Best of
Alternate-History

2017

Lost Legio IX


Marc Alan Edelheit - 2017
     One of history’s greatest mysteries, the Ninth Imperial Legion guarding Rome’s northernmost frontier in Britannia disappeared around the year 122 AD. This is their story. Badly outnumbered, facing certain destruction, and cut off from supply, the Imperial Roman Ninth Legion Hispana is in a desperate position. Surrounded by the hostile Celtic army, Senior Centurion Lucious Grackus Lisidus Karus must lead his men to safety after unexpectedly finding himself thrust into command of the legion. Then the unthinkable happens. Karus and the Ninth are transported to a strange place, far away from the Britannia they knew. The legion’s deliverance from danger at first appears to be a blessing from the gods, but slowly they begin to uncover the secrets of this new land, a world that is slowly being overrun by a terrible evil. A young woman is discovered in a dungeon, where she has been abandoned and left to starve. Inextricably linked with Karus’ own destiny, she may be the key to salvation, or worse, the instrument of destruction for the Ninth. Cast adrift in a terrible war, Karus must find his way through the mysteries of this unfamiliar world, one that is filled with true magic, strange alien races, evil gods, and dragons. More importantly, Karus must discover his destiny, and complete a desperate task set for him by a god of Rome. Should he fail, it will mean certain destruction for the Ninth, the triumph of evil, and the rise of a new order. Lost Legio IX is the first book in this exciting series. ‘For these I set no bounds in space or time; but have given empire without end.’ —Jupiter, Virgil’s Aeneid.

Tales from the Loop: Roleplaying in the '80s That Never Was


Nils Hintze - 2017
    The facility was complete in 1969, located deep below the pastoral countryside of Mälaröarna. The local population called this marvel of technology The Loop.Acclaimed scifi artist Simon Stålenhag’s paintings of Swedish 1980s suburbia, populated by fantastic machines and strange beasts, have spread like wildfire on the Internet. Stålenhag’s portrayal of a childhood against a backdrop of old Volvo cars and coveralls, combined with strange and mystical machines, creates a unique atmosphere that is both instantly recognizable and utterly alien.Now, for the first time, YOU will get the chance to step into the amazing world of the Loop. With your help, we will be able to create a beautiful printed RPG book about the Tales from the Loop.This game is our third international RPG, after the critically acclaimed Mutant: Year Zero and Coriolis - The Third Horizon. The lead writer is the seasoned Swedish game writer Nils Hintze, backed up by the entire Free League team who handle project management, editing, and graphic design.Additional writing in the game will be done by the award-winning and best-selling game writer and author Matt Forbeck, with twenty-seven novels and countless games published to date. Matt will be writing the alternative US campaign setting (read more below).All art in the game is of course done by Simon Stålenhag himself. Most of the art will be drawn from the pages of the Tales from the Loop artbook - many scenarios in the game are based directly on illustrations in the artbook - but the RPG will contain some new original art as well, including the cover image.

Empire Games


Charles Stross - 2017
    It's seventeen years since the Revolution overthrew the last king of the New British Empire, and the newly-reconstituted North American Commonwealth is developing rapidly, on course to defeat the French and bring democracy to a troubled world. But Miriam Burgeson, commissioner in charge of the shadowy Ministry of Intertemporal Research and Intelligence—the paratime espionage agency tasked with catalyzing the Commonwealth's great leap forward--has a problem. For years, she's warned everyone: "The Americans are coming." Now their drones arrive in the middle of a succession crisis—the leader of the American Commonwealth is dying and the vultures are circling. In another timeline, the U.S. has recruited Rita, Miriam's estranged daughter, to spy across timelines and bring down any remaining world-walkers who might threaten national security. But her handlers are keeping information from her.Two nuclear superpowers are set on a collision course. Two increasingly desperate paratime espionage agencies are fumbling around in the dark, trying to find a solution to the first contact problem that doesn't result in a nuclear holocaust. And two women—a mother and her long-lost, adopted daughter—are about to find themselves on opposite sides of the confrontation.

A Prophet Without Honor: A Novel of Alternative History


Joseph Wurtenbaugh - 2017
    Written in epistolary style and populated with interesting, fully-realized characters, the multi-general narrative is a seamless blend of authentic fact and sound speculation. The plot focuses on the one great, unrealized opportunity of the Twentieth Century. In the first months of 1936, Adolf Hitler risked everything by ordering his untrained military to reoccupy the Rhineland. It was a bluff. The Germans would have been forced to retreat if the French or British had offered the slightest opposition. But the bluff succeeded. History changed decisively. Hitler quieted the opposition at home, and marched the world relentlessly on, to the edge of destruction and beyond. The story examines that lost chance in detail. The result is a compelling story full of intrigue, danger, romance, and action, culminating in the reckoning that Hitler might have faced, had events taken a different course. It is a celebration of ordinary integrity and the enduring power of simple good will - even in times when honesty is the most dangerous virtue of all and the effects of good will seem lost in obscurity.

Stalin's Hammer 1-3


John Birmingham - 2017
    The great Soviet engines of state power turn and burn to ‘set history right’. Not just of the war, but of all future time.In Rome with his lover Julia Duffy, an older, mellower Prince Harry is drawn into Stalin’s plans when a simple game of spies goes horribly wrong. Underneath the eternal city, former Spetsnaz officer Pavel Ivanov fights a running battle with the NKVD’s executioner-in-chief as Stalin’s minions fight to preserve the secret of a weapon that could destroy the West with one, fearsome blow.Moving from Rome to Paris to Cairo, Harry and the uptimers must fight a shadow war against the communist superstate and the suspicion and prejudices of their forebears. They can save world, but world does not want saving by the likes of them.

Fighting Her Father's War: The FIghting Tomcats


M.L. Maki - 2017
    But when her aircraft carrier, the USS Carl Vinson, travels back in time to 1941, she must not only fight for her right to fly the world's best fighter plane, she must also fight in the opening air battles of World War II. She must fight her father's war.

