Book picks similar to
Chicago 1871: A science fiction thriller by James E. Merl
time-travel
sci-fi
historical-fiction
historical
The 57 Lives of Alex Wayfare
M.G. Buehrlen - 2014
Visions that make her feel like she’s really on a ship bound for America, living in Jamestown during the Starving Time, or riding the original Ferris wheel at the World’s Fair.But these brushes with history pull her from her daily life without warning, sometimes leaving her with strange lasting effects and wounds she can’t explain. Trying to excuse away the aftereffects has booked her more time in the principal’s office than in any of her classes and a permanent place at the bottom of the social hierarchy. Alex is desperate to find out what her visions mean and get rid of them.It isn’t until she meets Porter, a stranger who knows more than should be possible about her, that she learns the truth: Her visions aren’t really visions. Alex is a Descender – capable of traveling back in time by accessing Limbo, the space between Life and Afterlife. Alex is one soul with fifty-six past lives, fifty-six histories.Fifty-six lifetimes to explore: the prospect is irresistible to Alex, especially when the same mysterious boy with soulful blue eyes keeps showing up in each of them. But the more she descends, the more it becomes apparent that someone doesn’t want Alex to travel again. Ever.And will stop at nothing to make this life her last.
Mindspeak
Heather Sunseri - 2013
And letting Jack into her life of secrets is not only a threat to her very existence, but it just might break her heart wide open.
The Viscount in Hiding
Emma Evans - 2018
Ashamed of his behaviour he hides away in his country seat, determined to become a sensible gentleman, no longer caught up by whichever eligible young lady catches his eye. The only problem? A beautiful tenant named Julia who is living in his gatehouse. William knows that he should have very little to do with his tenants but he simply cannot get her out of his mind. The more time he spends, the more he wants to know her despite their difference in status. A sudden accident leads to a whole new life for Julia, who is loathe to tell him much about herself, despite their intimate connection. When the truth finally comes out and Julia confesses all, William must decide what to do with the lady who has stolen his heart. Authors Note: This is a clean, stand-alone romance with an HEA. If you love clean Regency-era romances you will love The Viscount in Hiding!
Time and Time Again
Ben Elton - 2014
No one he has ever known or loved has been born yet. Perhaps now they never will be.Stanton knows that a great and terrible war is coming. A collective suicidal madness that will destroy European civilization and bring misery to millions in the century to come. He knows this because, for him, that century is already history.Somehow he must change that history. He must prevent the war. A war that will begin with a single bullet. But can a single bullet truly corrupt an entire century?And, if so, could another single bullet save it?
Where Bluebirds Fly
Brynn Chapman - 2013
Her flaming red hair and mismatched eyes make her a prime target for accusation of witchcraft. Orphaned during the Indian raids, she and her brother with Asperger's Syndrome come to live with the key historical figures of the trials-The Putnams. They keep their synesthesia secret- that days, months and years appear as color in Verity's mind, and for John, that symphonies play in a Fantasia-style performance of colors and geometric patterns.Truman Johnstone 's ability to discern people's expressions, and decipher if they were lying- made him an outspoken child. Being different kept him from being adopted till he was fourteen. He now runs an orphanage for problem youths, and is a feeding therapist in his desire to help children deal with their peculiarities. To give them the childhood he never had.The harvest festival corn maze Truman creates every year has an unwelcome visitor. Children hear disembodied voices skipping through the corn maze amid the backdrop of eerie orchestral music. In every year of the calendar, intermittent doors of time swing open and closed, so long as the cornfield stands. In societies set on sameness-all are outsiders. They learn the traits that make us outcasts, may be the very ones that make us great, and that true love may heal all, and even transcend time.
1776: The Washington Divergence
Andrew Hastie - 2018
New York is on fire. The British fleet are in the harbor, and Special Agent John Anderson still can’t believe he’s here...It began when the FBI counter-terrorism system picked up suspicious activity at Mount Vernon. Anderson was assigned to find out why a crazy old man dressed as a British Redcoat was trying to break in and how the same guy could show up five minutes later at the Smithsonian.The Colonel claims he is trying to change the past and prevent the assassination of General Washington. Anderson assumes he’s just off his meds – until the old man runs into a broom closet and disappears.Infinity Engines: Missions takes you on a journey into an alternate history, one that might have been if it wasn’t for the work of the Oblivion Order and their mission to save the future, by changing the past.
Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter
Seth Grahame-Smith - 2010
Moonlight falls through the dense woods that surround a one-room cabin, where a nine-year-old Abraham Lincoln kneels at his suffering mother's bedside. She's been stricken with something the old-timers call "Milk Sickness.""My baby boy..." she whispers before dying.Only later will the grieving Abe learn that his mother's fatal affliction was actually the work of a vampire.When the truth becomes known to young Lincoln, he writes in his journal, "henceforth my life shall be one of rigorous study and devotion. I shall become a master of mind and body. And this mastery shall have but one purpose..." Gifted with his legendary height, strength, and skill with an ax, Abe sets out on a path of vengeance that will lead him all the way to the White House.While Abraham Lincoln is widely lauded for saving a Union and freeing millions of slaves, his valiant fight against the forces of the undead has remained in the shadows for hundreds of years. That is, until Seth Grahame-Smith stumbled upon The Secret Journal of Abraham Lincoln, and became the first living person to lay eyes on it in more than 140 years.Using the journal as his guide and writing in the grand biographical style of Doris Kearns Goodwin and David McCullough, Seth has reconstructed the true life story of our greatest president for the first time-all while revealing the hidden history behind the Civil War and uncovering the role vampires played in the birth, growth, and near-death of our nation.
Arcadia
Iain Pears - 2015
He finds an unlikely confidante in Rosie, an inquisitive young neighbor who, while chasing after Lytten's cat one day, stumbles through a doorway in his cellar and into a stunning and unfamiliar bucolic landscape—remarkably like the fantasy world Lytten is writing about. There she meets a young boy named Jay who is about to embark on a journey that will change both their lives. Elsewhere, in a distopian society where progress is controlled by a corrupt ruling elite, the brilliant scientist Angela Meerson has discovered the potential of a powerful new machine. When the authorities come knocking, she will make an important decision—one that will reverberate through all these different lives and worlds.
Phoenix Rising
Pip Ballantine - 2011
Clandestine Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences is forbidden to investigate. But Eliza Braun, with bulletproof corset, fondness for dynamite, remarkable devices, drags along timorous new partner Wellington Books, of encyclopedic brain, against Phoenix intent on enslaving Britons.
Autumn in Carthage
Christopher Zenos - 2014
One day, in a package of seventeenth-century documents from Salem Village, he stumbles across a letter by his best friend, Jamie, who had disappeared six months before. The document is dated 1692—the height of the Witch Trials. The only potential lead: a single mention of Carthage, a tiny town in the Wisconsin northern highland. The mystery catapults Nathan from Chicago to the Wisconsin wilderness. There, he meets Alanna, heir to an astonishing Mittel-European legacy of power and sacrifice. In her, and in the gentle townsfolk of Carthage, Nathan finds the refuge for which he has long yearned. But Simon, the town elder, is driven by demons of his own, and may well be entangled in Jamie’s disappearance and that of several Carthaginians. As darkness stretches toward Alanna, Nathan may have no choice but to risk it all… Moving from the grimness of Chicago’s South Side to the Wisconsin hinterlands to seventeenth-century Salem, this is a story of love, of sacrifice, of terrible passions—and of two wounded souls quietly reaching for the deep peace of sanctuary.
The Bone Clocks
David Mitchell - 2014
But Holly is no typical teenage runaway: a sensitive child once contacted by voices she knew only as “the radio people,” Holly is a lightning rod for psychic phenomena. Now, as she wanders deeper into the English countryside, visions and coincidences reorder her reality until they assume the aura of a nightmare brought to life.For Holly has caught the attention of a cabal of dangerous mystics—and their enemies. But her lost weekend is merely the prelude to a shocking disappearance that leaves her family irrevocably scarred. This unsolved mystery will echo through every decade of Holly’s life, affecting all the people Holly loves—even the ones who are not yet born.A Cambridge scholarship boy grooming himself for wealth and influence, a conflicted father who feels alive only while reporting from occupied Iraq, a middle-aged writer mourning his exile from the bestseller list—all have a part to play in this surreal, invisible war on the margins of our world. From the medieval Swiss Alps to the nineteenth-century Australian bush, from a hotel in Shanghai to a Manhattan townhouse in the near future, their stories come together in moments of everyday grace and extraordinary wonder.
