Most Popular Books by Harry Turtledove

From Harry Turtledove, the master of alternate history, comes After the Downfall, a novel of magic, epic warfare, and desperate choices. 1945: Russian troops have entered Berlin, and are engaged in a violent orgy of robbery, rape, and revenge. Wehrmacht officer Hasso Pemsel, a career soldier on the losing end of the greatest war in history, flees from a sniper''s bullet, finding himself hurled into a mysterious, fantastic world of wizards, dragons, and unicorns. There he allies himself with the blond-haired, blue-eyed Lenelli, and Velona, their goddess in human form, offering them his knowledge of warfare and weaponry in their genocidal struggle against a race of diminutive, swarthy barbarians known as Grenye. But soon, the savagery of the Lenelli begins to eat at Hasso Pemsel''s soul, causing him to question everything he has long believed about race and Reich, right and wrong, Ubermenschen and Untermenschen. Hasso Pemsel will learn the difference between following orders... and following his conscienc

Atlantis and Other Places includes twelve amazing stories of ancient eras, historical figures, mysterious events, and out-of-this- world adventures from the incomparable Harry Turtledove.

Bestselling author Harry Turtledove turns his attention to an epic battle that pits three Roman legions against Teutonic barbarians in a thrilling novel of Ancient Rome: Give Me Back My Legions! Publius Quinctilius Varus, a Roman politician, is summoned by the Emperor, Augustus Caesar. Given three legions and sent to the Roman frontier east of the Rhine, his mission is to subdue the barbarous German tribes where others have failed, and bring their land fully under Rome''s control. Arminius, a prince of the Cherusci, is playing a deadly game. He serves in the Roman army, gaining Roman citizenship and officer''s rank, and learning the arts of war and policy as practiced by the Romans. What he learns is essential for the survival of Germany, for he must unite his people against Rome before they become enslaved by the Empire and lose their way of life forever. An epic battle is brewing, and these two men stand on opposite sides of what will forever be known as The Battle of the Teutoberg Forest—a ferocious, bloody clash that will change the course of history.

In this alternative history, Joe Steele takes the place of Franklin D. Roosevelt to become the U.S. President leading the country out of the Great Depression. The reforms he puts in place get citizens back to work, but Steele''s critics end up in work camps if they complain too much about the policies.

AMERICAN EMPIRE: BOOK TWO In this spectacular, thought-provoking epic of alternate history, Harry Turtledove has created an unparalleled vision of social upheaval, war, and cutthroat politics in a world very much like our own--but with dramatic differences. It is 1924--a time of rebuilding, from the slow reconstruction of Washington''s most honored monuments to the reclamation of devastated cities in Europe and Canada. In the United States, the Socialist Party, led by Hosea Blackford, battles Calvin Coolidge to hold on to the Powell House in Philadelphia. And it seems as if the Socialists can do no wrong, for the stock market soars and America enjoys prosperity unknown in a half century. But as old names like Custer and Roosevelt fade into history, a new generation faces new uncertainties. The Confederate States, victorious in the War of Secession and in the Second Mexican War but at last tasting defeat in the Great War, suffer poverty and natural calamity. The Freedom Party promises new strength and pride. But if its chief seizes the reins of power, he may prove a dangerous enemy for the hated U.S.A. Yet the United States take little note. Sharing world domination with Germany, they consider events in the Confederacy of little consequence. As the 1920s end, calamity casts a pall across the continent. With civil war raging in Mexico, terrorist uprisings threatening U.S. control in Canada, and an explosion of violence in Utah, the United States are rocked by uncertainty. In a world of occupiers and the occupied, of simmering hatreds, shattered lives, and pent-up violence, the center can no longer hold. And for a powerful nation, the ultimate shock will come when afleet of foreign aircraft rain death and destruction upon one of the great cities of the United States. . . .