Forget the Alamo!


Drew McGunn - 2017
    Alive is good. Except he finds himself at the Alamo in 1836 in the body of another man doomed to die. If history repeats itself, Santa Anna is coming soon and the Alamo will fall, along with himself and 189 others. In a race against time itself, Will uses his knowledge of the future to change the past. He will use every means necessary, even if it means abandoning the fort. He is determined to forget the Alamo!

Surveyor: Book 1 in the Corps of Discovery Series


James S. Peet - 2017
    EXPERIENCE ADVENTURE IN FARAWAY LANDS On worlds where humans never evolved, one organization exists for the sole purpose of exploration – the Corps of Discovery. Using technology to open gateways to parallel Earths, the Corps sends teams out to explore alternate timelines for settlement by Earth’s burgeoning population. Not everyone wants to see new worlds explored, though. The Gaia Liberation Front, a shadowy terrorist organization is bent on stopping humans from expanding into “unsullied worlds.” Bill Clark joins the Corps for adventure, independence from Earth’s ever-growing security state, and to explore new planets. He soon finds himself exploring new worlds with Meri Lewis, daughter of the Corps’ Commandant. Unaware of the GLF’s plans to shut down the gates, Bill and Meri soon learn that adventure means someone else in danger in a faraway land, and they’re definitely on an adventure.

The Magestic Trilogy, Series 1 - Book 1 of 18: Time travel, espionage, war, alternate history series


Geoff Wolak - 2017
    The traveller makes money from the stock markets using his knowledge of the future, the world's intelligence agencies chasing him. He must discredit certain politicians before they take office, prevent a few wars, deal with oil and the petrol-dollar crisis, plagues and terror attacks, a steady course to steer for 40 years or more, failure meaning disaster for mankind. He raises an army, an army ready to take on the Muslim Brotherhood and to try and contain them in the Middle East, It is a very long series, 1.7m words, approx. 4,500 pages. Written in 2009, the book contains a great deal of politics, history and suspense, and it predicted the rise of ISIL. The second book in the series sees the traveller and his team go back to 1920, to avert the Second World War, to deal with the rise of communism after the war. But timelines merge with a disastrous outcome. Book three sees the traveller and his team on a post-apocalyptic parallel world, apparently populated by aliens, but things are not what they seem, and mankind has had hand in his own downfall.

MacArthur's Luck: The race for Berlin is on! (The Fortunes of War)


Steven H. Newton - 2017
    His successor as US Army Chief of Staff, General Douglas MacArthur, flies halfway around the world to butt heads with Josef Stalin and change history.When MacArthur relieves General Dwight D. Eisenhower from command in Europe, the Anglo-Allied advance devolves into a free-for-all as competing armies race for Berlin, and the changes echo across the globe. Here are just a few of the highlights from MacArthur’s Luck:Captain Jackie Robinson leads an armored task force across the Rhine. ...Major Barry Goldwater fire-bombs Tokyo. ...Commander Robert Heinlein struggles to save his wounded ship from kamikazes off Okinawa. ...Field Marshals Georgi Zhukov and Ivan Konev clash on the road to Berlin. ...SS-Obergruppenfuehrer Karl Wolff dares everything to negotiate a separate surrender to the Americans. ...Populated by a cast of realistic characters who will take you inside the American, German, Soviet, and Japanese military machines, and meticulously researched by a well-known military historian, MacArthur’s Luck opens The Fortunes of War series, exploring a world both tantalizingly like our own, but also dramatically different.Half the fun is figuring out what’s real, and what’s not.

Delta Green: Handler's Guide


Dennis Detwiller - 2017
    This massive, full-color volume is filled with deep resources just for the Delta Green game master.THE PAST: details on the world and history of Delta Green.THE UNNATURAL: details on the Cthulhu Mythos, from monsters to hypergeometry to the Great Old Ones, including rules for creating new threats.THE SCHISM: deep details on the Delta Green organization itself — or rather, two different Delta Green groups, not always working to the same ends.THE OPERA: guidelines for creating scenarios, running campaigns, and customizing the setting.APPENDICES: a ready-to-play scenario, “The Sentinels of Twilight,” a Handler-facing glossary, index, recommended media, sample NPCs to use in any game, rules variants, and more.

Golden Age and Other Stories


Naomi Novik - 2017
    Fans missing their favorite series can now rejoice: Novik returns with an original Temeraire collection as unique as the world she has created, with each tale inspired by an accompanying piece of fan art. The Temeraire novels provide a window into an alternate nineteenth century populated with Novik’s own richly human and unforgettably draconic characters as they adventure alongside well-known historical figures. That tradition continues here. Readers will delight at appearances by fan-favorite characters from the series and historical figures like the famed explorer Matteo Ricci. In “Planting Season,” Novik shows us an early glimpse of American dragon John Wampanoag at Boston Harbor. “Golden Age” finds a dragon who believes he remembers being called Celeste hatch from a shipwreck-tossed crate onto an island where he meets others of his kind. But other famous fictional characters are to be discovered here as well. Readers will certainly recognize a certain Miss Bennet (here Captain Bennet) and her suitor, Mr. Darcy, in “Dragons and Decorum.” Filled with the inventive world-building, rich detail, sparkling wit, and deep emotion that readers have come to expect from Novik’s work, Golden Age and Other Stories is a treasure at home on any Temeraire-lover’s bookshelf.

The Battle for England


Bernard Neeson - 2017
    The RAF is on the verge of defeat, the Royal Navy near mutiny.In an underground bunker, Churchill and the British commanders await the onslaught. Their plan to throw back Hitler's army is about to be put to the test.Churchill is confident they can throw back the enemy.But not all his enemies are abroad.

