Book picks similar to
Popes and Phantoms by John Whitbourn


alternate-history
fantasy
althistory
medieval

The Moonrat Saga Part One


Trevor H. Cooley - 2013
    He watched his father ascend the ranks within the academy to become one of the most respected warriors in the kingdom. The only thing he has ever wanted is to become an academy student and follow the path of his father. Unfortunately, only the best can enter the academy and Justan is a horrible fighter. Everyone tells him that he is more suited to scholarly work than swordplay. In desperation he hurls himself into training, eager to overcome the doubters and walk into the academy triumphant, unaware that secretive powers plot to disrupt his plans. Meanwhile, an evil wizard of immense power is using magic to twist the bodies of the creatures of the land and transform them into monsters. With these creatures and the peoples of the wilds, he is building an army . . . Ogres and dragons, warriors and wizards are destined to clash, their fates guided by The Bowl of Souls.

Lore and Order


Steve K. Peacock - 2014
    The fire brigade have been doing their best, as have the other emergency services, but whoever is behind the fires has been systematically running them ragged. Whitehall is worried. Something doesn’t add up, so they’ve dispatched a warlock – a former illegal mage, pressed into service of the government to deal with matters of the arcane – to look things over. Jameson Parker is that warlock, and he’s pretty okay with that. His freedoms might be heavily restricted, and any unauthorised use of magic means he’ll be struck down dead instantly, but it could be worse. He gets more or less free rein to swan around Humberside like the big I am, and it gives him a way to atone for his less than stellar past. He’s better off without magic, and he knows it. But is magic better off without him? The warlocks of Humberside don’t seem to think so, and there are rumblings that, as well as the fires, something big is about to go down. Jameson is not best pleased.

Longsword


David Pilling - 2017
    The kingdom lies in ruins after years of bitter civil war. Simon de Montfort is dead, slaughtered in battle, and his surviving followers fight on with the fury of despair. Known as the Disinherited, these landless men infest the forests and highways and prey on the common folk. Hugh Longsword, a common soldier, fights for the King against the rebels who threaten to destroy England. He is taken into the service of the Lord Edward, King Henry’s eldest son, and made to work as a spy. Edward sends him into the wild north country, home to the most dangerous rebel captains: men such as Sir John d’Eyvill and his savage cousin Nicholas, known as the Beast for his cruelty. While Hugh spies on these cut-throats, the King gathers all his forces to attack Kenilworth Castle, greatest of the rebel strongholds. Though hopelessly outnumbered, the defenders hurl defiance from the walls and refuse to surrender. One assault after another is repulsed, even as the north country slides into chaos and another band of Disinherited seize the Isle of Ely in the fens of Cambridgeshire. From their watery fastness they ride out to attack the Jews of Lincoln, burning deeds, slaughtering innocents and kidnapping the wealthiest for ransom. One of those taken captive by the rebels is Esther, a widowed Jewess. She is carried away to Ely, where the Jews are treated with inhuman cruelty. Esther is rescued by Hugh, and they are hunted through the marshes by teams of soldiers and wolfhounds. Together they must survive all the dangers of a war-torn land, where law and justice are fallen away and only the strongest can hope to prosper. Longsword is the latest historical adventure novel by David Pilling, author of Reiver, Soldier of Fortune, The Half-Hanged Man, Caesar’s Sword and many more novels and short stories.

Kalvan Kingmaker


John F. Carr - 2000
    Beam Piper's groundbreaking parallel world's SF novel, Lord Kalvan of Otherwhen, and the sequel, Great Kings' War by John F. Carr and Roland Green. The Paratime Police patrol an infinity of alternate earths. Their prime directive is to protect the Paratime Secret thereby keeping this infinity of worlds from mixing and destroying each other, or from learning the parasitical Home Time Line is secretly looting their resources.When Penn. State Policeman Calvin Morrison is accidentally dropped off from a cross-time conveyer onto Styphon's House Subsector, he threatens both the Paratime Secret and leadership of the gunpowder theocracy, who owe their power to their secret knowledge of the "fireseed" formula. In just a few weeks, by the use of his knowledge of military strategy, Kalvan saves the small princedom of Hostigos from an invasion orchestrated by Styphon's House.Kalvan Kingmaker opens right after Kalvan's decisive victory over the Holy Host of Styphon. With Great King Kaiphranos of Hos-Harphax in mourning over his eldest son's death, the time is ripe for the Army of Hostigos to invade Harphax and topple the Iron Throne. At the holy city of Balph, the Inner Circle is reeling. Archpriest Roxthar, a rare true believer in Styphon, is conducting a full-blown inquisition of Styphon's corrupt upper priesthood. Once his reformation is complete, Roxthar's next job will to rebuild the Holy Host and defeat and destroy the Usurper Kalvan.Meanwhile, there is a great migration of nomads across the Sea of Grass; they are the wild card. As the nomads pour across the Great Middle River, pushing the clans and tribes that live there into the Great Kingdoms, the big question soon becomes: Will Styphon's House be buried by the human wave, or will they use the nomads in their war to the death with Kalvan and Hos-Hostigos?

