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I discovered Harry Turtledove through the Science Fiction Book Club. They kept featuring him in their mailings, and, being a fan of alternate histories, I decided to give him a try. Turned out to be a good decision.
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| In a universe in which Constantinople never fell, the Byzantine Empire has flourished by developing technology and spreading its influence but finds itself at the mercy of its jealous enemies. (book description) |
.jpg) | Explore fascinating, often chilling "what if" accounts of the world that could have
existed–and still might yet . . .
Science fiction’s most illustrious and visionary authors hold forth the ultimate alternate history collection. Here you’ll experience mind-bending tales that challenge your views of the past, present, and future, including:
The definitive collection: fourteen seminal alternate history tales drawing readers into a universe of dramatic possibility and endless wonder. (book description) |
.jpg) | Explosive and provocative battles fought across the boundaries of time and
space--and on the frontiers of the human mind.
Science fiction's finest have yielded this definitive collection featuring stories of warfare, victory, conquest, heroism, and overwhelming odds. These are scenarios few have ever dared to contemplate, and they include:
Guaranteed to spark the imagination and thrill the soul, these thirteen science fiction gems cast a stark light on our dreams and our darkest fears--truly among the finest tales of the 20th century. (book description) |
.jpg) | At the sun-drenched dawn of human history, in the great plain between the two great
rivers, are the cities of men. And each city is ruled by its god.
But the god of the city of Gibil is lazy and has let the men of his city develop the habit of thinking for themselves. Now the men of Gibil have begun to devise arithmetic, and commerce, and are sending expeditions to trade with other lands. They're starting to think that perhaps men needn't always be subject to the whims of gods. This has the other god worried. And well they might be...because human cleverness, once awakened, isn't likely to be easily squelched. (book description) |
.jpg) | David Fisher, an ordinary EPA (Environmental Perfection Agency) bureaucrat, is suddenly forced into the unfamiliar role of hero when he investigates a Toxic Spell Dump and finds an ancient deity determined to topple civilization. (book description) |
.jpg) | A new Conan adventure--from one of today's most popular writers of fantasy and SF!
For decades, millions of readers have thrilled to the adventures of Conan, the barbarian adventurer invented by Robert E. Howard and further chronicled by other fantasy greats, including such notables as L. Sprague de Camp, Poul Anderson, and Robert Jordan. Now Harry Turtledove, one of today's most popular writers of fantasy and SF, contributes a novel to the Conan saga--a tale of Conan in his youth, in the year or so before he becomes the wandering adventurer we know from the tales of Howard and others. On the verge of adulthood, he lives in a Cimmerian hamlet, caring for his ailing mother, working in his father's smithy, and casting his eye on the weaver's daughter next door. Then war comes: an invasion by the Aquilonian Empire. Conan burns to join the fight, but he's deemed too young. Then, from the border country, comes an unbelievable report: The Aquilonians have smashed the Cimmerian defending forces, and can rule as they please. Soon their heavily garrisoned forts dot the countryside. Their settlers follow after, carving homesteads out of other men's land. Every Cimmerian longs to drive the intruders out with fire and sword, but they must stay their hands, for the Aquilonians have promised savage reprisals. Then, intolerably, the Aquilonian commander takes a wholly dishonorable interest in the weaver's daughter -- and he's not a man to wait, or even ask permission. It's not a recipe for a peaceable outcome. (book description) |
.jpg) | From the undisputed master of Alternate History comes a stunningly original
collection of twenty provocative stories springing from the imaginative reinvention of history. Traveling down ancient
roads and into far-off futures, Harry Turtledove poses the what ifs of history and arrives at some remarkably thrilling
conclusions . . .
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.jpg) | Arriving at an alternate American new world, its discovers encounter a primitive ape-men species, who, unlike the Indians, cannot conceptualize at the human level but can be trained to work and perform slave labor. (book description) |
.jpg) | LAWYER IN A STRANGE LAND
In the real world, the Mediterranean basin dried up several times, only to refill again. If it hadn't, what's really sea bottom would have become the most savage desert in the world. Mild-mannered Radnal ves Krobir likes it that way. When his kingdom's enemies try to shake down the Barrier Mountains and let the Atlantic in, he has to stop them--or else drown along with everything he holds dear. (book description) |
.jpg) | Jennifer Logan was young, gorgeous, and utterly devoted to teaching Middle English.
But to qualify for any decent teaching position, she'd have to make her resume stand out. Since her specialty was science
fiction, she wrangled a berth on a trading ship bound for the stars. Just one trip, she figured, then back to a nice,
safe classroom. . .
But Jennifer hadn't fully appreciated her own talent. She had a keen eye, a fresh perspective -- and all of science fiction to fall back on when the going got tough! (book description) |
.jpg) | The Bronze Age. The era of Troy, of Gilgamesh, of the dawning of human mastery over
the earth. For decades, fantasists have set tales of heroism and adventure in imagined worlds based on the real Bronze
Age, from the "Hyborean Age" of the Conan stories to the Third Age of Middle-earth.
Now bestselling SF and fantasy author Harry Turtledove, a noted expert on the ancient world, teams up with author and Egyptologist Noreen Doyle to present fourteen new tales of the real Bronze Age from some of the best writers in SF. Here is Gene Wolfe's mock-journal of a man from the future who travels with figures out of history and mythology; Judith Tarr's tale of a a town that sends its resident goddess to try to learn the secrets of the morose God of Chariots; Harry Turtledove's story about mythological beings witnessing the devastating effect of the first humans on the Earth's natural order; and a poignant new story from the late Poul Anderson, in which a modern scholar is sent to the late Bronze Age to witness the end of an era, emerging with memories from the past as vibrant and intact as those from his accustomed life. (book description) |
.jpg) | Pultizer Prize-winning BATTLE CRY OF FREEDOM
January 1864--General Robert E. Lee faces defeat. The Army of Northern Virginia is ragged and ill-equpped. Gettysburg has broken the back of the Confederacy and decimated its manpower. Then, Andries Rhoodie, a strange man with an unplaceable accent, approaches Lee with an extraordinary offer. Rhoodie demonstrates an amazing rifle: Its rate of fire is incredible, its lethal efficiency breathtaking--and Rhoodie guarantees unlimited quantitites to the Confederates. The name of the weapon is the AK-47.... (book description) |
.jpg) | Nicole Gunther-Perrin is a modern young professional, proud of her legal skills but
weary of the daily grind, of childcare, and of sexist coworkers and her deadbeat ex-husband. Then after one exceptionally
awful day, she awakens to find herself in a different life, that of a widowed tavernkeeper on the Roman frontier around
A.D. 170.
