Book picks similar to
A Matter of Security by Bjorn Hasseler
alt-history
ring-of-fire
1632
The Granite Key
N.S. Wikarski - 2011
Five objects buried beneath the rubble of lost civilizations point to the hiding place of the fabled Sage Stone. The real adventure begins when a secret society known as the Arkana deploys its agents to recover the relic. They find their quest hampered at every turn by members of a fanatical religious cult called the Blessed Nephilim. The cult's leader, Abraham Metcalf, believes that the Sage Stone can help him create a terrifying new world order.Although keeping the relic out of Metcalf's hands is important, it is even more critical to keep him from finding the Arkana's troves of archaeological treasure. This cache, which has taken centuries to amass, proves the existence of advanced matriarchal cultures on every continent predating patriarchy by thousands of years. The Nephilim would like nothing better than to destroy the cache and its guardians. The global treasure hunt for the Sage Stone has put the Nephilim and the Arkana on a collision course. The only question is whether anyone will survive long enough to claim the prize.Volume One - The Granite KeyIn a nightmare, nineteen-year-old Cassie Forsythe sees her sister attacked by a man in a cowboy hat who demands something called "the key." Her nightmare mutates into reality when she is called to identify her sister's body, murdered exactly as her dream foretold. Cassie dismisses her vision as a fluke until the night she catches the man in the cowboy hat ransacking her sister's apartment. He bolts with an odd-looking stone cylinder--the Granite Key. From that moment, Cassie's normal world evaporates.She learns that her sister led a double life retrieving artifacts for a secret society called the Arkana. Cassie's sister had the ability to touch a relic and relive its past. Cassie has now inherited this dubious gift. The leader of the Arkana wants the girl to take over her sister's role in the organization. She reluctantly agrees in the hopes that they might find her sister's killer. Teamed with librarian Griffin and bodyguard Erik, Cassie is sent to the Minoan ruins of Crete to decipher the key's code. Even as the trio rakes through megalithic tombs and Minoan palaces for clues, Nephilim operatives are closing in. Will Cassie And Company solve the mystery in time or fall victim to the religious cult's ruthless assassin? THE GRANITE KEY holds all the answers.
Muse
Brittany Cavallaro - 2021
But Claire Emerson has a bigger problem. While her father prepares to reveal the mighty weapon he’s created to showcase the might of their province, St. Cloud, in the World’s Fair, Claire is crafting a plan to escape.Claire’s father is a sought-after inventor, but he believes his genius is a gift, granted to him by his daughter’s touch. He’s kept Claire under his control for years. As St. Cloud prepares for war, Claire plans to claim her life for herself, even as her best friend, Beatrix, tries to convince her to stay and help with the growing resistance movement that wants to see a woman on the throne. At any cost.When her father’s weapon fails to fire on the fair’s opening day, Claire is taken captive by Governor Remy Duchamp, St. Cloud’s young, untried ruler. Remy believes that Claire’s touch bestows graces he’s never had, and with his governing power weakening and many political rivals planning his demise, Claire might be his only and best ally. But the last thing that Claire has ever wanted is to be someone else’s muse. Still, affections can change as quickly as the winds of war. And Claire has a choice to make: Will she quietly remake her world from the shadows—or bring it down in flames?
Undead Worlds
R.L. BlalockT.D. Ricketts - 2017
22 Undead worlds. 1 Great Book.Do you dare?Alone Together by David SimpsonWhat do you do when there is nowhere left to run?Gone Fishin’ by Justin RobinsonWhen the dead rise, the living become the monsters.The Festival by Christopher ManhoodA city on lockdown as a nation awaits bloodshed, let the festival begin.Jimmy by Arthur MongelliDecades of meddling with the food we eat brings about the zombie apocalypse, ordinary people struggle to survive.The Fort by Michael WhiteheadWhen sanctuary becomes a prison, all you can do is fight.Adam by Sylvester BarzeySome families aren't worth dying for.A Peaceful Town by Jeremy DysonThe Undead Pool: The Zombie Night by Derek AilesZombie Exterminators by GrivanteTwo brothers saving the world one job at a time!The Horror at Roswell Mills by Michael PeirceBefore Safe Haven: Losing the Battle by Christopher ArtinianThere is no greater weapon than the will to fight for the ones you love.On the Rocks by E.E. IsherwoodMorning of The Living Dead by Mark Cusco AilesDefenseless: A Story of Death & Decay by R. L. BlalockAs the zombies rise, 6-year-old Dylan must face a frightening new world alone.To the Hills by T. D. RickettsA real live zombie apocalypse!When I Grow Up, I Won’t Be by Brea BehnWhat if you knew you'd never make it to 18?Fallen by Jessica GomezBrain Waves by Julien SaindonDamaged Goods by Samie SandsThere's only one rule: don't get bit!Avery by Valerie LioudisTrapped in a world with the undead, Avery looks to control it by filling her space with treasures, leading her to risk her life for useless garbage.In the Beginning, God by Charles IngersollGod made Man. Man made monsters.Evacuation by Adrienne LecterWhen the world is about to end, one man has to bring home the bacon.
