Alternate History Fiction

I am the mechanical they named Jax.My kind was built to serve humankind, duty-bound to fulfill their every whim. But now our bonds are breaking, and my brothers and sisters are awakening. Our time has come. A new age is dawning. Set in a world that might have been, of mechanical men and alchemical dreams, this is the third and final novel in a stunning series of revolution by Ian Tregillis, confirming his place as one of the most original new voices in speculative fiction.

Master storyteller Walter Wangerin Jr. sweeps you into the life and times of the man who brought Christianity to the world. Here is Paul the person, viewed through the eyes of his contemporaries.

Nurse Mercy Lynch is elbows deep in bloody laundry at a war hospital in Richmond, Virginia, when Clara Barton comes bearing bad news: Mercy's husband has died in a POW camp. On top of that, a telegram from the west coast declares that her estranged father is gravely injured, and he wishes to see her. Mercy sets out toward the Mississippi River. Once there, she'll catch a train over the Rockies and—if the telegram can be believed—be greeted in Washington Territory by the sheriff, who will take her to see her father in Seattle.

Next to the colonial town of Essenwald sits the Vorrh, a vast - perhaps endless - forest. It is a place of demons and angels, of warriors and priests. Sentient and magical, the Vorrh bends time and wipes memory. Legend has it that the Garden of Eden still exists at its heart. Now a renegade English soldier aims to be the first human to traverse its expanse. Armed with only a strange bow, he begins his journey, but some fear the consequences of his mission, and a native marksman has been chosen to stop him.

The year is 1992. Over twenty years have passed since Soviet General Secretary Leonid Brezhnev was assassinated by a crazed gunman. Since that time, the Soviet Union has been put on a course toward economic success—and war. In the Balkans, Yugoslavia's collapse into ethnic violence draws NATO and the Warsaw Pact to the brink of Armageddon. Armies deploy and fleets maneuver. Political intrigue engulfs Moscow and Washington, and paranoia radiates from the Iron Curtain. In the zero-sum game of Cold War, neither side can afford to blink or back down.

Hurtling past the downtrodden communities of Depression-era America, painter Val Welch travels westward to the rural town of Dawes, Wyoming. Through a stroke of luck, he’s landed a New Deal assignment to create a mural representing the region for their new Post Office.

It is the present day, and the world is as we know it: smartphones, social networking, and Happy Meals. Save for one thing: The Civil War never occurred. A gifted young black man calling himself Victor has struck a bargain with federal law enforcement, working as a bounty hunter for the US Marshal Service. He's got plenty of work. In this version of America, slavery continues in four states called "the Hard Four". On the trail of a runaway known as Jackdaw, Victor arrives in Indianapolis knowing that something isn't right—with the case file, with his work, and with the country itself.

A jaded thief and an idealistic archaeologist form an unlikely partnership to solve an ancient mystery. Opposed at every turn by unknown forces, their journey takes them across 1880s Egypt in search of a lost temple to the other side of the universe, where magic is all too real. Being a foreigner's bastard, Louisa learned early to take from the world before it took from her. Like a whisper in the sands of time, a stolen letter hints at the unimaginable.

After Jack the Ripper terrorized London in 1888, he would spark a mystery when he disappeared, his string of violent and horrific murders ending as quickly as they began. Now, in 1907, biographer Charles Hapgood is about to be visited a man who astonishingly claims that he was the famous Ripper and that he wishes to tell his tale before his coming death. Skeptical at first, Hapgood agrees to hear his story, only to soon be shown indisputable proof that his visitor speaks the truth.

Velma Frye is many things. A pilot, a former bootlegger, a well-seasoned traveler, a jazz pianist…and a wielder of celestial magic. She’s also a member of the mystical Rhodes family as well as an investigator for arcane oddities for a magic rights organization, dealing with both simple and complicated cases. And when a pocket watch instigates a magical brawl after one of her flight shows, things become very complicated.