That One Cigarette


Stu Krieger - 2017
    In November '63, Ed Callahan is an assistant manager at the Texas School Book Depository in Dallas. His promise to his wife to quit smoking as soon as he finishes the pack in his pocket ends up changing the course of events on November 22. The fallout of this action alters the lives of the Scott family in Rochester, New York, the Kaufman/Goldman family in Los Angeles and the extended Kashat family in Baghdad, Iraq. That One Cigarette delves into questions of fate, love, loyalty, and validates the ability of each of us to make defining contributions to our world by simply being present in our own lives.

Untimely Designs (Yesterdays War Book 2)


Gerald Hall - 2017
    Harold Cavill travelled back in time to try to change history to prevent the war in 2040 that caused man's extinction. At first, it was hard to tell if Harold's efforts have even made a real difference at all. But as the war raged in Europe and the Pacific, some dramatic differences in the course of history began to appear. But will the changes that Harold has inspired made humanity's future safer or even less uncertain?

Love and Chemistry


Jack Carroll - 2017
     For down-timer Matthias Ehrenhardt it is certainly true. His life begins inauspiciously at the loss of his home and family but the plucky young man does not give up. Instead, he takes his chances at the new university to study engineering. Only one thing worries Matthias. He has loved the gentle Dora all his life and he suspects she loves him in return. But will her father let her wait for a penniless orphan who is dedicating himself to engineering? Up-timers may think highly of engineering but Dora's father is not so sure. The education Matthias gets in engineering is almost as astounding as the one he gets living and studying wth the Up-timer students. Love and Chemistry is the story of one young man's education in chemistry, life and love. Parts of this novel originally appeared in The Grantville Gazette as The Apprentice.

Fortune and Glory (The Change)


John Birmingham - 2017
    Set in S.M. Stirling’s epic storyworld of The Change, ‘Fortune and Glory’ drops readers into the dead heart of post-apocalyptic Sydney.

Witchy Eye


D.J. Butler - 2017
    None of that matters to Sarah. She has a natural talent for hexing and one bad eye, and all she wants is to be left alone—especially by outsiders.But Sarah’s world gets turned on its head at the Nashville Tobacco Fair when a Yankee wizard-priest tries to kidnap her. Sarah fights back with the aid of a mysterious monk named Thalanes, who is one of the not-quite-human Firstborn, the Moundbuilders of the Ohio. It is Thalanes who reveals to Sarah a secret heritage she never dreamed could be hers.Now on a desperate quest with Thalanes to claim this heritage, she is hunted by the Emperor’s bodyguard of elite dragoons, as well as by darker things—shapeshifting Mockers and undead Lazars, and behind them a power more sinister still. If Sarah cannot claim her heritage, it may mean the end to her, her family—and to the world where she is just beginning to find her place.

Dying to be Roman


E.M. Swift-Hook - 2017
    But when a Roman dies the authorities take notice and it falls to our heroes to discover why and by whom, before the killer strikes again... Imagine a Britain where Rome never left and a reformed Empire has ruled for two millennia. Technology is a bit more advanced in the present day - and a bit different - but people are the much the same. Meet Dai, a Briton and a hard-working Investigator trying to solve a brutal string of murders and Julia, a Roman Inquisitor, sent to pour oil on troublesome provincial waters when a Roman citizen joins the body count.

Carina


Alison Morton - 2017
    Disgraced and smarting from a period in the cells for a disciplinary offence, she is sent out of everybody's way on a seemingly straightforward mission overseas. All she and her comrade-in-arms, Flavius, have to do is bring back a traitor from the Republic of Quebec. Under no circumstances will she risk entering the Eastern United States where she is still wanted under her old name Karen Brown. But when she investigates further she discovers a conspiracy that reaches to the highest levels of Roma Nova. What price is personal danger against fulfilling the mission?This part mystery, part detective story is Roman fiction brought up to the present through alternate history. Set in the time after INCEPTIO but before PERFIDITAS in the Roma Nova series, this short military adventure reveals hidden parts of Carina's early life in Roma Nova. And North America isn't quite the continent we know in our timeline.A gripping thriller with a difference and a dip into the Roman historical fiction world. If you enjoy reading mystery books for women featuring a female protagonist with heart and courage, this could be for you!

The Witch Who Came In From The Cold: The Complete Season 2


Lindsay Smith - 2017
    The Witch Who Came In From The Cold follows agents on opposing sides of two struggles: the Cold War, and an ancient conflict between two occult secret societies: the Consortium of Ice and the Acolytes of Flame. A CIA and KGB agent will find their loyalties to country tested when they realize they must work together to prevent the destruction of the world at the hands of the Flame.Gabe Pritchard, grizzled CIA agent and proud American never believed in sorcery--until he walked into the wrong room in Cairo and ended up with a powerful magical Elemental living inside his head. Tanya Morozova, latest in a long line of Ice Witches, knew loyalty to the Consortium before she ever took up the KGB badge. Now they're both stationed to Prague, a city built on powerful ley lines and thrumming with both political and magical tension.In Season One, a CIA extraction of a Soviet scientist ended in chaos when one of the American operatives betrayed the U.S. in order to deliver the magically-powerful scientist to the Flame. Tanya and Gabe worked together to foil the plot--but trust is hard to come by amongst spies and suspicion lingers throughout their agencies, both magical and national.In Season Two, Tanya and Gabe must deal with the fallout of their actions from Season One as each plays their own dangerous game to try to learn the secrets of the Flame without getting burned. Meanwhile a powerful sorcerer arrives in Prague to lead a ritual that could turn the tides of war.

