New Releases by Harry Turtledove

From New York Times bestselling author Harry Turtledove, the modern master of alternate history, a novel of alien contact set in the tumultuous year of the Watergate scandal. It''s 1974, and Jerry Stieglitz is a grad student in marine biology at UCLA with a side gig selling short stories to science fiction magazines, just weeks away from marrying his longtime fiancée. Then his life is upended by grim-faced men from three-letter agencies who want him to join a top-secret "Project Azorian" in the middle of the north Pacific Ocean—and they really don''t take "no" for an answer. Further, they''re offering enough money to solve all of his immediate problems. Joining up and swearing to secrecy, what he first learns is that Project Azorian is secretly trying to raise a sunken Russian submarine, while pretending to be harvesting undersea manganese nodules. But the dead Russian sub, while real, turns out to be a cover story as well. What''s down on the ocean floor next to it is the thing that killed the sub: an alien spacecraft. Jerry''s a scientist, a longhair, a storyteller, a dreamer. He stands out like a sore thumb on the Glomar Explorer, a ship full of CIA operatives, RAND Corporation eggheads, and roustabout divers. But it turns out that he''s the one person in the North Pacific who''s truly thought out all the ways that human-alien first contact might go. And meanwhile, it''s still 1974 back on the mainland. Richard Nixon is drinking heavily and talking to the paintings on the White House walls. The USA is changing fast—and who knows what will happen when this story gets out? Three Miles Down is both a fresh and original take on First Contact, and a hugely enjoyable romp through the pop culture, political tumult, and conspiracies-within-conspiracies atmosphere that was 1974. At the Publisher''s request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

IT IS THE DAWN OF A NEW AGE… At the beginning of the 20th century, the world was forever changed by the discovery of electroid, a strange liquid that allowed for lighter-than-air travel. Militaries around the world rushed to develop new vessels based on this amazing invention, resulting in a class of flying ships unlike anything ever seen before…the leviathan. Now, the skies are filled with massive armored warships that soar through the air, armed with devastating cannons that can lay waste to an enemy vessel in moments. The nations of the world have entered into a dangerous new arms race, and all it will take is the right spark to set off a war that will ensnare the nations on and around the European continent…and may engulf the world… Featuring stories by: William H. Keith, Jr. Michael J. Ciaravella Steven Mohan, Jr. Bryn Bills Blaine Lee Pardoe S.M. Stirling Harry Turtledove Tyler Whitney

New York Times bestselling author Harry Turtledove reveals a new side of his potent imagination in a gripping speculative novel about the End of Days—and a discovery in the Middle East that turns the world upside down. What would happen if the ancient prophecy of the End of Days came true? It is certainly the last thing Eric Katz, a secular archaeologist from Los Angeles, expects during what should be a routine dig in Jerusalem. But perhaps higher forces have something else in mind when a sign presaging the rising of the Third Temple is located in America, a dirty bomb is detonated in downtown Tel Aviv, and events conspire to place a team of archaeologists in the tunnels deep under the Temple Mount. There, Eric is witness to a discovery of such monumental proportions that nothing will ever be the same again. Harry Turtledove is the master at portraying ordinary people caught up in extraordinary events, and what is more extraordinary than the incontrovertible proof that there truly is a higher force controlling human destiny? But as to what that force desires . . . well, that is the question.

*io9''s New Sci-Fi and Fantasy Books You Need to Put On Your Radar This Fall From the modern master of alternate history and New York Times bestselling author Harry Turtledove, Through Darkest Europe envisions a world dominated by a prosperous and democratic Middle East—and under threat from the world''s worst trouble spot. 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. At the Publisher''s request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

In a Depression-era America that is woven with magic, zombies, and flying carpets, a down-and-out man escapes a local thug by joining a barnstorming minor league baseball team.

The second entry in the alternate-world 1950s series finds General MacArthur igniting a nuclear war that nearly destroys the planet, placing once-untouched survivors in the middle of an escalating showdown between Russia and the U.S.

