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Alternative histories (Fiction)

  • Author:
    Turtledove, Harry
    Summary:

    The second in this series tells a story of a world torn apart by war and strife, the Confederate States of America ally with Britain and France, while the United States sides with Germany in a World War I that might have been.

  • Author:
    Turtledove, Harry
    Summary:

    The utter devastation of global war continues to spread, driven by new weapons and old hatreds. The United States is deadlocked--battling Canada and Great Britain to the north and the Confederate States in the south. In this world, military genius is tantamount to madness as great historical figures like Theodore Roosevelt and Custer engage in fascinating new tactical scenarios.

  • Author:
    Turtledove, Harry
    Summary:

    In American Front he envisions World War I as it may have been if fought on American soil. The United States and Germany clash with the Confederacy, France, and Britain as the machines of modern warfare litter the landscape with carnage. Meanwhile, oppressed southern blacks head toward a fateful confrontation.

  • Author:
    Leroux, Catherine
    Summary:

    A woman seeking justice in an imagined Detroit discovers resilience and resistance where she least expects they will be found. Looking for answers, and her missing granddaughters, Gloria moves into the house where her daughter was murdered. A stranger in a Fort-Detroit neighborhood coping with the ongoing effects of racial and economic injustice, she finds herself surrounded by poverty, pollution, violence--as well as the resilience of the residents, in whose stubborn generosity and carefully tended gardens she finds hope. When a strange intuition sends her into the woods of Parc Rouge, where the city's orphaned and abandoned children are rumored to have created their own society, she can't imagine the strength she will find. Set in an alternate history in which the French never surrendered the city of Detroit, where children rule over their own kingdom in the trees and burned houses regenerate themselves, where rivers poison and heal and young and old alike protect with their lives the people and places they love, Catherine Leroux's The Future is a richly imagined story of community and a plea for persistence in the face of our uncertain future. The Future is a lyrical testament to the power we hold to protect the people and places we love--together.

  • Author:
    Heartfield, Kate
    Summary:

    1768. Charlotte, daughter of the Habsburg Empress, arrives in Naples to marry a man she has never met. Her sister Antoine is sent to France, and in the mirrored corridors of Versailles they rename her Marie Antoinette. When they were only children, the sisters discovered a book of spells that work with dark and unpredictable consequences. In a time of vicious court politics, they use the book to take control of their lives. But every spell requires a sacrifice. And as love between the sisters turns to rivalry, they will send Europe spiraling into revolution.

  • Author:
    Duke, Renee
    Summary:

    No one knows what happened to the little princes of the tower. That’s what Dane, Paige, and Jack are told when they start working on a medieval documentary for Dane and Paige’s filmmaker father. But then an ancient medallion transports them back to the 15th century and gives them a chance to discover the truth about the mysterious disappearance of young King Edward the Fifth and his brother Richard, Duke of York. But they’d better be careful. The princes are definitely in danger, and the person responsible for their disappearance just might decide that their new friends should disappear as well.

  • Author:
    Turtledove, Harry
    Summary:

    The Great Depression leaves the USA and CSA vulnerable. Though victors in the War of Secession, the CSA still reels from losing the Great War. Powerful and bloated by prosperity, the USA ignores ominous events nearby.

  • Author:
    Nuttall, Kōtuku Titihuia
    Summary:

    Tauhou envisions a shared past between two Indigenous cultures, set on reimagined versions of Vancouver Island and Aotearoa that sit side by side in the ocean. Each chapter in this innovative hybrid novel is a fable, an autobiographical memory, a poem. A monster guards cultural objects in a museum, a woman uncovers her own grave, another woman remembers her estranged father. On rainforest beaches and grassy dunes, sisters and cousins contend with the ghosts of the past — all the way back to when the first foreign ships arrived on their shores. In a testament to the resilience of Indigenous women, the two sides of this family, Coast Salish and Māori, must work together in understanding and forgiveness to heal that which has been forced upon them by colonialism. Tauhou is an ardent search for answers, for ways to live with truth. It is a longing for home, to return to the land and sea.

  • Author:
    Chatagnier, Ethan
    Summary:

    In December 1960, Crystal Singer, her boyfriend Rick, and three other MIT grad students take a cross-country road trip from Boston to Arizona to paint a message in the desert. Mars has been silent for thirty years, since the last time Earth solved one of the mathematical proofs the Martian civilization carved onto its surface. The latest proof, which seems to assert contradictory truths about distance, has resisted human understanding for decades. Crystal thinks she's solved it, and Rick is intent on putting her answer to the test, if he can keep her from cracking under the pressure on the way. But Crystal's disappearance after the experiment will set him on a different path than he expected, forever changing the distance between them.

  • Author:
    Caine, Rachel
    Summary:

    In Ink and Bone, New York Times bestselling author Rachel Caine introduced a world where knowledge is power, and power corrupts absolutely. Now, she continues the story of those who dare to defy the Great Library-and rewrite history. With an iron fist, The Great Library controls the knowledge of the world, ruthlessly stamping out all rebellion, forbidding the personal ownership of books in the name of the greater good. Jess Brightwell has survived his introduction to the sinister, seductive world of the Library, but serving in its army is nothing like he envisioned. His life and the lives of those he cares for have been altered forever. His best friend is lost, and Morgan, the girl he loves, is locked away in the Iron Tower and doomed to a life apart. Embarking on a mission to save one of their own, Jess and his band of allies make one wrong move and suddenly find themselves hunted by the Library's deadly automata and forced to flee Alexandria, all the way to London. But Jess's home isn't safe anymore. The Welsh army is coming, London is burning, and soon, Jess must choose between his friends, his family, or the Library willing to sacrifice anything and anyone in the search for ultimate control.

  • