Historical Fiction Science History

Five historical short stories with a pinch of parody and conspiracy theory twists....

Former Chicago Detective Jordan Pierce put his life on hold in order to protect America's secret weapon against the Nazis - The Manhattan Project. But he can't protect himself against the disease eating away at his humanity. Jordan discovers how much of his soul this infection has devoured when he falls in love with the woman who could destroy America. Choosing her means choosing the monster he's becoming, making him the most powerful man he's ever known.

In 1866, a young Mark Twain went on his first international trip, crossing Central America through Nicaragua. His travelogues included a mysterious companion named Mr. Brown. But what Clemens didn't describe was Brown's satanic purpose in taking them on a journey back in time, meeting other travelers on the Rio San Juan, including Cornelius Vanderbilt, future Lord Nelson, pirate Henry Morgan, and Christopher Columbus. Will Sammy trade his soul for fame and fortune? Or will he rewrite history forever?

Bismarck 2013 is two novels in one, each story alternating between the two time periods, one being 1941 and Germany's attempt to control the North Atlantic shipping lanes when the infamous Bismarck is mysteriously sunk. History provides one answer to why and how the huge battlesthip was sent to her watery grave. At the same time, story number two is set in the future of 2013 when salvage operation divers go into the interior of the sunken destroyer named Bismarck.

Welcome to the war. The Tesla Institute is a premier academy that trains young time travelers called Rifters. Created by Nicola Tesla, the institute seeks special individuals who can help preserve the time stream against those who try to alter it. The Hollows is a rogue band of Rifters who tear through time with little care for the consequences. Armed with their own group of lost teens, their only desire is to find Tesla and put an end to his corruption of the time stream.

A wild land too mountainous to be tamed by plows…A Duke of the Holy Roman Empire, his cunning overshadowed only by his ambition…A young Priestess of the Old Religion, together with a charismatic outlaw, sparking a rebellion from deep within the forests…And an ex-Hospitaller caught between them all. At the end of the thirteenth century, five hundred orphans and second sons are rounded up from villages in the Alpine countryside and sold to the Hospitaller Knights of St John. Trained to serve as Soldiers of Christ, they fight in eastern lands they know nothing about, for a cause they do not understand.

In her second year of studies at Merlin College, Oxford, Sophie Marshall is feeling alienated among fellow students who fail to welcome a woman to their ranks. So when her husband, Gray, is invited north as a visiting lecturer at the University in Din Edin, they leap at the chance. There, Sophie's hunger for magical knowledge can finally be nourished. But soon Sophie must put her newly learned skills to the test.

Luciana Castellina, militante e parlamentare comunista, fra i quattordici e i diciotto anni ha tenuto un diario che racconta la sua iniziazione politica: dal giorno in cui, il 25 luglio 1943, a Riccione, la partita di tennis con la sua compagna di scuola Anna Maria Mussolini viene interrotta perché la figlia del Duce deve scappare (suo padre è stato appena arrestato a Roma), a quando si iscrive al PCI.

In the time of the Crusades, in a world at war, a prince of immortal lineage and a spirit of fire who was once an assassin prepare to celebrate a royal wedding. But he is Christian and she is Muslim, and there are those who hate them not only for their disparate faiths but for their power and magic.

A trolley car pulls into the station. Four minutes before, the inhabitants were seen boarding at the previous station. All are dead. And all of them are union. The year is 1919. The McNaughton Corporation is the pinnacle of American industry. They built airships that cross the seas. Guns that won the Great War. And above all, the city of Evesden. But something is rotten at the heart of Evesden. Caught between the union and the company, between the police and the victims, Hayes must find the truth behind the city before it kills him.

Brooklyn native Emily Barton has received many accolades for her fiction, including a grant from the NEA. Here she tells the story of Prudence Winship, a woman living in late 18th-century New York who has a vision of a great bridge spanning the East River. After inheriting a gin distillery from her father, Prue uses her resources to undertake one of America’s greatest public works projects. But many hardships threaten to curtail her efforts, and realizing her dream will not be an easy task.

Acclaimed historian Stephen Ambrose begins his examination with a glance inward - he starts this book with his brothers, his first and forever friends, and the shared experiences that join them for a lifetime, overcoming distance and misunderstandings.

Alternating between nineteenth-century Europe and present-day New England, this tale follows the great British painter J. M. W. Turner - and his scene of artists, intellectuals, and lovers - and Henry, a middle-aged family man whose otherwise mundane existence is disrupted by the discovery of The Center of the World, Turner’s controversial painting of Helen of Troy that had been thought lost forever.

Set against the turbulent backdrop of the Italian Renaissance this alternate history takes place in a world where real faith-based magic exists. Our hero is Damiano Dalstrego. He is a wizard's son, an alchemist and the heir to dark magics. Shattered by the demonic fury of his dark powers, Damiano Delstrego has forsaken his magical heritage to live as a mortal man.

A young Yale academic is summoned to Ireland to claim the contents of her grandfather's safe-deposit box, in which she finds only one thing: a nonfiction manuscript by James Bond author Ian Fleming. The manuscript, detailing Fleming's own involvement in British espionage during World War II, contains evidence that the Duke of Windsor was in a treasonous plot with Hitler, information so confidential that people are willing to kill to continue its secrecy.

Tea anyone? After decades of erosion of the U.S. Constitution, the United States is faced with a major constitutional crisis not seen since the Civil War. A president and his administration filled with scandals and plagued by economic woes surprisingly wins re-election to a second term largely based on an "October Surprise" and the promise of redistribution of the nation's wealth. The night he is re-elected, an assassination attempt throws America into chaos, resulting in riots, food shortages and violence across the country.

Sharpe's Escape takes place in the summer of 1810, once again in the Peninsular War. The French are mounting their third and most dangerous invasion of Portugal. Captain Richard Sharpe with his company of redcoats and riflemen meets the invaders on the gaunt ridge of Bussaco. But there, despite a stunning British victory, the French are not stopped and the army have to fall back.

In the winter of 1811, the war seems lost. All Spain has fallen to the French, except for Cadiz which is now the Spanish capital and is under siege. Wellington and his British army are in Portugal, waiting for spring to spark the war to life again. Richard Sharpe and his company are part of a small expeditionary force sent to break a bridge across the River Guadiana.

Brennus is destined from birth to become a warrior, despite his farmer's life. But when the Hillmen kill his family and annihilate his clan, he now has the opportunity to avenge those who he loved. Brennus must survive endless hordes of invaders and magic-wielding sidhe, aided by only a band of shifty mercenaries, and an ancient bronze sword.

Abigail makes her choice and marries the love of her life, leaving heartbreak behind and consequences that she must face in the future. Basking in the glow of her newfound life, a life so different from her time spent in the orphanage, it is unrecognizable to her as she tries to adjust to situations she has never encountered before.