Editor's Note

Do what you love, even if it doesn't make you any money. That way you always have something to look forward to after dealing with the usual stresses of life.

Well now that I started with some uplifting advice, my summer blogging break will begin next week. I will still have some "From the Archive" posts on my Facebook page and next week's New Releases will still go live, but I won't be blasting it over social media. So you will have to check out the blog on the 14th at 11 am CST to see the new books that came out for the week. Afterwards I will return to my usual blogging schedule.

And now the news...

Coming Soon: The Dinosaur Lords: A Novel by Victor Milán

One book that is catching a lot of people's attention is The Dinosaur Lords by Victor Milán. Here is the description from Amazon:

A world made by the Eight Creators on which to play out their games of passion and power, Paradise is a sprawling, diverse, often brutal place. Men and women live on Paradise as do dogs, cats, ferrets, goats, and horses. But dinosaurs predominate: wildlife, monsters, beasts of burden-and of war. Colossal plant-eaters like Brachiosaurus; terrifying meat-eaters like Allosaurus, and the most feared of all, Tyrannosaurus rex. Giant lizards swim warm seas. Birds (some with teeth) share the sky with flying reptiles that range in size from bat-sized insectivores to majestic and deadly Dragons.

Thus we are plunged into Victor Milán's splendidly weird world of The Dinosaur Lords, a place that for all purposes mirrors 14th century Europe with its dynastic rivalries, religious wars, and byzantine politics…except the weapons of choice are dinosaurs. Where vast armies of dinosaur-mounted knights engage in battle. During the course of one of these epic battles, the enigmatic mercenary Dinosaur Lord Karyl Bogomirsky is defeated through betrayal and left for dead. He wakes, naked, wounded, partially amnesiac-and hunted. And embarks upon a journey that will shake his world.

There is also a more detailed description on SF Signal where they are holding a book giveaway. Victor also reported that more sites will be showcasing the interior art with descriptions by him. Gathering all of this information, it seems pretty clear The Dinosaur Lords is not a strict alternate history, but the idea of combining Medieval European culture and politics with dinosaurs is enough to stimulate my geeky brain. I look forward to reading The Dinosaur Lords when it comes out.

Coming Soon: The Floating City by Craig Cormick

Another alternate history book that caught my attention was The Floating City, sequel to The Shadow Master, by Craig Cormick. Here is the description from Amazon:

In a land riven with plague, inside the infamous Walled City, two families vie for control: the Medicis with their genius inventor Leonardo; the Lorraines with Galileo, the most brilliant alchemist of his generation. 

And when two star-crossed lovers, one from either house, threaten the status quo, a third, shadowy power – one that forever seems a step ahead of all of the familial warring – plots and schemes, and bides its time, ready for the moment to attack...

Assassination; ancient, impossible machines; torture and infamy – just another typical day in paradise.

From what I can tell, the series is more historical fantasy than straight alternate history as the big change is that magic is practiced instead of science, but it does make use of an Italian Renaissance setting. Craig also wrote a whole piece on alternate history for SFF World where he talks about his books and the genre. While he doesn't always get the terminology right (he likes to us "tipping points" instead of points of divergence) he still understands the basics, including the importance of good research. Go check it out.

Video of the Week

The video of the week this week is actually from a video that came out two weeks ago. It is DarrenTotalWar's preview of the "Roman Britain" mod for Total War: Attila:
In it you play as Roman Britain, which has declared independence from the Western Roman Empire. You get to deal with Saxon invasions and have the option of converting to Celtic paganism, among other things. This video got a lot of love on my Twitter feed, but I didn't notice until recently. Featuring it now is my way of apologizing for my oversight.

Press/Business inquiries

Are you making history in the field of alternate history? Then we want to hear from you. Contact us at ahwupdate at gmail dot com and we may talk about you on the blog, Facebook or Twitter.

In our history, Iceland eventually gained independence from Denmark, while the Faroe Islands (or Faroes) are a self-governing territory in the Danish Realm (a much cooler sounding organization than it really is). Theminer220, however, supposes both countries' histories could have taken a different path in his "Territory of Iceland & the Faroes" map:
Now admittedly this map doesn't have much of a scenario. Essentially the British are better off at the start of World War II and handle to occupation and administration of Iceland and the Faroe Islands by themselves, with minimal help from the Americans, after Denmark falls to the Nazis. From 1940 to 1944, both exist as the short-lived Territory of Iceland & the Faroes that eventually becomes an independence republic when World War II ends.

So pretty simple scenario, but for once I am putting the art over the story. I really just liked the use of colors and positioning of two land masses. You can really see that a lot of effort and time was put into making this map and even though Theminer220 is a newcomer to AlternateHistory.com, I still thought his work deserved a shout out here on Map Monday.

Honorable mention this week goes out to Rvbomally's "Under the Jackboot", featuring a world where fascism is the dominant form of government on the planet. 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.

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

Hardcovers

1636: The Cardinal Virtues by Eric Flint and Walter H Hunt

Book #19 in the multiple New York Times best-selling Ring of Fire series. After carving a free state for itself in war-torn 17th century Europe, citizens of the modern town of Grantville, West Virginia must contend with France's infamous Cardinal Richilieu, who is determined to keep his grip on power no matter what history says.

France, 1636 . . . It has been twenty years since King Louis took Aña Maria Mauricia, daughter of Spain's King Philip III, as his wife, and their union has not yet produced an heir. Under the guidance of his chief minister, Cardinal Richelieu, a plan is developed to remedy that situation. Once she is with child, Queen Anne goes into seclusion to guard her health and protect her from those who would prefer that the child is never born—France’s foreign enemies as well as schemers such as Monsieur Gaston d’Orleans, the King’s younger brother and heir. When the Crown’s opponents make their move, factions inside and outside France must choose sides and help determine the future and fate of the Kingdom.

DMZ Deluxe Edition Book Fourby Brian Wood and Ricardo Burchielli

New York City... otherwise known as the no man’s land in this second American civil war.  Cut off from his support system and family, rookie journalist Matty Roth remains the lone voice for those left behind in the world’s most dangerous war zone.

Instead embracing a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to document the city under siege with a classic journalist’s objectivity, Matty Roth has allowed himself to blur the lines to the point of no return, to fall in with politicians and opportunists, warlords and mercenaries. Having helped secure an election and fund an army, he commits perhaps the worst offense to date: trafficking in WMD on behalf of the newly elected Delgado regime.

Brian Wood and artist Riccardo Burchielli’s DMZ, one of Vertigo Comics’ longest-running series, continues its blistering look at politically motivated war in what Popmatters states “reads like a journalistic document,” and actress/writer Felicia Day says is “amazing and has poignant analogies to our current political climate. Thought provoking and engrossing.” Joined by guest artists Cliff Chiang, David Lapham, Danijel Zezelj, Andrea Mutti, and Nathan Fox, DMZ: THE DELUXE EDITION BOOK FOUR collects issues #45-59 in the penultimate chapter of this critically acclaimed series.

Time Salvager by Wesley Chu

Time Salvager: a fast-paced time travel adventure from Wesley Chu, the award-winning author of The Lives of Tao.

Convicted criminal James Griffin-Mars is no one's hero. In his time, Earth is a toxic, abandoned world and humans have fled into the outer solar system to survive, eking out a fragile, doomed existence among the other planets and their moons. Those responsible for delaying humanity's demise believe time travel holds the key, and they have identified James, troubled though he is, as one of a select and expendable few ideally suited for the most dangerous job in history.

James is a chronman, undertaking missions into Earth's past to recover resources and treasure without altering the timeline. The laws governing use of time travel are absolute; break any one of them and, one way or another, your life is over. Most chronmen never reach old age; the stress of each jump through time, compounded by the risk to themselves and to the future, means that many chronmen rapidly reach their breaking point, and James Griffin-Mars is nearing his.

On a final mission that is to secure his retirement, James meets Elise Kim, an intriguing scientist from a previous century, who is fated to die during the destruction of an oceanic rig. Against his training and his common sense, and in violation of the chronmen's highest law, James brings Elise back to the future with him, saving her life, but turning them both into fugitives. Remaining free means losing themselves in the wild and poisonous wastes of Earth, somehow finding allies, and perhaps discovering what hope may yet remain for humanity's home world.

William Shakespeare's The Clone Army Attacketh: Star Wars Part the Second by Ian Doescher

In time so long ago begins our play,
In clash-strewn galaxy far, far away.

To Shmi or not to Shmi? Torn between duty to the Jedi, attraction to Padmé, and concern for his beloved mother, yeoman Jedi Anakin Skywalker struggles to be master of his fate. The path he chooses will determine not just his own destiny, but that of the entire Republic. And thereby hangs a tale.

Alack the day! A noble lady in danger. A knight and squire in battle. And a forbidden love that’s written in the stars. Once again, the quill of William Shakespeare meets the galaxy of George Lucas in an insightful reimagining that sets the Star Wars saga on the Elizabethan stage. The characters are familiar, but the masterful meter, insightful soliloquies, and period illustrations will convince you that the Bard himself penned this epic adventure.

Paperbacks

Cold Copper: The Age of Steam by Devon Monk

In steam age America, men, monsters, machines, and magic battle to claim the same scrap of earth and sky. In this madness, one man struggles to keep his mission intact....

Bounty hunter and lycanthrope Cedar Hunt, accompanied by witch Mae Lindson and the capricious Madder brothers, is on the hunt for the Holder, an uncanny device capable of deadly destruction—until a glacial storm stops his crew in its tracks, forcing them to take refuge in Des Moines, Iowa, a town ruled by the iron fist of mayor Killian Vosbrough and plagued by the steely Strange.

Cedar soon learns that Vosbrough is mining cold copper for the cataclysmic generators he’s manufacturing deep below Des Moines, bringing his search for the Holder to a screeching halt. Now Cedar and his crew must chip through ice, snow, and bone-chilling bewitchment to expose Vosbrough’s dangerous scheme—before he rules the land and sky…

The Floating City by Craig Cormick

In a land riven with plague, inside the infamous Walled City, two families vie for control: the Medicis with their genius inventor Leonardo; the Lorraines with Galileo, the most brilliant alchemist of his generation.

And when two star-crossed lovers, one from either house, threaten the status quo, a third, shadowy power – one that forever seems a step ahead of all of the familial warring – plots and schemes, and bides its time, ready for the moment to attack...

Assassination; ancient, impossible machines; torture and infamy – just another typical day in paradise.

