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1632
by Eric Flint

ISBN 1416532811 (1-4165-3281-1)
Softcover, Pocket Books

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Book summary:
FREEDOM AND JUSTICE -- AMERICAN STYLE
1632 And in northern Germany things couldn't get much worse. Famine. Disease. Religous war laying waste the cities. Only the aristocrats remained relatively unscathed; for the peasants, death was a mercy.
2000 Things are going OK in Grantville, West Virginia, and everybody attending the wedding of Mike Stearn's sister (including the entire local chapter of the United Mine Workers of America, which Mike leads) is having a good time.
THEN, EVERYTHING CHANGED....
When the dust settles, Mike leads a group of armed miners to find out what happened and finds the road into town is cut, as with a sword. On the other side, a scene out of Hell: a man nailed to a farmhouse door, his wife and daughter attacked by men in steel vests. Faced with this, Mike and his friends don't have to ask who to shoot. At that moment Freedom and Justice, American style, are introduced to the middle of the Thirty Years' War. [via]
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1633
by David Weber, Eric Flint, James Baen

ISBN 0743471555 (0-7434-7155-5)
Softcover, Pocket Books

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Book summary:
Hurled back in time into the Thirty Years War by a mysterious cosmic force, the West Virginian coal miners led by Mike Stearns have allied with the King of Sweden to form the Confederated Principalities of Europe. Cardinal Richelieu, effective ruler of France, is bent on their destruction. As the greatest naval war in European history erupts, Mike's "native" wife is trapped in war-torn Amsterdam, and his sister is a prisoner in the Tower of London! But Mike has plans for correcting that situation; very explosive plans. . . . [via]
More editions of 1633:
- 1633: ISBN 0743435427 (0-7434-3542-7)
  Hardcover, Baen Books
- 1633: ISBN 0743471555 (0-7434-7155-5)
  Softcover, Pocket Books
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1634 : The Galileo Affair
by Eric Flint, Andrew Dennis

ISBN 0743488156 (0-7434-8815-6)
Hardcover, Baen Books

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Book summary:
As the Thirty Years War continues to ravage Europe, the American town hurled from the 20th to the 17th century by a mysterious force has aroused the implacable hostility of Cardinal Richelieu of France, who has allied with this old enemies to stop this new threat to privilege and power. But the Americans and their Swedish allies are also moving behind the scenes, sending a medical team to Venice to prevent a plaque, communicating with the Ottoman Empire, and reaching out to the Vatican, which has misgivings about Richelieu's lust for power. But a Venetian artisan may cause all their plans to come to naught. After reading a 20th Century history book, he has become determined to rescue Galileo from his trial for heresy. The Americans are divided on whether to help him or stop him - and whether he succeeds or fails, the results may be catastrophic for the CPE. [via]
More editions of 1634 : The Galileo Affair:
- 1634 : The Galileo Affair: ISBN 0743488156 (0-7434-8815-6)
  Hardcover, Baen Books
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1634: The Ram Rebellion
by Eric Flint, Andrew Dennis

ISBN 0743499190 (0-7434-9919-0)
Softcover, Pocket Books

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Book summary:
1st Baen edition paperback, new [via]
More editions of 1634: The Ram Rebellion:
- 1634: The Ram Rebellion: ISBN 0743499190 (0-7434-9919-0)
  Softcover, Pocket Books
Against the Tide of Years
by S. M. Stirling

ISBN 0451457439 (0-451-45743-9)
Softcover, Signet

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More editions of Against the Tide of Years:
- Against the Tide of Years: ISBN 0451457439 (0-451-45743-9)
  Softcover, Signet
Alvin Journeyman
by Orson Scott Card

ISBN 0812509234 (0-8125-0923-4)
Softcover, Tor Books

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Book summary:
Return to the world of Alvin Maker--a magical America that might have been. Using the lore and folk-magic of the men and women who settled the North American continent, Card has created an alternate American frontier--a world where a particular kind of magic really works, and where that magic has colored the entire history of the colonies. [via]
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American Empire : Blood and Iron
by Harry Turtledove

ISBN 034540565X (0-345-40565-X)
Hardcover, Random House Publishing Group

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More editions of American Empire : Blood and Iron:
- American Empire : Blood and Iron: ISBN 034540565X (0-345-40565-X)
  Hardcover, Random House Publishing Group
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American Empire : The Victorious Opposition
by Harry Turtledove

ISBN 034544423X (0-345-44423-X)
Hardcover, Random House Publishing Group

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Book summary:
Harry Turtledoves acclaimed alternate history series began with a single question: 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 conflictcomplete 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 powerand 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.