Two rival kings must unite to defeat a malevolent god in the “wise and humorous” conclusion to the Hugo Award–winning author’s Scepter of Mercy trilogy (Publishers Weekly). When Avornis falls, the Banished One will reign supreme. Rival kings Lanius and Grus each covet solitary power, but realize that a kingdom divided cannot stand against the evil god who enslaves the minds of men through their nightmares. Once, Avornis was safe from his dark influence, protected by a powerful talisman supplied by the pantheon of deities who expunged the immortal called Milvago from their ranks. But that was centuries earlier, before the Scepter of Mercy was lost, and only through its recovery can Avornis survive. Now, Lanius has a daring—most likely impossible—plan, but it requires the cooperation of his fellow ruler, the warrior and usurper king Grus. If they fail to work together they will die together nevertheless, along with everything that is good and right in their world. Hugo Award winner Harry Turtledove brings his Scepter of Mercy trilogy to a spectacular end with a story of courage, conflict, and selfless sacrifice. In The Scepter’s Return, as in the previous books of the series, the acclaimed world-builder reimagines epic fantasy, leaving his own special imprint on the popular genre much as he has done with the alternate history for which he is so justifiably renowned.

Only a long-lost talisman can save a besieged kingdom torn between two kings, as a malevolent god marshals his minions to attack, corrupt, and destroy Two lieges—King Lanius, who is of royal blood, and King Grus, the usurper—now share the throne of Avornis. The former wields no real power, kept impotent by the regents surrounding him. The latter mans the battle lines, determined to protect the kingdom from a fearsome, immortal god who was expelled from heaven. To the north, the city-state Chernagor is being torn asunder by a savage civil war that threatens to spill past the border at any moment. Catastrophe looms for Avornis and even two kings united may not be strong enough to save her. The kingdom’s final hope lies in the recovery of the Scepter of Mercy, lost for four centuries. But the mighty talisman is in the hands of the Menteshe—barbarian nomads who are vassals of the terrible exiled god—and now that the Banished One wants to consume the entire world, they will never relinquish its power. The Scepter of Mercy, Harry Turtledove’s epic fantasy trilogy, continues with The Chernagor Pirates, the second volume in an adventure that pits man against man, and man against immortal. Originally penned under the pseudonym Dan Chernenko, it is an unforgettable tale that demonstrates the unparalleled creativity and unique storytelling prowess of the Hugo Award–winning master world-builder.

This novel by the New York Times–bestselling “master of alternate history” explores an America reshaped by a twist in prehistoric evolution (Publishers Weekly). What if mankind’s “missing link,” the apelike Homo erectus, had survived to dominate a North American continent where woolly mammoths and saber-toothed tigers still prowled, while the more advanced Homo sapiens built their civilizations elsewhere? Now imagine that the Europeans arriving in the New World had chanced on these primitive creatures and seized the opportunity to establish a hierarchy in which the sapiens were masters and the “sims” were their slaves. This is the premise that drives the incomparable Harry Turtledove’s A Different Flesh. The acclaimed Hugo Award winner creates an alternate America that spans three hundred years of invented history. From the Jamestown colonists’ desperate hunt for a human infant kidnapped by a local sim tribe, to a late-eighteenth-century contest between a newfangled steam-engine train and the popular hairy-elephant-pulled model, to the sim-rights activists’ daring 1988 rescue of an unfortunate biped named Matt who’s being used for animal experimentation, Turtledove turns our world inside out in a remarkable science fiction masterwork that explores what it truly means to be human.

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.

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.

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.

"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 schola

"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.

History is changed by one small act. In an extraordinary saga of nations locked in war, master storyteller Harry Turtledove examines a very different World War II—one which erupts eleven months earlier, and over Czechoslovakia rather than Poland. Now comes the final installment in this landmark series. Hitler’s Plan A was to win in a hurry, striking hard and deep into France. There was no Plan B. Now the war grinds on. Countries have been forced into strange alliances. The Nazis fortify thin lines with Hungarian and Romanian troops. England, finding its footing after the suspicious death of Winston Churchill and a coup d’état, fights back in Europe and on the seas of the North Atlantic. Jews fight on both sides of the war—in secret in German uniform, openly in Spain, France, and Russia. Into the standoff come new killing tools, from tanks to bazookas. In the Pacific, Japan prepares bombs filled with macabre biological concoctions to be dropped on Hawaii. For the U.S., the only enemy is Japan, as there has been no casus belli for America in Europe. Then Hitler becomes desperate and declares war on the United States. But is it too late? His own people are rising up in revolt. The German military may have to put down the violence, even perhaps bomb its own cities. In this epic drama, real men and women are shaped by the carnage, and their individual acts in turn shape history. Drawing on the gritty, personal reality of war and on a cast of unforgettable characters, Harry Turtledove has written an alternate history that intrigues, fascinates, and astounds. Praise for Last Orders “From our perspective seventy years later, we’re accustomed to thinking of WWII’s outcome as being inevitable. Not so, says [Harry] Turtledove. . . . Disdaining broad brush strokes, Turtledove’s focus on the characters serves to fill out the big picture with patient, nitty-gritty detail. It’s all quite plausible. . . . Armchair warriors will have much to ponder.”—Kirkus Reviews Praise for Harry Turtledove “If you like alternate histories, you’re going to like this series a lot.”—The San Diego Union-Tribune “Turtledove is the standard-bearer for alternate history.”—USA Today Coup d’Etat “This is what alternative history is all about.”—Historical Novel Society The Big Switch “The Hugo Award winner continues to delight in exploring the world of ‘what if?’”—Library Journal West and East “There’s plenty to satisfy fans of military strategy, tactics, and armaments.”—Publishers Weekly Hitler’s War “Turtledove is always good, but this return to World War II . . . is genuinely brilliant. . . . The characterizations in particular bring the book to extraordinary life.”—Booklist