Iron and Blood by Gail Z. Martin and Larry Martin

New Pittsburgh in 1898, a crucible of invention and intrigue, the hub of American industry at the height of its steam-driven power. Born from the ashes of devastating fire, flood and earthquake, New Pittsburgh is ruled by the shadow government of The Oligarchy. In the abandoned mine tunnels beneath the city, supernatural creatures hide from the light, emerging to feed in the smoky city known as 'hell with the lid off.' Jake Desmet and Rick Brand, heirs to the Brand & Desmet Import Company, travel the world to secure treasures and unusual items for the collections of wealthy patrons, accompanied by Jake's cousin, Veronique 'Nicki' LeClercq . Smuggling a small package as a favor for a Polish witch should have been easy. But when hired killers come after Jake and a Ripper-style killer leaves the city awash in blood, Jake, Rick and Nicki realize that dark magic, vampire power struggles and industrial sabotage are just a prelude to a bigger plot that threatens New Pittsburgh and the world. Stopping that plot will require every ounce of Jake's courage, every bit of Rick's cunning, every scintilla of Nicki's bravura and all the steampowered innovation imaginable.

No Time Like the Past by Jodi Taylor

Jodi Taylor's best-selling series The Chronicles of St Mary is back with a bang...St Mary's has been rebuilt and it's business as usual for the History department. But first, there's the little matter of a seventeenth-century ghost that only Mr Markham can see. Not to mention the minor inconvenience of being trapped in the Great Fire of London...and an unfortunately-timed comfort break at Thermopylae leaving the fate of the western world hanging in the balance. Re-join Max's madcap journey through time in Jodi Taylor's fifth inter-dimensional instalment No Time Like the Past.

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

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

Sailing Time's Ocean by Terence M. Green

A glitch in time sends a twenty-first-century man to a hellish nineteenth-century prison in this masterful work of humanist science fiction

Fletcher Christian IV, a descendant of the original Bounty mutineer living in the year 2072, is lost in time. His participation in mystic time-travel rituals has wreaked havoc on the space-time continuum, sending a nineteenth-century prisoner forward to Pitcairn Island in 1972 while depositing Christian in his place. As Bran Michael Dalton—the Irish convict he replaced—contends with an incomprehensible future, Christian finds himself trapped in a hellhole of disease, abuse, and unimaginable brutality. All thoughts of repairing a rift in history must be pushed aside for the greater challenge of survival at any cost.

World Fantasy Award nominee Terence M. Green has been compared to Ray Bradbury and other acclaimed literary masters who gave science fiction a distinctly humanist bent. Sailing Time’s Ocean showcases Green’s remarkable storytelling skills in an amalgam of imagination, intelligence, wonder, humanity, and heart.

To readers, authors and publishers...

For this What If Wednesday, I have THREE short scenarios for all of you based on news articles I shared with you last week. Lets begin with...

#1: What if Napoleon turned Britain into a republic?

Last month Martin Kettle complained on The Guardian of liberalism and democracy's defeat after Napoleon lost the Battle of Waterloo. While criticizing the anti-liberty forces that came to power after Napoleon's final defeat, he also shared this tidbit from Napoleon himself regarding what would he have done if he had successfully invaded England:

I would have hastened over my flotilla with two hundred thousand men, landed as near Chatham as possible and proceeded direct to London, where I calculated to arrive in four days from the time of my landing. I would have proclaimed a republic and the abolition of the nobility and the House of Peers, the distribution of the property of such of the latter as opposed me amongst my partisans, liberty, equality and the sovereignty of the people.

As great as this sound to British republicans, I am not convinced Napoleon would have done this. He had tendency to put his family into positions of power rather than establish republics. Even if he really meant to create a republic in Britain, to do so after a victorious Waterloo was extremely unlikely, but I have already said as much elsewhere. If Napoleon had successfully invaded and conquered England, he would have likely put some family member or willing stooge up as king, but this king would only survive on his throne as long as Napoleon was alive. After Napoleon died I expect his empire would have collapsed around him. Now perhaps the rebellious British may welcome back the Hanoverians, but then again they could easily form a republic instead, much like the French did after Napoleon III was overthrown. Then again there are probably more plausible points of divergence for a British republic than any involving Napoleon.

Once again thanks to Bill Weber for recommending this article to me. Don't forget to check out his contributions to The Update.

#2: What if the United States does not invade Iraq in 2003?

Maybe this what if is a little too soon to speculate on, but God knows we hear people do it on the Internet all the time. A recent example is from Robert Farley who speculated on The National Interest about what would happen if the United States had not invaded Iraq in 2003. Among other things, Farley argued that without the Iraq War the Middle East may have been more stable with Hussein's Iraq acting as a buffer to the influence of Iran, the United States would have been free to focus fully on Afghanistan (maybe even destroying the Taliban in the process) and the US could have had access to more advanced military technology than it does today.

That all being said, Farley's article is more thought experiment than counterfactual as he doesn't have a specific point of divergence, instead relying on "saved game" analogy from the computer game Civilization. Thus Frank P. Harvey's argument in his book Explaining the Iraq War that presidents tend to follow the foreign policy of their predecessor regardless of what they said on the campaign trail, means that simply starting over won't cut it. The United States will invade Iraq if all the circumstances that led to it still happen, thus the choices Bush, Gore or whoever else is in the White House could make would be severely limited. In fact, Frank said in an interview I conducted with him that perhaps the only way to avoid the Iraq War was to somehow avoid 9/11 as well.

That is pretty much all I am going to say about that scenario, since the issues stemming from the Iraq War and the 9/11 terrorist attacks are still touchy subjects. So lets move on to our last, and most bizarre, what if...

#3: What if the UK settled 5.5 million Hong Kong Chinese in Northern Ireland?

Owen Bowcott of The Guardian reported that in 1983, at the midst of The Troubles, someone in the British government suggested settling the then 5.5 million inhabitants of Hong Kong in Northern Ireland before it reverted back to Chinese control in 1997. If this sounds like a joke...it was, or at least that was how it was treated through the official channels. It was simply an attempt at some levity by people trying to resolve an extremely difficult situation. Then again, what if someone did take the plan seriously?

To be honest, it is completely unlikely the plan as is would have been carried out. Moving a population of 5.5 million people to an area that today only supports 1.8 million people sounds like utter madness. My guess is the plan would be paired down simply to generous aide packages to any Commonwealth country that would take in any Hong Kong Chinese who wanted to leave. Would all 5.5 million choose to go? Probably not, but enough might go that China might not bother with the "one country, two systems" and today Hong Kong would be far less capitalist and democratic. That being said, Hong Kong is an important part of China's economy and if some or most of its population immigrates to the Commonwealth nations, China's present day economy in this alternate timeline could be weaker.

And what about the Chinese populations that settled in the Commonwealth? How would they effect their new homes and how would the original inhabitants take to their new neighbors? I have no idea, so I will leave that speculation to someone more knowledgeable than myself. If you have any ideas or comments for any of the above what ifs, please let us know in the comments.

I felt inspired to write a scenario for SciFi Ideas'alternate history map challenge they ran last week, so here is the scenario I came up with:

Ögedei Khan doesn't drink himself to death in 1241, thus Batu Kahn continues to drive west into Europe. He eventually reaches the Pyrenees before news of Ögedei's death (caused by what historians would refer to as a "crazy bender of a weekend") causes him to turn around and return to Karakorum to elect a new khan. Now in the late 19th century (by the European reckoning) the Great Khanate of China, ruled by the Yaun Dynasty, may not be the world empire Genghis Khan had originally envisioned, but it has come pretty damn close. China is one of the world's largest states with its western border reaching the shores of the Caspian Sea and has vassals and colonies on Asia, Africa, Europe and even North America [1] (where people who really screw up go, but not bad enough to be executed). When it comes to the Great Khanate, the key word is "biggest". It has the biggest army, the biggest navy, the biggest population, etc. Of course, in this timeline, bigger doesn't always mean better.

Case in point: the Khanate of Rome. Once it was the Great Khanate's most western vassal, but in the last century and a half it has become its greatest rival. Rome's strength comes from trade with its colonies. The jewel in the Roman crown has to be Batustan where the Roman's alliance with the Lakota (who took to horses like ducks to water) helped carve out an expansive empire over the Great Plains. They have also rallied the Dutch and German khanates to their side, minor nations to be sure, but they can easily provide the extra soldiers and ships necessary to slay the Great Khanate dragon if when Rome decides the time is right to strike.

There are, of course, other powers to be concerned about. The Byzantine Empire gained an unexpected boon thanks to all of the European nobles, soldiers and artisans that fled to their lands following the Mongol invasion. This influx of people desperate for land were useful in driving back the Arabs, Turks, Egyptians, Persians and even the Mongols, giving the Byzantines control over much of the Middle East and northeast Africa. They have no love for the Romans (How dare they call themselves Romans! We are the real Romans!), but they see the Mongols as a greater threat and with their Serbian and Bulgarian vassals, could be willing to challenge the Great Khanate's hold over Asia.

Then we have the Great Northern Empire [2]. Also known as the "Nordic Realm", it was founded after an ambitious Norwegian king united the British Isles with Scandinavia. They are Rome's greatest imperial rival and there have been several colonial wars fought between them over the centuries. They rely on their strong navy rather than a large army, but they are known to be fierce fighters should a land battle be necessary. Their relations with two great powers is switched. Although they distrust the Great Khanate, they fought less wars with them than the Khanate of Rome. If push came to shove, they may find themselves fighting for the Great Khan if war ever broke out between the Khanates.

Other states include Spain and Portugal, which were some of the few European states to avoid being ravaged by Mongol invaders. They don't want any trouble and prefer to be left alone to trade and exploit their own colonies in peace. The same can't be said about Japan. Although they suffered through several failed Mongol invasions, they have proved a nuisance to the Europeans as well for constantly trying to snatch their colonies away from them. Incredibly militaristic and determined to create their own empire, no one likes the Japanese, not even Siam, the only other major state in East Asia not part of the Great Khanate. The Japanese instead must sit patiently and wait for their opportunity to snap up as much as they can before the rest of the powers can react.

Because the Mongol invasion delayed European imperialism and the Great Khanate was never that excited about oversea colonies (East Africa being one of the few exceptions [3]) many more native states in Africa and the Americas exist and are strong enough to avoid foreign occupation. The Incas are perhaps the most powerful in this category and are also one of the few willing allies of the Great Khanate. The Incas find the Chinese preferable to the Europeans since they don't seem to have much interest in raping their women and stealing their gold.

Technologically this world is a century behind ours, being more at the level Napoleon would recognize. Culturally things are all over the map. Islam is weak in the Middle East, but strong in Eastern Europe, with large pockets of Nestorian Christianity and Buddhism throughout the Great Khanate and their vassals. Their are two Popes, one in Rome and one in Canterbury, and a nation's allegiance to one usually depends on the politics of the day. Coptic Christians have a plurality in Egypt, but Muslim missionaries have had great success in Mexica. The Great Khanate's East African colonies have enjoyed the "benign indifference" of the Great Khan which has allowed them to pursue their own goals (which is usually making as much money as possible). Their cities are full of people speaking a dozen different tongues and even a couple new ones that merge the vocabulary and dialect of the different cultures. There has been talk in quiet corners of this realm about going their own way someday and creating a "United States of Africa" (or a "USA" if you will).

