Never Was in 2021

Happy New Year from the team at Never Was! We look forward to bringing you more to read in 2022.

But first, a look back. We published 154 stories in 2021.

Dieselpunk author Sarah Zama kindly allowed us to republish her A-to-Z history of Weimar Germany. Dale Cozort gave us permission to republish several of his alternate-history scenarios: “What if Turkey had entered World War II?” “What if Germany had returned to war in 1919?” and “What if Hitler had gone for Moscow?“

We continued our partnership with Sea Lion Press, the world’s first publishing house devoted exclusively to alternate history. We republished stories and reviews by Ryan Fleming, Matthew Kresal and Adam Selby-Martin from their blog, and they republished several of ours. Kresal won the Sidewise Award for Best Short Form Alternate History this year for “Moonshot,” published in the Sea Lion Press anthology Alternate Australias.

Alexander Wallace joined our team in late-2020, but became our top contributor in 2021, reviewing 46 books and movies, including Lyssa Medana’s impressive debut novel Out of the London Mist, Arturo Serrano’s sprawling To Climates Unknown, C.J. Sansom’s Dominion and the successful horror-war movie Overlord.

Alex helps run the Alternate History Online group on Facebook and the Alternate Timelines forum on Proboards. He is also a regular contributor to the Sea Lion Press blog, a member of the Washington Science Fiction Association and writes for its Review.

Never Was veteran Hilde Heyvaert explored the steam- and dieselpunk of the world of Harry Potter and reviewed the wonderful new Disney dieselpunk adventure Jungle Cruise. Also follow Hilde’s blog and check out the Wizarding World fanzine she edits, The Quibbler Cat.

My own biggest stories of the year were “What if France had started World War II?” which isn’t so easy to make credible; “Remaking the World,” a history of proposals and attempts to reorder the globe; and “Lost Empire of Tartaria,” a richly illustrated description of an architectural conspiracy theory.

To never miss a story, follow us on Tumblr or Twitter or subscribe to our RSS feed. Also check out our message-board community, the Never Was Lounge, and discuss alternate history and science fiction with fellow readers.

See you back in 2021!