In the 21st-century Kingdom of Versailles, the roads are terrible and Paris is a dirty little town. Serfdom and slavery are both common, and no one thinks that''s wrong. Why should they? Most people spend their lives doing backbreaking farm work anyway. But teenaged Khadija, daughter of a prosperous family of Moorish business travellers, is unfazed. That’s because Khadija is really Annette Klein from 21st-century California, and her whole family are secret agents of Crosstime Traffic, trading for commodities to send back to our own timeline. Now it''s time for Annette and her family to go home for the start of another school year, so they join a pack train bound for their home base in Marseilles, where the crosstime portal is hidden. Then bandits attack while they''re crossing the Pyrenees. Annette/Khadija is separated from her parents and knocked out, and wakes up to find herself a captive in a caravan of slaves being taken to the markets in the south. She''s in a tight spot. Then the really scary thing happens: her purchasers take her, along with other newly purchased slaves, to an unofficial crosstime portal…leaving open the question of whether Crosstime Traffic will ever be able to recover her!

What if history had taken a different path, made a detour, and deviated just a little bit from the road it chose? Here, Harry Turtledove explores such "what ifs" in twenty alternate-history stories ranging from ancient times to the far, far-different future. Persia has conquered Greece; Athens is in ruins. Yet even under Persia''s rule, the power of the people can never be completely broken. . . A werewolf boy tears through Cologne''s medieval stretts in search of sanctuary from the angry mob. But who will shelter a creature so hated and feared? A student from the far-off future sets off on a field trip to study Genghis Khan -- and finds him in the twentieth century? And many more! "He''s one of the finest explorers of alternate histories ever." -- Locus

"Meanwhile the new and poisonous weapons of tanks, gas and planes are starting to make their presence felt at the front. It''s total war for the first time in human history and ordinary people on both sides are the one to begin to suffer.."--BOOK JACKET.

The Bronze Age. The era of Troy, of Gilgamesh, of the dawning of human mastery over the earth. For decades, fantasists have set tales of heroism and adventure in imagined worlds based on the real Bronze Age, from the "Hyborean Age" of the Conan stories to the Third Age of Middle-earth. Now bestselling science fiction and fantasy author Harry Turtledove, a noted expert on the ancient world, teams up with author and Egyptologist Noreen Doyle to present fourteen new tales of the real Bronze Age from some of the best writers in science fiction. In The First Heroes: here is Gene Wolfe''s mock-journal of a man from the future who travels with figures out of history and mythology; Judith Tarr''s tale of a town that sends its resident goddess to try to learn the secrets of the morose God of Chariots; Harry Turtledove''s story about mythological beings witnessing the devastating effect of the first humans on the Earth''s natural order; and a poignant new story from the late Poul Anderson, in which a modern scholar is sent to the late Bronze Age to witness the end of an era, emerging with memories from the past as vibrant and intact as those from his accustomed life. At the Publisher''s request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

From the New York Times–bestselling “standard-bearer for alternate history”: A spy takes on the enemies of the Byzantine Empire (USA Today). In another, very different timeline—one in which Mohammed embraced Christianity and Islam never came to be—the Byzantine Empire still flourishes in the fourteenth century, and wondrous technologies are emerging earlier than they did in our own. Having lost his family to the ravages of smallpox, Basil Argyros has decided to dedicate his life to Byzantium. A stalwart soldier and able secret agent, Basil serves his emperor courageously, going undercover to unearth Persia’s dastardly plots and disrupting the dark machinations of his beautiful archenemy, the Persian spy Mirrane, while defusing dire threats emerging from the Western realm of the Franco-Saxons. But the world Basil so staunchly defends is changing rapidly, and he must remain ever vigilant, for in this great game of empires, the player who controls the most advanced tools and weaponry—tools like gunpowder, printing, vaccines, and telescopes—must certainly emerge victorious. A collection of interlocking stories that showcase the courage, ingenuity, and breathtaking derring-do of superspy Basil Argyros, Agent of Byzantium presents the great Harry Turtledove at his alternate-world-building best. At once intricate, exciting, witty, and wildly inventive, this is a many-faceted gem from a master of the genre.