The outlook for peace is pretty dim in this timeline. The current Great Khan parties so hard he makes Ögedei Khan look like a teetotaler. The old nobility, disgusted by the Great Khan, want to quietly depose him and put someone more amenable to them on the throne. The new class of young nobles, supported by the growing middle class, just want a Great Khan, not necessarily the one currently on the throne mind you, who can finally fulfill Genghis Khan's dream of conquering the world. The Great Khan, however, is not without his supporters, mostly from the rich and powerful in the vassal states who prefer a do nothing Khan to the alternative. As the factions in the Great Khanate vie for supremacy, Rome senses weakness and prepares for war, while the neighbors of both empires ponder just what side to take (if any) in the conflict to come...

Notes

[1]: Neither continent is called North America or South America in this timeline, but because I am too lazy to think of a better name, I am going to stick with their names from our timeline as placeholders.

[2]: Some would argue the Great Northern Empire is neither "Great" nor an "Empire" since the different constituent parts fight amongst themselves or are rebelling against the High King so often that the Empire always seems to be on the verge of falling apart. Also since a good chunk is located in the Southern Hemisphere, you can't even really call it "Northern" anymore either, but hey, old habits die hard.

[3]: The surge of European refugees and Byzantine expansion led to an exodus of Muslims, Jews and Eastern Christians (who didn't listen to the Patriarch of Constantinople) to East Africa, where Middle Easterners had already been trading there for centuries. When the Europeans began encroaching on their territory and trade, they turned to the Great Khan for protection. This was a decision they would later regret after a flood of new immigrants came in from East Asia and other parts of the Great Khanate. It didn't help matters that the local Africans found all these new neighbors rather unpleasant as well. Things were dicey in the early years, but now there is a tenuous peace and much mixing of cultures and peoples. A booming economy doesn't hurt either.

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

Hardcovers

Battlesaurus: Rampage at Waterloo by Brian Falkner

Did you know that beasts called "saurs" were a part of everyday life in 1815 Europe? Did you know that Napoleon won the battle of Waterloo? Did you know that he did so by using a terrible secret weapon against the British and Prussians? Did you know that only one boy--the son of a magician--knows how to foil the would-be Emperor's plans at world-domination? It's all true. At least according to this head-spinning historical fantasy by adventure author Brian Falkner, just in time for the bicentennial of the battle that re-shaped Europe.

Bombs Away: The Hot War by Harry Turtledove

In his acclaimed novels of alternate history, Harry Turtledove has scrutinized the twisted soul of the twentieth century, from the forces that set World War I in motion to the rise of fascism in the decades that followed. Now, this masterly storyteller turns his eyes to the aftermath of World War II and asks: In an era of nuclear posturing, what if the Cold War had suddenly turned hot?

Bombs Away begins with President Harry Truman in desperate consultation with General Douglas MacArthur, whose control of the ground war in Korea has slipped disastrously away. MacArthur recognizes a stark reality: The U.S. military has been cut to the bone after victory over the Nazis—while China and the USSR have built up their forces. The only way to stop the Communist surge into the Korean Peninsula and save thousands of American lives is through a nuclear attack. MacArthur advocates a strike on Chinese targets in Manchuria. In actual history, Truman rejected his general’s advice; here, he does not. The miscalculation turns into a disaster when Truman fails to foresee Russia’s reaction.

Almost instantly, Stalin strikes U.S. allies in Europe and Great Britain. As the shock waves settle, the two superpowers are caught in a horrifying face-off. Will they attack each other directly with nuclear weapons? What countries will be caught in between?

The fateful global drama plays out through the experiences of ordinary people—from a British barmaid to a Ukrainian war veteran to a desperate American soldier alone behind enemy lines in Korea. For them, as well as Truman, Mao, and Stalin, the whole world has become a battleground. Strategic strikes lead to massive movements of ground troops. Cities are destroyed, economies ravaged. And on a planet under siege, the sounds and sights of nuclear bombs become a grim harbinger of a new reality: the struggle to survive man’s greatest madness.

Ink and Bone: The Great Library by Rachel Caine

In an exhilarating new series, New York Times bestselling author Rachel Caine rewrites history, creating a dangerous world where the Great Library of Alexandria has survived the test of time.…

Ruthless and supremely powerful, the Great Library is now a presence in every major city, governing the flow of knowledge to the masses. Alchemy allows the Library to deliver the content of the greatest works of history instantly—but the personal ownership of books is expressly forbidden.

Jess Brightwell believes in the value of the Library, but the majority of his knowledge comes from illegal books obtained by his family, who are involved in the thriving black market. Jess has been sent to be his family’s spy, but his loyalties are tested in the final months of his training to enter the Library’s service.

When he inadvertently commits heresy by creating a device that could change the world, Jess discovers that those who control the Great Library believe that knowledge is more valuable than any human life—and soon both heretics and books will burn...

Rebel Mechanics: All is Fair in Love and Revolution by Shanna Swendson

It's 1888, and seventeen-year-old Verity Newton lands a job in New York as a governess to a wealthy leading family--but she quickly learns that the family has big secrets. Magisters have always ruled the colonies, but now an underground society of mechanics and engineers are developing non-magical sources of power via steam engines that they hope will help them gain freedom from British rule. The family Verity works for is magister--but it seems like the children's young guardian uncle is sympathetic to the rebel cause. As Verity falls for a charming rebel inventor and agrees to become a spy, she also becomes more and more enmeshed in the magister family's life. She soon realizes she's uniquely positioned to advance the cause--but to do so, she'll have to reveal her own dangerous secret.

The Watchmaker of Filigree Street by Natasha Pulley

1883. Thaniel Steepleton returns home to his tiny London apartment to find a gold pocket watch on his pillow. Six months later, the mysterious timepiece saves his life, drawing him away from a blast that destroys Scotland Yard. At last, he goes in search of its maker, Keita Mori, a kind, lonely immigrant from Japan. Although Mori seems harmless, a chain of unexplainable events soon suggests he must be hiding something. When Grace Carrow, an Oxford physicist, unwittingly interferes, Thaniel is torn between opposing loyalties.

The Watchmaker of Filigree Street is a sweeping, atmospheric narrative that takes the reader on an unexpected journey through Victorian London, Japan as its civil war crumbles long-standing traditions, and beyond. Blending historical events with dazzling flights of fancy, it opens doors to a strange and magical past.

Paperbacks

Infinitum: Time Travel Noir by GMB Chomichuk

"With enough time, you can fix anything." The Infinitum are a future society of people and aliens displaced to our past. Special Investigator Nine works in The Paradox Bureau, an agency that polices the temporal diaspora and prevents crimes before they happen. Nine is sent on assignment to the 1940s (to the very place and time he was originally recruited) and must avoid altering his own past while investigating a seemingly unpreventable murder. Nine uncoils a temporal conspiracy at the heart of a militant separatist movement. Why would an organization dedicated to preventing murder before it happens cover up a series of grisly killings? Through the flash of rayguns and the half-light and the fog of a future-tainted 1940s, Nine pursues a killer while he avoids fouling the investigations of his own multiple selves.

The Mammoth Book of Dieselpunk edited by Sean Wallace

Dieselpunk is an aesthetic within steampunk that explores the decadence of the Roaring 20s, the excitement of the World's Fairs, and the dystopian struggle for survival of the World Wars. Dieselpunk keeps all the adventure and eccentric inventions of steampunk while blending a 20th century past with a fantastic future. In this new collection, Sean Wallace presents a new collection of exciting stories by established and upcoming steampunk authors.

Victorian Secret Collection 2014 TP by various

We proudly present another parade of priceless pulchritude, celebrating the finest, most daring damsels of our sensational steampunk showcases! Featuring fine favorites and nubile newcomers to please all palates!

E-Books

Murder in Jérusalem by Paul Leone

A murder mystery in a world next door. The year is 2015 AD. The Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem endures, strong and prosperous, after almost a millennium of Christian rule. In the grimy back alleys of the Holy City, a brutal murder and shady intrigue ensnare three very different people. The teacher - Sister Elixabeta. Idealistic, determined to see justice done... The detective - Metodius Öcal. Cynical, trying to make a difference... The prostitute - Ilisaba Karroum. World-weary, hoping to see another birthday... Will they make it through the sin-snarled streets of God's city?

To readers, authors and publishers...

I am back from vacation and in case you don't follow me on the social media, this year's nominees for the Sidewise Awards for Alternate History have been announced.  The winners will be announced at Sasquan, this year's Worldcon, in Spokane, WA at 2:00 pm Pacific Time on August 21. Here are the nominees below:

Short Form

• Ken Liu, “The Long Haul” (Clarkesworld, 11/14)
• Igor Ljubuncic, “The Girl with the Flaxen Hair” (Wars to End All Wars: Alternate Tales from the Trenches, Amazon Digital Services)
• Robert Reed, “The Principles” (Asimov’s, 4-5/14)
• Aaron Rosenberg, “Let No Man Put Asunder” (Europa Universalis IV: What If?, Paradox Interactive)
• Lewis Shiner, “The Black Sun” (Subterranean, Summer 2014)
• Harry Turtledove, “The More It Changes” (Europa Universalis IV: What If?, Paradox Interactive)

Long Form

• Alexander M. Grace, Sr., Second Front: The Allied Invasion of France, 1942-1943 (Casemate)
• Kristine Kathryn Rusch, The Enemy Within (WMG Publishing)
• Tony Schumacher, The Darkest Hour (William Morrow)
• Allen Steele, V-S Day (Ace)
• Jo Walton, My Real Children (Tor)

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

Hardcovers

Dead Man's Reach by D. B. Jackson

Let the battle for souls begin in Dead Man's Reach, the fourth, stand-alone novel in D.B. Jackson's acclaimed Thieftaker series.

Boston, 1770: The city is a powder keg as tensions between would-be rebels and loyalist torries approach a breaking point and one man is willing to light the match that sets everything off to ensure that he has his revenge.

The presence of the British Regulars has made thieftaking a hard business to be in and the jobs that are available are reserved for Sephira Pryce. Ethan Kaille has to resort to taking on jobs that he would otherwise pass up, namely protecting the shops of Torries from Patriot mobs. But, when one British loyalist takes things too far and accidentally kills a young boy, even Ethan reconsiders his line of work. Even more troubling is that instances of violence in the city are increasing, and Ethan often finds himself at the center of the trouble.

Once Ethan realizes why he is at the center of all the violence, he finds out that some enemies don't stay buried and will stop at nothing to ruin Ethan's life. Even if that means costing the lives of everyone in Boston, including the people that Ethan loves most.