Immortal Merlin, Books 1-4: Ignition, Winded, Floodgates, Buried
Emma Shelford - 2020
Read the first four Musings of Merlin books here! "A marvelous modern take on the legendary Merlin... A definite must-read!" - Readers' Favorite "Ignition is... a unique take on [Merlin's] life without Arthur." - Bibliophilic Book Blog "Highly recommended for lovers of fantasy and the Merlin legends." - Amazon Reviewer Ignition, Book 1: Merlin, the legendary King Arthur’s mysterious magician, is immortal. As Arthur lay dying he promised to return. Merlin is holding him to his word. Forever young, forever waiting, Merlin lives an unassuming life in the city, keeping his identity and abilities secret from his friends. It's a long and lonely road, but Merlin is a patient man. It's now the 21st century and when the earth begins to groan with earthquakes, Merlin knows the situation is anything but natural. An eruption is imminent, but something—or someone—is forcing this volcano to erupt. Merlin must use his concealed talents and practiced charisma to save a town of innocent people before disaster strikes. He has the power to thwart a catastrophe—if time doesn’t run out first. Winded, Book 2: Merry Lytton, or Merlin as he was once known, has been waiting for the return of his friend King Arthur for centuries. It's an eventful wait: only weeks ago, he stopped a wicked plot to magically erupt a nearby volcano. Merry's latest worry is the revelation of his immortality—his modern-day friends are a little too curious. They do not need to know he has a history that could fill a library. Unknown to Merlin, the organization Potestas is furious at his geologic meddling, and an enraged member of the group is determined to wreak vengeance. For the first time in Merlin's ancient life, he must confront an enemy vastly more powerful than himself. Battling high in the skies and over mountain peaks, will Merlin's foe leave him breathless—forever? Floodgates, Book 3: Merlin the magician from centuries past now lives in Vancouver as an unremarkable young professor known as Merry Lytton. Merry keeps his secrets from friends and foes alike while infiltrating the nefarious organization known as Potestas, whose goal is to gain unimaginable power. Potestas' charismatic leader has welcomed Merry into the group, but for what purpose? Merry soon discovers that Potestas must recover King Arthur's holy grail to complete its plans, but the grail is firmly fused to the seafloor by magical means. As Merry is threatened by hostile spirits and hallucinations, will he succeed in stopping Potestas before they unleash the full fury of the ocean's power? Buried, Book 4: Immortal Merlin, known as Merry Lytton to his twenty-first century friends, is in a battle of wits with the powerful Potestas organization. Potestas is determined to gain unimaginable powers for its members, and Merry holds the key to unlocking this ambition. In exchange, Potestas promises to reveal crucial information on Merry’s heritage and answer questions he’s had for centuries. But when Merry learns that Potestas plans a human sacrifice, he is in a race against evil. Can he save an innocent life before a destructive new reality is thrust upon an unsuspecting world?
TimeRiders
Alex Scarrow - 2010
They are recruited by an agency that no one knows exists, with only one purpose—to fix broken history. Because time travel is here, and there are those who would go back in time and change the past. That’s why the TimeRiders exist: to protect us. To stop time travel from destroying the world...
Secrets of the Time Society
Alexandra Monir - 2012
Those who try to enter the society quickly come to realize that time is a force not to be reckoned with. Alexandra Monir's short story exclusive ebook, Secrets of the Time Society, sheds light upon the world created in her novel Timeless and forecasts the fate that lies ahead for its protagonist, Michele Windsor. Now that Michele is gifted, there are some who will do anything to take that power away.
Cosega Search
Brandt Legg - 2014
What he finds is beyond imagining. It unleashes a mystery older than recorded time, rewrites human history, and promises to change the planet’s future. It must be suppressed.The most powerful forces in the world align against him, and a deadly competition for the artifact ensues. Capturing Gaines is not enough--everyone who has seen the artifact must be killed. His only hope is to stay alive long enough to decode the Cosega Sequence. Dig far enough into the past . . . you may just discover the future.