At the Queen's Command

September 27, 2010
Tacking magic onto a colonial New World called Mystria, bestseller Stackpole (I, Jedi) spins a sprawling tale of a French and Zombie War in which colonists, Norillian redcoats, and native warriors must work together to defeat a necromantic Jacobin from Tharyngia. Capt. Owen Strake of the Queen's Own Wurms is given the assignment to map out the frontier in anticipation of a continental war moving to the colonies. Assisting him are local scout Nathaniel Woods and his sworn brother, Kamiskwa, prince of the native Altashee. Escaping captivity and torture, Strake maneuvers amid political intrigues and arrogant military commanders to help the colonists shed their reputation for cowardice and stop the villainous Guy du Malphias and his undead soldiers. Stackpole captures the grandeur and danger of the New World, an effort undermined only by some frontier stereotypes.

October 15, 2010

Captain Owen Strake, a Redcoat of the Queen's Own Wurms, travels aboard ship to the Crown Colonies of Mystria. Strake is on a royal mission to explore and collect information on the New World as well as on the colonies of the rival nation of Tharyngia. As turmoil in Aurope is echoed in the colonies of Norisle and Tharyngia, Strake and Prince Vladimir, the Colonial Governor-General, become enmeshed in the politics and rivalries of colonial life. The prolific Stackpole ("Age of Discovery" trilogy; "Dragon Crown War Cycle" series) launches a new series that reimagines the events leading up to the American Revolutionary War. Like Harry Turtledove's "World at War" series, which presents an alternate version of World War II, Stackpole creates a fantasy version of 18th-century Europe and the New World, peopled with realistic characters and filled with action and intrigue. VERDICT In addition to the author's fans, readers of alternate history and the novels of Harry Turtledove should enjoy this well-researched series opener.

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