The Victorious Opposition is a drama of leaders and followers, spies and traitors, lovers and soldiers. From California to Canada, from combat on the high seas to the secret meetings where former slaves plot a desperate strategy for survival, Harry Turtledove has created a human portrait of a world in upheaval. The third book in his monumental American Empire series, The Victorious Opposition is a novel of ideas, action, and surpriseand an unforgettable re-imagining of history itself. [via]
More editions of American Empire : The Victorious Opposition:
- American Empire : The Victorious Opposition: ISBN 034544423X (0-345-44423-X)
  Hardcover, Random House Publishing Group
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American Empire Vol. 2 : The Center Cannot Hold
by Harry Turtledove

ISBN 0345444213 (0-345-44421-3)
Hardcover, Random House Publishing Group

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More editions of American Empire Vol. 2 : The Center Cannot Hold:
- American Empire Vol. 2 : The Center Cannot Hold: ISBN 0345444213 (0-345-44421-3)
  Hardcover, Random House Publishing Group
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Breakthroughs
by Harry Turtledove

ISBN 0345405633 (0-345-40563-3)
Hardcover, Random House Publishing Group

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Book summary:
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. Twice in fifty years the Confederate States of America had humiliated their northern neighbor. Now revenge may at last be at hand.

Under the leadership of Teddy Roosevelt, and following a general named Custer--military genius or madman?--the United States are fighting a war on two fronts in 1917. In the north, from the Pacific to Quebec, U.S. forces in the air and on land are locked in battle against Canada and Great Britain. To the south, at the heart of a line that stretches from the Gulf of California to the Atlantic, Custer intends to do what none of his predecessors had ever managed: to smash through the Confederate barbwire entrenchments in Tennessee.

Into this vast, seething cauldron plunges a new generation of weaponry-- submarines, barrels, attack planes, poison gas, and flame throwers--changing the shape of war and the balance of power. While the Confederate States are distracted by an insurgency of African Americans with a 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.

Here are leather-jacketed daredevil pilots flying unproved fighters into anti-aircraft fire. Here is a melee on the sea, as U.S. sailors duel Confederate submariners, while the English, French, and Japanese surface navies vie for control of the shipping lanes. In Harry Turtledove's incredibly imagined alternate history, the Great War is played out over a cast of vivid characters. Amidst the sound and fury of battle, as nonaligned nation-states choose sides and politicians spew bombast far from the front lines, The Great War: Breakthroughs captures a world war at an apocalyptic turning point. Victory is at hand--but at a price that may be worse than war itself . . . [via]
More editions of Breakthroughs:
- Breakthroughs: ISBN 0345405633 (0-345-40563-3)
  Hardcover, Random House Publishing Group
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Conquistador
by S. M. Stirling

ISBN 0451459334 (0-451-45933-4)
Softcover, Roc

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Book summary:
A new alternate history of America from the author of The Peshawar Lancers, the bestselling novel the Chicago Sun-Times called "a pleasure to read" and Harry Turtledove hailed as "first-rate adventure all the way."

1945: An ex-marine has discovered a portal that permits him to travel between the America he knows-and a virgin America untouched by European influence. 21st century: The two realities collide...

[via]
More editions of Conquistador:
- Conquistador: ISBN 0451459083 (0-451-45908-3)
  Hardcover, Penguin Group (USA) Incorporated
- Conquistador: ISBN 0451459334 (0-451-45933-4)
  Softcover, Roc
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The Difference Engine
by Bruce Sterling, William Gibson

ISBN 055329461X (0-553-29461-X)
Softcover, Bantam Books

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Book summary:
A collaborative novel from the premier cyberpunk authors, William Gibson and Bruce Sterling. Part detective story, part historical thriller, The Difference Engine takes us not forward but back, to an imagined 1885: the Industrial Revolution is in full and inexorable swing, powered by steam-driven, cybernetic engines. Charles Babbage perfects his Analytical Engine, and the computer age arrives a century ahead of its time. [via]
More editions of The Difference Engine:
- The Difference Engine: ISBN 0553070282 (0-553-07028-2)
  Hardcover, Bantam Dell Pub Group
- The Difference Engine: ISBN 055329461X (0-553-29461-X)
  Softcover, Bantam Books
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The Difference Engine
by William Gibson

