Author: Felix

Germans Invade USA (in 1901)

I started reading Robert Conroy’s interesting alternative history novel…

After showing you the screenshot from Star Trek Enterprise with the Germans in charge of the Whitehouse in World War Two, today I can recommend reading Robert Conroy’s interesting alternative history novel, 1901.

In 1901, as the imperial German navy invades the United States in order to force America to surrender its newly acquired territories, President McKinley suffers a fatal heart attack and Theodore Roosevelt, the new commander in chief, rallies the disorganized American forces to defend their homeland.

Though I have only read around a hundred pages it is quite a good read.

It certainly lacks the charm of a Turtledove alternative history novel and some of the characterisation and dialogue seems very late 20th century (rather than every early 20th); it certainly is worth a look if you have an interest in alternative history

You can order it from amazon.co.uk.

Germans Invade USA

Germans Invade USA in alternate history episode of Enterprise…

Season four of Enterprise (Star Trek) will start in October in the USA. As season three has not been shown on terrestial television in the UK (or if it has I certainly missed it) I don’t know when we will see this in the UK.

However for fans of alternative history, the opening double episode certainly looks interesting.

With the Germans invading mainland USA in World War Two, Captain Archer and Enterprise thrown back in time, the timline has been contaiminated…

The trailer shows P51 Mustangs attacking an Enterprise shuttle and a Jagdtiger outside the Whitehouse.

Ork Gargant Weapon

Ork Gargant Weapon, actually a brown coal mining machine…

I use to often look at my Epic ork miniatures and wonder if they could exist for real or was real-world physics going to get in the way of the fantasy of the game.

Then I saw this on the web…

It is a brown coal mining machine, but the resemblance to the buzzsaw of an Ork Gargant (or even Imperial Titan) is rather striking.

it just shows that one day there could be huge fighting machines…

Homeward Bound

I was trying out the Firefox browser when I noticed that it had a search box which could not only be configured to search Google but also Amazon.

I did a search of Amazon to see if the follow-up to Settling Accounts was available to pre-order.

I was thus pleasantly surprised to see that Homeward Bound was going to be published in December, which I am guessing from the cover is a sequel to the WorldWar in the Balance and Colonisation series.

I really enjoyed the WorldWar series and combined with Guns of the South made me a real Turtledove fan.

Homeward Bound – Amazon.co.uk

Car Wars 2004

When I was younger I use to play a lot of Car Wars and even had an article published in Autoduel Quarterly, the magazine for Car Wars. One feature of the mag I liked was the historical references to “current” day events.

I was looking for something else on the web when I came across this, the SmarTruck III.

Now the blurb from the website says:

SmarTruck III is built on an International medium duty truck platform and features the most advanced communications, detection and deterrent systems to be deployed in a vehicle-based mobile unit. The next three commercial variants of SmarTruck III will be delivered to the Air Force; other potential end users are the Border Patrol and the U.S. Marshals Service.

SmarTruck III, like its two predecessors, is loaded with sophisticated technology including a weapons station module – featuring a remote controlled 50-calibre machine gun – a surveillance module with a 360-degree camera, a pan and tilt night vision camera with laser range finder, a hydraulic assist system to help the vehicle during acceleration, a regenerative braking system, which stores energy and makes the vehicle more fuel efficient and a terrain adjustable suspension and chassis system. The vehicle has sufficient gross vehicle weight (GVW) to accommodate armor and additional weapons or control modules while still providing excellent performance and fuel efficiency.

(my emphasis)

Now if that is not straight out of Car Wars I don’t know what is?