New Releases by Harry Turtledove

An action-packed quartet of fantasy adventures from the Hugo Award–winning and New York Times–bestselling author. Before his renown as "the standard bearer for alternate history" ( USA Today), New York Times–bestselling and Hugo Award–winning author Harry Turtledove''s first published series told of the heroic exploits of Gerin the Fox as he battled dark magic in the Empire of Elabon. Werenight: The second son of the Baron of Fox Keep, young Gerin never wanted title or responsibility, but both were thrust upon him when his father and brother were ambushed and slain by enemy Trokmê. Now the Trokmê are returning, led by a powerful new wizard, and Gerin''s only chance for victory is to find a mage who can battle the sorcerer and fight the coming of the Werenight, when men will become monsters . . . Prince of the North: Peace has been fragile since the terrible Werenight, when the light of four moons transformed men into beasts. The people look to Gerin the Fox to stand firm against encroaching chaos and civil war. But things are about to get much worse. When an earthquake tears their land open, undoing an ancient warding spell and unleashing a legion of ravaging beasts from the dark underground, Gerin must defend his realm from an onslaught of monsters . . . King of the North: Though he has taken the reins of power in the North, Gerin the Fox has no time to enjoy his victory. The gods reveal to him that a grave danger is approaching. Now he must face a new enemy, the Gradi, a people who follow ruthless gods. The Gradi not only conquer lands, but destroy them so completely as to render them uninhabitable. To stop this menace and truly be King of the Northlands, Gerin will have to make uncomfortable alliances—and survive a war of gods . . . Fox and Empire: After the devastating Werenight that brought the Elabonian Empire to a bloody end, Gerin the Fox has come to be known as the King of the North. Aragis the Archer has no desire to make an enemy of such a man, but his ambition gets the better of him. Now he''s about to learn that any threat to Gerin, no matter how small, will be answered in kind. And soon their rivalry will escalate beyond what either could have imagined . . .

A startling alien discovery at the bottom of the ocean throws a marine biologist into a top-secret CIA operation during the Watergate scandal in this thrilling alternate history tale from New York Times bestselling author Harry Turtledove. It''s 1974, and Jerry Stieglitz, a UCLA grad student in marine biology, is just weeks away from marrying his longtime fiancée when grim-faced men from three-letter agencies recruit him for the top-secret "Project Azorian." They''re offering enough money to solve all his problems, but he''ll have to keep it strictly confidential. Sworn to secrecy, Jerry learns that Project Azorian is secretly trying to raise a sunken Russian submarine. But the dead Russian sub turns out to be a cover story for the real discovery: an alien spacecraft lying next to it on the ocean floor. On the Glomar Explorer, a ship full of CIA operatives, RAND Corporation eggheads, and roustabout divers, Jerry stands out like a sore thumb. But as a scientist and storyteller, he may be the only one who''s truly considered the potential ramifications of this monumental first contact. Back on the mainland, it''s still 1974. Richard Nixon drinks heavily, talking to White House paintings as the nation rapidly changes. When this story gets out, there''s no telling what might happen. Both an original take on first contact and a wildly entertaining dive into the conspiracies, political tumult, and pop culture of 1974, Three Miles Down is a fresh twist on the alternate history and alien contact genres. At the Publisher''s request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied. 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.

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.

Short fiction, plus three essays, by the New York Times–bestselling author—including a Hugo Award–winning novella. Harry Turtledove earned the title "master of alternate history" from Publishers Weekly for his thought-provoking novels that turn historical facts into gripping tales of possibility. But his writing talent goes much further. We Install offers a showcase of styles, from humor—in "Father of the Groom," a scientist with a penchant for wild experimentation helps his love-struck son by synthesizing a wedding ring out of two carrots—to classic science fiction, as in the Hugo Award–winning "Down in the Bottomlands" and "Hoxbomb," in which a regular guy just trying to make a living selling scooters has to deal with some very odd competition. The alternate history tale "Drang von Osten" begins on a bloody battlefield in World War II and ends somewhere quite different. In the brand-new "Logan''s Law," a man discovers that sometimes, second chances really do work out. The book''s three essays tackle the diverse subjects of how to write alternate history, Tolkien''s The Lord of the Rings, and the history of Chanukah. We Install will delight longtime Turtledove fans and new readers alike with its rich offerings from one of the finest craftsmen writing today.

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.

New York Times bestselling author Harry Turtledove’s thought-provoking forays into the past have produced such intriguing “what-if” novels as Ruled Britannia, Days of Infamy, and Opening Atlantis. Now “the maven of alternate history” (The San Diego Union-Tribune) envisions the election of a United States President whose political power will redefine what the nation is—and what it means to be American…. President Herbert Hoover has failed America. The Great Depression that rose from the ashes of the 1929 stock market crash still casts its dark shadow over the country. Despairing and desperate, the American people hope one of the potential Democratic candidates—New York governor Franklin D. Roosevelt and California congressman Joe Steele—can get the nation on the road to recovery. But fate snatches away one hope when a mansion fire claims the life of Roosevelt, leaving the Democratic party little choice but to nominate Steele, son of a Russian immigrant laborer who identifies more with the common man than with Washington D.C.’s wealthy power brokers. Achieving a landslide victory, President Joe Steele wastes no time pushing through Congress reforms that put citizens back to work. Anyone who gets in his way is getting in the way of America, and that includes the highest in the land. Joe Steele’s critics may believe the government is gaining too much control, but they tend to find themselves in work camps if they make too much noise about it. And most people welcome strong leadership, full employment, and an absence of complaining from the newspapers—especially as Hitler and Trotsky begin the kind of posturing that seems sure to drag America into war.

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.

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!

Experience one of the most beloved series in fantasy—as could only be imagined by “the standard-bearer for alternate history” (USA Today). Harry Turtledove’s many New York Times bestsellers provide an intriguing take on history’s most crucial moments, but he honed his speculative talents in a different genre: fantasy. The Videssos Cycle is the perfect fusion of the two. Collected here are the first two novels of Turtledove’s one-of-a-kind saga, in which a Roman legion is transported to a strange realm where magic rules. THE MISPLACED LEGION In a duel for survival, the Roman military tribune Marcus Aemilius Scaurus raises his sword, blessed by a Druid priest, against a Celtic chieftain, who brandishes a blade of his own. At the moment the weapons touch, Marcus and his legion find themselves under a strange night sky, full of unfamiliar stars, where Rome and Gaul are unknown. They are in an outpost of the embattled Empire of Videssos—a world that will test their skill and courage as no soldiers have ever been tested before. AN EMPEROR FOR THE LEGION In the capital of Videssos, a coward and betrayer has seized the throne. There, behind great walls that have always made the city impregnable to storm or siege, he rules with the aid of dark sorcery. Overthrowing him seems impossible and the imperial army has already fled in panic from the savage victors. But there is no panic in the legion. Now Marcus Scaurus leads his men through the chaos and enemy hordes in search of winter quarters, to regroup and do the unthinkable: take the untakeable city.

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

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

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...

What if British prime minister Neville Chamberlain had defied Hitler? What if the Munich Accord had gone unsigned, and Nazi Germany had launched its bid for conquest sooner? How would World War II have unfolded—and with what consequences? Dean of alternate history Harry Turtledove has the stunning answers in his breathtaking sequel to Hitler’s War. In the wake of Hitler’s bold invasion of Czechoslovakia, nations turn against nations, old enemies form new alliances, and ordinary men and women confront extraordinary life-and-death situations. An American marine falls in love with a Russian dancer in Japanese-held Singapore, as Chinese guerilla resistance erupts. A sniper on the frontlines of France finds a powerful new way to ply his deadly art—while a German assassin hunts him. In the icy North Atlantic, as a U-boat with a secret weapon wreaks havoc on British ships, occupying Nazi forces target Denmark. And in Germany, a stranded American woman encounters Hitler himself, as a Jewish family faces the rising tide of hatred. From Siberia to Spain, armies clash, sides are chosen, new weapons raise the deadly ante, and new strategies seek to break a growing stalemate. But one question hangs over the conflict from West to East: What will it take to bring America into this war?

When the Viking lander on the planet Minerva was destroyed, sending back one last photo of a strange alien being, scientists on Earth were flabbergasted. And so a joint investigation was launched by the United States and the Soviet Union, the first long-distance manned space mission, and a symbol of the new peace between the two great rivals. Humankind''s first close encounter with extraterrestrials would be history in the making, and the two teams were schooled in diplomacy as well as in science. But nothing prepared them for alien war—especially when the Americans and the Soviets found themselves on opposite sides. . . . Praise for A World of Difference “A master storyteller.”—Houston Chronicle “[Harry] Turtledove has proved he can divert his readers to astonishing places. he''s developed a cult following over the years. . . . I know I''d follow his imagination almost anywhere.”—San Jose Mercury News “Turtledove never tires of exploring the paths not taken, bringing to his storytelling a prodigious knowledge of his subject and a profound understanding of human sensibilities and motivations.”—Library Journal

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

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.

Usually Crosstime Traffic concerns itself with trade. Our world owns the secret of travel between parallel continuums, and we mean to use it to trade for much-needed resources with the worlds next door. Preferably without letting them know about any of that parallel-worlds stuff. But there''s one parallel world that''s different. In it, the atomic war broke out in 1967, at the height of the Summer of Love. Now, Crosstime Traffic has been given a different sort of mission: find out what on earth, or on the many earths, went wrong, in The Valley-Westside War, the sixth book in Harry Turtledove''s parallel adventure series. At the Publisher''s request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

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.

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

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.

Imperialistic England has driven the French from Atlantis and seized the continent''s eastern coastal town, prompting Victor Radcliff, leader of the revolutionaries, to preserve the freedom of the Atlantean people at all costs.

“A profoundly thoughtful masterpiece of alternate history.”—Booklist 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 Featherston, seems to have greatly miscalculated the North’ s resilience. But as new demonic tools of killing are unleashed, secret wars are unfolding. The U.S. government in Philadelphia has proof that the tyrannical Featherston 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. Praise for The Grapple “Turtledove never tires of exploring the paths not taken, bringing to his storytelling a prodigious knowledge of his subject and a profound understanding of human sensibilities and motivations.”—Library Journal “One of the strongest books in the extended series.”—SfSite “Compelling.”—Publishers Weekly

Science fiction roman.