The Madagaskar Plan by Guy Saville


1953. Britain and her Empire are diminished. Nazi Germany controls Europe and a vast African territory. There has been no Holocaust. Instead, the Jews have been exiled to Madagaskar, a tropical ghetto ruled by the SS. Returning home after a disastrous mission to Africa, ex-mercenary Burton Cole finds his lover has disappeared. Desperate to discover her, he is drawn into a conspiracy that will lead him back to the Dark Continent. Meanwhile Walter Hochburg, Nazi Governor of Kongo, has turned his attention to Madagaskar. Among the prisoners are scientists who could develop him a weapon of unimaginable power. But Hochburg is not the only one interested in Madagaskar. The British plan to destroy its naval base to bring America into a war against the Reich. They have found the ideal man for the task: Reuben Salois, the only Jew to have escaped the ghetto. The only one brave, or foolhardy, enough to return. These three men will converge on Madagaskar. The fate of the world is in their hands...Drawing on the Nazis' original plans for the Jews, Guy Saville has meticulously imagined a world-that-nearly-was to tell an epic tale of love, revenge and survival.

Paperbacks

Bolt Action: Germany Strikes!: Early War in Europe by John Lambshead and Peter Dennis

In 1939, Germany shattered the peace of Europe with a lightning-quick strike against Poland. The next year, it captured Denmark and Norway, before launching its famous blitzkrieg against France, Belgium and The Netherlands.  In less than two years of fighting, Nazi Germany had become the master of mainland Europe.

This new theater book for Bolt Action allows players to command armies of Germany tanks in WWII driving across the lowlands or to lead the desperate defense of the outgunned allied armies.

FUBAR: Declassified by Chuck Dixon, Jeff McComsey, Jeff McClelland and Steve Becker

The United States government has flatly denied the existence of undead combatants on the battlefield for years. But thanks to numerous "Freedom of Information Act" requests, we can finally share these tales of guts and glory with you. From the bloody Bay of Pigs invasion to the mountains of Afghanistan, FUBAR presents a dirty dozen of the most highly classified missions of all time.

Rewinder by Brett Battles

You will never read Denny Younger’s name in any history book, but the world as you know it wouldn’t be the same without him. Denny was born into one of the lowest rungs of society, but his bleak fortunes changed the day the mysterious Upjohn Institute recruited him. The role: “verifier of personal histories.” The job title: Rewinder. After accepting the offer, Denny discovers he’ll have to do his research in person…by traveling through time.

Using a device capable of opening a portal into any era from the past, Denny is sent back to serve as an eyewitness to significant moments in human history. But as he journeys across the centuries, he begins to suspect that his missions to “observe and report” have a much darker purpose. When a time jump drops Denny into the midst of a rebellion, he finds himself in over his head in a deadly game where even the smallest choices can have catastrophic consequences.

Armed only with his wits and his time-travel device, Denny’s adventures take readers on a pulse-pounding journey of page-turning twists. But will everything he’s got be enough?

[Editor's Note: Check out my review of the novel here.]

E-Books

Ether & Elephants by Cindy Spencer Pape

Sir Thomas Devere and Eleanor Hadrian have loved each other most of their lives—but sometimes love doesn't conquer all.

Their chance at happiness was ruined by Tom's hasty marriage to someone else. Heartbroken, Nell left home, finding a new life as a teacher at a school for the blind. But when one of her supernaturally gifted students, Charlie, is kidnapped, Tom reappears and her worlds collide.

Tom claims he hasn't seen his wife since the day of their marriage…yet he fears the missing student could be his son.

The deeper they dig, the more Tom and Nell discover: a deadly alchemist, more missing gifted children and long-suppressed feelings neither of them is ready for. A race on airship across England and India may lead them to answers—including a second chance at love—but only if all of British Society isn't destroyed first.

To readers, authors and publishers...

Over my vacation I read Jon Meacham's Franklin and Winston: An Intimate Portrait of an Epic Friendship. It was a good book and I can certainly recommend it, but I try not to give full reviews of straight history books on this blog. Nevertheless, there were some counterfactuals scattered throughout the book that grabbed my attention.

You see even the most straight laced historian dabbles in what ifs from time to time. Often it is even unintentional. If a historian says "because of x, we got y", then presumably if we remove x, then there won't be a y. Meacham is no exception to this phenomenon and here are the top three what ifs from his novel:

#1: Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt divorce

Although perhaps unknown at the time by the general public, Roosevelt's extramarital affairs are well known to historians. After Eleanor found out about his affair with Lucy Mercer in 1918, Eleanor threatened to divorce him, which would have meant the doom of his political career. Franklin promised to stop seeing her, but he continued to do so in secret. Then in 1921, Franklin contracted polio and became paralyzed. Nevertheless, he continued his career in politics and became the only president of the United States to be elected four times.

Meacham briefly argued that Franklin's paralysis was actually a boon to his political career. He believed that if Franklin had never contracted polio, he would have had more affairs and would have been less discreet. Eleanor would have eventually have found out and would have carried out her threat to divorce Franklin. Being a divorced man in the 1920s would have ruined his chance at high office and thus someone else would have to carry the burden of leading America during the Great Depression and WWII.

While it is difficult to speculate on what would happen if someone else other than Roosevelt led America during these difficult times, I am not entirely convinced Eleanor would have divorced Franklin if she had caught him cheating again. If life could be difficult for a divorced man back in the early 20th century, just think how difficult it would be for a divorced woman. Eleanor lived a very public life as well and championed causes that often put her at odds with her husband. Her ability to live her life the way she wanted could have been hampered as well by a divorce so she may have just sucked up the embarrassment and come to some other understanding with her husband. Then again considering the liberal principles she held dear, she may still have divorced Franklin. Sometimes it is easier to see how a nation will change in an alternate history than how a single individual will change.

#2: The Anglo-American Union

It is a well known fact that Winston Churchill, after he became Prime Minister of Britain, sought to bring the United States into the war against Nazi Germany as soon as possible. What is not as well-known is Churchill's dreams about what to do after this feat was accomplished. As Franklin and Winston worked together to lead their countries in the fight against the Axis powers, Winston floated ideas about a closer union between the two countries, including shared passports and a common currency. There is no denying that Churchill wished to unite the English speaking peoples of the world (he stated as much in his own alternate history work: "If Lee had not Won the Battle of Gettysburg") and perhaps he thought now was the best time do it.

It is hard to pinpoint an exact point of divergence for this one. For such a union to occur the positions of the United States and Britain would need to be vastly different. Post-war Britain would need to be better off, the United States would need to be weaker and the peoples of both nations would need see such a union as mutually beneficial. Even if they wanted it there are still plenty of kinks to work out. For example, what would be the status of the British Empire? Its perhaps not much of a stretch to think that Canada and Australia would be treated as equals, but what about India or Nigeria? FDR was a proponent of self-determination, while Winston stated again and again he would not preside over the dismemberment of the Empire. Would the majority non-white states be allowed full membership or would 1940s racial ideas win out and they would be pushed out of the decision making?

Nonetheless, such a union never came to be and the many parts of the British Empire gained independence. Today the American-British alliance is still strong, which Meacham argues is a testament to the very real friendship of Franklin and Winston. Still one wonders what would have happened if such a union ever came about. Would it be something like today's European Union or would it be something else entirely? Would other nations not affiliated with America or the British Empire join? How would this bloc handle the Cold War with the Soviets? So many questions and no real plausible answers.

#3: Rommel at the Suez

We have come now to perhaps the most important what if in Franklin and Winston. When Winston Churchill learned of the fall of Tobruk and the surrender of 35,000 Allied troopes, he was visiting Franklin Roosevelt in the United States. Looking sad and dejected upon hearing the news, Franklin reached out to his friend and offered whatever help he and America provided. Winston asked for the Sherman tanks that were supposed to be given to the American Army. Franklin agreed and 300 new Sherman tanks were handed over to the British and saw combat at the Second Battle of El Alamein that ended the Axis advance to the Suez and beyond and likely saved the lives of the Palestinian Jews.

The crux of Meacham's argument in his book is that the friendship between President Roosevelt and Prime Minister Churchill was a contributing factor to the Allied victory in WWII. If Churchill had been less successful "courting Roosevelt" (the author's words, not mine exactly) or someone else had been in the White House, then the United States may have been less willing to part with their new tanks. Without the equipment, Rommell may have been victorious at El Alamein and could have crossed the Suez into the Middle East. Such a dramatic defeat could have led to the end of Churchill's government and Britain may have sought a separate peace with Germany, allowing Hitler to turn his full attention on the Soviet Union. Although Japan would probably still be doomed at this point, an alternate Cold War with the United States squaring off against Nazi Europe was still possible.

Then again the war could have still ended in an Allied victory, it just would have taken longer with the Soviets having to liberate the rest of Europe (although perhaps a longer war on the Eastern Front could have led to the Soviets negotiating their own peace with the Germans). Then again one can argue that Meacham put too much emphasis on the friendship between the world leaders and that any President would see that the deteriorating strategic situation in North Africa needed to be fixed and would have given the tanks to Churchill regardless of what he thought of him personally. Nevertheless, when Churchill was at his lowest, FDR reached out to help a friend and if he or someone else didn't do that, the world could have been a very different place.

Editor's Note

So I have been gone for a while, but now it looks like things are returning to normal. In case you missed it, the good news I was referring to for several weeks was that I am now a Sidewise Awards judge. This is a great honor and I am really looking forward to begin reading and discussing alternate history with some of the top minds in the genre.

Nevertheless, I have even more good news...but I can't share that one yet. My partner and I are still working out to kinks, but expect to hear us both making announcements in the near future. Just know that worlds will be split.

Some bad news is that with all of these new projects, along with the abstract due for the Sideways in Time collection in September, expect me to be posting here less. Sorry guys, but its hard to work, spend time with your family, complete all of your other projects and meet a full schedule of blogging.

Moving again to some happy news, I am only two weeks away from Weekly Update #200! As I prepare for what I will say for this upcoming milestone, I am reminded about some of my earlier posts. In fact during my very first Weekly Update post, I talked about the "A Gay Girl in Damascus" controversy and how it tied into alternate history. Now there is a new documentary out on the event. Amazing what can happen in just a few years.

And now the news...

3 Weird History Productions Coming to a Screen Near You

I say weird history because none of these shows/films are true alternate histories, but they have elements of it that I think warrant discussion. So lets dive in.

The one that got the Internet buzzing was the announcement that the Lovecraft/Telsa comic, Herald, has been picked up by Romark Entertainment and Markerstone Pictures to be adapted into a television series. A TV show where the horror writer HP Lovecraft and famed scientist Nikola Tesla battle eldritch beings alongside other early 20th century notables? Shut up and take my money!

Next we have the first pictures from the upcoming film Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. Based on the book by the same name, we get to see some of Jane Austen's most famous literary characters fight zombies in Regency England. So if you like hot women in corsets killing the undead, this is the movie for you...although you may want to watch Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter first to learn what you are getting yourself into.

Finally we also got to see another image from an upcoming film: Victor Frankenstein. This film adaptation of Mary Shelley’s famous novel is told from the perspective of Igor (Daniel Radcliffe) who has a complicated relationship with the titular Dr. Frankenstein (James McAvoy). Recent adaptations of this proto-SF work have been rather "meh", but there is always the opportunity to turn things around.

Any other shows we have missed? Let us know in the comments.

What you may have missed...

We have stuff for both scholars and adventurers to check out from the weeks before.

