Book Review: Nemo Rising by C. Courtney Joyner

It’s a long time since I read 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea by Jules Verne, so I don’t remember a great deal about it. Admittedly, it’s even longer than that since Jules Verne wrote it in 1870. Nemo Rising features the return of Captain Nemo and the Nautilus, as well as more sea creatures, marvellously advanced technology and dodgy seamen.

Read the rest of my review at SF Crowsnest.

Book Review: The Smoke by Simon Ings

Simon Ings brings us an alternative Earth in his latest book The Smoke, where history has diverged at some point from what we know to produce something far more bizarre than usually encountered in alternative histories.

Read the rest of my review at SF Crowsnest.

Book Review: The Time Roads by Beth Bernobich

The Irish Empire takes the place of the traditional British Empire in The Time Roads, an alternative history/steampunk tale from Beth Bernobich, set at the turn of the 20th century when European geography and politics are almost familiar yet convincingly different.

Read the rest of my review at SF Crowsnest.

Magazine Review: AltHist #2

The second issue of AltHist magazine builds on the solid basis of the first issue, bringing a collection of historical fiction and alternate histories from a broad cross-section of history.

Read the rest of my review at SF Crowsnest.

Magazine Review: AltHist #1

It’s always a pleasure to see a new UK-based genre magazine being launched. AltHist is, as the name suggests, a magazine specialising in alternate history and historical fiction. There are very few markets that deal specifically with this subgenre, so it will be interesting to see how the magazine fares: are there enough people writing this kind of story and are there enough people reading it? I would think the answer to both is yes.

Read the rest of my review at SF Crowsnest.

New British Genre Mag

I came across a new UK based genre magazine this week: Alt Hist. From their mission statement:

Alt Hist’s mission is to provide readers with entertaining and well-written short stories with a historical setting, whether portraying actual events or events that could have happened.

They plan to produce electronic and POD copies a and will pay royalties to authors. Looks like an interesting model they're attempting to work with. No confirmation of a date for the first issue yet, but they're open to submissions.

Book Review: Mammoths of the Great Plains by Eleanor Arnason

Mammoths Of The Great Plains consists of three parts: the title story, plus the transcript of a speech entitled ‘Writing Science Fiction During World War III’ that was first given at a convention in the US, and a lengthy interview with author Eleanor Arnason.

Read the rest of my review at SF Crowsnest.