Alternate History Fiction

Considered the first full-length detective novel in the English language, T.S. Eliot described The Moonstone as 'the first and greatest English detective novel'. The stone of the title is an enormous yellow diamond plundered from an Indian shrine after the Siege of Seringapatam. Given to Miss Verinder on her 18th birthday, it mysteriously disappears that very night. Suspicion falls on three Indian jugglers who have been seen in the neighbourhood. Sergeant Cuff is assigned to the case....

The impossible has spawned the unthinkable. In 2021, a quantum military experiment goes horrifically wrong. A multinational taskforce of ultramodern warships is suddenly transported back in time to 1942...right into the path of the US naval battle group bound for Midway Atoll. History is rewritten in an instant as the future smashes into the past, and high-tech hardware goes head to head with World War Two technology. In the chaos that ensues, thousands are killed, but the maelstrom has only just begun.

In the 21st century, Germany's Third Reich continues to thrive after its victory in World War II - keeping most of Europe and North America under its heel. But within the heart of the Nazi regime, a secret lives. Under a perfect Aryan facade, Jews survive - living their lives, raising their families, and fearing discovery....

In the year 2021 a multinational fleet - experimenting with untested weapons technology - pitched through time, crash-landing in 1942. The world is thrown into chaos as Roosevelt, Hitler, Churchill, Tojo, and Stalin scramble to adapt to new, high-tech killing tools and 21st-century ways of war.

On December 7, 1941, the Japanese launched an attack against U.S. naval forces stationed in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. But what if the Japanese followed up their air assault with an invasion and occupation of Hawaii? This is the question explored by Harry Turtledove in Days of Infamy, with frightening implications.

An engineer finds himself in an alternate reality, Cornwall, in the year 715 A.D. He awakens in the body of a young Baron. A retired Lieutenant General, former head of the Army Corp of Engineers, lies dying at the age of ninety-two. Leading a full life, he is a decorated veteran of World War II, Korea, and Vietnam. After a long illness, he lies dying. His last thought is, "What a waste of such wonderful knowledge." As he fades to black, the fun begins. He is to build a modern civilization without being burned as a witch!

All three novellas feature Washington, D.C. Homicide Detective John "Black Jack" Morrison and his travails as he gets sent out to the super-secret spy facility known as Area 51 to solve a series of murders. Jack can't stay out of trouble with the chief of detectives back home, mostly due to his drinking, and his cockups get him sent to the Nevada desert as punishment. But it's not the murders that bother Black Jack, so much as the evidence he finds about the events from Roswell in 1947.

In Victorian London, in an age when steam and clockwork power is all-important, a series of events throws Oliver, Jake, and Charlotte into conflict with the authorities. They come from very different backgrounds and join forces with an escaped slave, a street urchin, and a prostitute to form an airship crew—The Rebel Runaways. With the country in the hands of the army and beset by street gangs, escape is their priority. When they realize the depths to which the corrupt government and a wicked industrialist are willing to stoop, they turn to face the enemy.

The Second World War was turned on its head at the moment Admiral Kolhammer's ultramodern stealth warships were hurled back through time from 2021. But no one could have predicted just how much of a nightmare would ensue. Only months after the Transition, the great powers scramble to develop the weapons of tomorrow. The year 1942 is now a world of crude jet fighters, monstrous attack helicopters, and unholy dirty bombs - a mongrel technology, born decades prematurely.

This Audible production expertly brings to life Salman Rushdie’s postcolonial masterpiece Midnight’s Children, available for the first time unabridged in audio. Written in the magical-realist style that Rushdie is renowned for, Midnight’s Children follows Saleem Sinai - a child gifted with extraordinary powers after being born at the exact moment India becomes independent. The captivating events that unfold act as an allegory for India’s transition from colonialism to independence as Saleem finds himself 'handcuffed to history', with his fate entwined with that of his newly independent state.

Dr. Jameson Carter, an accomplished archeologist, finally finds what he's been searching for in a remote village in central France. With a team of experts, he unearths a secret room hidden beneath the floor of a 14th-century home, which holds a brass box sealed with a mysterious medallion. Inside the box, they discover an ancient diary that reveals a dark and disturbing truth about the Black Plague, which has been Stricken from History.

Dive into "Rich Men North of Richmond," an audiobook that unravels a gripping tale of resistance and courage against the backdrop of a society in turmoil. This narrative follows Everett, a man grappling with moral dilemmas, as he joins forces with Naomi, Lena, and Carlos to form The Patriots. Together, they challenge the oppressive rule of the Rich Men, a powerful elite controlling the city from the shadows.

On Earth in the year 2148, the utopian city-state known as the New Republic is fractured and focused on maintaining an iron grip on its citizens as a growing resistance movement threatens to topple the old regime. Logan Yarbrough struggles with his loyalties. In his heart, he knows the cause of the resistance is righteous but he’s no longer willing to help their leaders train for the great uprising. The urge to fight in simpler times overwhelms Logan and he flees the conflict of the present to experience the challenges represented in the ancient past.

If Max Brod had obeyed Franz Kafka's dying request, Kafka's unpublished manuscripts would have been burned, unread. Fortunately, Brod ignored his friend's wishes and published The Trial, which became the author's most famous work. Now Kafka's enigmatic novel regains its humor and stylistic elegance in a new translation based on the restored original manuscript.

A small mountain town is isolated by a snowstorm as an ancient evil, gone pandemic, turns the residents into the living dead. Almost overnight the town becomes a snowy tomb of the roaming, hungry infected. Stranded by the weather, hiding, a small group of survivors follows the progress of the disease as society around them and around the world begins to break down. Determined to escape, they find that the normal rules of civilization don't apply anymore. Will they be able to adapt to this strange, hungry new world?

It's 1830, in an alternate Britain where the "scientific" principles of magic were discovered 60 years previously, allowing the British to win the American War of Independence. Although Britain is now supreme among the Great Powers, the gulf between rich and poor in the Empire has widened and unrest is growing every day. Master Thomas, the King's Royal Sorcerer, is ageing and must find a successor to lead the Royal Sorcerers Corps. Most magicians can possess only one of the panoply of known magical powers, but Thomas needs to find a new Master of all the powers. 

This novel spans the period between the Chicago World's Fair of 1893 and the years just after World War I. With a worldwide disaster looming just a few years ahead, it is a time of unrestrained corporate greed, false religiosity, moronic fecklessness, and evil intent in high places. No reference to the present day is intended or should be inferred.

Menedemos, the young dashing sea captain, and his helper, the scholarly Sostratos, are sea-traders from the Greek island of Rhodes. Fearless sailors, they will travel any distance to make a profit or to search for rich treasures. While they trade in fineries such as wine and silk (and even, to the chagrin of many, peacocks), they live in dangerous times with pirates, thieves, and barbarians.

In this novel of alternative history from best-selling author Harry Turtledove, the Spanish Armada has conquered England, King Phillip holds the English throne, and Elizabeth I languishes as a prisoner in the Tower of London. Meanwhile, in London, a mysterious stranger approaches young playwright William Shakespeare with an offer that could change the course of history.

In the extraordinary Worldwar tetralogy, set against the backdrop of World War II, Harry Turtledove, whom Publishers Weekly has called the "Hugo-winning master of alternate SF," wove an explosive saga of world powers locked in conflict against an enemy from the stars.