The modern master of alternate history and New York Times–bestselling author envisions a world in which Europe and the Middle East have traded places. io9’s New Sci-Fi and Fantasy Books You Need to Put on Your Radar This Fall Senior investigator Khalid al-Zarzisi is a modern man, a product of the unsurpassed educational systems of North Africa and the Middle East. Liberal, tolerant, and above all rich, the countries and cultures of North Africa and the Middle East have dominated the globe for centuries, from the Far East to the young nations of the Sunset Lands. But one region has festered for decades: Europe, whose despots and monarchs can barely contain the simmering anger of their people. From Ireland to Scandinavia, Italy to Spain, European fundamentalists have carried out assassinations, hijackings, and bombings on their own soil and elsewhere. Extremist fundamentalist leaders have begun calling for a “crusade,” an obscure term from the mists of European history. Now Khalid has been sent to Rome, ground zero of backwater discontent. He and his partner Dawud have been tasked with figuring out how to protect the tinpot Grand Duke, the impoverished Pope, and the overall status quo, before European instability starts overflowing into the First World. Then the bombs start to go off.

In this stunning retelling of World War II, Harry Turtledove has created a blockbuster saga that is thrilling, troubling, and utterly compelling. It is 1943, the third summer of the new war between the Confederate States of America and the United States, a war that will turn on the deeds of ordinary soldiers, extraordinary heroes, and a colorful cast of spies, politicians, rebels, and everyday citizens. The CSA president, Jake Featherstone, has greatly miscalculated the North’s resilience. In Ohio, where Confederate victory was once almost certain, Featherstone’s army is crumbling, and reinforcements of uninspired Mexican troops cannot stanch a Northern assault on the heartland. The tide of war is changing, and victory seems within the grasp of the USA. Still, new fighting flares from Denver to Los Angeles. Indeed, as the air, ground, and water burn with molten fury, new and demonic tools of killing are unleashed, and secret wars are unfolding. The U.S. government in Philadelphia has proof that the tyrannical Featherstone is murdering African Americans by the tens of thousands in a Texas gulag called Determination. And the leaders of both sides know full well that the world’s next great power will not be the one with the biggest army but the nation that wins the race against nature and science—and smashes open the power of the atom. In Settling Accounts, Harry Turtledove blends vivid fictional characters with a cast inspired by history, including the Socialist assistant secretary of war Franklin Delano Roosevelt and beleaguered Confederate military commander Nathan Bedford Forrest. In The Grapple, he takes his spellbinding vision to new heights as he captures the heart and soul of a generation born and raised amid unimaginable violence. This is a struggle of conquest and conscience, played out on American soil.

A story of murder, intrigue, and a stolen painting portrays America as it might have been, had George Washington surrendered to George III

In an alternate America that runs on magic, a potential environmental disaster plunges an overworked bureaucrat into a deadly conspiracy of evil gods and darkest sorcery David Fisher pushes paper for the EPA in a world that’s a lot like ours . . . only different. In this California—and throughout the alternate United States—all gods are real, science doesn’t exist, and magic rules everything, running imp-driven computers and creating anxiety-inducing bumper-to-bumper flying-carpet rush hours. Unfortunately, unchecked magic use can leave dangerous residues, creating hours of mind-numbing deskwork for David and his fellow bureaucrats at the Environmental Perfection Agency. Now a leakage at a toxic spell dump in Angels City is about to complicate David’s life in ways he never imagined, unleashing vampires, werewolves, and soulless babies. Even the actual spooks at the CIA concerned. But looking too closely into what might be more than just an accident could have David stepping on the toes of some very nasty deities indeed, imperiling his future on the Other Side . . . and on this one, as well. When it comes to creating alternate histories—and worlds—no one does it better than the great Harry Turtledove. The multiple-award-winning master of the fantastic carries readers on a droll thrill ride through a richly detailed, ingeniously imagined fantasy reality where the impossible is mundane—and absolutely anything can happen.

"Another solid entry in an entertaining series." -"Booklist" "Good pacing, a light touch, and a genuine feel for the period."-"Kirkus Reviews" Menedemos, the young dashing sea captain, and his helper (and cousin) the scholarly Sostratos, are back in their third adventure. This time around the two cousins end up in the Sacred Land, Jerusalem, where they encounter a strange religion. This fascinates Sostratos, who wants to learn as much as he can about the strange monotheists living there. The more worldly Menedemos looks more toward more common pleasures, particularly those involving pretty women (not letting small inconveniences like their marriage to other men get in the way). But, as always, trouble follows them. From cargo they can''t sell to bandits and thugs waiting to jump them, they must once again use their quick wits to survive and, hopefully, make a profit from their long journey.