If you happen to be the scholarly type, there are several articles about American history you can check out. First up, learn why the American Revolution was not a mistake on Vox (I am glad someone agreed with me), but if you are looking for some mistakes Americans made, io9 has a list of some of the biggest disasters in US military history. Then again that is all just history the man wants you to believe. Instead lets all stop acting like sheeple and learn that it wasn't aliens that were behind the Roswell crash. No, it was the NAZIS!!! Because that makes a lot more sense than aliens or weather balloons.

If you happen to enjoy a good adventure, why not check out this working airship dock (no time travel required) in Akron, Ohio. Then again you could always travel south and participate in the planning (or protest) of the Nicaragua Canal, which has always been a staple of alternate history, especially ones where the Confederacy won the American Civil War.

Video of the Week

Interest in this video has been overwhelming, so without any further delay, lets watch the Alternate History Hub's "What if the Russian Revolution Never Happened?":
So now that you heard Cody's take on it, what do you think would happen if Russia never had a revolution?

An early community of alternate historians that had a major impact on me creatively was the Alternate History Travel Guides. It was a shared universe where members created travel guides for their own alternate Earths that were all connected by an "Interdimensional Transit Agency". Although the group has been quiet over these last few years, you can still find some of their work using the Wayback Machine.

One of my favorite Earths from the AHTG was "Empires Earth" by Randy McDonald (who is currently a volunteer admin on Alternate History Online). I have probably read this scenario more than hundred times and elements of it have appeared in some of my own works. So when I learned that Bruce Munro had created a cover of Empires Earth, I was ecstatic. Check it out below:
The above is actually the second draft and it contains suggestions from Randy himself, but you can still see an uncorrected draft here. The map has all the usual features of a Munroist map, but its his version of the story that I enjoy the most. For those unfamiliar, Empires Earth is a world where European Imperialism never ended and the world is dominated by large empires who cooperate together to maintain stability. Some unusual features to this alternate history include an Anglo-Dutch Empire, a Prussia that never united Germany but nevertheless has a larger overseas empire than the OTL German Empire and a French superpower.

Bruce's revisions contain his usual style of humor and moves the point of divergence to the Napoleonic era rather than the American Civil War of the original scenario. That all being said, Bruce's map and scenario mostly complements the original Empires Earth without taking anything away. You can read and enjoy both by looking at them as different people with very different points of view commenting on the same world.

Honorable mentions this week go out to Easternized World 2012 by Bruce Munro (description here) and Eighteen Ninety-Four by Rvbomally. 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.

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

Hardcovers

Crookedby Austin Grossman

Richard Milhous Nixon lived one of the most improbable lives of the twentieth century. Our thirty-seventh president's political career spanned the button-down fifties, the Mad Men sixties, and the turbulent seventies. He faced down the Russians, the Chinese, and ultimately his own government. The man went from political mastermind to a national joke, sobbing in the Oval Office, leaving us with one burning question: how could he have lost it all?

Here for the first time is the tale told in his own words: the terrifying supernatural secret he stumbled upon as a young man, the truth behind the Cold War, and the truth behind the Watergate cover-up. What if our nation's worst president was actually a pivotal figure caught in a desperate struggle between ordinary life and horrors from another reality? What if the man we call our worst president was, in truth, our greatest?

In Crooked, Nixon finally reveals the secret history of modern American politics as only Austin Grossman could reimagine it. Combining Lovecraftian suspense, international intrigue, Russian honey traps, and a presidential marriage whose secrets and battles of attrition were their own heroic saga, Grossman's novel is a masterwork of alternative history, equal parts mesmerizing character study and nail-biting Faustian thriller.

The Dinosaur Lords: A Novel by Victor Milán

A world made by the Eight Creators on which to play out their games of passion and power, Paradise is a sprawling, diverse, often brutal place. Men and women live on Paradise as do dogs, cats, ferrets, goats, and horses. But dinosaurs predominate: wildlife, monsters, beasts of burden-and of war. Colossal plant-eaters like Brachiosaurus; terrifying meat-eaters like Allosaurus, and the most feared of all, Tyrannosaurus rex. Giant lizards swim warm seas. Birds (some with teeth) share the sky with flying reptiles that range in size from bat-sized insectivores to majestic and deadly Dragons.

Thus we are plunged into Victor Milán's splendidly weird world of The Dinosaur Lords, a place that for all purposes mirrors 14th century Europe with its dynastic rivalries, religious wars, and byzantine politics…except the weapons of choice are dinosaurs. Where vast armies of dinosaur-mounted knights engage in battle. During the course of one of these epic battles, the enigmatic mercenary Dinosaur Lord Karyl Bogomirsky is defeated through betrayal and left for dead. He wakes, naked, wounded, partially amnesiac-and hunted. And embarks upon a journey that will shake his world.

The Fall: A Novel by R. J. Pineiro

In R. J. Pineiro's The Fall, a sci-fi thriller, a man jumps from the upper-most reaches of the atmosphere and vanishes, ending up on an alternate Earth where he died five years earlier.

Jack Taylor has always been an adrenaline junkie. As a federal contractor, he does dangerous jobs for the government that fall out of the realm of the SEALS and the Marines. And this next job is right up his alley. Jack has been assigned to test an orbital jump and if it works, the United States government will have a new strategy against enemy countries.

Despite Jack's soaring career, his personal life is in shambles. He and his wife Angela are both workaholics and are on the verge of getting a divorce. But the night before his jump, Jack and Angela begin to rekindle their romance and their relationship holds promise for repair. Then comes the day of Jack's big jump. He doesn't burn up like some predicted--instead, he hits the speed of sound and disappears.

Jack wakes up in an alternate universe. One where he died during a mission five years earlier and where Angela is still madly in love with him. But in this world, his boss, Pete, has turned to the dark side, is working against him, and the government is now on his tail. Jack must return to his own world but the only way for him to do that is to perform another orbital jump. This time is more difficult though--no one wants to see him go.

Jack's adrenaline is contagious--The Fall will keep readers on the edges of their seats, waiting to find out what crazy stunt Jack will perform next and to learn the fate of this charming, daredevil hero.

Paperbacks

The Conquering Dark: Crown & Key by Clay Griffith and Susan Griffith

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

The Crown and Key Society face their most terrifying villain yet: Gaios, a deranged demigod with the power to destroy Britain.

To avenge a centuries-old betrayal, Gaios is hell-bent on summoning the elemental forces of the earth to level London and bury Britain. The Crown and Key Society, a secret league consisting of a magician, an alchemist, and a monster-hunter, is the realm’s only hope—and to stop Gaios, they must gather their full strength and come together as a team, or the world will fall apart.

But Simon Archer, the Crown and Key’s leader and the last living magician-scribe, has lost his powers. As Gaios searches for the Stone of Scone, which will give him destructive dominion over the land, monster-hunter Malcolm MacFarlane, alchemist extraordinaire Kate Anstruther, gadget geek Penny Carter, and Charlotte the werewolf scramble to reconnect Simon to his magic before the world as they know it is left forever in ruins.

Liberty: 1784 by Robert Conroy

A compelling alternate history novel by the breakout author of WW II era alternate history Himmler’s War and Rising Sun.

The British win the American Revolutionary War, and a desperate Washington and the American founders must make a last stand in an enclave called Liberty.

In 1781, George Washington's attempt to trap the British under Cornwallis at Yorktown ends catastrophically when the French fleet is destroyed in the Battle of the Capes. The revolution collapses, and the British begin a bloody reign of terror. A group of rebels flees westward and sets up a colony near what is now Chicago. They call it Liberty. The British, looking to finish what they started, send a very large force under Burgoyne to destroy them. Burgoyne is desperate for redemption and the Americans are equally desperate to survive.

Had the Battle of the Capes gone differently, a changed, darker, New World would have been forced into existence. But even under those dire circumstances, Liberty may still find a way!

The Separation by Christopher Priest

Researching the war between Britain and Nazi Germany, which lasted from May 1940 to May 1941, historian Stuart Gratton becomes intrigued by the enigma of J.L. Sawyer, an obscure figure who played a key part in bringing the conflict to its conclusion. As he digs deeper, he discovers there were two J.L. Sawyers - identical twins Jack and Joe, one a fighter pilot and the other a conscientous objector - divided both by their love for the same woman and their attitudes towards the war. But as the brothers' story emerges from books, letters, and diaries, the evidence does not all add up, and there may be an even wider separation between them - divergent realities, in which different possibilities and unexpected truths emerge, and nothing is quite what it seems.

Both a brilliant historical novel about World War II and one of the best works of alternate history ever written, Christopher Priest's The Separation earned the Arthur C. Clarke and BSFA Awards and ranks among his finest achievements. Like his classics The Affirmation and The Prestige, it is an engrossing literary puzzle that will keep readers turning the pages until its startling conclusion.

To readers, authors and publishers...

Guest post Sam McDonald.
In this edition of The Audio File we'll be talking about StarShipSofa. StarShipSofa is a science fiction podcast that is part of the District of Wonders podcast family which includes Tales to Terrify (horror), Crime City Central (crime and mystery), Protecting Project Pulp and Far-Fetched Fables (fantasy). In many ways I can best describe StarShipSofa as what would happen if Alternate History Weekly Update was a podcast. The podcast is primarily hosted by the ever jolly Tony C. Smith and includes many informative fact segments such as Look Back at Genre History with Amy H. Sturgis, Science News with JJ Campanella, Film Talk with Dennis M. Lane and much more.

They even have their own equivalent of The Audio File; though their's is called Cheapskates and is about free fiction in general, but it has many of the same principles as The Audio File. Anyway, all these great segments in edition to the feature stories does add to the shows length. Average show time usually goes for well over an hour; sometimes it's even over two hours. I know it might seem intimidating at first, but it is all well worth your time, I promise. For those who don't want to listen to the entire show, the starting point of each segment are listed on StarShipSofa's website.

Certain episodes from early in the podcast's run are referred to as Aural Delights, but it is very much part of StarShipSofa. Anyway, enough intro, onto the stories. Everyone has a story aboard StarShipSofa. Let's go find some...

"Raft of the Titanic" by James Morrow
Narrated by Peter Seaton-Clark
Originally Published in The Mammoth Book of Alternate History 

In our world many passenger aboard the Titanic died due to the lack of lifeboats. In this story, however, after the iceberg was struck a great raft was created to save all the passengers. Eventually the passengers go on to establish a near utopian society aboard the ever expanding raft. With such a perfect society will any of the passengers ever want to leave?

With stories based around events like the Titanic or the Hindenburg you usually have to resort to fantastical means when writing alternate history. In this case, however, we got a somewhat realistic alternate history of the Titanic. I say somewhat because things do go a bit idealistically aboard the raft. The biggest issue I can think of is that, besides rain, there didn't really seem to be any source of fresh drinking water on the raft. Nonetheless, overall I found this story quite enjoyable.

