Five alternate histories featuring real natural disasters

Sam Reader is a writer and conventions editor for The Geek Initiative. He also writes literary criticism and reviews at strangelibrary.com. One of five alternate histories featuring actual natural disasters that he tagged at the B&N Sci-Fi & Fantasy Blog:

The San Francisco Earthquake, Breath of Earth by Beth Cato

Breath of Earth is another alt-history novel that takes place on the west coast and involves a city-leveling disaster. Cato’s San Francisco is under the influence of a partnership known as the Unified Pacific, a union between the United States and Japan that has set its sights on gaining a foothold in China. But when the geomancers who draw energy from San Francisco’s faultline are all assassinated, the city is thrown into chaos, raising the possibility of a massive earthquake could devastate the landscape. Its inclusion on this list makes what happens here pretty obvious, though Cato’s magic system, and the idea that the geomancers are the only ones keeping the roiling world in check, are more than enough to create an intriguing and well-realized world.

Read about another entry on the list.

The Page 69 Test: Breath of Earth.

--Marshal Zeringue