New Releases by Harry Turtledove

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 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.

Two rivals must unite to prevent a disgraced malevolent god from attaining a relic of extraordinary power in the first book of alternate history master Harry Turtledove''s magnificent fantasy trilogy More than four centuries ago, the Scepter of Mercy was lost to the king of Avornis, and each subsequent liege has promised—and failed—to return the powerful talisman to its rightful home. Now, young Lanius, the only surviving son of King Mergus, rules, though he is considered illegitimate and must abide by the decisions of regents. Still, the legacy of the missing scepter ultimately belongs to him. But it is also coveted by the Banished One, an immortal exiled by the other gods, who invades the world of men through their dreams. Lanius, with no talent or heart for battle, must keep those in the sway of the malevolent deity from Avornis''s borders. To this end, Lanius requires the help of Grus, a fearless and respected captain of the king''s navy. But Grus has a far loftier destiny than his common birth would suggest—and the bastard king''s brave, accomplished ally might well turn out to be his most dangerous adversary. Originally published under the pen name Dan Chernenko, The Bastard King is a magnificent foray into epic fantasy by the incomparable Harry Turtledove, the prolific and multi-award-winning master of alternate history science fiction. A tale of courage and destiny, it is alive with action, imagination, and humanity, and populated by richly complex, imperfect heroes and a villain as truly fiendish as any that has ever graced the fantasy genre.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Humans work with and against each other and the Race, a alien species that invaded Earth twenty years before and now hopes to begin colonization.

Some people will tell you that world-class fame is better than living to a contented old age. Other people disagree. One of those other people might possibly be the protagonist of The Eighth-Grade History Class Visits the Hebrew Home for the Aging by Harry Turtledove, master of the counterfactual. At the Publisher''s request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

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 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.

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

Is it the war to end all wars - or war without end? It is 1917, and the United States are fighting a war on two fronts. In the north, from the Pacific to Quebec, US forces in the air and on land are locked in battle against Canada and Great Britain. To the south, at the heart of a line that stretches from the Gulf of California to the Atlantic, General Custer intends to do what none of his predecessors have done - to smash through the Confederate lines in Tennessee. Into this vast, seething cauldron plunges a new generation of weapons - submarines, barrels, attack planes, poison gas and flame throwers - changing the shape of war and the balance of power. ''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 Winston Churchill was Hitler’s worst enemy. Then a Nazi secret agent changed everything. 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. Instead, three years pass, and with his genocidal apparatus not fully in place, Hitler barely survives a coup, while Jews cling to survival, and England and France wonder whether the war is still worthwhile. The stage is set for World War II to unfold far differently from the history we know—courtesy of Harry Turtledove, wizard of “what if?,” in the continuation of his thrilling series: The War That Came Early. Through the eyes of characters ranging from a brawling American serving with the Abraham Lincoln Brigade in Spain to a woman who has seen Hitler’s evil face-to-face, The Big Switch rolls relentlessly forward into 1941. As the Germans and their Polish allies slam into the gut of the Soviet Union in the west, Japan pummels away in the east. Meanwhile, in the trenches of France, French and Czech forces are outmanned but not outfought by their Nazi enemy. Then the stalemate is shattered. In England Winston Churchill dies suddenly, leaving the gray men wondering who their real enemy is. And as the USSR makes peace with Japan, the empire of the Rising Sun looks westward—its war with America about to begin.

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...

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.

Harris Moffatt III, President of the Free United States and Prime Minister of Canada, has never seen Washington, D.C.; it belongs to the Krolp now, along with ninety percent of everything. All he can do is try to keep the rest of it out of their hands, in Harry Turtledove''s Vilcabamba. At the Publisher''s request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

A stroke of the pen and history is changed. In 1938, British prime minister Neville Chamberlain, determined to avoid war, signed the Munich Accord, ceding part of Czechoslovakia to Hitler. But the following spring, Hitler snatched the rest of that country, and England, after a fatal act of appeasement, was fighting a war for which it was not prepared. Now, in this thrilling alternate history, another scenario is played out: What if Chamberlain had not signed the accord? In this action-packed chronicle of the war that might have been, Harry Turtledove uses dozens of points of view to tell the story: from American marines serving in Japanese-occupied China and ragtag volunteers fighting in the Abraham Lincoln Battalion in Spain to an American woman desperately trying to escape Nazi-occupied territory—and witnessing the war from within the belly of the beast. A tale of powerful leaders and ordinary people, at once brilliantly imaginative and hugely entertaining, Hitler’s War captures the beginning of a very different World War II—with a very different fate for our world today. BONUS: This edition contains an excerpt from Harry Turtledove''s The War that Came Early: West and East.

