sorcery

David Fisher pushes paper for the EPA in a world that’s a lot like ours . . . only different. In this California—and throughout the alternate United States—all gods are real, science doesn’t exist, and magic rules everything, running imp-driven computers and creating anxiety-inducing bumper-to-bumper flying-carpet rush hours. Unfortunately, unchecked magic use can leave dangerous residues, creating hours of mind-numbing deskwork for David and his fellow bureaucrats at the Environmental Perfection Agency. Now a leakage at a toxic spell dump in Angels City is about to complicate David’s life in ways he never imagined, unleashing vampires, werewolves, and soulless babies. Even the actual spooks at the CIA concerned. But looking too closely into what might be more than just an accident could have David stepping on the toes of some very nasty deities indeed, imperiling his future on the Other Side . . . and on this one, as well.

When it comes to creating alternate histories—and worlds—no one does it better than the great Harry Turtledove. The multiple-award-winning master of the fantastic carries readers on a droll thrill ride through a richly detailed, ingeniously imagined fantasy reality where the impossible is mundane—and absolutely anything can happen.

A Different Flesh by Harry Turtledove

In this classic work of alternate history, acclaimed Hugo Award–winning author Harry Turtledove explores a different America in which a primitive race of Neanderthals are enslaved by Homo sapiens from across the ocean

What if mankind’s “missing link,” the apelike Homo erectus, had survived to dominate a North American continent where woolly mammoths and saber-toothed tigers still prowled, while the more advanced Homo sapiens built their civilizations elsewhere? Now imagine that the Europeans arriving in the New World had chanced on these primitive creatures and seized the opportunity to establish a hierarchy in which the sapiens were masters and the “sims” were their slaves.

This is the premise that drives the incomparable Harry Turtledove’s A Different Flesh. The acclaimed Hugo Award winner creates an alternate America that spans three hundred years of invented history. From the Jamestown colonists’ desperate hunt for a human infant kidnapped by a local sim tribe, to a late-eighteenth-century contest between a newfangled steam-engine train and the popular hairy-elephant-pulled model, to the sim-rights activists’ daring 1988 rescue of an unfortunate biped named Matt who’s being used for animal experimentation, Turtledove turns our world inside out in a remarkable science fiction masterwork that explores what it truly means to be human.


Petra Wade's older brother, Solomon, has always dreamed of being an actor. Instead, he works grueling shifts in the clockwork city's boiler rooms to help support his large adopted family. When Le Theatre Mecanique holds an open call for their upcoming performance, he decides to audition. However, the only role he is suitable to fill is that of the theater's custodian.

Leaving the well-paying boiler job behind him, Solomon immerses himself in the theater--watching rehearsals, studying the performances, and working with an emerging young actress to improve his skills. But back at home, his family feels the sting of their reduced income when his younger sister Emily develops pneumonia and the only treatment is too expensive.

Solomon will be forced to make a difficult choice: fulfill his dreams of stardom, or help save his younger sister.

To readers, authors and publishers...

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

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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.

Videos for Alternate Historians #18

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Still figuring out the best way to select videos for Videos for Alternate Historians, but hey I still have some good videos to share. First up, did you know Pixar is making an alternate history film? Lets watch the trailer for The Good Dinosaur:
Granted its not...a traditional alternate history, but hey Pixar has made few bad movies so hopefully it will be good. Next up, an alternate history scenario from James Jacobs from Alternate History Online:
It has an Alternate History Hub style, though the audio is pretty rough. Interesting to see how James' style evolves as he makes more videos. Finally, we end with how Avengers: Age of Ultron should have ended:
Got any videos or YouTube channels that you want to recommend? Let us know in the comments or at ahwupdate at gmail dot com.

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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.

Review: Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell Episode 1, "The Friends of English Magic"

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I've been talking non-stop for months now about BBC's adaptation of Susanna Clarke's Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell and now the first episode is here. Not on TV, of course. Who uses such an antiquated device? If you don't have BBC America here in the States you can watch it instead on BBC America's YouTube channel.

The episode begins with John Segundus asking why magic isn't practiced anymore in England. After being laughed out of his club of "theoretical" magicians, he tracks down the person who has been buying up all of the books of magic in York. He meets Mr. Norrell who admits to being a practical magician, but the other "magicians" of York don't believe him. Demanding he prove himself, Mr. Norrell makes all of the statues in the York Minster come to life. After proving he can do magic, Mr. Norrell travels to London to offer his services toward the war effort against Napoleon, but he is blown off by the ministers until one of their number's wife dies and Mr. Norrell decides he may have found the right bit of magic to perform to change their minds...

Meanwhile, Jonathan Strange is madly in love Arabella, but she is not interested in marrying him until he finds a job (women, am I right?). Jonathan has no idea what he wants to do with his life and his father is a of little help since he is a mean, old man who thinks Jonathan is a complete screw up. Lucky for Jonathan, his father dies the next day. Jonathan, wasting no time grieving (and who would with a father like that), travels to see Arabella in hopes that now that he has inherited his father's estate, she would agree to marry him. On the way, however, he happens upon a street magician named Vinculus who claims Jonathan is one of two magicians prophesied to bring magic back to England...

Enough recapping, what did I think of Episode 1? Well I am happy it cut out a lot of the details of early 19th century English society and cut straight to the magic while still managing to hit all of the important plot points. It had a very Gothic atmosphere and I thought the casting of Enzo Cilenti as Childermass was near perfect, but I admit casting Vincent Franklin as Christopher Drawlight was less so. Vincent just seemed to be playing the character way too over the top for me.

The CGI wasn't great, but it made up for it with a couple jump scares early on. In fact I found the "the gentleman with thistle-down hair" to be quite creepy and came off more like a demon than a fairy...but then again, in some stories its hard to tell one from the other. Despite its dark tones, the show could be funny at times, although the humor was rather childish.

So all in all, not a bad first episode, but there is room for improvement. I have some time to wait before episode 2, but if you haven't watched it already I would go check out episode 1 as soon as you have the free time. Its entertaining and (more importantly) its free.

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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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