This story is a great example of oceanpunk. What is oceanpunk? Oceanpunk is a punk set primarily at sea or on a world primarily covered by water. Waterworldand One Piece are good examples of oceanpunk. In other matters, I enjoyed how the story was told as a series of letters. I also thought that Peter did a great job with the narration.

An alternate history of the Titanic with an oceanpunk twist. Very much recommended.

"Escape From New Austin" by Paul Di Filippo
Narrated by Amy H. Sturgis 
Originally Published in Jigsaw Nation

This story takes place in a world where America split into two nations around 2004. The blue districts became the nation of Agnostica and the red districts became the nation of Faithland. The story follows a girl named Amy from Agnostica controlled Austin. She's obsessed with country music and conservatism and she determined to follow her dreams of traveling to Faithland. Are the two nations, however, really all that different?

Okay, the plausibility of this story is definitely on the softer side. The point of this story, however, was less about being a believable alternate history and more about providing commentary on recent society. In that regard I think this story does pretty well. True to their names, Faithland is a lot more religious than Agnostica, but on the whole they're a lot more similar than they are different. Granted, my personal views on the matter are a bit different, checkout my blog for that, but I digress.

Anyway, I found this story much more enjoyable than that other Jigsaw Nation story I reviewed in the post on Escape Pod. As for the narration, Amy H. Sturgis isn't just great at writing fact articles, she's also an excellent narrator. For a great story from the Jigsaw Nation anthology, look no further.

"Jaguar House in Shadow" by Aliette de Bodard
Narrated by Morag Edwards
Originally Published in Asimov's 
2011 Hugo and Nebula Award Nominee 

This story is set in the Xuya universe. It's a world where China kept its treasure fleet, discovered and colonized the New World and the Aztec Empire survived. Within the Aztec Empire there used to be several different military orders named after animals, but now only the Jaguar Knights remain following a purge by the new emperor. A rebellion was started by a Jaguar Knight named Xochitl, but it was suppressed and she was imprisoned. Her friend Onalli, however, is determined to bust her out and find a new life in either Xuya or America.

The thing that really sold me on this story was the rich and detailed descriptions of life in the modern Aztec Empire. It's clear that Aliette did a lot of research and knows what she's talking about. As someone who writes stories set in an Aztec inspired fantasy world I really appreciated that. I also liked the ways Aztec culture had adapted to the modern world. For example, human sacrifice has been phased out, but blood letting is still part of the religion.

This was a really great introduction to the Xuya universe, and I can't wait to find more stories set in this world. Morag handled the narration quite well. It's a story about strange rumblings in a present day Aztec Empire. Very much worth your time.

"Something Real" by Rick Wilber
Narrated by Logan Waterman
Originally Published in Asimov's 
2012 Sidewise Award Winner

Moe Berg was a true renaissance man. He had multiple Ivy League degrees, knew many different languages, played baseball and was a spy during World War II. In this story he gets involved in a plot to stop Werner Heisenberg and Germany's attempt to develop develop an atomic bomb.

I'll admit that I didn't know too much about Moe Berg before listening to this story, but that didn't effect my ability to enjoy this story. Obviously, the Nazis were nowhere near capable of actually creating a viable atomic bomb, but it does make for a pretty good spy thriller plot. It's really a testament to Rick's writing talent that the story worked so well despite potential issues. Hey, it won the Sidewise Award so obviously it's pretty good.

Of course, a story like this needs a good narrator and Logan is that narrator. It won the Sidewise for a reason and I happily recommend it.

"The Time Travel Club" by Charlie Jane Anders
Narrated by Ibba Armancas
Originally Published in Asimov's 

This story follows a recovering addict named Lydia who has joined a time traveler's club. At first it was all just pretend and games, but then one of the members brings an time machine to the meeting. Lydia and the other members try to figure out what to do with this astonishing discovery and grow closer together.

Yeah, the summary doesn't really do it justice, but this is a really great story. The theme of a lost person finding friends through nerdy means struck a cord with me. I never really had many friends in high school or that many growing up, but then I went to college, met my now very good friends, got introduced to anime, went on many fun adventures...okay, that enough about my personal life. Point is I related with the characters in this story.

One of the things I liked was how the time machine was just that, as opposed to a space and time machine, and the characters were always having to take the Earth's rotation into account. There are some slight alternate history elements to this story, but that's a surprise I really shouldn't spoil. As I've said before, the writing and characterization are top notch in this story.

Ibba did an amazing job with the narration. A story about time travel, friendship and finding yourself. I couldn't recommend it more.

"Prophet of Flores" by Ted Kosmatka
Narrated by David Birkhead
Originally Published in Asimov's 

This is the short story that served as the basis for Ted Kosmatka's Prophet of Bones. It takes place in a world where creationism won out over Darwinian evolution and is the accepted scientific explanation for how the world came to be. The story follows a biologist named Paul Carlson; he's been performing experiments since he was young to test if evolution is true. He's been assigned to a paleontology dig on the Indonesian island of Flores that could change the world of science.

A recurring problem I find with Ted Kosmatka is that, though he comes up with some interesting ideas, he doesn't consider their full ramifications. So it is with this story. The explanation for why creationism is accepted in this world is that radiometric dating determined that the Earth is only 10,000 years old. However, despite that both science and the world as a whole look almost exactly like our world. Not only that, but the fossil record is exactly the same as in our world.

Evolution is the cornerstone of modern biology and if you get rid of that you potentially get all sorts of changes. Also, no science is an island onto itself and knocking out evolution would have effects across the scientific world. For that matter, you don't always throw something out the window in light of new evidence, rather you can refine it in light of new information. You'd also expect that their be higher levels of religiousness in such a world, but again, nothing that seems different from our world.

Now I have to be fair here, when it comes to writing characters and bringing that human element to the story Ted does an amazing job. There are also hints at the end of some kind of conspiracy. That being said, I simply can't get over the tremendous suspension of disbelief required by this story. For that matter, I'm surprised Ted felt the need to go the alternate history route, considering that we live in a world where nearly half of all Americans believe the Earth is 10,000 years old and created in seven literal days.

Obviously, I didn't enjoy it too much, but I can't quite bring myself to give it the stamp of disapproval. Should you chose to give it a try I advise to approach with a considerable degree of caution.

"Adrift on the Sea of Rains" (Part 1 and Part 2) by Ian Sales
Narrated by Logan Waterman
2012 Sidewise Award Nominee 

Yeah, this story has been reviewed before, but I still think the audio version is worth going over. You guys probably know the drill; Cold War goes hot and only twelve astronauts on the Moon survive and use a bit of secret Nazi tech to search for a new universe to live in.

Now, this story has a lot of technical jargon that might not necessarily translate so well in audio. So, how well does it work? Well, StarShipSofa wrote to Ian about these concerns and he wrote a version especially for them with the jargon simplified or explained in-story. I can personally attest that it works out quite well, and Logan once again does a great job with the narration.

I really can't say much that hasn't been said already, but I can give it a strong recommendation.

"Lord Dickens's Declaration" (Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3) by Lawrence Santoro 
Narrated by Lawrence Santoro 

This story has multiple points of divergence, but the primary one is that religion died out in prehistoric times. By the 1920s there's peace and happiness throughout the world. The arts are the movers and shakers of society, with science and technology existing purely to serve the arts. Speaking of technology, it's advanced to the point of including such things as supercomputers and time machines. The story follows a team of historians researching a significant event in the life of Lord Charles Dickens, but things quickly lead into a bigger conspiracy all the way back to the origin of humanity.

In terms of plausibility this story is on the softer side, with figures from Jesus to William of Occam appearing despite the changes. Had Lawrence tried to made things realistic, however, it would have resulted in a world so alien it would potentially alienate readers. It took me a bit to really get into that story, but after that I really enjoyed it. It was also helpful the each segment began by recapped the previous events.

One issue I had was how one of the characters was planning on changing the past on the grounds that this world was missing something without religion. If this world had some flaws I might have been willing to buy that, but frankly this seems to be that world John Lennon was singing about in "Imagine". If anything this world seemed to be better off without religion. Still, despite some iffy elements overall it was a great novella.

Lawrence isn't just a great author, he's also a great narrator. This novella was part of a fundraising effort when Spider Robinson's wife was diagnosed with cancer. It's always great when speculative fiction does stuff like that. Another story that I happily recommend.

"Lure" by Harry Turtledove 
Narrated by Dennis M. Lane
Originally Published in Analog and collected in Departures

This story follows a time traveling hunter named Harvey Cutter. He's traveled to Miocene Italy to capture a species of primate for the San Diego Cenozoic Zoo. Unfortunately, he's been having a bit of trouble catching the primate, but I can't tell you any more without giving away the story.

It is well known that Harry Turtledove has a thing for puns and this story is no exception as you find out at the end. As a pun lover myself I quite enjoyed this story. I also enjoyed Dennis' narration of this story.

Now I'm going to talk about the episode this story appear in. For their 300th episode StarShipSofa had a Harry Turtledove special. They had asked him for only one story, but he offered them five; a very impressive feat. Now, they might no have had any power over what stories were offered, and Mr. Turtledove does write more than just alternate history. Still, none of the stories they received were alternate history and I can't help but think of all the great alternate history short stories we potentially missed out on.

Be that as it may, the stories we did receive, including this one, are all quite good in their own right. Let's take a look at some more.

"Not All Wolves" by Harry Turtledove 
Narrated by Ibba Armancas 
Originally Published in Werewolves and collected in Departures 

This story is set in Cologne in 1176 and follows a young werewolf named Dieter as he desperately tries to evade capture and execution. He's tried to get help everywhere, but to no avail. Fortunately, a kind hearted rabbi named Avram offers him refuge in the city's Jewish Quarter.

This is another story where the summary isn't much, but I promise this one is good. I always enjoy stories where the monsters are misunderstood rather than evil. It was interesting how the story made lycanthropy a metaphor for both puberty and the persecution of Jews. Dieter first started transforming we he turned thirteen and Avram mentions that Dieter isn't the only person to have been persecuted in Cologne. It was a really nice and heartwarming story.

There's not too much dialogue in this story, and Ibba did a good job narrating, but it still seemed a tad odd given that the story only has male characters in it. A story that is a little more hairy than Turtledove and one I happily recommend.

"Clash of Arms" by Harry Turtledove 
Narrated by Nick Camm
Originally Published in New Destinies IV and collected in Departures 

This story takes place in medieval Westphalia and follows an Englishmen named Stephen de Windesore. He attends a jousting tournament where he meets a merchant named Niccolo dello Bosco. The two men share a passion for heraldry and coats of arms. They quickly get involved in a coat of arms naming contest, and Stephen wonders if there is more to Niccolo than meets the eye.

Yeah, this is another story that's better than its summary. As a flag lover and flag maker, this story really spoke to me. I loved the exchange of banter between Stephen and Niccolo, and Nick's narration really helped bring it to life. You can always tell that Turtledove is in his element when he writes stories set in medieval times.

Another great historical fantasy story from Harry Turtledove.