ISBN 055307346X (0-553-07346-X)
Hardcover, Bantam Books

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Book summary:
A collaborative novel from the premier cyberpunk authors, William Gibson and Bruce Sterling. Part detective story, part historical thriller, The Difference Engine takes us not forward but back, to an imagined 1885: the Industrial Revolution is in full and inexorable swing, powered by steam-driven, cybernetic engines. Charles Babbage perfects his Analytical Engine, and the computer age arrives a century ahead of its time. [via]
More editions of The Difference Engine:
- The Difference Engine: ISBN 055307346X (0-553-07346-X)
  Hardcover, Bantam Books
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Eyre Affair
by Jasper Fforde

ISBN 0142001805 (0-14-200180-5)
Softcover, Penguin Group USA

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Book summary:
Penzler Pick, January 2002: When I first heard the premise of this unique mystery, I doubted that a first-time author could pull off a complicated caper involving so many assumptions, not the least of which is a complete suspension of disbelief. Jasper Fforde is not only up to the task, he exceeds all expectations.
Imagine this. Great Britain in 1985 is close to being a police state. The Crimean War has dragged on for more than 130 years and Wales is self-governing. The only recognizable thing about this England is her citizens' enduring love of literature. And the Third Most Wanted criminal, Acheron Hades, is stealing characters from England's cherished literary heritage and holding them for ransom.
Bibliophiles will be enchanted, but not surprised, to learn that stealing a character from a book only changes that one book, but Hades has escalated his thievery. He has begun attacking the original manuscripts, thus changing all copies in print and enraging the reading public. That's why Special Operations Network has a Literary Division, and it is why one of its operatives, Thursday Next, is on the case.
Thursday is utterly delightful. She is vulnerable, smart, and, above all, literate. She has been trying to trace Hades ever since he stole Mr. Quaverley from the original manuscript of Martin Chuzzlewit and killed him. You will only remember Mr. Quaverley if you read Martin Chuzzlewit prior to 1985. But now Hades has set his sights on one of the plums of literature, Jane Eyre, and he must be stopped.
How Thursday achieves this and manages to preserve one of the great books of the Western canon makes for delightfully hilarious reading. You do not have to be an English major to be pulled into this story. You'll be rooting for Thursday, Jane, Mr. Rochester--and a familiar ending. --Otto Penzler [via]
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Fatherland
by Robert Harris

ISBN 1560545569 (1-56054-556-9)
Hardcover, Thorndike Pr

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Book summary:
Fatherland is set in an alternative world where Hitler has won the Second World War. It is April 1964 and one week before Hitler's 75th birthday. Xavier March, a detective of the Kriminalpolizei, is called out to investigate the discovery of a dead body in a lake near Berlin's most prestigious suburb.

As March discovers the identity of the body, he uncovers signs of a conspiracy that could go to the very top of the German Reich. And, with the Gestapo just one step behind, March, together with an American journalist, is caught up in a race to discover and reveal the truth -- a truth that has already killed, a truth that could topple governments, a truth that will change history.

From the Paperback edition. [via]
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The Great War
by Harry Turtledove

ISBN 0345405609 (0-345-40560-9)
Softcover, Del Rey

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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 . . . [via]
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The Guns of the South
by Harry Turtledove

ISBN 0345384687 (0-345-38468-7)
Softcover, Ballantine Books

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Book summary:
Northern Virginia is ragged and ill-equipped. The battle of 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 quantities to the Confederates.

The name of the weapon is the AK-47.

"As a Civil War historian, I literally could not put The Guns of the South down. It is absolutely unique--without question the most fascinating Civil War novel I have ever read. Harry Turtledove knows his Civil War. And best of all, The Guns of the South is not simply great entertainment; it is also a serious and successful effort to come to grips with the central issues of the war. It is must reading for every Civil War student."
--Professor James M. McPherson, Edwards Professor of American History, Princeton University; Author of Pulitzer Prize-winning Battle Cry of Freedom [via]
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His Majesty's Dragon
by Naomi Novik

