Alternate History Fiction

Joe Tournier has a bad case of amnesia. His first memory is of stepping off a train in the 19th-century French colony of England. The only clue Joe has about his identity is a century-old postcard of a Scottish lighthouse that arrives in London the same month he does. Written in illegal English - instead of French - the postcard is signed only with the letter 'M', but Joe is certain whoever wrote it knows him far better than he currently knows himself and he’s determined to find the writer.

In the Shadow of the Towers compiles nearly 20 works of speculative fiction responding to and inspired by the events of 9/11, from writers seeking to confront, rebuild, and carry on, even in the face of overwhelming emotion.

In 1954, the Swedish government ordered the construction of the world’s largest particle accelerator. The facility was complete in 1969, located deep below the pastoral countryside of Mälaröarna. The local population called this marvel of technology The Loop. These are its strange tales.

On July 6, 1963, human history was forever altered. From the depths of space, a golden wave of light bathed everyone on Earth in rays that rendered them unconscious. Six days later, five billion people awakened with superpowers. For thirty-seven years now, superhumanity has managed to keep the peace. With some exceptions....

The assassinated Shah Jahan lies entombed beside his beloved wife in the Taj Mahal, while their progeny drag the Mughal Empire into a three-sided struggle over the succession to the Peacock Throne. The diplomatic and trade mission from the United States of Europe is openly siding with Princess Jahanara and her brother Dara Shikoh. The mission, made up largely of Americans transplanted in time by the Ring of Fire, is providing the siblings with technical assistance as they prepare to fight their rivals for the throne, Aurangzeb and Shah Shuja.

The spirit of Prince John, the brother of Crown Princess Orlaith, has fallen captive to the power of the Yelolow Raja and his servant, the Pallid Mask. Prince John's motley band of friends and followers, led by Captain Pip of Townsville and Deor Godulfson, the bard and master of magic, must lead a quest through realms of shadow and dream to rescue Prince John from a threat far worse than death. Meanwhile, Reiko and Orlaith muster their kingdoms for war, making common cause with the reborn Kingdom of Hawaii.

It's 1974, and Jerry Stieglitz is a grad student in marine biology at UCLA with a side gig selling short stories to science fiction magazines, just weeks away from marrying his longtime fiancée. Then his life is upended by grim-faced men from three-letter agencies who want him to join a top-secret "Project Azorian" in the middle of the north Pacific Ocean—and they really don't take "no" for an answer. Further, they're offering enough money to solve all of his immediate problems.

Almost five years ago, America—as everyone knew it—came to an abrupt end in a spectacular coup d'état. It was called the Liberation by those progressives and radicals that screamed for its outcome; the Fall by its victims whose freedoms were trampled. The White House and the Capitol were overrun by anarchists, and the leaders of the once-proud nation were either imprisoned or sent to social quarantine camps. The president was arrested and eventually died in prison, or so everyone was led to believe. America was rebooted in a new progressive/socialist image, Newmerica.

In Reconstruction-era America, vampire Henry Sturges is searching for renewed purpose in the wake of his friend Abraham Lincoln's shocking death. It will be an expansive journey that will first send him to England for an unexpected encounter with Jack the Ripper, then to New York City for the birth of a new American century, the dawn of the electric era of Tesla and Edison, and the blazing disaster of the 1937 Hindenburg crash.

Up-timer Morris Roth and his Grand Army of the Sunrise stand at a crossroads. Military success against the Polish-Lithuanian magnates has all but guaranteed a continued push east into Ruthenian lands. There, Roth hopes to further his Anaconda Project so that tens of thousands of Jews are not slaughtered in what’s to become known as the Chmielnicki Pogrom of 1648.

Adolf Hitler is dead. Great Britain lies prostrate, subdued under a storm of poison gas and incendiaries that have turned the great city of London into a blazing abattoir. For RAF Squadron Leader Adam Haynes, London’s destruction is the nightmare outcome of years spent fighting the specter of Fascism. Getting out of England one step ahead of the Nazis, Adam embarks on a continent-spanning odyssey that will put him at odds with his former employers, his family, and all three of the Axis powers.

In 1962 the Cuban Missile Crisis brought the United States and the Soviet Union to the brink of the nuclear war. The crisis was averted, but what would have happened if war had broken out? In Resurrection Day, award-winning author Brendan DuBois brings this horrific concept to life.

In an alternate Renaissance Italy where the church regulates magic and licenses magicians, fiery Fiametta Beneforte wants to be more than her goldsmith-mage father's unpaid apprentice. But when the Duchy of Montefoglia is laid under military and magical siege, she unexpectedly must join with Thur Ochs, a young Swiss miner and foundryman, to tap their skills in both metalwork and necromancy to rescue her father's soul and combat an evil sorcerer.

Endlich! Das neue große Werk von Bestseller-Autor Anthony Doerr (Alles Licht, das wir nicht sehen). Kinder, die an der Schwelle zum Erwachsenwerden stehen und sich in einer zerbrechenden Welt zurechtfinden müssen: Da sind Anna und Omeir während der Belagerung und Eroberung von Konstantinopel 1453. Seymour verübt aus fehlgeleitetem Idealismus einen Anschlag auf eine Bibliothek im heutigen Idaho. Und noch Konstance, die sich im Raumschiff "Argos" in der Zukunft auf dem Weg zu einem Exoplaneten befindet.

When Robert Catesby, the charismatic son of a Catholic gentleman, marries heiress Catherine Leigh and inherits the rich Oxfordshire manor house at Aston from his grandmother, it seems that the future happiness of the couple must be assured. However, Robert’s deep involvement in plots to overthrow the Protestant queen Elizabeth I and his increasingly dangerous behavior threaten the lives of his wife and their young son.

Private Franklin Grillo is a fresh-faced infantryman in the 101st Airborne. He's been dispatched to the Ardennes Forest outside of Bastogne to assist Baker Company against a surprise attack by the Germans. Outgunned, low on ammo, food, and supplies, the men along the new front are up against an army 10 times their size.

The original Immortals, masters of magic, once reigned over every world in the known universe - until they suddenly vanished. The gods and demons have been fighting over the remains of their fractured empire ever since. Millennia later, new angel Leda, a soldier in the gods' army, is recuperating from her transformation. Her recovery is cut short, however, when a curse strikes New York City, a spell targeted directly at the Legion of Angels. Even as the Legion's soldiers succumb to wrath, jealousy, and fear, the beasts on the plains of monsters are growing in numbers and power.

When George’s father died, he left his son a watchmaker’s shop - and a whole lot more. But George has little talent for watches and other infernal devices. When someone tries to steal an old device from the premises, George finds himself embroiled in a mystery of time travel, wild music, and sexual intrigue.

Under the shadow of an illustrious father, Sambhaji finds himself thrust into the Maratha-Mughal conflict from a tender age. His mistakes cost him dearly, and when his father suddenly dies and he becomes the chhatrapati, it is as if he has inherited a crown of thorns. In the nine years that follow, he faces a constant battle - internally, as palace intrigues simmer to kill him, and externally, as Aurangzeb descends on the Deccan with full military force. Even Chhatrapati Shivaji had never faced a full-blown Mughal aggression.

In 1938, two men held history in their hands. One was Adolf Hitler. The other was British prime minister Neville Chamberlain, who, determined to avoid war at any cost, came to be known as "the great appeaser". But Harry Turtledove, the unrivaled master of alternate history, has launched a gripping saga that springboards from a different fateful act: What if Chamberlain had stood up to Hitler? How would the war have unfolded and changed our world?