"The Barbecue, The Movie, and Other Unfortunately Not So Relevant Material"
by Harry Turtledove 
Narrated by Mike Boris
Originally Published in Analog and collected in Departures 

We'll end with one last Harry Turtledove story. This one follows a technical writer from Los Angles named T.G. Khan. His father was a professor of Mongol History, so his full name is Temujin Genghis Khan. One day Khan receives a visit from a time traveling historian from thousands of years in the future named Lasoparop Rof. It seems Lasoparop was looking for that other Genghis Khan and is now at a loss for what to do. Khan decides to help as much as he can with a barbecue, a movie and a few wacky misadventures.

This is definitely the funniest of the four Harry Turtledove stories on this list. A lot of the humor comes from just how unfamiliar Lasoparop is with the late 20th century due to coming from 50,000-60,000 years in the future. He can't tell the difference between machines and animals, barely understands what fire is and yet apparently there are still Jews given that he recognized a menorah. Added humor comes from Khan's deadpan reaction to all of this. At the same time, this story made me wonder about how historians in the future will look back on the present day and what they'll make of it; as well as what misconceptions they might have.

Mike's great narration really added to the humorous experience. Easily one of the funniest Harry Turtledove stories and one I happily recommend.

Conclusion 

Well, we've reached the end of the list and I'm going to cut right to the chase. Tales to Terrify, StarShipSofa's sister podcast, is in trouble. It is in desperate need of funding and we've only got a few weeks to save it. As I've said in the past, part of the reason I started The Audio File was to get the word out and help podcasts in need. Well, this is a podcast in need and I'm not about to let a good podcast go under as long as I have something to say about it. Let's get  on it gang, any amount helps no matter how small.

On a slightly happier note, we've got a choice to make for the next installment of The Audio File. We can go back and visit stories we missed from past podcasts or we can move forward. If we move forward I'll be covering multiple podcast in the next post. We'll see Clarkesworld, Strange Horizons and either Apex Magazine or Cast of Wonders. Let me know what you'd like to do and that's where we'll go.

Remember, help a podcast out and donate some money, and I will see you next time.

I talked originally about reviewing this on my channel, but I think instead I am going to focus more on my Trope Talk series instead (next episode TBA). So now I will review Jokers Wild, the third volume of the Wild Cards shared universe, edited by Sharknado 3 star, George RR Martin.

Jokers Wild takes place shortly after the events of Aces Highon Wild Cards Day, the 40th anniversary of the day when an alien virus was released over New York City, killing most of the people that contracted it and horribly disfiguring the few survivors, except for those lucky enough to gain superpowers. The Astronomer and his followers are taking revenge on those Aces who defeated their attempt at world domination by killing them one by one. While Fortunato and others race to stop him, an Ace named Wraith steals some notebooks from a wealthy New Yorker, but soon discovers he is a powerful criminal who will stop at nothing to get his property back. On top of that, Sewer Jack learns his niece ran away from home and is alone somewhere in New York City. As he seeks her out he enlists the help of his friend Bagabond who also...okay lets just say there are a hell of lot of subplots going on at once.

If everything above sounds confusing, it is. Not only is Jokers Wild a book where you need to read what came before, the problems are compounded by the fact that this is a "mosaic novel", where different short stories from various authors are edited together to tell one story. Now the previous two books in the series had overarching themes that tied many of the stories together, Jokers Wild on the other hand, is presented as one story told by seven different authors, including Martin, with each author writing for a different point of view character. I have to give them credit for putting together a readable novel with that many minds/egos, but the finished product is still rather rough. Transitions don't always flow well with characters changing drastically as points of view switch. I can forgive them, however, since this was their first time and considering the Wild Cards series now has over twenty volumes, perhaps later mosaic novels are more polished now that they have more experience.

I am not going to nitpick all the issues with the book, but I do want to point out how clumsily the Sewer Jack "reveal" was handled. Turns out he is gay and before you get angry, trust me, it really isn't much of a spoiler. They pretty much broadcast that fact on a giant neon sign almost straight from the beginning. A beautiful woman wonders why he is uninterested in her advances, he looks for his niece in a gay bar that he implies he has visited once or twice, he gets really upset when a random stranger calls him a "fag", his male friend who he has strong feelings for has HIV, he knows a lot about women's makeup...wait, what? Maybe its just because I am a heterosexual, but I don't think being gay means you immediately know how to apply makeup competently!

To be fair this book was originally published in 1987, and presumably the stories themselves were written even earlier, so just having a gay major character in a book marketed to the general public was a pretty big deal. I mean there were some states that still were enforcing anti-sodomy laws. Critics I listen to have pointed out that writers in the 80s and 90s really didn't know how to write gay characters and often fell back on stereotypes and cliches. So perhaps everyone involved can be forgiven for this issue, especially because even with all of my negativity above, I can still recommend this book.

What is great about Wild Cards is that it presents a surreal superhero universe where things don't quite work out the way they would in the comics. Most of the people who survived the Wild Cards virus are grotesque monstrosities and have been relegated to the lowest rung of society because of it, even if they do have a superpower. Even those who kept their normal, human looks don't always get useful powers (i.e. being able to fly, but not lift anything up because you are not strong enough or gaining magical-esque powers, but to recharge you have to have sex and never ejaculate). Even the "heroes" come off more like reality TV stars than actual heroes and the few traditional vigilantes are often viewed at best as menaces and at worst serial killers. That is all on display throughout the book and it was those elements that kept me reading until the end.

Jokers Wild is a bizarre and fun breakdown of the usual superhero tropes and if the technical side of the book is rather weak, the universe Martin and his friends created more than makes up for it. Go check out Jokers Wild, but make sure you read the first two books first.

The 1980s were a great time for alternate history. I know some people give credit to Leinster, Moore and Dick for starting the alternate history genre, but if they started it, than the authors of the 1980s perfected it. This was an era were a new crop of writers were entering the speculative fiction genre with backgrounds in history, instead of science and engineering. They used their knowledge of the past to craft new works of science fiction and to fill out the tiny library of alternate history. Authors who were part of this era included Harry Turtledove, SM Stirling and, of course, the late Harry Harrison.

Harry Harrison has contributed a lot of works to the alternate history genre, especially through his "trilogies". There is the fun historical fantasy Hammer and the Cross trilogy (which I had a blast writing in) and the notoriously implausible Stars and Stripes trilogy. There is one more trilogy, however, that we have not discussed yet: the Eden trilogy. This series is set in a world where the meteor that wiped out the dinosaurs (which for some reason Harrison stated it hit Iceland in our timeline and not the Yucatan...was this a popular theory?) never happened and thus Earth's entire evolutionary history is changed leading to a world where a sentient race of amphibious reptiles that walk upright compete with humanity. If this seems implausible...you're right, but more on that later.

The Eden trilogy began in 1984 with the publication of West of Eden. This tells the story of a young hunter (or Tanu) named Kerrick who is captured and raised by the Yilanè (the aforementioned smart lizards) after they wiped out his family and tribe. At first Kerrick thinks of nothing but escaping, but as he learns the Yilanè language to survive and comes to understand more of their culture, he begins to forget his "humanity" (the quotations are significant, but again more on that later) and sees himself more like a Yilanè and less like a Tanu. The Yilanè, however, fear the walking/talking mammals enough that they seek to rid them from the continent they are now colonizing as longer winters threaten their homes in the Old World. A chance encounter with one of the survivors of these raids convinces Kerrick that his place is with his own kind and he finally escapes. The Yilanè, especially the ambitious Vainte and vicious Stallan, are not ready to let him go and chase him and his people across the continent. Meanwhile, Kerrick uses his knowledge gained from his years of captivity to better fight the Yilanè and eventually prepare the Tanu and their allies to take the fight to the invaders across the sea and drive them from their home once and for all.

A lot of stuff to unpack here, so lets begin with the Old World where the Yilanè are from. Without the extinction event, dinosaurs never died out and instead continued evolving and the Yilanè are a product of this. They have built an advanced civilization, but not with technology as we know it. Instead their civilization, which has existed for millions of years, uses advanced genetic engineering to create houses, tools, transportation and weapons made entirely out of organic creatures and materials, reminiscent of the Yuuzhan Vong from the old Star Wars Expanded Universe. If this sounds impossible without some sort of period where they first obtained a level of inorganic technology first, you are probably correct, but trust me, the craziness has just begun.

You see Kerrick and his people aren't human. They look like humans, talk like humans, think like humans and do all the other human-y things humans do, but they are not humans. In our world, humans as we know them evolved from apes in Africa, but in West of Eden the dinosaurs prevented mammals in the Old World from going down this evolutionary path...but not in North America. Yep, the Tanu are actually descendants from a North American ape/monkey that somehow managed to evolve into a human-esque species during a brief (relatively speaking) period of time when Central America was flooded and all of the dinosaur species had died out in North America, giving the Tanu and related peoples a chance to develop and later flee to the cold north when the dinosaurs eventually returned. Man, the stars really had to be aligned for evolution to create something exactly like the humanity of our timeline.

So in terms of plausibility, West of Eden is making Stars and Stripes look like historical fiction that Richard J, Evans would be proud of. So what about the story itself? Well actually it has a lot of similarities with the Hammer and the Cross trilogy. Protagonist hates invaders, but joins invaders and learns their ways, only to inevitably escape from invaders to lead his own people against them. The Yilanè even have a troublesome religious cult called the "Daughters of Life" that fulfills much the same role as the Way. To Harrison's credit, this series predates the Hammer and the Cross so he can be forgiven for being derivative. Nevertheless, the story wasn't bad, especially if you enjoy the older style of writing that emphasizes telling over showing. You learn about Kerrick's struggle as he finds himself stuck between two alien societies. Even with the death of his family, he struggles to sufficiently hate the Yilanè like the other Tanu and at times even sees some benefits to Yilanè civilization over the hunter/gather culture of the Tanu. Furthermore, I like societies that use living things as machines and such. It might not be practical or plausible for that matter, but its a cool aesthetic that appears again and again in genre fiction, including alternate history, such as Scott Westerfeld's Leviathan trilogy.

I can see why a lot of people won't like this book and I am not going to try and push it on you. That being said, I enjoyed it and will probably read the next book, Winter in Eden, when I get a chance. Harrison may not always tell a plausible story, but at least he tells an entertaining story. If you want to witness a clash between two alien species take place on our own planet, go check out West of Eden.

It sucks when you have to learn about new alternate historians only after they have passed away. File 770 announced yesterday that author Adrienne Martine-Barnes has passed away. Although mostly know for here work int he Darkover series, she also contributed to the alternate history genre.

According to Uchronia, she is the author of The Swords Sequence (The Fire Sword, The Crystal Sword, The Rainbow Sword and The Sea Sword), which is sometimes called Chronique D'Avebury. This four book series is set in a universe where the English royal succession is changed after Henry II and the Crusades never happened. Additionally, gods, magic and time travel also exist. Admittedly, I wasn't able to find much regarding this late 1980s book series, so if anyone who follows this blog has read them, please share your thoughts in the comments.

