Showing posts with label Alternate History. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Alternate History. Show all posts

The Sterling Directive by Tim Standish
Spotlight

Publication Date: 20 August 2020
Publisher: Unbound
Page Length: 304 pages
Genre: Alt-historical thriller

Synopsis

It is 1896. In an alternative history where Babbage’s difference engines have become commonplace, Captain Charles Maddox, wrongly convicted of a murder and newly arrested for treason, is rescued from execution by a covert agency called the Map Room. 

Maddox is given the choice of taking his chances with the authorities or joining the Map Room as an agent and helping them uncover

BOOK REVIEW: Annelies: A Novel of Anne Frank by David Gillham

Synopsis

Anne Frank's extraordinary diaries have captivated millions of people around the world. But what might have happened if she had survived the war?

It is 1945, and Anne Frank is sixteen years old. Having survived the concentration camps but lost her mother and sister, she reunites with her father, Pim, in newly liberated Amsterdam. But Anne is adrift, haunted by the ghost of her sister, Margot, and the atrocities they experienced. Her beloved diary is gone, and her dreams of becoming a writer seem distant and pointless now.

As Anne struggles to build a new life for herself, she

BOOK REVIEW/BLOG TOUR: The Catherine Howard Conspiracy by Alexandra Walsh

Publication date: 28th March, 2019
Sapere Books
Format:ebook, 464 pages

Synopsis

What secrets were covered up at the court of Henry VIII …?

Whitehall Palace, England, 1539.
When Catherine Howard arrives at the court of King Henry VIII to be a maid of honour in the household of the new queen, Anne of Cleves, she has no idea of the fate that awaits her.

Book Review: Remember, Remember the 6th of November by Tony Morgan

Tony Morgan's debut novel retells the events that took place 412 years ago, at the beginning of November 1605, when English Catholics, Robert Catesby, Guy Fawkes and their co-conspirators planned to blow up England's Houses of Parliament along with the King, James I, who was also James VI of Scotland.

History records that their plans were thwarted and James I reigned for another 20 years, but what if there had been a different outcome?

I don't read novels with alternate endings to what actually happened in history, but I was intrigued by the title of this one. Why remember the 6th of

Magical England! Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke

I'm not a reader of alternate histories, but I may be tempted one day. Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, Susanna Clarke's debut novel, is set in a "magical England" during the Napoleonic Wars and focuses on the relationship between two magicians, Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell. It was first published in 2004, and is gaining in popularity again as it is the subject of a BBC One series screening in the U.K. this month and in the U.S.A. in June. Not sure if it will come to Australian television, but one never knows.  

The year is 1806. England is beleaguered by the long war with Napoleon, and centuries have passed since practical magicians faded into the nation's past. But scholars of this glorious history discover that one remains: the reclusive Mr Norrell whose displays of magic send a thrill through the country. Proceeding to London, he raises a beautiful woman from the dead and summons an army of ghostly ships to terrify the French. Yet the cautious, fussy Norrell is challenged by the emergence of another magician: the brilliant novice Jonathan Strange. Young, handsome and daring, Strange is the very opposite of Norrell. So begins a dangerous battle between these two great men which overwhelms the one between England and France. And their own obsessions and secret dabblings with the dark arts are going to cause more trouble than they can imagine.

Always interested in novels set in one of my favourite historical periods, the Napoleonic Wars, I'm curious how the historical and fantasy elements work together. This is not a novel for the faint-hearted. The copy I added to my reading pile weighs in at approximately 700 grams and is a lengthy 1,006 pages. This will definitely be a challenging read should I step out of my usual genre ....  or I could wait for the series release on DVD!