Delighted at first, she quickly begins to realize that her new world is as complicated as her old one. Violence, dirt, and pain are everywhere; slavery is commonplace, gladiators kill for sport, and drunkenness is taken for granted. Yet, somehow, people manage to face life everyday with humor and goodwill. No quitter, Nicole manages to adapt, despite endless worry about the fate of her children "back" in the twentieth century. Then plague sweeps through Carnuntum, followed by brutal war. Amidst pain and loss on a level she had never imagined, Nicole must find reserved of the sort of strength she had never known. (book description) |
.jpg) | In the twenty-first century, Germany's Third Reich continues to thrive after its
victory in World War II-keeping most of Europe and North America under its heel.
But within the heart of the Nazi regime, a secret lives. Under a perfect Aryan facade, Jews survive-living their lives, raising their families, and trying to avoid discovery. (book description) |
.jpg) | Born to the throne of Byzantium--the New Rome--Justinian II was determined to bow to
no man. Headstrong and stubborn, he fought with the very nobles on whome his reign depended. And so he was overthrown,
mutilated, and exiled to beyond the Black Sea.
But not forever. In this gripping novel by one of history's great desperados, H. N. Turteltaub puts us in the middle of the dust, the color, the savory smells and roaring crowds, and most of all, the blood and violence of Byzantium at its clangorous, glorious height. (book description) |
.jpg) | When I read this I kind of got a Foundation meets Star Trek TNG feel, although let it be known that this book was written a couple of years before the beginning of TNG. There's lots of politics, except you never really get to see the effects of interferance on Bilbeis 4. That's why the end is the most interesting. I don't know if Turtledove was trying, ut he has made the best case against noninterference that I have ever seen. Bilbeis 4 was advancing very quickly because of their progressive queen and was probably soon to join man among the stars. I mean how would you like it if you finally got to the stars and all the good planets were already taken? The best thing to do would be to help primitive planets. (an Amazon.com customer review by a reader from New Orleans) |
.jpg) | In this alternate England during the Elizabethan era, William Shakespeare must write a play that will incite the citizens to rise against the Spanish Monarchy that rules them... (book description) |
.jpg) | SEIGE THE MOMENT
George was a shoemaker--but not just a simple artisan. He thought a lot, worried too much, and questioned everything. But he knew when to keep his mouth shut, and he knew his duty. Life in the Roman Empire was hard these days, and no one could say it might not get harder. Cities to the north of Thessalonica on the Greek peninsula had already fallen to the swarming Slavs and Alars. The tribes were definitely on the move, bringing their powerful pagan demons with them: bats with gleaming red eyes spied out the city, diving on the militia men as they patrolled the city walls; giant wolves whose howls chilled the soul surrounded the city; and there were rumors of worse. even the satyrs, centaurs, nymphs and other remnants of the Greek pantheon lurking in the mountains around Thessalonica were frightened. George's city was a Christian light in a sea of pagan darkness. And now that sea was rising, threatening to wash over him and his little island as if they did not exist and were of no accoent. For George, that was just unacceptable. He was a simple artisan--but that didn't mean he wouldn't give everything to defend his family, his city and his faith. (book description) |
.jpg) | A precious and historyc painting has been stolen by terrorists--radical separatists
who will stop at nothing to shatter the union. Colonel Thomas Bushell, the government's most fearless agent, is the only
man who can stop them.
But this is not our world. For the stolen painting depicts a treaty of peace between George Washington and King George III--a treaty that has kept America under British rule for two centuries. And the terrorists, who call themselves the "Sons of Liberty," want America to be free.... (book description) |
.jpg) | When the Viking lander on the planet Minerva was destroyed, sending back one last
photo of a strange alien being, scientists on Earth were flabbergasted. And so a joint investigation was launched by the
United States and the Soviet Union, the first long-distance manned space mission, and a symbol of the new peace between
the two great rivals.
Humankind's first close encounter with extraterrestrials would be history in the making, and the two teams were schooled in diplomacy as well as in science. But nothing prepared them for alien war -- especially when the Americans and the Soviets found themselves on opposite sides... (book description) |
.jpg) | Gen. Sir Robert E. Lee leads the cavalry of the Royal North American Army during the Crimean War in S. M. Stirling's "The Charge of Lee's Brigade," while Cardinal Napoleon Buonaparte commands the armies of the Church in a European campaign in Bill Fawcett's "The Last Crusader." Sixteen tales of alternate military history by Elizabeth Moon, Brad Linaweaver, Esther Friesner, and other accomplished sf and fantasy authors provide a wide variety of historical speculation in a collection of "what-if" tales that deserves a wide readership. A good choice where "theme" anthologies are popular. Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. (from Library Journal) |
.jpg) | LEADERSHIP MAKES ALL THE DIFFERENCE . . .
. . . as history demonstrates. But there are other factors at work. Would Sir Francis Drake have as easily put paid to the Spanish Armada if a typhoon hadn't softened up the enemy first? What if history were given a twist or two, and great commanders on land and sea had more (or fewer) forces, better (or worse) weather, quicker (or slower) communications, better supplies (or none at all)? Just suppose, for example, General Billy Mitchell had not been court-martialed for advocating air power, and happened to be leading training flights of warplanes at Pearl Harbor in December 1941? As it happens, to find out the answer to that question, pick up the first book in the series, Alternate Generals, from Baen. This new volume has even more fascinating speculations in alternate history science fiction, turning history upside down and inside out as leaders who have made their mark on our history make different marks in a different world. The possibilities are endless. . . . (book description) |
.jpg) | Jeremy Solter is a teenager growing up in the late 21st century.
During the school year, his family lives in Southern California--but during the summer the whole family
lives and works on the frontier of the Roman Empire. Not the Roman Empire that fell centuries ago, but a
Roman Empire that never fell: a parallel timeline, one of an infinity of possible worlds. For in our
timeline, we now have the technology to move among these. Some are uninhabitable; some are ghastly, such
as the one where Germany won World War II. But many are full of resources and raw materials that our world
can use. So we send traders and businesspeople--but to keep the secret of crosstime traffic to ourselves,
these traders are trained, in whole-family groups, to pass as natives.