ISBN 0345481283 (0-345-48128-3)
Softcover, Ballantine Books

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Book summary:
Aerial combat brings a thrilling new dimension to the Napoleonic Wars as valiant warriors rise to Britain's defense by taking to the skies . . . not aboard aircraft but atop the mighty backs of fighting dragons.When HMS Reliant captures a French frigate and seizes its precious cargo, an unhatched dragon egg, fate sweeps Capt. Will Laurence from his seafaring life into an uncertain future-and an unexpected kinship with a most extraordinary creature. Thrust into the rarified world of the Aerial Corps as master of the dragon Temeraire, he will face a crash course in the daring tactics of airborne battle. For as France's own dragon-borne forces rally to breach British soil in Bonaparte's boldest gambit, Laurence and Temeraire must soar into their own baptism of fire. [via]
More editions of His Majesty's Dragon:
- His Majesty's Dragon: ISBN 0345481283 (0-345-48128-3)
  Softcover, Ballantine Books
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How Few Remain
by Harry Turtledove

ISBN 0345406141 (0-345-40614-1)
Softcover, Ballantine Books

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Book summary:
From the master of alternate history comes an epic of the Second Civil War. 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.

Once again, Harry Turtledove has created a thoroughly engrossing alternate history novel, a profoundly original epic of blood and honor, courage and sacrifice, set amidst the raw beauty of young America's frontier wilderness. [via]
More editions of How Few Remain:
- How Few Remain: ISBN 0345416619 (0-345-41661-9)
  Hardcover, Random House Publishing Group
- How Few Remain: ISBN 0345406141 (0-345-40614-1)
  Softcover, Ballantine Books
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Island in the Sea of Time
by S. M. Stirling

ISBN 0451456750 (0-451-45675-0)
Softcover, Roc

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Book summary:
It's spring on Nantucket and everything is perfectly normal, until a sudden storm blankets the entire island. When the weather clears, the island's inhabitants find that they are no longer in the late twentieth century...but have been transported instead to the Bronze Age! Now they must learn to survive with suspicious, warlike peoples they can barely understand and deal with impending disaster, in the shape of a would-be conqueror from their own time.
[via]
More editions of Island in the Sea of Time:
- Island in the Sea of Time: ISBN 0451456750 (0-451-45675-0)
  Softcover, Roc
Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell
by Susanna Clarke

ISBN 1582346038 (1-58234-603-8)
Softcover, Bloomsbury Pub Plc USA

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Book summary:
It's 1808 and that Corsican upstart Napoleon is battering the English army and navy. Enter Mr. Norrell, a fusty but ambitious scholar from the Yorkshire countryside and the first practical magician in hundreds of years. What better way to demonstrate his revival of British magic than to change the course of the Napoleonic wars? Susanna Clarke's ingenious first novel, Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, has the cleverness and lightness of touch of the Harry Potter series, but is less a fairy tale of good versus evil than a fantastic comedy of manners, complete with elaborate false footnotes, occasional period spellings, and a dense, lively mythology teeming beneath the narrative. Mr. Norrell moves to London to establish his influence in government circles, devising such powerful illusions as an 11-day blockade of French ports by English ships fabricated from rainwater. But however skillful his magic, his vanity provides an Achilles heel, and the differing ambitions of his more glamorous apprentice, Jonathan Strange, threaten to topple all that Mr. Norrell has achieved. A sparkling debut from Susanna Clarke--and it's not all fairy dust. --Regina Marler [via]
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Lost in a Good Book
by Jasper Fforde

ISBN 0670031909 (0-670-03190-9)
Hardcover, Penguin Group USA

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If Thursday thought she could avoid the spotlight after her heroic escapades in the pages of Jane Eyre, she was sorely mistaken. The unforgettable literary detective whom Michiko Kakutani of The New York Times calls "part Bridget Jones, part Nancy Drew and part Dirty Harry" had another think coming. The love of her life has been eradicated by Goliath, everyone's favorite corrupt multinational. To rescue him Thursday must retrieve a supposedly vanquished enemy from the pages of "The Raven." But Poe is off-limits to even the most seasoned literary interloper. Enter a professional: the man-hating Miss Havisham from Dickens's Great Expectations. As her new apprentice, Thursday keeps her motives secret as she learns the ropes of Jurisfiction, where she moonlights as a Prose Resource Operative inside books. As if jumping into the likes of Kafka, Austen, and Beatrix Potter's Tale of the Flopsy Bunnies weren't enough, Thursday finds herself the target of a series of potentially lethal coincidences, the authenticator of a newly discovered play by the Bard himself, and the only one who can prevent an unidentifiable pink sludge from engulfing all life on Earth.