In this first alternate history novel of the sequel series to Harry Turtledove''s acclaimed Worldwar saga, the space race is in its infancy in the 1960s and Earth faces alien colonization. Yet the United States, Soviet Union, and Nazi Germany are too locked in conflict to unite against the invaders.

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.

Turtledove''s alternate history of a century-long American civil war continues . . . The second book in the Settling Accounts sequence takes the story to 1942, during an utterly different World War II. The Confederate States of America are locked in a tangle of jagged, blood-soaked battle lines with the United States of America. In Richmond, dictator Jake Featherston is shocked by what his own aircraft have done in Philadelphia - killing U. S. president Al Smith in a barrage of bombs. But he presses ahead with a secret plan on the dusty plains of Texas, where a so-called detention camp hides a far more evil purpose. The United States face a furious thrust by Confederate army into Pennsylvania. But with the industrial heartland under siege, Canada in revolt and US ships fighting against the Japanese in the Sandwich Islands, the most dangerous place in the world may be overlooked.

From the Hugo-winning, bestselling author of The Guns of the South, a tale of love, parasitism, and loss in this Tor.Com Original Something Going Around, by Harry Turtledove. At the Publisher''s request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

In the aftermath of the supervolcano’s eruption in Yellowstone Park, North America is covered in ash. Farmlands cannot produce food. Machinery has been rendered useless. Cities are no longer habitable. And the climate across the globe grows colder every day. Former police officer Colin Ferguson’s family is spread across the United States, separated by the catastrophe and struggling to survive as the nation attempts to recover and reestablish some measure of civilization....

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...

In Videssos the city, tribune Marcus Scaurus was bored. The legion that had been magically transported to this strange world was far away. But the Emperor''s niece Alypia was near - and willing. When their secret trysts were betrayed, Emperor Thorisin Gavras was forced to condemn Marcus as a traitor - but with a promise of freedom and Alypia, if he could reclaim a rebel province from a fanatic usurper, with no military aid. With only centurion Gaius Philippus, Marcus set out to try the seemingly impossible task. But the fates conspired against them, driving them further westward, into the innermost sanctum of Videssos'' great enemy Yezd - and toward the torture chambers of the evil, deathless wizard-prince Avshar. But behind them, without orders, the men of the legion were on the march!

Videssos was beset by enemies. A pretender held the throne - a despot who cared little that barbarian hordes and rival realms carved away at his empire, so long as the wealth and booty of the land satisfied his unbridled appetites. Few stood against him. And those few soon found their heads on pikes. Only one name held hope for freedom: Maniakes. And from his exile on the very edge of the civilised world, young Maniakes took up the challenge, rallied his forces, and sailed off to topple the tyrant. But that tyrant would use every means at his disposal - fair or most hideously foul - to destroy the crusading upstart. And even if Maniakes could stay alive, he would till have to pull together a battered, divided land as well as fend off a host of enemies - and thwart the former friend who had become his empire''s most deadly foe!

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.

As the Spanish civil war drags on and the United States fights Japan in the Pacific, Nazi Germany fights Russia in Eastern Europe as new nationalist powers arise.