No Gods, Only Daimons


Kai Wai Cheah - 2017
     The post-World War III world is a radically different place where magic and technology have become one in the violent struggle for global influence between nations. The rising powers of Persia and Musafiria are challenging the longtime dominance of the weakened Western powers, as the increasing use of magic provides them with a more level playing field. Supernatural creatures from other planes are summoned and wielded as readily as machine guns and explosives by the special forces of the rival militaries, the most deadly of which are the elite contractors for the Nemesis Program. Both conventionally and unconventionally trained, the Nemesis Program is the hidden blade of the Hesperian National Intelligence and Security Agency, a weapon as lethal as it is deniable. But although they are given considerable leeway, not even Nemesis operatives are allowed to covenant with archdaimons... which poses a serious problem for Luke Landon when a simple assassination of a scientist goes badly awry. NO GODS, ONLY DAIMONS is the first volume of The Covenant Chronicles, an exciting new supernatural Mil-SF series by Kai Wai Cheah, the Hugo-nominated author of Titan Strike.

100 Best Video Games (That Never Existed)


Nate Crowley - 2017
    From 1980s hits like BeastEnders to modern classics like 90s Goth Soccer and BinCrab Destiny, this beautiful retrospective takes the reader on a lavish tour of the most memorable and groundbreaking games never made.Brought to hilarious life by a team of genuine videogame industry concept artists and written by a professional over-imaginer, this book doesn't just throw out silly ideas - it expands on them in relentless, excruciating detail.

Sherlock Holmes: Adventures in the Realms of H.G. Wells Volume 1


Derrick BelangerJohn Grant - 2017
    Wells. This one-of-a-kind two volume anthology features traditional Sherlock Holmes stories blended with one or more tales from H.G. Wells including: • The War of the Worlds • The Island of Dr. Moreau • The First Men in the Moon • The Time Machine • The Invisible Man • The New Accelerator • The Man Who Could Work Miracles • The Country of the Blind • And many more!! Authors include Andrew Lane (Young Sherlock Holmes), Daniel D. Victor (The Further Adventures of Sherlock Holmes: The Seventh Bullet), Derrick Belanger (Sherlock Holmes, The Adventure of the Peculiar Provenance), Benjamin Langley, Michael Wells, David Friend (The MX Book of New Sherlock Holmes Stories), William Campbell Powell (Expiration Day), John Linwood Grant (Occult Detective Quarterly), Megan M. Elmendorf, Steve Herczeg, Derek Nason, Michael Siverling (Midnight Investigations), Jaap Boekestein (Mystery Weekly Magazine), Richard Paolinelli (Escaping Infinity), GC Rosenquist (Sherlock Holmes and the Pearl of Death), Steve Poling (The Aristotelian), Katie Magnusson (The Adventures of Watts and Sherlock), Rohit Sawant (Down With the Fallen: A Post-Apocalyptic Horror Anthology), Emma Tonkin (Universal Enigma Anthology), and C. Edward Davis (The Voyage of the Lunar Schooner). Featuring forewords by Mark Levy, BSI in Volume 1 and Neil Cole (Adventures in Science Fiction: Sci-Fi Museum) in Volume 2.

A Looming of Vultures


Richard Storry - 2017
    Some people, increasingly disillusioned by the pointless conflict, start to consider how the King might be persuaded - or forced - to end it. Meanwhile, an increasing number of items of great value are going missing from those attending these high society gatherings. At whom will the finger of suspicion point? Who can be trusted? With so many competing, yet intertwined, agendas, what will be the outcome of this looming of vultures?

MacArthur's Luck: Part Two: Running the Table (The Fortunes of War Book 2)


Steven Newton - 2017
    This is NOT the sequel to the original "MacArthur's Luck"--that's "Stalin's Wager" (which is now available for pre-order). So if you've already read the omnibus edition that contains both Parts One and Two, don't get fooled into thinking this is something it's not. On the other hand, if you just read Part One on Kindle Unlimited ... read on! Commander Robert Heinlein at the Battle of Okinawa! Major Barry Goldwater firebombing Tokyo! Captain Jackie Robinson--first across the Rhine! This is alternate history in the grand tradition. March 1945: With General George Marshall's untimely death, Douglas MacArthur is now the US Army Chief of Staff, and George Patton's Third Army has already forced the Rhine River. The race for Berlin is on! Just east of that city, along the Oder River, famed panzer general Heinz Guderian faces off against Marshall Georgi Zhukov in a titanic battle to determine the fate of Europe. In the Pacific, suddenly different Japanese tactics appear to have stalemated the Americans at Okinawa unless a new army commander--Dwight D. Eisenhower--can get things moving again. Continuing the story begun in MacArthur's Luck (Part One): Laying the Bet, this installment brings the war against Hitler in Europe to a climax, while setting the stage for an even greater conflagration that will engulf the entire globe as the Anglo-American alliance with the Soviet Union crumbles into ashes. And don't miss the third installment (arriving this February): Stalin's Wager (Part One): Inside Straights.

Saints vs. Scoundrels: Debating Life's Greatest Questions


Benjamin Wiker - 2017
    Scoundrels Dr. Benjamin Wiker invites you to interact not just with the ideas that have shaped history, but with the people who created and spread those ideas. In this collection of lively and imaginative conversations between the great truth-tellers and the great error-peddlers of history, you will come to appreciate the personalities behind the Great Conversation that has shaped western civilization.

Deposed


David Barbaree - 2017
    But to one who has held and lost the highest power, one thing alone is crystal clear: even emperors were mere children once.Ten years later, the new ruler's son watches uneasily over his father's empire. Wherever he looks rebellion is festering, and those closest to him have turned traitor once before.To this city in crisis comes a hugely wealthy senator from the very edge of the empire, a young and angry ward at his heels. He is witty but inscrutable, generous with his time and money to a leader in desperate need of a friend - and he wears a bandage over his blinded eyes.The fallen emperor's name is Nero.But this isn't his story.