But when Jeremy's mother gets sick--really sick, the kind you can't cure with antibiotics. Both parents duck out through the gateway for a quick visit to the doctor. But while they're gone, the gateways stop working. So do the communications links to their home timeline. The kids are on their own, and things are looking bad. The Lietuvans are invading. The city is besieged. The kids are doing their best to carry on business and act like everything's normal, but there's only so much you can do when cannonballs are crashing through your roof. And in the meantime, the city government has gotten suspicious, and is demanding a *full* report on how their family does business, where they get their superior merchandise, why they want all that wheat ...exactly the questions they don't want to answer. (book description) |
| No book description available. |
.jpg) | When the Duke of Bari suddenly dies, the neighboring nation of
Algarve, long seething over its defeat a generation ago in the Six Years' War, sees its chance to bring
his small country back, as they see it, into the Algarvian fold . . . an action which the other countries
surrounding Algarve cannot, by treaty, tolerate. As nation after nation declares war, a chain of treaties
are invoked, ultimately bringing almost all the Powers into a war of unprecedented destructiveness.
For modern magic is deadlier than in eras past. Trained flocks of dragons rain explosive fire down on defenseless cities. Massed infantry race from place to place along a sophisticated network of ley-lines. Rival powers harness sea leviathans to help sabotage one another's ships. The lights are going out all across Derlavai, and will not come back on in this lifetime. (book description) |
.jpg) | A WORLD WAR--IN A WORLD WHERE MAGIC WORKS
Forthweg has been lost to the Algarvian and the Unkerlanter soldiers. Not satisfied to share the plundered Forthweg, Algarve invades Unkerlant and begins its march on the capital during the harsh Unkerlant winter. Away from the front, Algarvian soldiers corral Kaunians to send them west, toward the front, to work camps. The Kaunians left behind are worried about what the camps might mean, but are assuaged by Algarvian lies. In Kuusamo, scholars race to find the relation between the laws of similarity and contagion, while the patient warriors of Zuwayza weigh the merits of siding with either the Algarvians or the Unkerlanters. Rumors abound about the Algarvian work camps, rumors most cannot believe are true. But the mages know, for they can feel the loss of life in their very souls. (book description) |
.jpg) | This is a world where magic works. A world where blood is used to
power magic, where Algarvian mages slaughter thousands of Kaunian prisoners in work camps to weave
powerful magic in their unrelenting desire to win the war. King Swemmel, lord of Unkerlant, similarly
destroys his own subjects in an attempt to stem the Algarvian takeover.
A young Kaunian girl is forced to remail hidden while her Forthwegian savior braves the rough, Algarvian-controlled streets to earn their keep. The scholars of Kuusamo are no closer to understanding the bloodless magic that may win the war—and time is short. Kuusamo has joined in an unsteady alliance with Lagoas and Unkerlant. No one kingdom trusts another, but they must unite, for it is only together that they can defeat the Algarvian threat. The war is no longer confined to soldiers and sorcerers. Common folk are joining together to fight from underneath their oppressors, whether they be Algarve or Unkerlant. What these farmer soldiers lack in skill, they make up for in dedication. A dedication that will carry them through the darkness. (book description) |
.jpg) | Magic and Destruction--On a World Scale
Imagine the drama and terror of the Second World War--only the bullets are beams of magical fire, the tanks are great lumbering beasts, and fighters and bombers are dragons raining fire upon their targets. Welcome to the world of the Derlavaian War, a world which is slowly but surely being conquered, mile by bloody mile, by the forces of the Algarvian empire...forces whose most terrible battle magics are powered by the slaughter of an innocent people. In this, the fourth volume of the series which began with Into the Darkness, the war for the continent of Derlavai builds toward its crescendo as the mages of Kuusamo, aided by their former rivals from Lagoas, work desperately to create a newer form of magic that will change the course of the war. But this is really a story of ordinary people--on all sides of the conflict--forced by fate to rise to their heroic limits...or sink to the level of their darker natures. (book description) |
.jpg) | The grand conflict for control of the continent of Derlavai rages
on, in a battle with all the drama and terror of the Second World War -- only the bullets are beams of
magical fire, the tanks and submarines are great lumbering beasts, and the fighters and bombers are
dragons raining fire upon their targets.
Yet hope may be dawning at last. The terrible onslaught of the conquering forces of Algarve--who power their battle magics with the life energy of their murdered victims--begins to founder as it runs into Habbakuk: a sorcerous ship of ice used by embattled nations of Lagoas and Kuusamo to ferry their deadly dragons across the seas to strike at the very heart of Algarvian power. But though the tide has begun to turn, the conflict is far from over. The widely-disdained Kaunians still struggle desperately to escape as the Algarvians kill them by the thousands--for life energy, but also simply for the crime of being Kaunian. And as the deaths of innocent civilians on both sides continue to feed the flames of war, those who have struggled to survive and preserve their freedom have only their passions to see them through.... (book description) |
.jpg) | Harry Turtledove's rousing saga of a fantastic world at war, which began in
Into the Darkness and continued through Darkness Descending, Through the Darkness, Rulers
of the Darkness, and Jaws of Darkness, draws to its climactic conclusion in Out of the Darkness.