My thoughts and prayers go out to Adrienne's friends and family.

Editor's Notes

Only 1 week away from Weekly Update #200 and a special announcement from yours truly. On top of that, I will most likely surpass 700,000 total views this month. Suddenly 1,000,000 views does not sound that impossible anymore.

In more secretive news, I had a fun time Saturday talking with a certain alternate historian you all should know rather well. Our project is gaining a momentum and we both look forward to sharing it with you all very soon.

And now the news...

4 Reasons Why Time Travel is Dangerous!

If there is one thing I learned this week from the news its that TIME TRAVEL IS DANGEROUS!!! Here are the four reasons why you should think twice before jumping into that time machine:

#1: The People in the Past Are Crazy. Such as this maid who killed her employer in 1870, took over her life and even fed the fat boiled off from the dead body to children. Yikes! So much for those Victorian morals.

#2: You Could Accidentally Destroy Yourself. According to science, if time travel were real you would inevitably create two versions of yourself that would eventually meet and annihilate the other. So perhaps Doc Brown wasn't that far off when he cautioned Marty about running into himself in the future.

#3: Your Historical Ignorance Can Be Your Undoing. People often assume they know history, when they really don't. Just check out these popular historical misconceptions that could cause a lot of problems for you, especially if you try to change the past. This brings me to my last point...

#4: The Outcome is Always Unclear. You just can't control what will happen if you change the past, whether it is intentionally or by accident. Who knows what damage you could cause. You may even wipe out the United States!

So leave time travel to the professionals. You know the ones I am talking about: alien outlaws, crazy scientists and cops who speak with a Belgian accent.

Video of the Week

This week the featured video goes to the new History Respawned video on Tropico 5:
This episode featured John Harney as he talked with Dr. Renata Keller of Boston University about how Tropico 5 parodied US-Cuba relations, racial dynamics in the Caribbean and how difficult it is using humor to tell history.

Honorable mention goes out to Alternate History Hub's What if the Drug War Never Occurred?

I am a big fan of the works and maps of Ben Carnehl, also know as False Dmitri on AlternateHistory.com. Besides his work on that forum, he has a long history with the online alternate history community and has been an active member of such communities as the AltHistory Wiki and Ill Bethisad. I have featured his work before, such as his map of the Royal Province of Maryland and his balkanized American ethnicity map, which is the #2 most viewed post on The Update. After seeing one of his most recent maps get a lot of Twitter love, I decided to feature it on Map Monday. Its called "The Baltic Region":
The map is set in Ben's Pseudodemetrian Imperial Commonwealth universe, where Russia, Poland, and Sweden are united under a shared dynasty. This is very similar to his Affiliated States of Boreoamerica universe, where world building is emphasized over plausibility. That is not to say that Ben doesn't put a lot of work into these universes, but the details tend to focus on social and cultural issues rather than politics. They are quite enjoyable worlds to follow, much like his maps.

While I do enjoy maps with a lot of details and annotations, sometimes you get tired of the MSPaint aesthetic and want to see something a little more polished. In this case we see a region of this timeline that must be very important as it is the meeting place of the three major powers that make up the PIC. Its not cluttered and the colors are pleasing to the eyes. I enjoyed it and I am glad others who I shared it with thought the same.

Honorable mention this week goes out to MrGreyOwl's "Republic of Romanistan". 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.

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

Hardcovers

The Madagaskar Plan: A Novel by Guy Saville

Guy Saville's The Madagaskar Plan imagines a disturbing alternate history in which Nazi victory in World War II brings their "Final Solution" ever closer

The year is 1953. There is peace in Europe, but a victorious Germany consolidates power in Africa. The lynchpin to its final solution is Madagaskar. Hitler has ordered the resettlement of European Jews to the remote island.

British forces conspire to incite colony-wide revolt, resting their hopes on the expertise of Reuben Salois, an escaped leader of Jewish resistance.

Ex-mercenary Burton Cole scours the island for his wife and child. But as chaos descends and the Nazis brutally suppress the nascent insurrection, Cole must decide whether he is master of-or at the mercy of-history.

The Madagaskar Plan is alternate history of the highest order, a thriller of terrifying scope based on the Nazis' actual plans prior to the Holocaust.

Paperbacks

Blood and Honor: The Foreworld Saga Graphic Novels by Tony Wolf , Erik Bear and Christian Cameron

Collected for the first time: three exciting alternate history graphic novel adventures exploring fantasy, magic, and martial arts in The Foreworld Saga! Including:

Suffrajitsu: Mrs. Pankhurst’s Amazons #1–3:

London, 1914: The leaders of the radical women’s rights movement are fugitives from the law. Their last line of defense is the secret society of “Amazons”: women trained in the martial art of bartitsu and sworn to defend their leaders from arrest and assault.

After a series of daring escapes and battles with the police, the stakes rise dramatically when the Amazons are forced into a deadly game of cat and mouse against an aristocratic, utopian cult…

The Dead God #1–3:

In the year 536 AD, the land of Frisia is a hostile place of swords and sorcery. Across the dark, cold countryside, three valiant warriors quest for a treasure, the likes of which few can comprehend. These three—the mighty grappler, Eadhild; the skilled archer, Coll; and the charming young Valens—are searching for the head of Yvrnn, the sky-god. For, according to legend, the head of Yvrnn will grant its possessors great wisdom and fortune.

The trio’s quest won’t be easy, as they must not only contend with Yvrnn’s followers who have set obstacles in their paths, but also the mystical creatures and bandits that haunt the roads of Frisia.

Symposium #1–3:

The Shield-Brethren is a secret martial order that has defended the West for centuries. Now, the origins of the order are revealed in this stunning three-issue tale.

Our heroes, seeking to realize the idea offered to them by the philosopher Plato, leave Athens and travel to Delphi with hope of visiting the oracle. They have a dream to found a city of their own, and they desire insight from the oracle as to their question. But their skills—both as warriors and as thinking men—will be tested by adversaries they do not even know they have.

Comics as History, Comics as Literature: Roles of the Comic Book in Scholarship, Society, and Entertainmentedited by Annessa Ann Babic

This anthology hosts a collection of essays examining the role of comics as portals for historical and academic content, while keeping the approach on an international market versus the American one. Few resources currently exist showing the cross-disciplinary aspects of comics. Some of the chapters examine the use of Wonder Woman during World War II, the development and culture of French comics, and theories of Locke and Hobbs in regards to the state of nature and the bonds of community. More so, the continual use of comics for the retelling of classic tales and current events demonstrates that the genre has long passed the phase of for children’s eyes only. Additionally, this anthology also weaves graphic novels into the dialogue with comics.

The Contrary Tale of the Butterfly Girl: From the Peculiar Adventures of John Lovehart, Esq., Volume 2by Ishbelle Bee

1888. A little girl called Mirror and her extraordinary shape-shifting guardian Goliath Honeyflower are washed up on the shores of Victorian England. Something has been wrong with Mirror since the day her grandfather locked her inside a mysterious clock that was painted all over with ladybirds. Mirror does not know what she is, but she knows she is no longer human.

John Loveheart, meanwhile, was not born wicked. But after the sinister death of his parents, he was taken by Mr Fingers, the demon lord of the underworld. Some say he is mad. John would be inclined to agree.

Now Mr Fingers is determined to find the little girl called Mirror, whose flesh he intends to eat, and whose soul is the key to his eternal reign. And John Loveheart has been called by his otherworldly father to help him track Mirror down…

An extraordinary dark fairytale for adults, for fans of Catherine Valente and Neil Gaiman.

The Einstein Prophecy by Robert Masello

As war rages in 1944, young army lieutenant Lucas Athan recovers a sarcophagus excavated from an Egyptian tomb. Shipped to Princeton University for study, the box contains mysteries that only Lucas, aided by brilliant archaeologist Simone Rashid, can unlock.

These mysteries may, in fact, defy—or fulfill—the dire prophecies of Albert Einstein himself.

Struggling to decipher the sarcophagus’s strange contents, Lucas and Simone unwittingly release forces for both good and unmitigated evil. The fate of the world hangs not only on Professor Einstein’s secret research but also on Lucas’s ability to defeat an unholy adversary more powerful than anything he ever imagined.

From the mind of bestselling author and award-winning journalist Robert Masello comes a thrilling, page-turning adventure where modern science and primordial supernatural powers collide.

Proxima by Stephen Baxter

Mankind’s future in this galaxy could be all but infinite.

There are hundreds of billions of red dwarf stars, lasting trillions of years—and their planets can be habitable for humans. Such is the world of Proxima Centauri. And its promise could mean the never-ending existence of humanity.

But first it must be colonized, and no one wants to be a settler. There is no glamor that accompanies it, nor is there the ease of becoming a citizen of an already-tamed world. There is only hardship...loneliness...emptiness, even as war brews in the solar system.

But that’s where Yuri comes in. Because sometimes exploration isn’t voluntary. It must be coerced.

Soldiers Out of Timeby Steve White

Book #5 in Steve White's exciting TRA series. Jason faces down humanity's arch-enemies in an action-packed space adventure.

Special operations officer Jason Thanou of the Temporal Regulatory Authority must once again plunge into Earth’s blood-drenched past to combat the plots of the Transhumanist underground to subvert that past and create a secret history leading up to the fulfillment of their mad dream of transforming humanity into a race of gods and monsters.

E-Books

Alt.History 101 edited by Samuel Peralta and Nolie Wilson

The future is history... From Samuel Peralta, creator of the bestselling Future Chronicles anthology series, comes a new speculative anthology series that turns the world you know upside down.

In Alt.History 101, thirteen top speculative fiction authors re-imagine the world - as one where the inventor of the smallpox vaccine died before he'd created it, as one where the women's suffragist movement failed to win the right to vote, as one where the death penalty exists but where all forms of capital punishment are ruled inhumane - and ten other compelling stories charting the histories of these worlds.

Enter worlds so much like our own, yet so different - where everything you know... is history.

Ultima by Stephen Baxter

Hailed as “one of the most inventive writers that science fiction has ever produced" (SF Site), Stephen Baxter builds on the massive success of Proxima with a career-defining novel of big ideas....

On the planet of Per Ardua, alien artifacts were discovered—hatches that allowed humans to step across light-years of space as if they were stepping into another room. But this newfound freedom has consequences....

As humanity discovers the real nature of the universe, a terrifying truth comes to light. We all have countless pasts converging in this present—and our future is terrifyingly finite. There are minds in the universe that are billions of years old and now we are vulnerable to their plans for us....

It’s time to fight back and take control.

To readers, authors and publishers...

Social media is amazing. Without it I never would've had a Twitter conversation with a representative of The Richard III Society of Canada, which inspired me to do some digging on Richard III, who some call the "last English king of England". Wikipedia tells us that he was King of England from 1483 until his death in 1485, at the age of 32, in the Battle of Bosworth Field. Hah! I'm only 30 years old and I have a successful alternate history blog. Take that you York bastard!