Another Girl, Another Planet


Lou Antonelli - 2017
    Shuster claims that – in an alternate timeline – he was a low-level bureaucrat in the administration of a joint U.S. – Soviet Mars colony when he was caught up in a murder mystery involving the illegal use of robot technology. In that timeline, the Cold War took a very different turn – largely influenced by Admiral Robert Heinlein, who was allowed to return to Naval service following World War II. When Shuster is thrown into a power vacuum immediately upon his arrival on the Mars Colony in 1985, he finds himself fighting a rogue industrialist using his wits with some help from unlikely sources in a society infiltrated by the pervasive presence of realistic androids.

The Two Gates


Ken Davenport - 2017
     January 1964. Political intrigue and infighting roils Washington in the wake of the assassination attempt in Dallas, and a wounded President John F. Kennedy returns to the White House to face a growing crisis in Vietnam that threatens America’s Cold War strategy. The president doesn’t trust the information he is getting from Saigon, where the military is engaged in a shadow operation to make things seem better than they really are. So he turns to the one man he does trust: Lt. Colonel Patrick O’Shea. A decorated combat veteran of Korea, O’Shea has been plucked from obscurity to be Kennedy’s military advisor, and is tasked by the president to figure out what is really going on in Vietnam. The knives come out as O’Shea grapples with myriad threats to himself and the president he serves. The Pentagon, the CIA, the Corsican Mafia and the Chicago Mob are all conspiring against him. The debut novel by Ken Davenport, The Two Gates is an exciting new addition to the military, presidential and alternative history tradition of W.E.B. Griffin, David Baldacci, Harry Turtledove and Philip Roth.

Soft Invasions


James Reich - 2017
    Psychoanalyst Maxwell McKinney and his wife Joan await the return of their son after the sinking of the USS Yorktown. With sections of the city under camouflage and ordinances against “enemy aliens,” McKinney is troubled by his ambivalent feelings for his son and fears that California will be invaded by the Japanese. A chance encounter with a man who appears to be his double, a screenwriter named Sid Starr, allows McKinney to confront his guilt. Entwined with McKinney, Starr finds that his own identity is at stake, and between the two, McKinney’s wife and son fight against their own destruction.Punctuating great American fears, James Reich targets the zones of recent history where worlds and anxieties collide, among them UFOs, the Battle of Midway, Hollywood, psychoanalysis and Japanese internment. Soft Invasions is an existential thriller about cowardice, cruelty and betrayal that invokes David Cronenberg's body-horror classics as well as the cold California glamor of Joan Didion, the ominous noir of Horace McCoy and the psychic angst of Norman Mailer.This edition features an afterword by literary and media theorist Laurence A. Rickels.

Legion of the Undead


Michael Whitehead - 2017
     Emperor Vespasian has ordered a push further into Germania than the legions have ever been and an enemy army is gathering to meet them. What neither side is prepared for is the darker force that they will both face. Indiscriminate and incapable of mercy, the new enemy will drive the Romans to the very brink of destruction. The Gates of Hades have opened and the Roman Legions must face what has escaped.

Grudge: Operation Highjump


Brian Parker - 2017
    However, their true purpose remains shrouded in mystery. Were the reports of Nazi activity on the Southern Continent accurate? After engaging unknown forces in aerial combat, weather forced the Navy to abandon operations. Undeterred, the US returned every Antarctic summer until escalating tensions in Southeast Asia forced the government to secretly detonate three nuclear warheads over the continent in 1958. With the threat eliminated, the files were sealed and forgotten by all but the men who fought there. Now the enemy has returned with a genetically superior army, indoctrinated from birth to hate Americans for their savagery, and they’re intent on exacting revenge for the loss of their homeland and banishment to the icy wastes.

Bonnie and Clyde: Resurrection Road (Book 1)


Clark Hays - 2017
    Cradling an antique rifle and standing over a freshly dug grave, the woman claims to be Bonnie Parker, 75 years old, there to bury the love of her life--who has just died--Clyde Barrow.  Impossible, says the reporter. The murdering duo died 50 years ago. But the woman insists that it wasn't Bonnie and Clyde who were ambushed and killed on that fateful day on a county road near Sailes, Louisiana in 1934. Instead, the outlaws were kidnapped, forced into a covert life and given a desperate mission--save President Roosevelt from an assassination plot financed by industrialist fat cats determined to sink the progressive New Deal policies. The thrilling story cuts back and forth between the modern era where the shocked reporter begins to investigate the potential scoop-of-the-century, and the dangerous undercover exploits of Bonnie and Clyde, as they are thrust into a fight to defend the working class against corporate greed during America's Great Depression. With reflections on a rigged economic system that still ring true, Resurrection Road tells a gripping, page-turning tale, recasting the Bonnie and Clyde legend into a powerful parable about the Gilded Age mirrored in today's economic landscape.Outlaws become patriots in the suspenseful, imaginative tale.Resurrection Road is the first book in the Bonnie and Clyde series. Dam Nation is the second book in the Bonnie and Clyde series.

Labors of an Epic Punk


Mark Dursin - 2017
    No wonder: after his dad went off to fight in the Trojan War and never came back, Mac spent his childhood evading his mom's scumbag suitors—all one-hundred-and-eight of them. Of course, he turned out this way—a moody, friendless sixteen-year-old who blows off work, alienates everyone at school, and pulls pranks. But when he trains a flock of birds to defecate on the headmaster, Mac (short for Telemachus) goes too far. The administrators give him an ultimatum: prove that he's truly the son of Odysseus by doing something heroic—or get out. A school story that just so happens to take place 3,000 years ago, Labors of an Epic Punk is a tale of friendship and transformation, regret and redemption, and a reminder to us all that even heroes need to survive adolescence.

A Curiosity of the Solar System


Ian Antony - 2017
    Throughout the course of his journey Ivor will encounter a curious collection of characters, contraptions and conspiracies while also embarking upon his own peculiar voyage of self-discovery.

The History Makers


Val Bodurtha - 2017
    The ancient priests would slaughter human sacrifices, sometimes by the thousands, all under the pretext that their gods needed blood to make the sun rise every day. What would have happened had this empire prevailed over the Spanish and survived to this day? How would its bloodthirsty theocracy fit in with our world?Myla is an upper-class teenager in modern-day Azteca, partying her days away with her friends and the man who has claimed her as his wife. On her seventeenth birthday, she is finally “enlightened” and told the truth: that the Priesthood is lying to everyone. Then, in an intriguing twist of fate, she finds herself in the hands of Aztec’s rebels and their leader, Tezca.Myla must now sort through all the lies she has been told her whole life and confront old secrets buried deep. Can she trust these people? Are they terrorists or freedom-fighting revolutionaries? And will she join them to dismantle the theocracy and its lies, or will the price she would be made to pay be too high?

Prentice Alvin and Alvin Journeyman: The Third and Fourth Volumes of the Tales of Alvin Maker


Orson Scott Card - 2017
    But Alvin must also learn to control and use his own talent, that of a Maker, else his destiny will be unfulfilled.Alvin Journeyman Alvin is a Maker, the first to be born in a century. Now a grown man and a journeyman smith, Alvin has returned to his family in the town of Vigor Church. He will share in their isolation, work as a blacksmith, and try to teach anyone who wishes to learn the knack of being a Maker. For Alvin has had a vision of the Crystal City he will build, and he knows that he cannot build it alone. But he has left behind in Hatrack River enemies as well as true friends. His ancient foe, the Unmaker, whose cruel whispers and deadly plots have threatened Alvin's life at every turn, has found new hands to do his work of destruction.

A Shield Against the Darkness


Todd Downing - 2017
    Then a woman from his past invites him to dinner at Thomas Edison’s home and drafts him into the A.E.G.I.S. foundation. And that’s just Monday. Jack’s mission is to fly an experimental aircraft and lead a crew consisting of his comrades from the Great War against a well-funded secret society bent on pillaging history’s great treasures and amassing dangerous power. Together with their crewmates, Jack McGraw and Dorothy “Doc” Starr encounter sky pirates, Haitian voodoo, terrifying creatures of the deep, an Amazon tree-city, rocket zombies, and an ancient temple where Aleister Crowley attempts to open a dimensional portal and summon a bloodthirsty demon! Based on the Airship Daedalus comic strip by Todd Downing and Brian Beardsley, A Shield Against the Darkness is the origin story of the Daedalus crew, and a prequel to Assassins of the Lost Kingdom by E.J. Blaine. It’s a retro-pulp action yarn in which mages, mad science, secret societies, occult threats, and lost worlds meet globe-trotting, sky-high aerial action and two-fisted heroism, like the pulp novels of old!

Calexit- The Anthology


J.L. Curtis - 2017
    Follow the lives of those who must decide whether to stand their ground, or flee! In San Diego, the commander of Naval Special Warfare Group One finds his hands tied by red tape, even as protesters storm the base and attack dependents. In Los Angeles, an airline mechanic must beg, borrow, or bribe to get his family on the plane out before the last flight out. Elsewhere, a couple seeks out the new underground railroad after being forced to confess to crimes they didn't commit. In the new state of Jefferson, farmers must defend themselves against carpetbaggers and border raiders. And in the high Sierras, a woman must make the decision to walk out alone... Featuring all-new stories set after Calexit from JL Curtis, Bob Poole, Cedar Sanderson, Tom Rogneby, Alma Boykin, B Opperman, L B Johnson, Eaton Rapids Joe, Lawdog, and Kimball O'Hara.

Interviews With the Rauschmonstrum


Nick LaTorre - 2017
    The Rauschmonstrum's appearance into public life caused massive changes in the political and cultural life of the United States, as well as all over the world. Through this collection of interviews the Rauschmonstrum has had over a more than 50 year period, we get a sense of the interesting new world he has created.

The Samoan Pyramid: The true story behind an extraordinary mystery


Maya Lynch - 2017
    An ancient curse. A real-life archaeological adventure.Since the 1800s rumours have circulated about an ancient pyramid, built on an immense scale, hidden deep in the jungles of Samoa. Evidence perhaps of a great forgotten Pacific Empire. And yet there is no mention of the pyramid in the entire pantheon of Samoan myth. Samoan society is steeped in tradition but the local legends are silent on the subject of the pyramid."A bold and gutsy adventure" -Christopher Dunn - Author of the Giza Power PlantWhen one woman digging into the archives discovers an outlier in the dataset of Pacific history, it is the catalyst for an adventure that takes us on a treasure hunt deep into the jungles of Samoa. The Samoan Pyramid interweaves the spellbinding stories behind archaeology’s centuries-long quest to find the forgotten pyramid with the author's own journey into the jungles of Samoa as she unravels one of the greatest archaeological mysteries of the Pacific.Buy the Samoan Pyramid and uncover the secret today.

The Battle of Watling Street


Margaret McGoverne - 2017
    Britannia, AD61. Following her disgrace at the hands of the occupying Roman forces, the Iceni Queen Boudicca rouses her own and neighbouring tribes against the Romans, laying waste to Londinium and slaughtering tens of thousands. Boudicca’s forces clash with the legionary might of the Roman governor at the decisive Battle of Watling Street. Her Iceni warriors utterly defeated, Boudicca flees with the tattered survivors of her bodyguard.Historians still dispute the end of Boudicca and the Iceni; did they escape to Wales or Ireland? Or did they stumble across a very different kind of deadly foreign occupier of their native lands?