Halfway through World War II aliens invaded Earth. They were repelled - but now, years later they are back . . . This is the first volume in the three-part Colonisation series, which follows the Worldwar trilogy. The whole sequence will conclude with Homeward Bound.Through a mixture of guts, ingenuity and sheer luck, Earth managed to defend herself from her ruthless alien would-be conquerors. The ''Race'' was fought to a bloody standstill despite its awe-inspiring weaponry and experience of merciless conquest. Thousands died from enemy fire, many more from the smouldering nuclear-scarred fall-out sites. An uneasy ceasefire reigns over this divided globe, as both sides strive to test their strength through more subtle techniques. But now, years later, this delicate equilibrium has been shattered. For the first assault was only an advance. guard.Now, a whole new fleet orbits the planet. The real colonists have arrived, fresh and unwill to accept old compromises. ''The wizard of If.'' Chicago Sun-Times ''Turtledove the standard bearer for alternate history.'' USA Today

Alien invaders from another star system have attacked the Earth, wreaking massive destruction and havoc with their terrifyingly advanced military technology. Humans are forced to unearth secret caches of terrible, once-forbidden weapons. Hitherto unthinkable tactics are brought into action against the alien enemy. Even as fuel shortages force people back to the horse and cart, the world''s scientists work desperately to create Earth''s first atom bombs - with horrific results. If the carnage and slaughter ever stop, will their be any pices to pick up? ''The wizard of If.'' Chicago Sun-Times ''The standard-bearer for alternate history.'' USA Today

World War II seethes across the planet. Hostilities spread in ever-widening circles of destruction: Nazi Germany, Soviet Russia, Britain, France, Japan, Italy Africa - the fate of the world hung in the balance. Then the real enemy arrives. Out of the skies comes an invasion force the like of which Earth has never known - and worldwar is truly joined. The invaders are inhuman and they are unstoppable. Their weaponry is overwhelming and their goal is simple: Fleetlord Atvar has arrived to claim Earth for the Empire. ''The wizard of If.'' Chicago Sun-Times ''The standard-bearer for alternate history.'' USA Today

Humanity is still locked in a battle for supremacy with the conquering alien invaders, the Race. The German Reich has finally been subdued and the Race believe it only to be a matter of time before the rest of the planet follows suit. However, they underestimate humanity''s desire for freedom and the lengths they will go to gain it. With America and Russia holding the alien invaders off in a technological standoff, the disorganised red armies of Mao Tse-tung''s revolutionaries causing havoc and the ever-increasing dependence of the Race on the addictive substance ginger, the Empire realises that the colonisation of Earth may only be achieved through its total destruction. ''The wizard of If.'' Chicago Sun-Times ''Turtledove the standard bearer for alternate history.'' USA Today

In 1941, a treaty between England and Germany unravels—and so does a different World War II. In Harry Turtledove’s mesmerizing alternate history of World War II, the choices of men and fate have changed history. Now it is the winter of 1941. As the Germans, with England and France on their side, slam deep into Russia, Stalin’s terrible machine fights for its life. But the agreements of world leaders do not touch the hearts of soldiers. The war between Germany and Russia is rocked by men with the courage to aim their guns in a new direction. England is the first to be shaken. Following the suspicious death of Winston Churchill, with his staunch anti-Nazi views, a small cabal begins to imagine the unthinkable in a nation long famous for respecting the rule of law. With civil liberties hanging by a thread, a conspiracy forms against the powers that be. What will this daring plan mean for the European war as a whole? Meanwhile, in America, a woman who has met Hitler face-to-face urges her countrymen to wake up to his evil. For the time being, the United States is fighting only Japan—and the war is not going as well as Washington would like. Can Roosevelt keep his grip on the country’s imagination? Coup d’Etat captures how war makes for the strangest of bedfellows. A freethinking Frenchman fights side by side with racist Nazis. A Czech finds himself on the dusty front lines of the Spanish Civil War, gunning for Germany’s Nationalist allies. A German bomber pilot courts a half-Polish, half-Jewish beauty in Bialystock. And the Jews in Germany, though trapped under Hitler’s fist, are as yet protected by his fear of looking bad before the world—and by an outspoken Catholic bishop. With his spectacular command of character, coincidence, and military and political strategies, Harry Turtledove continues a passionate, unmatched saga of a World War II composed of different enemies, different allies—and hurtling toward a horrific moment. For a diabolical new weapon is about to be unleashed, not by the United States, but by Japan, in a tactic that will shock the world. BONUS: This edition includes an excerpt from Harry Turtledove''s The War That Came Early: Two Fronts. Praise for Coup d’Etat “Turtledove’s masterful presentation of an alternate WWII reaches its fourth volume with its quality undiminished. . . . A tribute to [his] commanding skills.”—Booklist (starred review) “For lovers of alternative history, and particularly the very popular Turtledove with his appealing weaponry, battle tactics, and setting details, this story will satisfy. It sets out to entertain . . . and that it does.”—Historical Novels Review “The book’s grand scope and Turtledove’s impressive historical knowledge are admirable.”—Kirkus Reviews