Khon'Tor's Wrath


Leigh Roberts - 2019
     What if... The community repopulated, and lived in peace and harmony with all creation for generation after generation — until the compassionate act of their Healer set it all on end.Coming across an abandoned infant, the Healer Adia rescues a forbidden Outsider child and brings it back to their underground community, Kthama. When the Leader returns from a council meeting and finds what she has done, he takes her compassionate act as an affront to his authority and a threat to the People's welfare.She was prepared for him to be angry.  She was prepared for him to punish her. But she was not prepared for Khon'Tor's Wrath.

The Vampire Knitting Club Boxed Set: Books 4-6: A paranormal cozy mystery


Nancy Warren - 2020
    When murder comes calling, though, her undead, nosy neighbors are only too willing to help this amateur sleuth solve the case. These books contain no gore, bad language or sex, what they do offer is quirky characters, mysteries to solve and a very clever cat.

The Enterprise of Death


Jesse Bullington - 2011
    Unfortunately, quitting his company proves even more hazardous than remaining his pupil when she is afflicted with a terrible curse. Yet salvation may lie in a mysterious tome her tutor has hidden somewhere on the war-torn continent.She sets out on a seemingly impossible journey to find the book, never suspecting her fate is tied to three strangers: the artist Niklaus Manuel Deutsch, the alchemist Dr. Paracelsus, and a gun-slinging Dutch mercenary. As Manuel paints her macabre story on canvas, plank, and church wall, the young apprentice becomes increasingly aware that death might be the least of her concerns.

Panzers: Push for Victory Book 1: Battle of Kursk


Tom Zola - 2014
    Adolf Hitler, the "Führer" of the German Reich, unexpectedly dies in a plane crash in Hungary. The German High Command takes over the regime, disempowers the Nazi Party and reorganizes the military forces. Germany swiftly has to overcome recent setbacks in North Africa and on the Eastern Front. Furthermore, an allied invasion already casts its long shadow. The German generals understand that it is not about the ultimate victory anymore but merely about achieving a stalemate to save the Reich on the negotiating table. First, they have to stabilize Germany's positions on the Eastern Front. Therefore the High Command gathers its panzer forces and throws them into a daring all or nothing gamble for the city Kursk. Tom Zola, a former sergeant in the German Army, is a military fiction writer, famous for his intense battle descriptions and realistic action scenes. In 2014 the first book of his PANZERS series was released in German language, setting up an alternate history scenario in which a different German Reich tries to turn around the fortunes of war at the pinnacle of the Second World War. Zola doesn’t beat around the bush; his stories involve brutal fighting, inhuman ideologies and a military machine that overruns Europe and the whole world without mercy. He has developed a breathtaking yet shocking alternate timeline that has finally been translated into English.

Witchmarked


Aaron D. Schneider - 2020
    At what cost victory?Milo Volkohne, orphan, criminal, conscript, and unwilling warlock could tell you but you might not like the answer.It is 1936 and the Great War still rages on, with no armistice in 1918 when the Russian Empire crumbled in the fire and blood of stillborn revolution.The hellish no man's land has spread like a blight over Europe as grim, unyielding leaders promise a resolve of iron and no mercy, no peace, no hope.It would take a miracle to save humanity, but as Milo would tell you: be careful what you wish for.Plunging into a world of sorcery, treachery, and madness the world’s first wizard will bargain with monsters, human or otherwise, fight for his life, and dare to hope that he’s selling his soul for something worthwhile.But is any price too high to end the War to end all Wars?