The undisputed master of alternate history brings the Settling Accounts series--one of the greatest sagas ever to portray an America that almost was--to a thunderous conclusion.

The year is 1597. For nearly a decade, the island of Britain has been under the rule of King Philip in the name of Spain. The citizenry live under an enforced curfew—and in fear of the Inquisition’s agents, who put heretics to the torch in public displays. And with Queen Elizabeth imprisoned in the Tower of London, the British have no symbol to unite them against the enemy who occupies their land. William Shakespeare has no interest in politics. His passion is writing for the theatre, where his words bring laughter and tears to a populace afraid to speak out against the tyranny of the Spanish crown. But now Shakespeare is given an opportunity to pen his greatest work—a drama that will incite the people of Britain to rise against their persecutors—and change the course of history.

Facing an invasion by the Gradi and their fierce gods, Gerin, ruler of Fox Keep, invokes all the supernatural help he can from the god Mavrix, the aloof but powerful Biton, and the more elemental gods beneath the ground. Meanwhile, other conflicts are arising to complicate matters.

A first entry in a new series by the Hugo Award-winning author of The Man with the Iron Heart portrays an alternate universe in which the outcome of World War II is profoundly changed by British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain''s refusal to allow Hitler''s annexation of the Sudetenland.

Chronicles the history of the planet''s eighth continent, Atlantis, a land-mass that lies between Europe and the East Coast of Terranova, a world that long has lured dreamers and visionaries from around the globe who are willing to brave the perils of an u

In Harry Turtledove''s The Disunited States of America, Justin''s having the worst trip ever. He and his mother are Time Traders, traveling undercover to different alternate realities of Earth so they can take valuable resources back to their own timeline. In some of these worlds, Germany won World War I or the world has been destroyed by nuclear warfare. Justin and his mother are in an America that never became the United States: each state is like a country, and many of them are at war with each other. Their mission takes them to Virginia, which is on the verge of bloody violence with Ohio. Beckie is from California, and like the rest of her world, unaware that Time Traders exist. The only reason she''s in small town Virginia is because her grandmother dragged her there to visit old relatives. Beckie is just as horrified by the violence and racism of the alternate Virginia as Justin is, and the two are drawn to one another. But when full-fledged war breaks out between the States, including a biologically designed plague, will either of them manage to get back home? Forget about home: Will they make it out alive? At the Publisher''s request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

Against all expectations, Krispos had won the crown of Videssos. But how long could he hope to keep head and crown together? For trouble was brewing in every, quarter. Civil war erupted under Petronas, the late Emperor''s uncle. A brilliant general and a canny politician, Petronas had a very personal score to settle against the upstart Krispos. And even as rebel troops took the field against the untried Emperor, outland raiders swept down from the northlands in a tide of carnage. The power stemmed from foulest sorcery, and Videssos'' wizards could not counter its evil curse. Krispos reign showed every sign of being brief -- and very bloody...

The first volume of the American Empire trilogy from Harry Turtledove, "The Wizard of If". As Turtledove''s brilliant series The Great War came to its end, the United States of America, in alliance with Germany, had defeated Great Britain, France and the Confederate States of America in a bloody conflict known as the First World War. Now as the 1920s begin, though, the seeds of a new conflict have already been sown. The United States, led by Theodore Roosevelt, swings wildly towards socialism. In Canada - now a US colony - nationalist terrorists strike against the new American oppressors. But it is in the Confederacy, trapped in a ruinous economic depression, where fascism begins to spread, and the fires are fanned by a charismatic leader who may again plunge the world into war.

While Stalin, Churchill, Roosevelt, and Togo worked out their strategy, the war against an even greater enemy continued . . . They cut the United States in two. They devastated much of Europe. They had a ferocious agenda. And no one could stop them. World War II screeched to a halt as the Russians, Germans, Americans, and Japanese scrambled to meet an even deadlier foe. In Warsaw, Jews welcomed the invaders as liberators, only to be cruelly disillusioned. In China, the Communist guerrillas used every trick they knew. In America, Washington, D.C., was vaporized in a matter of seconds. But humanity would not give up—whether delivering supplies in tiny biplanes to partisans across the vast steppes of Russia, working furiously to understand the enemy’s captured radar in England, or battling house to house on the streets of Chicago. . . . As Turtledove’s global saga of alternate history continues, humanity grows more resourceful, even as the menace worsens. No one could say when the hellish inferno of death would stop being a war of conquest and turn into a war of survival—a war for the survival of the planet.