As the Derlavaian War rages into its last and greatest battles, allied nations maneuver for positions against each other in a postwar world. But before that time can come, the forces of Algarve, Unkerlant, and their allies must clash a final time, countering army with army and battle magic with ever-more-powerful battle magic. In the midst of it all, the people the war has battered and reshaped must struggle to face their greatest individual challenges, as loves are shattered and found, terrible crimes avenged . . . and some journeys end forever. And the end of the war may not bring peace. . . . (book description) |
.jpg) | (This book is the Omnibus edition of Werenight (revised) (which is the
Omnibus edition of Wereblood and Werenight) and Prince of the North)
Gerin the Fox would like nothing better than to lead a quiet life of study, but the murder of his father and brother will leave him the sole baron of Fox Keep, which he must lead into war against the barbarous Trokmoi and the Empire of Elabon. (Amazon.com synopsis) |
.jpg) | (This book is the Omnibus edition of King of the North and
Fox and Empire)
THE MAN WHO WOULDN'T BE KING Ever since the catastrophic Werenight isolated the Northlands from the Elabonian Empire, Gerin the Fox has hoped to settle down as the peaceful ruler of Fox Keep...but destiny seems to have other ideas. The Voice of the god Biton prophesies danger to the Northlands. Gerin has already beaten off invaders, both human and inhuman. But this time he faces an invasion by the Gradi, led by their cold, fierce gods. Gerin has to fight fire with fire by invoking all the supernatural help he can get from the capricious god Mavrix, the aloof but powerful Biton, and the more elemental gods of those who live beneath the ground. And just when things can't get worse -- they get worse. Gerin's neighbor, Aragis the Archer, has made one provocative move after another, and Gerin reluctantly decides that war is inevitable. But suddenly, the Elabonian Empire again turns its unwelcome attention to the Northlands, which it regards as a subject territory. Gerin and Aragis are now allies against a common enemy...and a very formidable one, with forces that outnumber both their armies put together! (book description) |
.jpg) | Readers who remember General Rosenkrantz from Turtledove's Civil War- inspired How Few Remain (1997) have been waiting for the appearance of a General Guildenstern. Here he is: not incompetent but overconfident, lecherous and fond of the bottle, leading the gray-clad armies of southern Detina on behalf of King Avram, whose plans to free the fair-haired serfs of northern Detina led the northerners to secede and to field blue-clad armies in defense of their King Geoffrey. Opposing Guildenstern is Thraxton the Braggart (and even translated into an alternate and fantastical universe, Braxton Bragg is still odious), ably assisted by the natural genius of Ned of the Forest. This funhouse mirror of a book proceeds the rest of the way through the Chickamauga campaign of 1863, ending in the "southron" victory of General Bart (Grant's middle name was "Simpson") and Doubting George (Thomas). Readers who resist the temptation to fling the book down will find more than a treasure trove of japes and wordplays here. They will also discover some serious and cogent thinking on the position of minorities, the art of command (as practiced both well and badly) and the Civil War, on which this author is perhaps the outstanding expert in the SF and fantasy field. And they will find some exacting tests of their cultural literacy: it helps in identifying the Battle of Essoville to know that J. Paul Getty is an oil billionaire, and that one can identify "Roast Beef William" either by his having written a tactical manual or by knowing of the fast-food chain by the name of Hardee's. (Sept.) Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. (from Publishers Weekly |
.jpg) | After King Avram, new ruler of Detina, frees the blond serfs upon which the northern part of the kingdom relies, civil war erupts, with Avram's cousin, Geoffrey, as commander of the rebels. The armies of the divided country face each other in the embattled province of Peachtree eager to claim the strategically vital city of Marthasville. Turtledove's sequel to Sentry Peak continues his fanciful retelling of the Civil War as a fantasy struggle involving swords and sorcery. American history buffs should enjoy figuring out the real-world parallels in the colorful cast of characters. For large fantasy collections. Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc. (from Library Journal) |
.jpg) | Turning the American Civil War literally upside-down, this winning fantasy brings to
life a war to free the blond serfs of the North and raise them to equality beside their swarthy masters. Turtledove not
only swaps South for North but replaces rifles with crossbows, horses with unicorns and railways with magic carpets. The
book opens in the fourth year of the war, when it's clear that the gray-clad armies of King Avram of Detina have the
advantage over the followers of the traitorous Grand Duke Geoffrey, who has proclaimed himself king of the seceded North.
Many Northern infantrymen have been reduced to robbing Southern bodies for shoes and warm clothing; and while the North
has the best wizards, the Southern engineers have invented a rapid-firing crossbow that gives their soldiers a tremendous
advantage in battle. The course of this war closely parallels the real one, which makes for a somewhat predictable story
but clears the way for a focus on the various entertaining and well-drawn characters, including numerous homages to-or
parodies of-various historical figures. Charm and humor balance out the grimly realistic depictions of battlefields and
occupied towns, flavor the beautifully subtle treatment of racism and help to mask the occasional lack of descriptive
detail. While perhaps best suited to Civil War buffs, this tale proves quite enjoyable for the less tactically inclined,
and it's a must-have for any fan of alternate histories. Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc. (from Publishers Weekly) |
.jpg) | It was an epoch of glory and success, of disaster and despair. Twenty years after
the South won the Civil War, America writhed once more in the bloody throes of battle. Furious over the annexation of key
Mexican territory, the United States declared total war against the Confederate States of America. And so, in 1883, the
fragile peace was shattered.
But this was a new kind of war, fought on a lawless frontier where the blue and gray battled not only each other, but the Apache, the outlaw, and even the redcoat. Along with France, England entered the fray on the side of the South, with blockades and invasions from Canada. Out of this tragic struggle emerged figures great and small. The disgraced Abraham Lincoln crisscrossed the nation championing socialist ideals. Confederate cavalry leader Jeb Stuart sought to prevent wholesale slaughter in the desert Southwest, while cocky young Theodore Roosevelt and stodgy George Custer bickered over modern weapons--even as they drove the British back into western Canada. Thanks to the efforts of journalists like Samuel Clemens, the nation witnessed the clash of human dreams and passions. Confederate genius Stonewall Jackson again soared to the heights of military expertise, while the North's McClellan proved sadly undeserving of his once shining reputation as the "young Napoleon." For in the Second War Between the States, the times, the stakes, and the battle lines had changed . . . and so would history. (book description) |
.jpg) | When the Great War engulfed Europe in 1914, the United States and the
Confederate States of America, bitter enemies for five decades, entered the fray on opposite sides: the United
States aligned with the newly strong Germany, while the Confederacy joined forces with their longtime allies,
Britain and France. But it soon became clear to both sides that this fight would be different--that war itself
would never be the same again. For this was to be a protracted, global conflict waged with new and chillingly
efficient innovations--the machine gun, the airplane, poison gas, and trench warfare.