The inventive, exuberant, and totally original literary fun that began with The Eyre Affair continues with Fforde's magnificent new adventure, the second installment in what is sure to become a classic series of literary fantasy. [via]
More editions of Lost in a Good Book:
- Lost in a Good Book: ISBN 0670031909 (0-670-03190-9)
  Hardcover, Penguin Group USA
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The Man in the High Castle
by Philip K. Dick

ISBN 0679740678 (0-679-74067-8)
Softcover, Random House Inc

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Book summary:
It's America in 1962. Slavery is legal once again. The few Jews who still survive hide under assumed names. In San Francisco the I Ching is as common as the Yellow Pages. All because some 20 years earlier the United States lost a war - and is now occupied jointly by Nazi Germany and Japan. This harrowing, Hugo Award-winning novel is the work that established Philip K. Dick as an innovator in science fiction while breaking the barrier between science fiction and the serious novel of ideas. In it Dick offers a haunting vision of history as a nightmare from which it may just be possible to awake. [via]
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Pastwatch
by Orson Scott Card

ISBN 0812508645 (0-8125-0864-5)
Softcover, Tor Books

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Anyone who's read Lies My Teacher Told Me : Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong knows about the devastating consequences that Columbus's voyage and ensuing colonization had on the native people of the Americas and Africa. In a thought-provoking work that is part science fiction, part historical drama, Orson Scott Card writes about scientists in a fearful future who study that tragic past, then attempt to actually intervene and change it into something better.
Tagiri and Hassan are members of Pastwatch, an academic organization that uses machines to see into the past and record it. Their project focuses on slavery and its dreadful effects, and gradually evolves into a study of Christopher Columbus. They eventually marry and their daughter Diko joins them in their quest to discover what drove Columbus west.
Columbus, with whom readers become acquainted through both images in the Pastwatch machines and personal narrative, is portrayed as a religious man with both strengths and weaknesses, a charismatic leader who sometimes rose above but often fell beneath the mores of his times. As usual, Orson Scott Card uses his formidable writing skills to create likable, complex characters who face gripping problems; he also provides an entertaining and thoughtful history lesson in Pastwatch. --Bonnie Bouman [via]
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Pavane
by Keith Roberts

ISBN 0575061030 (0-575-06103-0)
Softcover, Victor Gollancz

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An ever-expanding subgenre of science fiction is devoted to "alternate worlds" or "alternate histories": fiction in which a crucial event goes differently than in the world we know, and history is changed. Keith Roberts's Pavane (1968) is set in a backward 20th century molded by the assassination of Queen Elizabeth I and the triumph of a militantly antiscience Catholic Church. This is a classic alternate history, in the same company as such highly regarded novels as L. Sprague De Camp's seminal Lest Darkness Fall (1941), in which a modern man slips back in time and attempts to avert the Dark Ages; Ward Moore's Bring the Jubilee (1953), set after the South wins the U.S. Civil War; and Philip K. Dick's The Man in the High Castle (1962), set after the Germans and Japanese win World War II. Lest Darkness Fall and The Man in the High Castle are justly famous; the other two classics, Bring the Jubilee and Pavane, are less well known, and that is a shame.
One reason for Pavane's relative obscurity among American SF readers might be its British setting and author (the Moore and Dick novels are both set in the U.S., and De Camp, Moore, and Dick were all American). Another reason might be that Pavane is a novel created from interrelated but standalone stories (six "measures," or novelettes, and a coda), and the stories are of varying quality. Most are wise, beautifully written, and intensely visualized, especially the opener, "The Lady Margaret," and the closer, "Corfe Gate"; but "Brother John," the story of the monk-artist who witnesses Inquisition tortures and sparks an anti-Church rebellion, is far less detailed, and sometimes even unclear. Another reason for the novel's obscurity may be that some of the stories/chapters have more of a fantasy feel than is typical of more recent alternate history. Also, the nature of the coda's revelations may put off some readers. Nonetheless, Pavane is an intelligent, powerful, and moving work, deserving of a wide readership. --Cynthia Ward [via]
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The Peshawar Lancers
by S. M. Stirling

ISBN 0451458737 (0-451-45873-7)
Softcover, Roc

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Book summary:
A DIFFERENT PAST... A spray of comets freezes human progress in the 1870s. A STRANGE PRESENT... Now the British Empire and All the Russias each rule half the world. A DANGEROUS FUTURE... Everyone predicts a showdown-but no one can predict the role that one man, spy and hero, double and triple agent, will play... [via]
More editions of The Peshawar Lancers:
- The Peshawar Lancers: ISBN 0451458486 (0-451-45848-6)
  Hardcover, Penguin Group (USA) Incorporated
- The Peshawar Lancers: ISBN 0451458737 (0-451-45873-7)
  Softcover, Roc
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The Plot Against America
by Philip Roth