What if V-E Day hadn’t ended World War II in Europe? What if, instead, the Allies had to face a potent, even fanatical, postwar Nazi resistance? Such a movement, based in the fabled Alpine Redoubt, was in fact a real threat, ultimately neutralized by Germany’s flagging resources and squabbling officials. But had SS Obergruppenführer Reinhard Heydrich, the notorious Man with the Iron Heart, not been assassinated in 1942, fate might have taken a different turn. In this imagined world, Nazi forces launch a guerrilla war, using the quick and dirty tactics of terrorism to overturn what seemed to be a decisive victory. Suddenly the Allies–especially the United States–are mired in a long, seemingly unwinnable conflict while battling an invisible, unrelenting enemy.

Short stories consider how history might have been different if its greatest generals had commanded each other''s armies

From the master of alternate history comes an epic of the second Civil War. It was an epoch of glory and success, of disaster and despair. . . . 1881: A generation after the South won the Civil War, America writhed once more in the bloody throes of battle. Furious over the annexation of key Mexican territory, the United States declared total war against the Confederate States of America in 1881. But this was a new kind of war, fought on a lawless frontier where the blue and gray battled not only each other but the Apache, the outlaw, the French, and the English. As Confederate General Stonewall Jackson again demonstrated his military expertise, the North struggled to find a leader who could prove his equal. In the Second War Between the States, the times, the stakes, and the battle lines had changed--and so would history. . .

The New York Times –bestselling author delivers "fast-paced military fantasy" in the alternate–Bronze Age epic begun in Beyond the Gap ( Publishers Weekly ). Once the great Glacier enclosed the Raumsdalian Empire. Now it''s broken open, and Count Hamnet Thyssen faces a new world. With the wisecracking Ulric Skakki, the neighboring clan leader Trasamund (politely addressed as Your Ferocity), and his lover, the shaman Liv, Hamnet leads an exploration of the new territory in hopes of finding the legendary Golden Shrine. But dangers abound. A violent and implacable group known as the Rulers has already killed many, and now they attack again. Riding deer and woolly mammoths and using powerful magic, the Rulers triumph and force the Raumsdalians to flee. In the spring another battle ends even more badly for Hamnet''s side, but the Glacier is also retreating, so they are able to escape. Meeting a tribe whose desperate living conditions have led them to overcome the Raumsdalian taboo against eating fallen foes, they find unexpected allies. Now, returning to the capital city and its intrigues, Hamnet prepares to lead an army against the merciless Rulers. The world, once so bounded and comprehensible, will never be the same . . . in Harry Turtledove''s The Breath of God. "The tale''s copious action includes some fascinating sorcerous battles, and Turtledove''s development of Hamnet is captivating . . . Terrific adventure." — Booklist

In Harry Turtledove''s The Gladiator, the Soviet Union won the Cold War. The Russians were a little smarter than they were in our own world, and the United States was a little dumber and a lot less resolute. Now, more than a century later, the world''s gone Communist, and capitalism is a bad word. For Gianfranco and his friend Annarita, a couple of teenagers growing up in Milan, life in a heavily regimented, surveillance-rich command economy is just plain dreary. The eventual withering-away of the state doesn''t look like it''s going to happen anytime soon. Annarita''s a hard-working student and a member of the Young Socialists'' League. Gianfranco is a lot less motivated--but on the other hand, his father''s a Party apparatchik. The biggest excitement in their lives is a wargame shop called The Gladiator, which runs tournaments, and stocks marvelous complex games you can''t find anywhere else. Then, abruptly, the shop is shut down. Someone''s figured out that The Gladiator''s games are teaching counterrevolutionary capitalist principles. The Security Police are searching high and low for the shop''s proprietors, who''ve not only vanished into thin air, but have left behind sets of fingerprints that aren''t in the records of any government on earth. Only one staffer is left: Gianfranco and Annarita''s friend Eduardo. He''s on the run, and he comes to them in secret with an astonishing story: he''s a time trader from our own timeline, accidentally left behind when the store was evacuated. The only way Eduardo can get home to his own timeline is if Gianfranco and Annarita can help him reach one of the other time trader sites in this world--and the Security Police will be on their tails all the way there. At the Publisher''s request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

Franklin Roosevelt is the assistant secretary of defense. Thomas Dewey is running for president with a blunt-speaking Missourian named Harry Truman at his side. Britain holds onto its desperate alliance with the USA’s worst enemy, while a holocaust unfolds in Texas. In Harry Turtledove’s compelling, disturbing, and extraordinarily vivid reshaping of American history, a war of secession has triggered a generation of madness. The tipping point has come at last. The third war in sixty years, this one yet unnamed: a grinding, horrifying series of hostilities and atrocities between two nations sharing the same continent and both calling themselves Americans. At the dawn of 1944, the United States has beaten back a daredevil blitzkrieg from the Confederate States–and a terrible new genie is out of history’s bottle: a bomb that may destroy on a scale never imagined before. In Europe, the new weapon has shattered a stalemate between Germany, England, and Russia. When the trigger is pulled in America, nothing will be the same again. With visionary brilliance, Harry Turtledove brings to a climactic conclusion his monumental, acclaimed drama of a nation’s tragedy and the men and women who play their roles–with valor, fear, and folly–on history’s greatest stage.

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 conscience.