Across the Americas, the fighting raged like wildfire on multiple and far-flung fronts. As President Theodore Roosevelt rallied the diverse ethnic groups of the northern states--Irish and Italians, Mormons and Jews--Confederate President Woodrow Wilson struggled to hold together a Confederacy still beset by ignorance, prejudice, and class divisions. And as the war thundered on, southern blacks, oppressed for generations, found themselves fatefully drawn into a climactic confrontation . . . (book description) |
.jpg) | The year is 1915, and the world is convulsing. Though the Confederacy has defeated its northern enemy twice, this time the United States has allied with the Kaiser. In the South, the freed slaves, fueled by Marxist rhetoric and the bitterness of a racist nation, take up the weapons of the Red rebellion. Despite these advantages, the United States remains pinned between Canada and the Confederate States of America, so the bloody conflict continues and grows. Both presidents--Theodore Roosevelt of the Union and staunch Confederate Woodrow Wilson--are stubbornly determined to lead their nations to victory, at any cost. . . (book description) |
Breakthroughs (paperback edition)
.jpg) | Is it the war to end all wars--or war without end? What began as a conflict in
Europe, when Germany unleashed a lightning assault on its enemies, soon spreads to North America, as a long-simmering
hatred between two independent nations explodes in bloody combat. Twice in fifty years the Confederate States of America
had humiliated their northern neighbor. Now revenge may at last be at hand.
Into this vast, seething cauldron plunges a new generation of weaponry changing the shape of war and the balance of power. While the Confederate States are distracted by an insurgency of African Americans who dream of establishing their own socialist republic, the United States are free to bring their military and industrial might directly to bear--and to unleash the most horrific armored assault the world has ever seen. Victory is at hand. But at a price that may be worse than war itself . . . (book description) |
.jpg) | Twice in the last century, brutal war erupted between the United States and the
Confederacy. Then, after a generation of relative peace, The Great War exploded worldwide. As the conflict engulfed
Europe, the C.S.A. backed the Allies, while the U.S. found its own ally in Imperial Germany. The Confederate States,
France, and England all fell. Russia self-destructed, and the Japanese, seeing that the cause was lost, retired to fight
another day.
The Great War has ended, and an uneasy peace reigns around most of the world. But nowhere is the peace more fragile than on the continent of North America, where bitter enemies share a single landmass and two long, bloody borders. In the North, proud Canadian nationalists try to resist the colonial power of the United States. In the South, the once-mighty Confederate States have been pounded into poverty and merciless inflation. U.S. President Teddy Roosevelt refuses to return to pre-war borders. The scars of the past will not soon be healed. The time is right for madmen, demagogues, and terrorists. At this crucial moment in history, with Socialists rising to power in the U.S. under the leadership of presidential candidate Upton Sinclair, a dangerous fanatic is on the rise in the Confederacy, preaching a message of hate. And in Canada another man--a simple farmer--has a nefarious plan: to assassinate the greatest U.S. war hero, General George Armstrong Custer. With tension on the seas high, and an army of Marxist Negroes lurking in the swamplands of the Deep South, more than enough people are eager to return the world to war. (book description) |
.jpg) | It is 1924—a time of rebuilding, from the slow reconstruction of Washington’s most
honored monuments to the reclamation of devastated cities in Europe and Canada. In the United States, the Socialist
Party, led by Hosea Blackford, battles Calvin Coolidge to hold on to the Powell House in Philadelphia. And it seems as if
the Socialists can do no wrong, for the stock market soars and America enjoys prosperity unknown in a half century. But
as old names like Custer and Roosevelt fade into history, a new generation faces new uncertainties.
The Confederate States, victorious in the War of Secession and in the Second Mexican War but at last tasting defeat in the Great War, suffer poverty and natural calamity. The Freedom Party promises new strength and pride. But if its chief seizes the reins of power, he may prove a dangerous enemy for the hated U.S.A. Yet the United States take little note. Sharing world domination with Germany, they consider events in the Confederacy of little consequence. As the 1920s end, calamity casts a pall across the continent. With civil war raging in Mexico, terrorist uprisings threatening U.S. control in Canada, and an explosion of violence in Utah, the United States are rocked by uncertainty. In a world of occupiers and the occupied, of simmering hatreds, shattered lives, and pent-up violence, the center can no longer hold. And for a powerful nation, the ultimate shock will come when a fleet of foreign aircraft rain death and destruction upon one of the great cities of the United States. . . . (book description) |
.jpg) | What if the South had won the Civil War? Now, seventy years have passed since the
first War Between the States. The North American continent is locked in a battle of politics, economies, and moralities.
In a world that has already felt the soul-shattering blow of the Great War, North America is the powder keg that could
ignite another global conflict—complete with a new generation of killing machines.
"Freedom! Freedom! Freedom!" In 1934, the chant echoes across the Confederate States of America, a country born of bloodshed and passion, stretching from Mexico to Virginia. But while people use the word to greet each other in the streets, the meaning of "Freedom" has become increasingly unclear. Jake Featherston, leader of the ruling Freedom Party, has won power—and is taking his country and the world to the edge of an abyss. Charismatic, shrewd, and addicted to conflict, Featherston is whipping the Confederate States into a frenzy of hatred. Blacks are being rounded up and sent to prison camps, and the persecution has just begun. Featherston has forced the United States to give up its toeholds in Florida and Kentucky, and as the North stumbles through a succession of leaders, from Socialist Hosea Blackford to Herbert Hoover and now Al Smith, Featherston is feeling his might. With the U.S.A. locked in a bitter, bloody occupation of Canada, facing an intractable rebellion in Utah, and fatigued from a war in the Pacific against Japan, Featherston may pursue one dangerous proposition above all: that he can defeat the U.S.A. in an all-out war. (book description) |
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Menedemos & Sostratos (Greece)
written under the pseudonym H. N. Turteltaub
.jpg) | A painless way to learn history is to read a well-researched historical novel such as this latest from Turteltaub (a pseudonym for novelist Harry Turtledove, author of Justinian, LJ 6/15/98). Here, he instructs and entertains with a novel of Rhodes in 310 B.C.E. Menedemos and Sostratos, two very engaging (and very different) cousins, are traders on the Mediterranean in such exotic cargo as silks, wine, and peacocks. Their adventures as they journey from Rhodes to Asia Minor and Italy form the basis of the story. Along the way, we learn about sailing, dress, eating, and other everyday customs of the Hellenistic world. Although the book has maps and a table of weights, measures, and money, it suffers from the lack of a glossary; unfamiliar words frequently interrupt the flow and do not always have contextual clues, limiting the pleasure one would take in this otherwise well-written book. (Fred M. Gervat, Concordia Coll. Lib., Bronxville, NY, Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.) |
.jpg) | The vast tapestry of the Hellenic world unfolds in this stirring tale
of two traders from the island of Rhodes, who range across the wind-blown face of the beautiful and
treacherous Mediterranean in search of adventure and profits.
In Over the Wine-dark Sea, H. N. Turteltaub transported his readers to the year 310 B.C. and the lives of Menedemos and Sostratos, two sea traders of Rhodes. From the smell of papyrus and ink to the thrumming of sail in the wind and the grunt of the oarsmen, the details of life in a now-vanished world come alive again in his new novel, The Gryphon’s Skull, an epic of grand adventure and finely realized characters. Sostratos, long and rangy, intellectual and curious, chases knowledge as ardently as his cousin chases women; Menedemos, nearly as perfect a physical specimen as Alexander himself, is the headstrong man of the sea, his eyes unable to resist the veiled beauties around him . . . including his young stepmother, Baukis, whose voice and form he struggles to ignore. Having profitably returned on the Aphrodite to Rhodes, the two cousins find that war threatens their once free-trading world. Alexander the Great’s successors are warring for control of the eastern Mediterranean. The ruthless one-eyed general Antigonos, who draws on the strength of all Anatolia, and his rival Ptolemaios, who controls the endless wealth of Egypt, are each ruthlessly maneuvering for advantage . . . and the neutrality of Rhodes, so essential to commerce, may be coming to an end. Yet though war and rumors of war surround them, Sostratos and Menedemos need to turn a profit. It seems the height of folly to try one’s luck so strenuously, but Sostratos has come into possession of what he is convinced is the skull of the mythical gryphon, the fabled beast with the head and wings of an eagle and the body of a lion. They sail to Athens, intending to sell it to a school of philosophy. And the Egyptian emeralds they’ve obtained on the cheap promise to make them an even tidier profit. But between the Aphrodite and Athens lie two war fleets, innumerable pirates, and enough danger and intrigue to satisfy even Homer. Unfortunately, it may be more than Sostratos and Menedemos can hope to survive. (book description) |
.jpg) | In Over the Wine-Dark Sea and The Gryphon’s Skull, H. N. Turteltaub
brought to life the teeming world of maritime Greece, in the unsettled years following the death of
Alexander the Great. Now Menedemos and Sostratos, those dauntless capitalists of the third century B.C.,
have set sail again--this time to Phoenicia. There Menedemos will spend the summer trading, while his
cousin Sostratos travels inland to the little-known country of Ioudaia, with its strange people and their
even stranger religious obsessions.
In theory, Sostratos is going in search of cheap balsam, a perfume much in demand in the Mediterranean world. In truth, scholarly Sostratos just wants to get a good look at a part of the world unknown to most Hellenes. And the last thing he wants is to have to take along a bunch of sailors from the Aphrodite as his bodyguards. But Menedemos insists. He knows that bandits on land are as dangerous as pirates at sea, and he has no faith in Sostratos’ ability to dodge them. Meanwhile, it turns out that the prime hams and smoked eels they picked up en route are unsalable to Ioudaians. (Who knew?) And worst of all, Sostratos’ new brother-in-law has managed to talk their fathers into loading the Aphrodite with hundreds of amphorae of his best olive oil--when they’re trading in a region that has no shortage of it. It’s a hard day's work, hustling for an honest drachma. (book description) |
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.jpg) | After the King presents an outstanding collection of new fantasy
stories by an extraordinary assemblage of some of the very best writers to ever continue the tradition Tolkien
began with The Lord of the Rings.
Stephen R. Donaldson, Peter S. Beagle, Andrew Nortong, Terry Pratchett, Robert Silverberg, Judith Tarr, Gregory Benford, Jane Yolen, Poul and Karen Anderson, Mike Resnick, Emma Bull, Elizabeth Ann Scarborough, John Brunner, Harry Turtledove, Dennis L. McKiernan, Karen Haber, Barry M. Malzberg, and Charles de Lint contribute to a dazzling anthology that captures the spirit and originality of Tolkien's great work. The millions whose lives have been touched by J.R.R. Tolkien will find the same primal storytelling magic here, undiluted and running ever on. (book description) |
.jpg) | THE BORDER WARS
An uneasy peace had prevailed these last few years between the Empire of Videssos and rival Makuran. But now Makuran's King of Kings alerted his border holdings--even the small fortress where Abivard's father was lord--to prepare for barbarian raids. But Abivard himself received a warning of a different sort: an eerie prophecy of a field, a hill, and a shield shining across the sea. Before a season had turned, his father and his King lay dead upon the field of battle--the very place foreseen in the vision. Abivard hastened home to defend his family and his land. To his dismay, the most urgent danger came not from marauding tribes, or from Videssos, but from the capital. An obscure and greedy bureaucrat had captured the crown; the rightful heir had disappeared, and no mortal man would say where he might be found. Abivard's strange fate would lead him to his King, though, and on through peril to the very brink of greatness--and of doom! (book description) |
.jpg) | THE RED BOOTS
Videssos was beset by enemies. A pretender held the throne--a despot who cared little that barbarian hordes and rival realms carved away at his empire, so long as the wealth and booty of the land satisfied his unbridled appetites. Few stood against him. And those few soon found their heads on pikes. Only one name held hope for freedom: Maniakes. And from his exile on the very edge of the civilized world, young Maniakes took up the challenge, rallied his forces, and sailed off to topple the tyrant. But the tyrant would use every means at his disposal--fair or most hideously foul--to destroy the crusading upstart. And even if Maniakes could stay alive, he would still have to pull together a battered, divided land as well as fend off a host of enemies--and thwart the former friend who had become his empire's most deadly foe! (book description) |
.jpg) | A dazzling new fantasy for all the fans of the Videssos Cycle!
As the sun gleamed off the gilded domes of Videssos the city, Abivard, marshal of Makuran and son of Godarz, pondered the impossible. How could he carry out the command of Sharbaraz, King of Kings, to destroy the invincible Empire of Videssos? Then, against all expectations, the Emperor of Videssos invaded Makuran itself. Abivard was thrust on the defensive, forced homeward to drive the invaders from the fabled land of the thousand cities. Abivard needed not only his greatest battle skills but his most powerful magicians, for no one doubted that Videssian military strategy would be accompanied by the finest sorcery. Yet even as reality reversed itself and renegades plotted Abivard's ruin, the undaunted warrior vowed never to surrender . . . (book description) |
.jpg) | With the arrival of spring, the Emperor Maniakes vows to unleash his troops against the enemy capital, where a hated despot sits arrogantly upon the throne. But from the moment Maniakes reaches the land of the Thousand Cities, he is plagued by a question no one can answer. Where is his nemesis, the ruthless commander whose cavalry no opposing force can withstand? (book description) |
.jpg) | Videssos was beset by enemies abroad and had fallen into decadence at
home. But on his first night in the imperial capital, The Empires health mattered less to Krispos than
finding a dry place to sleep.
Driven by crushing taxes from the farm where his family had lived -- and died -- Krispos had come to the city seeking what fortune a good mind and a strong back could earn. He had a single goldpiece to his name -- the gift, years past, of a nomad chieftain to a ragged peasant boy. Now, though the night was raw and the inn was warm, he was loath to spend that coin, for the barbarian had claimed it carried magic. Keep his lucky goldpiece or trade it for a warm, dry bed? Krispos tucked the coin away and stepped back into the wet streets -- all unaware that so simple a choice would lead to a world of peril and possibility... (book description) |
.jpg) | Against all expectations, Krispos had won the crown of Videssos. But
how long could he hope to keep head and crown together?
For trouble was brewing in every, quarter. Civil war erupted under Petronas, the late Emperor's uncle. A brilliant general and a canny politician, Petronas had a very personal score to settle against the upstart Krispos. And even as rebel troops took the field against the untried Emperor, outland raiders swept down from the northlands in a tide of carnage. The power stemmed from foulest sorcery, and Videssos' wizards could not counter its evil curse. Krispos reign showed every sign of being brief -- and very bloody... (book description) |
.jpg) | The sequel to the Krispos trilogy, the second series of the author's Videssos books, pits peasant-turned-emperor Krispos against a band of rebels that includes his eldest son, Prince Phostis. (book description) |
.jpg) |
In an aptly titled collection, the author of A Different Flesh offers
13 entertaining and highly varied tales, mingling SF with fantasy and mainstream fiction. A Difficult
Undertaking, set in the Empire of Videssos depicted in four earlier Turtledove novels, shows a commander
under siege outwitting his enemy with cunning and dead pigeons. Gentlemen of the Shade are refined
Victorian vampires who exact a heavy penalty from Jack the Ripper for poaching (and poor taste). The numbers in
the forecast are not degrees Fahrenheit but dates in The Weather's Fine: when the temperature hits 68, bell
bottoms and incense bloom for those who can't take refuge in "year conditioning," which provides a stable 1980s
environment. In The Road Not Taken, aliens are appalled by their discovery of human beings' exceptionally
warlike abilities, especially when they unwittingly give these dangerous creatures the technology for unlimited
access to the universe. Crybaby is an infant with suspect motives whose wail--"like the sudden malignant
whine of a dentist's drill"--pushes his father to commit an atrocity.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc. (from Publishers weekly) |
.jpg) | As they faced one another in a duel of survival, the Roman tribune Marcus Scaurus held the spell-scribed sword of a Druid priest, and the Celtic chieftain Viridovix held a similar sword, bespelled by a rival Druid sorcerer. At the moment they touched, the two found themselves under a strange night sky where no stars were familiar and where Gaul and Rome were unknown. They were in an outpost of the embattled Empire of Videssos--in a world where magic and dark sorcery would test their skill and courage as no Roman legion had ever been tested before. (book description) |
.jpg) | Foul sorcery had slain the Emperor. Now the army of Videssos,
betrayed by one man's craven folly, fled in panic from the savage victors. But there was no panic in the
Legion, mysteriously displaced from Gaul and Rome into this strange world of magic.
Wearily, Tribune Marcus Scaurus led his men through the chaos and enemy hordes in search of winter quarters, to regroup and seek to join up with Thorisin Gavras, now rightful ruler of Videssos. But in Videssos the city, capital of the beleaguered realm, Ortaias Sphrantzes, whose cowardice had caused their defeat, now sat upon the throne. There, behind great walls that had always made the city impregnable to storm or siege, he ruled with the support of evil sorcery. Overthrowing him seemed impossible. Grimly, Marcus Scaurus began the long march through hostile country toward that seemingly hopeless attempt. (book description) |
.jpg) | Since the Roman legion had been mysteriously transported to this
world of magic, tribune Marcus Scaurus had served the rulers of war-torn Videssos well. He had been
largely responsible for ousting the Pretender and putting Thorish Gavras on the throne. That, of course,
made him a hero.
Rome or Videssos, however, Fortune was a fickle goddess. Now he and the legion were returning in triumph to Videssos the city after defeating a well-entrenched army of rebel mercenaries. But Marcus, betrayed by the one closest to him, was returning to be seized, dragged before the Emperor, and questioned under truth-drug like a traitor. Of the court, only Alypia Gavra stuck by him -- but consorting with the Emperor's niece was dangerous. It could lead to exile -- or death! Yet Alypia was attractive. And Marcus was lonely . . . (book description) |
.jpg) | In Videssos the city, tribune Marcus Scaurus was bored. The legion
that had been magically transported to this strange world was far away. But the Emperor's niece Alypia was
near -- and willing.
When their secret trysts were betrayed, Emperor Thorisin Gavras was forced to condemn Marcus as a traitor -- but with a promise of freedom and Alypia, if he could reclaim a rebel province from a fanatic usurper, with no military aid. With only centurion Gaius Philippus, Marcus set out to try the seemingly impossible task. But the fates conspired against them, driving them further westward, into the innermost sanctum of Videssos' great enemy Yezd -- and toward the torture chambers of the evil, deathless wizard-prince Avshar. But behind them, without orders, the men of the legion were on the march! (book description) |
.jpg) |
From Harry Turtledove, bestselling author and critically acclaimed master of the short story,
comes a classic collection of science fiction tales and what-if scenarios. In narratives ranging from fantastic
to oddly familiar to eerily prescient, this compelling volume illustrates Turtledove’s literary skill and
unbridled imagination.