ISBN 1400079497 (1-4000-7949-7)
Softcover, Random House Inc

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Book summary:
"What if" scenarios are often suspect. They are sometimes thinly veiled tales of the gospel according to the author, taking on the claustrophobic air of a personal fantasia that can't be shared. Such is not the case with Philip Roth's tour de force, The Plot Against America. It is a credible, fully-realized picture of what could happen anywhere, at any time, if the right people and circumstances come together.
The Plot Against America explores a wholly imagined thesis and sees it through to the end: Charles A. Lindbergh defeats FDR for the Presidency in 1940. Lindbergh, the "Lone Eagle," captured the country's imagination by his solo Atlantic crossing in 1927 in the monoplane, Spirit of St. Louis, then had the country's sympathy upon the kidnapping and murder of his young son. He was a true American hero: brave, modest, handsome, a patriot. According to some reliable sources, he was also a rabid isolationist, Nazi sympathizer, and a crypto-fascist. It is these latter attributes of Lindbergh that inform the novel.
The story is framed in Roth's own family history: the family flat in Weequahic, the neighbors, his parents, Bess and Herman, his brother, Sandy and seven-year-old Philip. Jewishness is always the scrim through which Roth examines American contemporary culture. His detractors say that he sees persecution everywhere, that he is vigilant in "Keeping faith with the certainty of Jewish travail"; his less severe critics might cavil about his portrayal of Jewish mothers and his sexual obsession, but generally give him good marks, and his fans read every word he writes and heap honors upon him. This novel will engage and satisfy every camp.
"Fear presides over these memories, a perpetual fear. Of course, no childhood is without its terrors, yet I wonder if I would have been a less frightened boy if Lindbergh hadn't been president or if I hadn't been the offspring of Jews." This is the opening paragraph of the book, which sets the stage and tone for all that follows. Fear is palpable throughout; fear of things both real and imagined. A central event of the novel is the relocation effort made through the Office of American Absorption, a government program whereby Jews would be placed, family by family, across the nation, thereby breaking up their neighborhoods--ghettos--and removing them from each other and from any kind of ethnic solidarity. The impact this edict has on Philip and all around him is horrific and life-changing. Throughout the novel, Roth interweaves historical names such as Walter Winchell, who tries to run against Lindbergh. The twist at the end is more than surprising--it is positively ingenious.
Roth has written a magnificent novel, arguably his best work in a long time. It is tempting to equate his scenario with current events, but resist, resist. Of course it is a cautionary tale, but, beyond that, it is a contribution to American letters by a man working at the top of his powers. --Valerie Ryan [via]
More editions of The Plot Against America:
- The Plot Against America: ISBN 0618509283 (0-618-50928-3)
  Hardcover, Houghton Mifflin
- The Plot Against America: ISBN 1400079497 (1-4000-7949-7)
  Softcover, Random House Inc
Prentice Alvin
by Orson Scott Card

ISBN 0812502124 (0-8125-0212-4)
Softcover, St Martins Pr

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- Prentice Alvin: ISBN 0312931417 (0-312-93141-7)
  Hardcover, St Martins Pr
- Prentice Alvin: ISBN 0812502124 (0-8125-0212-4)
  Softcover, St Martins Pr
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Quicksilver
by Neal Stephenson

ISBN 0060593083 (0-06-059308-3)
Softcover, Harpercollins

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Book summary:
In Quicksilver, the first volume of the "Baroque Cycle," Neal Stephenson launches his most ambitious work to date. The novel, divided into three books, opens in 1713 with the ageless Enoch Root seeking Daniel Waterhouse on the campus of what passes for MIT in eighteenth-century Massachusetts. Daniel, Enoch's message conveys, is key to resolving an explosive scientific battle of preeminence between Isaac Newton and Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz over the development of calculus. As Daniel returns to London aboard the Minerva, readers are catapulted back half a century to recall his years at Cambridge with young Isaac. Daniel is a perfect historical witness. Privy to Robert Hooke's early drawings of microscope images and with associates among the English nobility, religious radicals, and the Royal Society, he also befriends Samuel Pepys, risks a cup of coffee, and enjoys a lecture on Belgian waffles and cleavage-all before the year 1700.
In the second book, Stephenson introduces Jack Shaftoe and Eliza. "Half-Cocked" Jack (also know as the "King of the Vagabonds") recovers the English Eliza from a Turkish harem. Fleeing the siege of Vienna, the two journey across Europe driven by Eliza's lust for fame, fortune, and nobility. Gradually, their circle intertwines with that of Daniel in the third book of the novel.
The book courses with Stephenson's scholarship but is rarely bogged down in its historical detail. Stephenson is especially impressive in his ability to represent dialogue over the evolving worldview of seventeenth-century scientists and enliven the most abstruse explanation of theory. Though replete with science, the novel is as much about the complex struggles for political ascendancy and the workings of financial markets. Further, the novel's literary ambitions match its physical size. Stephenson narrates through epistolary chapters, fragments of plays and poems, journal entries, maps, drawings, genealogic tables, and copious contemporary epigrams. But, caught in this richness, the prose is occasionally neglected and wants editing. Further, anticipating a cycle, the book does not provide a satisfying conclusion to its 900 pages. These are minor quibbles, though. Stephenson has matched ambition to execution, and his faithful, durable readers will be both entertained and richly rewarded with a practicum in Baroque science, cypher, culture, and politics. --Patrick O'Kelley [via]
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Red Prophet
by Orson Scott Card

ISBN 0812524268 (0-8125-2426-8)
Softcover, Tor Books

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Book summary:
The first tale of Alvin Maker, "Seventh Son", introduced people to a very familiar but just slightly different pioneer America where magic works, and many people have special talents. In "Red Prophet", listeners learn more about those talents, both the minor gifts of the white people and the much grander gifts of the Indians. Abridged. November '98 publication date. [via]
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Ruled Britannia
by Harry Turtledove

ISBN 0451460847 (0-451-46084-7)
Softcover, Roc

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Book summary:
The year is 1597. For nearly a decade, the island of Britain has been under the rule of King Philip in the name of Spain. With Queen Elizabeth imprisoned in the Tower of London, the British have no one to unite them against the enemy who occupies their land.

No one, that is, except William Shakespeare, a playwright presented with the opportunity to pen his greatest work, a drama that will incite the people of Britain to rise against their persecutors-and change the course of history. [via]
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- Ruled Britannia: ISBN 0451460847 (0-451-46084-7)
  Softcover, Roc
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Seventh Son
by Orson Scott Card

ISBN 0812533054 (0-8125-3305-4)
Softcover, St Martins Pr

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Book summary:
From the author of Enders Game, an unforgettable story about young Alvin Maker: the seventh son of a seventh son. Born into an alternative frontier America where life is hard and folk magic is real, Alvin is gifted with the power. He must learn to use his gift wisely. But dark forces are arrayed against Alvin, and only a young girl with second sight can protect him.
[via]
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Tales of Alvin Maker
by Orson Scott Card, Renato Arlem

ISBN 0976401126 (0-9764011-2-6)
Softcover, Dabel Brothers Prod Llc

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- Tales of Alvin Maker: ISBN 0976401126 (0-9764011-2-6)
  Softcover, Dabel Brothers Prod Llc
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Throne of Jade
by Naomi Novik

ISBN 0345481291 (0-345-48129-1)
Softcover, Del Rey

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Book summary:
When Britain intercepted a French ship and its precious cargoan unhatched dragons eggCapt. Will Laurence of HMS Reliant unexpectedly became master and commander of the noble dragon he named Temeraire. As new recruits in Britains Aerial Corps, man and dragon soon proved their mettle in daring combat against Bonapartes invading forces.

Now China has discovered that its rare gift, intended for Napoleon, has fallen into British handsand an angry Chinese delegation vows to reclaim the remarkable beast. But Laurence refuses to cooperate. Facing the gallows for his defiance, Laurence has no choice but to accompany Temeraire back to the Far Easta long voyage fraught with peril, intrigue, and the untold terrors of the deep. Yet once the pair reaches the court of the Chinese emperor, even more shocking discoveries and darker dangers await. [via]
More editions of Throne of Jade:
- Throne of Jade: ISBN 0345481291 (0-345-48129-1)
  Softcover, Del Rey
The Victorious Opposition
by Harry Turtledove

ISBN 0345405668 (0-345-40566-8)
Softcover, Ballantine Books

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Book summary:
AMERICAN EMPIRE: BOOK TWO

In this spectacular, thought-provoking epic of alternate history, Harry Turtledove has created an unparalleled vision of social upheaval, war, and cutthroat politics in a world very much like our ownbut with dramatic differences.

It is 1924a time of rebuilding, from the slow reconstruction of Washingtons 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. . . .

From the Hardcover edition. [via]
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Worldwar
by Harry Turtledove

ISBN 0345388526 (0-345-38852-6)
Softcover, Ballantine Books

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Book summary:
Communist China, Japan, Nazi Germany, the United States: they began World War II as mortal enemies. But suddenly their only hope for survival--never mind victory--was to unite to stop a mighty foe--one whose frightening technology appeared invincible.

Far worse beings than the Nazis were loose. From Warsaw to Moscow to China's enemy-occupied Forbidden City, the nations of the world had been forced into an uneasy alliance since humanity began its struggle against overwhelming odds. In Britain and Germany, where the banshee wail of hostile jets screamed across the land, caches of once-forbidden weapons were unearthed, and unthinkable tactics were employed against the enemy. Brilliantly innovative military strategists confronted challenges unprecedented in the history of warfare.

Even as lack of fuel forced people back to horse and carriage, physicists worked feverishly to create the first atomic bombs--with horrifying results. City after city joined the radioactive pyre as the planet erupted in fiery ruins. Yet the crisis continued--on land, sea, and in the air--as humanity writhed in global combat. 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? [via]
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Worldwar : In the Balance
by Harry Turtledove

ISBN 034542056X (0-345-42056-X)
Softcover, Random House Publishing Group

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More editions of Worldwar : In the Balance:
- Worldwar : In the Balance: ISBN 034542056X (0-345-42056-X)
  Softcover, Random House Publishing Group
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Worldwar : Striking the Balance
by Harry Turtledove

ISBN 0345405501 (0-345-40550-1)
Hardcover, Random House Publishing Group

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Book summary:
WORLDWAR: BOOK 4
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 an even fiercer foe: a seemingly invincible power bent on world domination.
With awesome technology, the aggressors swept across the planet, sowing destruction as Tokyo, Berlin, and Washington, D.C., were A-bombed into submission. Russia, Nazi Germany, Japan and the U.S. were not easily cowed, however. With cunning and incredible daring, they pressed every advantage against the invader's superior strength, and, led by Stalin, began to detonate their own atom bombs in retaliation.
City after city explodes in radioactive firestorms, and fears grow as the worldwide resources disappear; will there be any world left for the invaders to conquer, or for the uneasy allies to defend?
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 in this battle to stave off world domination, unless the once-great military powers take the risk of annihilating the human race, they'll risk losing the war.
The fatal, final deadline arrives in Harry Turtledove's grand, smashing finale to the Worldwar series, as uneasy allies desperately seek a way out of a no-win, no-survival situation: a way to live free in a world that may soon be bombed into atomic oblivion. [via]
More editions of Worldwar : Striking the Balance:
- Worldwar : Striking the Balance: ISBN 0345405501 (0-345-40550-1)
  Hardcover, Random House Publishing Group
Worldwar : Upsetting the Balance
by Harry Turtledove

ISBN 0345420586 (0-345-42058-6)
Softcover, Random House Publishing Group

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More editions of Worldwar : Upsetting the Balance:
- Worldwar : Upsetting the Balance: ISBN 0345420586 (0-345-42058-6)
  Softcover, Random House Publishing Group
The Years of Rice and Salt
by Kim Stanley Robinson

ISBN 0553580078 (0-553-58007-8)
Softcover, Spectra

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Book summary:
Award-winning author Kim Stanley Robinson delivers a thoughtful and powerful examination of cultures and the people who shape them. How might human history be different if 14th-century Europe was utterly wiped out by plague, and Islamic and Buddhist societies emerged as the world's dominant religious and political forces? The Years of Rice and Salt considers this question through the stories of individuals who experience and influence various crucial periods in the seven centuries that follow. The credible alternate history that Robinson constructs becomes the framework for a tapestry of ideas about philosophy, science, theology, and politics.
At the heart of the story are fundamental questions: what is the purpose of life and death? Are we eternal? Do our choices matter? The particular achievement of this book is that it weaves these threads into a story that is both intellectually and emotionally engaging. This is a highly recommended, challenging, and ambitious work. --Roz Genessee [via]
More editions of The Years of Rice and Salt:
- The Years of Rice and Salt: ISBN 0553109200 (0-553-10920-0)
  Hardcover, Bantam Books
- The Years of Rice and Salt: ISBN 0553580078 (0-553-58007-8)
  Softcover, Spectra