Revolt


J.A. Ironside - 2019
    The King's Knight skilfully blends action with real historical events and personages... Medieval England is a time of both blood and humanity." Richard Foreman, author Band of Brothers. 1381. England seethes with discontent over unfair and arbitrary taxation. The country is on the cusp of an uprising - a peasant's revolt. All it will take is a spark. Gregory Maudesley, second son of a minor noble and disillusioned knight for hire, returns home after nearly a decade abroad. Maudesley intends to claim his deceased father's lands but the knight is plagued by misfortune. Gregory journeys to London to secure an audience with the boy king, Richard II. But the England he travels through is very different from that of his youth. The road is treacherous and the greatest dangers of all await him in the capital. London is ablaze. Even the Tower of London has fallen to Wat Tyler's forces. But Richard, enlisting the help of Gregory, will ride out to meet the rebellion head on. A king and kingdom must stand, or fall. Revolt is the first book is The King's Knight series of novellas, chronicling the life of Gregory Maudesley and the dramatic reign of Richard II. Recommended for fans of Bernard Cornwell, Robyn Young and Michael Jecks. Praise for J. A. Ironside “Entertaining, well-researched and compelling.” Michael Jecks on An Argument of Blood. “Ælfgifa…steals every scene and is a character who would fit in any George R. R. Martin novel.” Tony Riches author of The Tudor Trilogy (An Argument of Blood). “Intense drama, creative working of the sparse historical record, and a detailed look into what made William and Harold tick… A rousing, page turning tale awaits you…” Paul Bennett, author of Clash of Empires (on 'A Black Matter for the King'). J. A. Ironside grew up in rural Dorset in a house full of books. She was exposed to history at an early age and happily never recovered – the presence of so many Roman ruins in the area inspired a lifelong interest in historical warfare. She has taught and studied martial arts and weaponry for 25 years. Her published works include An Argument of Blood and A Black Matter for the King, both co-written with Matthew Willis.

The Burning Bridge Volume 1 of 2


John Flanagan - 2009
    But Celtica's villages and mines are silent. It is only when the three find an exhausted and starving girl called Evanlyn that they learn why: Morgarath has sent his foul creatures to enslave the Celts. As Gilan rides swiftly back to Araluen to report this news to the King, Will and Horace discover the true purpose behind Morgarath's actions. The Kingdom is sure to be defeated in a surprise three-sided attack - unless the two friends can somehow intervene.

Bitter Seeds


Ian Tregillis - 2010
    The Nazis have supermen, the British have demons, and one perfectly normal man gets caught in betweenRaybould Marsh is a British secret agent in the early days of the Second World War, haunted by something strange he saw on a mission during the Spanish Civil War: a German woman with wires going into her head who looked at him as if she knew him.When the Nazis start running missions with people who have unnatural abilities--a woman who can turn invisible, a man who can walk through walls, and the woman Marsh saw in Spain who can use her knowledge of the future to twist the present--Marsh is the man who has to face them. He rallies the secret warlocks of Britain to hold the impending invasion at bay. But magic always exacts a price. Eventually, the sacrifice necessary to defeat the enemy will be as terrible as outright loss would be.Alan Furst meets Alan Moore in the opening of an epic of supernatural alternate history, the tale of a twentieth century like ours and also profoundly different.

The Aegis of Merlin Omnibus Vol 1


James E. Wisher - 2018
     At least until the final day of school arrives and with it the annual wizard’s test. When Conryu passes the test, no one can believe it since everyone knows boys can’t do magic. Suddenly thrust into a world of magic and danger, Conryu must figure out how to use his news powers and quickly. He soon finds himself n the run from a mad religious cult and hunted by a group of wizards that view a man wielding magic as the worst abomination imaginable. When his home city is taken hostage by the sinister Lady Raven, Conryu is the only one that can save the day. Can Conryu master his magic before it’s too late? This Volume contains the first four novels of the Aegis of Merlin Urban Fantasy Series: The Impossible Wizard, The Awakening, The Chimera Jar, and The Raven’s Shadow.

Descendants of the Wolf


Jerry Autieri - 2017
    He dreamed of the Viking ideal, sailing to distant shores and battling honorable foes. Laden with gold, he would return home in glory. The same life of adventure that his grandfather, Ulfrik Ormsson, experienced awaited him. It proved a false dream. Along with his cousin and best friend, Yngvar discovers a world unlike the sagas of the great heroes. He encounters murder and treachery. Raiding is nothing more than merciless theft. True riches remain elusive and sea kings dominate the waves. Yngvar trusts to his honor and courage to carry him. Yet powerful enemies swarm all around him. Fate guides him into the teeth of a clash between two of history's mightiest jarls. He will require all his cunning and daring to survive. So begins a new saga of Viking adventure and war. Join the shield wall once more and witness the fierce history of the Norsemen.

Atlantis Quadrilogy - Box Set (Books 1 - 4): Project Atlantis, Book 1 - Destination Atlantis, Book 2 - Colony Atlantis, Book 3 - Beyond Atlantis, Book 4


Brandon Ellis - 2018
     This Box Set contains the first 4 books of the successful series, the Ascendant Chronicles. A black-ops agency discovers hieroglyph-covered pyramids on Jupiter's moon Callisto. The government forcibly taps rebel archeologist Kaden Jaxx with only two instructions: 1) decode the ancient writings and 2) keep his overactive mouth shut...or else. But what if the writing spells out an ancient prophecy for Earth's doom? "A spine-tingling space thriller that combines elements of Stargate Atlantis, The Da Vinci Code, and Raiders of the Lost Ark into a must-read sci-fi adventure." Caution: This book contains dangerous ancient secrets and a lot of kick-butt action. If you're ready, grab a copy today!