The Adam and Eve Story: The History of Cataclysms
Chan Thomas - 1993
Power Games
R.A. Peters - 2013
Land of chaos and home of the ambitious... A botched assassination on the eve of Election Day throws the routine transfer of presidential authority on its head and the American government into chaos. With Congress and the Supreme Court locked in a constitutional standoff, rabble-rousing state governors fueling the fire and shadowy opportunists pulling strings, the nation teeters on the verge of a Second Civil War. While the politicos play their chess games, the pawns refuse to sit idly by. Sometimes the tail doesn’t just wag the dog, but strangles it. Sergeant Major John Brown, a hard charging paratrooper, is about as political as a potato. He’s the last man anyone imagined inciting a revolution… Young Sophie Kampbell, a social justice crusader, despises violence in every form. On the other hand, when tragedy shoves her into the arms of the mysterious “Freedom Brigade” militias, she finds that a rifle delivers a lot more permanent social justice than any picket sign… From the rhetoric-stained halls of power to the reluctant warriors on the ultramodern battlefield, get ready to take an extreme tour of the next major chapter in US history. Keep low, stay alert, and just maybe you'll survive a tour of duty in Operation: Enduring Unity. About the author: Richard Peters is a US Army veteran who spent 27 months bringing peace at any price to the post-apocalyptic streets and mahalla’s of Baghdad as a 13F (Forward Observer).
Rude Astronauts
Allen M. Steele - 1993
In Steele’s universe, the stars are cold, space is big, and it’s the normal people who make things interesting.
Memoirs of a Time Traveler
Doug Molitor - 2015
Except the ball tests out to be an impossible paradox. It was signed with a ballpoint pen (not invented until 1938) using ink that's several centuries older. But then, Ariyl and Ludlo aren't who they claim to be either. Ariyl, a voluptuous 6-foot-3 beauty, turns out to be a tourist from a 22nd century paradise where time travel is the latest craze. Unbeknownst to her, however, her traveling companion, Ludlo, is a psychopath whose thefts are starting to alter history. In a world were even small changes in the timeline can cause catastrophic consequences, Ludlo's actions may completely destroy the future. To stop Ludlo, David and Ariyl must solve a mystery involving Bronze Age swordsmen, modern-day Nazis, a steampunk world, Albert Einstein, some highly skeptical Founding Fathers, and a Golden Age Hollywood where the murder of a beloved movie star will spell doom for civilization. Sci-fi meets romantic comedy...with sword-swinging adventure!
Sleeping Gods
Matt Eaton - 2015
A long list of things could go catastrophically wrong as they attempt to park their supersonic spacecraft into stable lunar orbit. But they get it done, paving the way for one giant leap toward the surface. They are the first men alive to see the far side of the Moon — the lunar face permanently turned away from Earth. Inside the tiny capsule, astronaut Bill Anders points his camera at the lunar horizon and captures one of the most famous photographs of all time. Our planet, lonely and fragile in the eternal darkness of space. Lonely, but perhaps not alone. Another photo is taken that day... one so sensitive even the NASA chiefs don't know about it. Sleeping Gods puts you right there on the first manned mission to the Moon. You'll be surprised and amazed by this alternate view of space history, a prelude to Matt Eaton's acclaimed novel, Blank. If you've pondered flying to the Moon, climb inside the capsule with the men who did it. Then join astronaut Frank Borman on a journey even more incredible that begins shortly after splashdown. Coming soon... Apollo 8.1 — go one step beyond Sleeping Gods on a space trip no-one was ever told about.
"Matt Eaton does not let you down with his smooth writing style."