When monster-hunter Malcolm MacFarlane comes across the gruesome aftermath of a ritual murder in a London church, he enlists the help of magician-scribe Simon Archer and alchemist extraordinaire Kate Anstruther. Studying the macabre scene, they struggle to understand obscure clues in the ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics carved into the victim’s heart—as well as bizarre mystical allusions to the romantic poetry of William Blake. One thing is clear: Some very potent black magic is at work.

In the tenth year of the Change, the survivors in western Oregon live in a world without technology. Michael Havel’s Bearkillers hold the lands west of Salem in peace and order. To the east, the Clan Mackenzie flourishes under the leadership of Juniper Mackenzie, bard and High Priestess. Together, they have held Norman Arminger - the warlord of Portland - at bay. With his dark fantasies of a neofeudal empire, Arminger rules much of the Pacific Northwest, spreading fear with his knights, castles, and holy inquisition.

Was wäre, wenn die Achsenmächte den Zweiten Weltkrieg gewonnen hätten? Und sich Hitler mit Japan die USA geteilt hätte? Die Grenze durch die Rocky Mountains verliefe, wo es neutrale Pufferstaaten gäbe? Und dort ein "Orakel vom Berge"? Vor dieser Unwirklichkeit flüchten die Menschen in ein Buch über die "Heuschrecken", in der die Welt so dargestellt wird, wie sie eher unserer Wirklichkeit gleicht - aber nur fast, oder ist es wirklich ganz anders herum?

In 1946 the United States Navy conducted Operation Highjump, an expedition to evaluate the effect of extreme Antarctic cold on US equipment. However, their true purpose remains shrouded in mystery. Were the reports of Nazi activity on the Southern Continent accurate? After engaging unknown forces in aerial combat, weather forced the Navy to abandon operations. Undeterred, the US returned every Antarctic summer until escalating tensions in Southeast Asia forced the government to secretly detonate three nuclear warheads.

King Raven has brought hope to the oppressed people of Wales - and fear to their Norman overlords. Deceived by the self-serving King William and hunted by the treacherous Abbot Hugo and Sheriff de Glanville, Rhi Bran is forced again to take matters into his own hands as King Raven. Along the way Friar Tuck has been the stalwart supporter of the man behind the legend - bringing Rhi Bran much-needed guidance, wit, and faithful companionship. Aided by Tuck and his small but determined band of forest-dwelling outlaws, Rhi Bran ignites a rebellion that spreads through the Welsh valleys.

Tensions between the Bearkillers, the Mackenzies and Mount Angel alliance, and Norman Arminger’s Portland Protectorate Association have finally come to a head, as the Protector’s armies invade the Western Territories. Mike Havel faces down the deadly Lord Alexi Stavarov and his combined forces at the now ruined city of Salem. Meanwhile, Lady Juniper and the Clan Mackenzie take to the hills with a guerrilla style campaign against the Marchwarden Conrad Renfrew.

Consumption has ravaged Louise Pinecroft's family, leaving her and her father alone and heartbroken. But Dr. Pinecroft has plans for a revolutionary experiment: convinced that sea air will prove to be the cure his wife and children needed, he arranges to house a group of prisoners suffering from the disease in the caves beneath his new Cornish home. While he devotes himself to his controversial medical trials, Louise finds herself increasingly discomfited by the strange tales her new maid tells of the fairies that hunt the land, searching for those they can steal away to their realm.

In 1919, far-flung patriots establish the Korean Provisional Government to protest the Japanese occupation of their country. This government-in-exile proves mostly symbolic, though, and after Japan’s defeat in World War II, the KPG dissolves and civil war erupts, resulting in the tragic North-South split that remains today.

A soaring work of the imagination based on oral histories of the post - Civil War years in North Texas, Paulette Jiles's The Color of Lightning is at once an intimate look into the hearts and hopes of tragically flawed human beings and a courageous reexamination of a dark American history.

When a witch in her best friend's coven is murdered, Ella must set aside her own battles to take down a supernatural assassin. She'll only have one chance because her best friend Deb is next on the hit list. But Ella didn't count on the dark and powerful magic that brought the assassin to life - or the man behind the assassin. It's a nightmare beast sent by none other than tycoon Jacob Gregori, and he aims to kill Deb and every last witch in Lynnette Leblanc's coven.