“[Harry Turtledove] handles his huge cast with admirable skill. The insights into racial politics elevate this novel to a status above mere entertainment, although it provides that aplenty.”—Publishers Weekly It’s 1941, and an alliance of peace holds in check the most powerful nations of the world—but it is an uneasy peace. Japan dominates the Pacific, the Russian tsar rules Alaska, and England, under Winston Churchill, chafes for a return to its former glory. Behind this façade of world order, America is a bomb waiting to explode. Jake Featherston, the megalomaniacal leader of the Confederate States of America, is just the man to light the fuse. Opposite him is Al Smith, a Socialist U.S. president in the Philadelphia White House. Smith is a living symbol of hope for a nation that has been through the hell of war and depression. Featherston and his Freedom Party are determined to conquer their Northern neighbor at any cost. After crushing a Negro rebellion in his own nation, Featherston sends Confederate army planes to attack Philadelphia. In the aftermath of the CSA blitzkrieg, the war machine spins a vortex of destruction, betrayal, and fury that no one—not even Jake Featherston himself—can control. “Turtledove plays heady games with actual history, scattering object lessons and bitter ironies along the way. [Return Engagement features] strong, complex characters against a sweeping alt-historical background.”—Kirkus Reviews “Another absorbing installment of [Turtledove’s] character-centered alternate-history saga.”—Booklist

Harry Turtledove''s rousing saga of a fantastic world at war, which began in Into the Darkness and continued through Darkness Descending, Through the Darkness, Rulers of the Darkness, and Jaws of Darkness, draws to its climactic conclusion in Out of the Darkness. As the Derlavaian War rages into its last and greatest battles, allied nations maneuver for positions against each other in a postwar world. But before that time can come, the forces of Algarve, Unkerlant, and their allies must clash a final time, countering army with army and battle magic with ever-more-powerful battle magic. In the midst of it all, the people the war has battered and reshaped must struggle to face their greatest individual challenges, as loves are shattered and found, terrible crimes avenged . . . and some journeys end forever. And the end of the war may not bring peace... At the Publisher''s request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

Harry Turtledove''s masterful story of a magical world''s cataclysmic war-which began with Into the Darkness, Darkness Descending, Through the Darkness, and Rulers of the Darkness-continues in this, the fifth volume of the series: Jaws of Darkness. The grand conflict for control of the continent of Derlavai rages on, in a battle with all the drama and terror of the Second World War-only the bullets are beams of magical fire, the tanks and submarines are great lumbering beasts, and the fighters and bombers are dragons raining fire upon their targets. Yet hope may be dawning at last. The terrible onslaught of the conquering forces of Algarve-who power their battle magics with the life energy of their murdered victims-begins to founder as it runs into Habbakuk: a sorcerous ship of ice used by embattled nations of Lagoas and Kuusamo to ferry their deadly dragons across the seas to strike at the very heart of Algarvian power. But though the tide has begun to turn, the conflict is far from over. The widely disdained Kaunians still struggle desperately to escape as the Algarvians kill them by the thousands-for life energy, but also simply for the crime of being Kaunian. And as the deaths of innocent civilians on both sides continue to feed the flames of war, those who have struggled to survive and preserve their freedom have only their passions to see them through. . . . At the Publisher''s request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

In April 1864, the Union garrison at Fort Pillow was comprised of almost six hundred troops, about half of them black. The Confederacy, incensed by what it saw as a crime against nature, sent its fiercest cavalry commander, Nathan Bedford Forrest, to attack the fort with about 1,500 men. The Confederates overran the fort and drove the Federals into a deadly crossfire. Only sixty-two of the U.S. colored troops survived the fight unwounded. Many accused the Confederates of massacring the black troops after the fort fell and fighting should have ceased. The "Fort Pillow Massacre" became a Union rallying cry and cemented resolve to see the war through to its conclusion. Harry Turtledove has written a dramatic recreation of an astounding battle, telling a bloody story of courage and hope, freedom and hatred. With brilliant characterization of all the main figures, this is a novel that reminds us that Fort Pillow was more than a battle---it was a clash of ideas between men fighting to define what being an American ought to mean.