Paratime Trouble


John F. Carr - 2017
    Carr featuring Verkan Vall and Dalla Hadron. Dalla leads Verkan on a merry chase through Paratime as Verkan—once again—attempts to save her bacon! This time she’s searching for the noted 20th Century psychic, Jeanne Dixon, who has predicted the death of John F. Kennedy and the coming of a third world war on several Europo-America belts. Unfortunately for our two intrepid Paratimers, they both end up on the Beria Belt, where the Cuban Missile Crisis is heating up into an all-out nuclear war! In his search for Dalla, Verkan arrives in New York just in time for the bombs to hit Manhattan. He and Ranthar Jard end up traversing the subway tunnels underneath New York City as they attempt to escape rising radioactivity and hordes of fleeing survivors. Cut off from contact with Paratime Police headquarters, the two Paratimers not only face desperate survivors, but gangs of black-jacketed thugs intent on making the best out of a bad situation. On top of that, they have to find out where Dalla has gone into hiding and bring her back to First Level before the whole time-line collapses into complete chaos!

Toyetica Vol. 1


Marty LeGrow - 2017
    * * * When a new student named Minky arrives at Dollington Academy, Trixie Tangle is determined to make her feel welcome. But when Minky turns out to be a mermaid, Trixie's not so sure she can help this fish out of water feel at home on land.

No Confidence (Wine of the Gods Book 31)


Pam Uphoff - 2017
     Dancer Rael of the Presidential Directorate faces a dilema when a vote of No Confidence puts a Committee in charge of the Empire until a special election either confirms or replaces President Orde. Rael's never killed anyone in cold blood . . . and she really doesn't want to start with Xen Wolfson. Even if both the Committee and the One order her to do it. Bonus story: Government House is overrun with beautiful women during the recording of a vid adventure!

Freaks and Greeks


Timothy Bowden - 2017
    He already knows who he is... a dull man, a spectator, someone who reads about the heroes of the past, unlikely to ever be one himself. Or is he?Sent by the tyrants who killed his father to re-establish contact with a far flung colony near the Black Sea, Miltiades begins to find he may be more of a leader than he - or his family - expected.The risks are great. From fractious Thracian neighbours to the growing power of the Persian Empire, and the knowledge that someone in his camp is acting as a spy.And there is worse. A black flood is rising. A terrible sickness, spreading across the ancient world, that brings the dead back from the afterlife. And when they return, they are hungry. Unleashed by the Egyptians in their greed for immortality, and fanned by the Persians as a weapon in their hunger for empire, it threatens the existence of Miltiades' little city-state and all he holds dear.And not just them - for the Persian's eyes are on the city of Athens itself, where a strange experiment is taking place: power is being held not by kings or the wealthy, but shared by all the citizens, together. They call it demos kratia. But this small flame of freedom will lost unless Miltiades can stand against the tide.The forces are gathering. The battle is here. A race for survival.At Marathon.

Blackbird: A Warrior of the No-When


Martin Schiller - 2017
    England is the greatest power in the world. But another force rules over the Crown. It is a mysterious group called the Masters. And their sinister servants, the Bookmen, enforce their laws against advanced technology. The fires of dissent have not been extinguished however; the Free Radicals study scientific advances in secret and Penelope Victoria Steele has joined their rebellion. The beautiful and educated daughter of the Provincial Governor of Northwestin-Cascadia, she risks her very life to uncover forbidden knowledge, for to defy the Masters means death. What she does not realize is that her world is not what it seems to be. Nor is time and space.

Hooper's War


Peter Van Buren - 2017
    And if he does make it home, he isn't sure he can survive the peace. He's done a terrible thing, and struggles to resolve the mistake alongside an unrepentant Japanese soldier and a Japanese woman who is trying to save both men. The characters face a decision that will forever define them not by their war against each other, but by their war against themselves. This is a tale of moral complexity, of decisions that last longer than people do. With allegorical connections to America's wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the reverse chronology telling of Hooper's War turns a loss-of-innocence narrative into a tale of why that loss is inevitable.

Once There Was a Way: What if The Beatles Stayed Together?


Bryce Zabel - 2017
    After seven years as the most popular rock-and-roll group the world has ever seen, The Beatles—torn apart by personal and creative differences—called it quits in 1970, never to play together again. The fact that their contemporaries like the Rolling Stones are still playing today makes their ending even more painful. Once There Was a Way: What if The Beatles Stayed Together? is a story of another reality, the one we wished had happened, where the Fab Four chose to work it out rather than let it be. This book is no mere fairy tale, but a chronicle crafted from the people and events of our own history, shaped to create a brand new narrative in which John, Paul, George, and Ringo find a way to stay friends and keep the band together. Imagine there was more. Lots more. It’s easy if you try.

Edge of a Knife


Robert Edward - 2017
    In 1876, the United States is a shattered nation. It stands alone, beset by enemies in a world torn apart by the terrible power of magic. Across the globe, kings and presidents, emperors and generals command sorcerers who harness the four elements of earth, air, water, and fire to wreak havoc on their enemies. A magical fault line divides North America, where the hydromancers of the United States and pyromancers of the Confederate States maintain an uneasy truce. Both nations race to acquire new and more powerful magic to ensure victory when the next war inevitably comes. In a Pittsburg tavern, Jared Gilsom, son of a wealthy shipping magnate, smuggler, and part-time thief, meets a strange woman. She has ties to an enigmatic group working both inside and outside the Union government to develop the North's magical arsenal. A chance battle with southern agents in the city streets draws Jared into their mission. After retrieving a vital treasure from a renegade hydromancer, Jared joins a clandestine raid into the heart of the Confederacy. There, he finds a nation on the brink of its own collapse, where ambitious opportunists wait only for the right moment to seize power. As Jared and his companions fight their way out of the South, the world continues to spiral into chaos. And magic will either save America or ensure its destruction.

The Legend of Indian Stream


Steven Landry - 2017
     But in Steven Landry’s debut novel, an alternative timeline makes the Republic—situated north of New Hampshire’s White Mountains and having recently seceded from the United States and British Canada to build the purest of democracies—the perfect landing spot for the Fallon Party, a group hailing from 2035 intent on stopping a deadly plague in its tracks. “Thunder pestis”—a mutation of the black death—first emerged in Confederate prison camps. Centuries later, after becoming weaponized, drug and vaccine resistant, it’s poised to destroy humankind. Corcoran Fallon is set to change everything when he lands in 1832, but he must first help the small yet hardy Republic survive a variety of forces, from British invaders to American spies. In this fusion of science fiction and alternative history, you’ll be transported to a universe filled with nanovaccines, destructive temporal tides, and temporal artifacts—where time misbehaves and all life ceases to exist. Will the Fallon Party find Patient Zero before it’s permanently too late?