FORTY, COUNTING DOWN: With the help of his time travel software, computer genius Justin Kloster returns to the past to stop himself from making a terrible mistake–but all actions have their consequences. THE MALTESE ELEPHANT: A legendary detective finds himself in grave danger when a noir masterpiece takes a stunning new twist. GODDESS FOR A DAY: Taking a page from history, a young girl dares to challenge the gods–and is richly rewarded for her efforts. DECONSTRUCTION GANG: Mired in unemployment and despair, an academic finds happiness and intellectual fulfillment in a most unexpected place. TWENTY-ONE, COUNTING UP: Justin Kloster’s college life and romantic dreams are rudely interrupted–and irreversibly disrupted–when forty-year-old Justin arrives from the future to save him from himself. Plus twelve more thrilling, unforgettable tales of wonder! (book description) |
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.jpg) | Tempered by the forces of evolution to become the greatest survivors of all species, the residents of the Haven battle humans in the years before the coming of the Saurons. (book description) |
.jpg) | Forced into savagery by nuclear weapons and divided among themselves by feuds, the human inhabitants of Haven are helpless before the onslaught of gene-designed demons who fight like computers. (book description) |
.jpg) | Three hundred years after the Saurons arrived on Haven and wiped out all technology save their own, one woman unites the many tribes of Haven to overthrow the Sauron overlords. (book description) |
| Escaping near destruction of their battle-demon species, the genetically engineered Saurons seek refuge on Haven, a dumping ground for the criminals of the CoDominium, whose population has been shaped by centuries of violence. (book description) |
.jpg) | NO ONE COULD TOP THEIR POWER-- NOT THE GERMANS, NOT THE JAPANESE, NOT THE RUSSIANS, NOT THE UNITED STATES From Pearl Harbor to panzers rolling through Paris to the Siege of Leningrad and the Battle of Midway, war seethed across the planet as the flames of destruction rose higher and hotter. And then, suddenly, the real enemy came. The invaders seemed unstoppable, their technology far beyond human reach. And never before had men been more divided. For Jew to unite with Nazi, American with Japanese, and Russian with German was unthinkable. But the alternative was even worse. As the fate of the world hung in the balance, slowly, painfully, humankind took up the shocking challenge . . . (book description) |
.jpg) | THEY CUT THE UNITED STATES IN TWO. THEY DEVASTATED MUCH OF EUROPE. THEY HAD A FEROCIOUS AGENDA. AND NO ONE COULD STOP THEM. World War II screeched to a halt as the Russians, Germans, Americans, and Japanese scrambled to meet an even deadlier foe. In Warsaw, Jews welcomed the invaders as liberators, only to be cruelly disillusioned. In China, the Communist guerrillas used every trick they knew. In America, Washington, D.C., was vaporized in a matter of seconds. But humanity would not give up--whether delivering supplies in tiny biplanes to partisans across the vast steppes of Russia, working furiously to understand the enemy's captured radar in England, or battling house to house on the streets of Chicago. As Turtledove's global saga of alternate history continues, humanity grows more resourceful, even as the menace worsens. No one could say when the hellish inferno of death would stop being a war of conquest and turn into a war of survival--a war for the survival of the planet . . . (book description) |
.jpg) | NO ONE COULD HALT THE ENEMY'S ADVANCE. NOT CHINA NOR THE SOVIET UNION, NOT JAPAN OR NAZI GERMANY, NOT EVEN THE UNITED STATES. From Warsaw to Moscow to China's enemy-occupied Forbidden City, the nations of the world had been forced into an uneasy alliance overwhelming odds. In Britain and Germany, caches of once-forbidden weapons were unearthed, and unthinkable tactics were employed against the enemy. Even as lack of fuel forced people back to horses and carriages, physicists worked feverishly to create humanity's first nuclear bombs--with horrifying results. City after city joined the atomic pyre as the planet erupted in fiery ruins. The tactics of daredevil guerrillas everywhere became increasingly ingenious against a superior foe whose desperate retaliation would grow ever more fearsome. No one had ever put the United States, or the world, in such deadly danger. But if the carnage and annihilation ever stopped, would there be any pieces to pick up? (book description) |
.jpg) | THE FATAL DEADLINE ARRIVES. THE SMASHING FINALE UNFOLDS. THE LAST-DITCH EFFORT TO AVOID ATOMIC OBLIVION. At the bloody height of World War II, the deadliest enemies in all of human history were forced to put aside their hatreds and unite against a seemingly invincible power. With awesome technology, the aggressors swept across the planet, sowing destruction. City after city has exploded in radioactive firestorms. Fears has continued to mount as life-sustaining resources disappear. While Mao Tse-tung wages a desperate guerrilla war and Hitler drives his country toward self-destruction, United States forces frantically try to stop the enemy's push from coast to coast. Yet to win this battle and stave off world domination, these once-great military powers may have to risk the annihilation of the human race . . . (book description) |
.jpg) | In the extraordinary Worldwar tetralogy, set against the
backdrop of the World War II, Harry Turtledove, the "Hugo-winning master of alternate SF" (Publishers Weekly),
wove an explosive saga of world powers locked in conflict against an enemy from the stars. Now he expands his
magnificent epic into the volatile 1960s, when the space race is in its infancy and humanity must face its
greatest challenge: alien colonization of planet Earth.
Yet even in the shadow of this inexorable foe, the United States, the Soviet Union, and Nazi Germany are unable to relinquish their hostilities and unite against a massive new wave of extraterrestrials. For all the countries of the world, this is the greatest threat of all. This time, the terrible price of defeat will be the conquest of our world, and perhaps the extinction of the human race itself. (book description) |
.jpg) | In 1942 Hitler led the world's most savage military machine. Stalin ruled
Russia while America was just beginning to show its strength in World War II. Then, in Harry Turtledove's
brilliantly imagined Worldwar saga, an alien assault changed everything. Nuclear destruction
engulfed major cities, and the invaders claimed half the planet before an uneasy peace could be achieved.
A spectacular tale of tyranny and freedom, destruction and hope, Colonization takes us into the tumultuous 1960s, as the reptilian Race ponders its uneasy future. But now a new, even deadlier war threatens. Though the clamoring tribes of Earth play dangerous games of diplomacy, the ultimate power broker will be the Race itself. For the colonists have one option no human can ignore. With a vast, ancient empire already in place, the Race has the power to annihilate every living being on planet Earth . . . (book description) |
.jpg) | World War II has evolved into decades of epic struggles and rebellions targeting the aliens known as the Race. As the 1960s begin, one of Earth’s great powers launches a nuclear strike against the Race’s colonization fleet–and the merciless invaders find themselves confronting a far more complex and challenging species than any they have encountered before. Ultimately, only superior firepower may keep Earth under the Empire’s control–or it may destroy the world. While uprisings and aftershocks of war shake the planet, one nation plots a stunning counterattack . . . (book description) |
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