At the beginning of 1944, the USA and the breakaway Confederate States of America face the bitter end of their third war in 60 years. Harry Turtledove brings to a climatic conclusion his monumental drama of a nation''s tragedy.

As the sun gleamed off the gilded domes of Videssos the city, Abivard, marshal of Makuran and son of Godarz, pondered the impossible. How could he carry out the command of Sharbaraz, King of Kings, to destroy the invincible Empire of Videssos? Then, against all expectations, the Emperor of Videssos invaded Makuran itself. Abivard was thrust on the defensive, forced homeward to drive the invaders from the fabled land of the Thousand Cities. Abivard needed not only his greatest battle skills but his most powerful magicians, for no one doubted that Videssian military strategy would be accompanied by the finest sorcery. Yet even as reality reversed itself and renegades plotted Abivard''s ruin, the undaunted warrior vowed never to surrender...

The war for the continent of Derlavi reaches its climax as the mages of Kuusamo and Lagoas race against time to come up with a new magic to stop the Algarve invaders.

In Harry Turtledove''s third novel in the Darkness series, a young Kaunian girl is forced to remain hidden while her Forthwegian savior braves the rough, Algarvian-controlled streets to earn their keep. The scholars of Kuusamo are no closer to understanding the bloodless magic that may win the war-and time is short. Kuusamo has joined into an unsteady alliance with Lagoas and Unkerlant. No one kingdom trusts another, but they must unite, for it is only together that they can defeat the Algarvian threat.The war is no longer confined to soldiers and sorcerers. Common folk are joining together to fight from underneath their oppressors, whether they be Algarve or Unkerlant. What those farmer soldiers lack in skill, they make up for in dedication. A dedication that will carry them . . . through the darkness. At the Publisher''s request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

A collection of thirteen short stories includes tales of an alternate world where the weather is time, a faeries'' challenge to a young prince, and a possible explanation for Jack the Ripper

It is 1939, and the world is overshadowed by the thunder-clouds of war, once again. In this alternate history twist the US fights while across the Pacific Japan is ready to fight again. Once again brother fights brother, friend against friend and the New World is ravaged by all the horrors of modern warfare. This is the first book in a new series on the first global conflict by the modern day master of alternate history. Epic, exciting and incredibly powerful, it deals with relatively recent past so cleverly. This is World War II as it might have been...

In this extraordinary World War II alternate history, master storyteller Harry Turtledove begins with a big switch: what if Neville Chamberlain, instead of appeasing Hitler, had stood up to him in 1938? Enraged, Hitler reacts by lashing out at the West, promising his soldiers that they will reach Paris by the new year. They don''t. Three years later, his genocidal apparatus not fully in place, Hitler has barely survived a coup, while Jews cling to survival. But England and France wonder whether the war is still worthwhile. Weaving together a cast of characters that ranges from a brawling American fighter in the Abraham Lincoln Brigade in Spain to a woman who has seen Hitler''s evil face-to-face, Harry Turtledove takes us into a world shaping up very differently in 1941. The Germans and their Polish allies have slammed into the gut of the Soviet Union in the west, while Japan pummels away in the east. In trench warfare in France, French and Czech fighters are outmanned but not outfought by their Nazi enemy. Then the stalemate is shattered. In England, Winston Churchill dies in an apparent accident, and the gray men who walk behind his funeral cortege wonder who their real enemy is. The USSR, fighting for its life, makes peace with Japan--and Japan''s war with America is about to begin. A sweeping saga of human passions, foolishness, and courage, of families and lovers and soldiers by choice and by chance, "The Big Switch" is a provocative, gripping, and utterly convincing work of alternate history at its best. For history buffs and fans of big, blood-and-guts fiction, Harry Turtledove delivers a panoramic clash of ideals as powerful as armies themselves.