Alternative History Tuesday: W*n CUTTLEFISH by Dave Freer

The quick commercial message (yeah, I know, they get old, but they help pay for this blog, after all!l): I have a Q-and-A up today over at the Booksniffers Anonymous website and am giving away (internationally) to one commenter a choice of signed print book, ebook (with book plate) or audiobook. They ran a review of Redemption on Sunday, and I'm back today answering questions. And you can find out if I, too, am a closet booksniffer! Stop by and say hello.

Also, imagine you're a vampire. Why would you want to join a communal living situation in the boondocks of East Alabama? You can find out at A Great Book is the Cheapest Vacation today, where I'm guest-blogging as part of the Redemption Virtual Tour. Stop by and check out the reasons...and enter again for the giveaways.

Now...I have a cool-looking book to feature today...CUTTLEFISH...and it's brand new. Even better. It's an alt history, which is a genre I'd like to read more of. It's written by Dave Freer, an ichthyologist by training, who lives in Tasmania. His background as a commercial diver, fisheries scientist, and a chef at a game lodge reads like fiction in itself, but he's written his own A Mankind Witch and Dragons Ring as well as coauthoring books with Eric Flint and Mercedes Lackey.

Want to check out Cuttlefish? Read on...

ABOUT CUTTLEFISH: The smallest thing can change the path of history. The year is 1976, and the British Empire still spans the globe. Coal drives the world, and the smog of it hangs thick over the canals of London. Clara Calland is on the run. Hunted, along with her scientist mother, by Menshevik spies and Imperial soldiers, they flee Ireland for London. They must escape airships, treachery, and capture. Under flooded London's canals, they join the rebels who live in the dank tunnels there. Tim Barnabas is one of the underpeople, born to the secret town of drowned London, place of anti-imperialist republicans and Irish rebels, part of the Liberty—the people who would see a return to older values and free elections. Seeing no farther than his next meal, Tim has hired on as a submariner on the Cuttlefish, a coal-fired submarine that runs smuggled cargoes beneath the steamship patrols, to the fortress America and beyond. When the Imperial soldiery comes ravening, Clara and her mother are forced to flee aboard the Cuttlefish. Hunted like beasts, the submarine and her crew must undertake a desperate voyage across the world, from the Faeroes to the Caribbean and finally across the Pacific to find safety. But only Clara and Tim Barnabas can steer them past treachery and disaster, to freedom in Westralia. Carried with them—a lost scientific secret that threatens the very heart of Imperial power.

So, ready to read some alt history? You know the drill--leave a comment for an entry. Have you read any alt history? If so, what was your favorite? I always enjoy the retellings of the Jack the Ripper story. I even read a YA book called Ripper not long ago. As always, extra entries for blog follow, Twitter follow @Suzanne_Johnson, and a Tweet or Retween, so four entries possible.