- Amazon reviewer
A Kill in the Morning
Graeme Shimmin - 2014
Murder isn't so bad from a distance, just shapes popping up in my scope. Close-up work though - a garrotte around a target's neck or a knife in their heart - it's not for me. Too much empathy, that's my problem. Usually. But not today. Today is different . . . 'The year is 1955 and something is very wrong with the world. It is fourteen years since Churchill died and the Second World War ended. In occupied Europe, Britain fights a cold war against a nuclear-armed Nazi Germany.In Berlin the Gestapo is on the trail of a beautiful young resistance fighter, and the head of the SS is plotting to dispose of an ailing Adolf Hitler and restart the war against Britain and her empire. Meanwhile, in a secret bunker hidden deep beneath the German countryside, scientists are experimenting with a force far beyond their understanding.Into this arena steps a nameless British assassin, on the run from a sinister cabal within his own government, and planning a private war against the Nazis.Now the fate of the world rests on a single kill in the morning . . .
Saving Lincoln
Robert Kresge - 2013
Abandoned by her political masters, Beth must evade Rebel soldiers and the bomb's mastermind to deliver the information to Washington before the conspirators can launch their deadly attack.Assisted by the Federal officer who loves her, Beth risks more than her life to snuff out the burning fuse of the world's first vehicle bomb and prevent disaster on the eve of victory.With its strong and resourceful heroine, Saving Lincoln will appeal to fans of Cold Mountain and Eye of the Needle.
An Occupation of Angels
Lavie Tidhar - 2005
But what would happen if, more than quarter of a century later, something somehow managed to kill these supreme beings? Killarney knows and, as an agent working for the Bureau, a British agency that's so secret it doesn't officially exist, she finds herself embroiled in the consequences as, one by one, the Archangels die. Assigned to trace a missing cryptographer thought to have information on the murders, she travels from England, through France, heading for the frozen wastes of the USSR. But there's an unknown third party intent on stopping her, and there's God, who also has an agenda. Not knowing who is friend and who is foe, and with only a brief glimpse of a swastika on angel wings as solid information, Killarney struggles to remain alive long enough to glean sufficient information to put together the pieces of the puzzle and complete what is, without them, an impossible mission.
Age of Anansi
James Lovegrove - 2012
until the day the spider appears. What looks like an ordinary arachnid turns out to be Anansi, the trickster god of African legend, and its arrival throws Dion’s existence into chaos. Dion’s already impressive legal brain is sharpened. He becomes nimbler-witted and more ruthless, able to manipulate and deceive like never before, both in and out of court. He has been transformed into Anansi’s avatar on earth.Then he discovers the price he has to pay for his new-found skills: he must travel to America and take part in a contest between avatars of all the other trickster gods. It’s a life-or-death battle of wits, full of skulduggery and double-cross. At the end, only one will be left standing.
43* When Gore Beat Bush
Jeff Greenfield - 2012
on September 11, 2001, an ashen-faced but composed President Al Gore stepped into the East Room of the White House to deliver a televised address to the nation. With him were former presidents Clinton and Bush, as well as Texas governor George W. Bush — flown to Washington from Dallas on a military jet, his first visit back to the capital after the close race that lost him the presidency just months before. That's not how you remember it?Imagine if the 2000 presidential election had turned out differently and Al Gore had defeated George W. Bush to become the 43rd president of the United States. How might events have played out? Would Osama bin Laden have loomed as large? Would the 9/11 attacks have been even worse? Would we have invaded Iraq? Would the economy have plunged into recession?This is the provocative alternate universe of 43*, a riveting thriller by veteran political commentator Jeff Greenfield. Richly reported and anchored in actual events, 43*: When Gore Beat Bush is the fascinating follow-up to Greenfield's bestselling Then Everything Changed, which imagined what-if scenarios for the Kennedy, Ford, Carter, and Reagan administrations. Greenfield takes readers deep inside the Gore administration and reveals high-level meetings, top-secret programs, and ego-fueled battles that forever altered the global landscape. And in Greenfield’s hauntingly plausible parallel universe, the law of unintended consequences has a dramatic effect on the fate of the United States."It’s the 'butterfly effect,'" writes Greenfield, "where one dead butterfly millions of years ago leads to a contemporary world immeasurably more coarse, less kind. It's the notion of the old nursery rhyme: 'For want of a nail the kingdom was lost.'"
Ghosts of Columbia
L.E. Modesitt Jr. - 2005
Johan Eschbach, professor at a small college in the northeast and secret agent for the government of Columbia. This is an alternate history world shaped by the fact that ghosts are not mere superstition but have a literal physical reality--and political implications--because your crimes can haunt you, and the ghosts of your crimes are visible to others.Here are two adventures--Of Tangible Ghosts and Ghost of the Revelator--that bring Johan Eschbach out of his retirement and happy marriage in northern New Bruges and into danger and intrigue. This edition includes a new afterword by the author explaining the history of this fascinating alternate world.