Fire In Ice: Tale of the dragon rider (A Gaiian Novel Book 2)


S.K. Sandhu - 2017
    Martel Da Mar is the leading scientist in glacial hydrology. He also has a problem. He cannot touch people without turning them to ice. Don’t ask why, it’s a long story. Since he is Gaiian and has a three hundred year lifespan, he knows his will be a long and lonely existence. He has accepted his fate in life and throws all of his energies into his work studying an unknown heat source that has melted a glacial lake leaving a few blocks of ice in the center of the lake. His tests show the glacial melt can’t be dismissed as global warning. He soon discovers there is something in one of the remaining blocks of ice that radiates an unusual type of heat signature. This something is an angel of fire. She is trapped and needs his help but releasing her could place the entire continent in jeopardy. Princess Ribi wakes from a cold lonely confinement to find life, as she knows it, has irrevocably changed. She is locked in a block of ice with a brooding dragon literally attached to her hip. The man she met in her dreams is on the outside and cannot release her for only the ice can contain the dragon and her fire. Will freedom bring her redemption? ...Or will it doom them all?

Reds! A Revolutionary Timeline


Jane Hill - 2017
    The assassin never completed his task. In a world where Theodore Roosevelt never became president, where the Progressive Era remained stillborn, America’s native sons and immigrant workers turn increasingly to militant trade unionism and socialism to put food on the table. Reds! chronicles a world turned upside down, where the heart of world capitalism succumbs to communist revolution. It is a tale of ordinary men and women turned to revolution, of a tragic civil war spurred on by reaction, culminating in the death of the old United States and its rebirth in the Union of American Socialist Republics.

The Muse of Music


Enrico Toro - 2017
    Nothing will keep him from his dream of learning the new music and seeing new instruments, not even warring militias and the threats of plague. He shares the trek and what he finds in a series of heartfelt letters and several short stories. These stories and the accompanying nonfiction essays were originally published in The Grantville Gazette.

Innocents: The Champions of 1944 - Part 1


Kenneth Tam - 2017
    With massively expanded resources and improved methods, Champions loyal to civilization hunt those who seek to join Emily’s cause. When the President of the United States makes plans to commemorate one of the fallen heroes of 1943, Alex, Stephanie and Strong must see to his safety… but the whitecoat is no longer herself, and as her best friends try to help restore her humanity, they must come to terms with what has been lost, and all that continues to loom over the innocents of two worlds… For more information, visit icebergpublishing.com/champions.

Bedlam: The Champions of 1944 - Part 3


Kenneth Tam - 2017
    After years of lonesome struggle against so-called ‘civilization’, Emily can finally deploy her army to destroy the myths that have kept Champions subservient for decades. Her war will fundamentally reshape the future of humanity, so any lives lost will be for the greater good… though, many of those destined to die will have triggered her violence, and thus be deserving of their fates. Emily is fighting for justice, and when she is confronted by opposition from deluded children like Alex, Stephanie, and Strong, she will do whatever it takes to prove her righteousness. Bedlam is coming… and it’s all about her. For more information, visit icebergpublishing.com/champions.

Vows: The Champions of 1944 - Part 2


Kenneth Tam - 2017
    Decades later, as he, his wife and daughter all prepare to take part in a momentous wedding, he must pause to reflect on the life he has built, and the good fortune he has enjoyed. While the forces of Jimmystown prepare to fend of an attack by Emily that is almost sure to come, Smith tours his adopted home, and realizes the importance of the vows he once made –– and the vows he still must keep, when the bedlam begins. For more information, visit icebergpublishing.com/champions.

The Jim Baen Memorial Award: The First Decade


William Ledbetter - 2017
    Here gathered together for the first time are the best of the best of the first decade of the Jim Baen Memorial Award. Winners and runners-up whose stories dared imagine a bright future in which humankind has shaken off the shackles of gravity and moved into that limitless realm known as “outer space.” Each tale is set in a plausible, near-future setting, and yet the variations are as limitless as the imaginations of the array of authors represented. Stories that ask, “What if?” Stories that dare to say, “Why not?” Stories that continue the grand science fiction tradition, looking to the future with a positive outlook on humanity's place in the universe.   "Fans of hopeful space stories will be very satisfied by those on offer here."—Publishers Weekly "The universe is limitless in this optimistic collection of near-future sf stories. Fans of the genre will be clamoring for a copy."—Library Journal “. . . truly wonderful. . . . This collection is a must read for those who dream of space colonization in our lifetimes. It encapsulates the challenges, risks, and sacrifices that will be integral to pushing the human race into the solar system. . . . delivers exactly what it promised.”—Tangent “One of the great things about [the book] is how much variety there is in the included stories. We have tales set against backgrounds of space exploration, colonization missions, space industrialization, orbital dynamics. Stories are set on Earth, in space, on the Moon, on Mars, and various other destinations. There are problem stories, inspirational tales, conspiracies, political machinations, family stories, alternate histories, and even a few love stories.”—Analog

Epitaph: The Champions of 1944 - Part 5


Kenneth Tam - 2017
    Her backers have been identified, her base located, her designs defeated. All that remains is to unleash the might of Jimmystown to capture her, and then to begin the long process of healing the wounds her crusade has left upon society. Utilizing every skill and insight they have gained since their first mission in 1940, Alex, Stephanie, and Strong must lead the final pursuit –– and hope that no more lives will be lost before Emily meets her end… For more information, visit icebergpublishing.com/champions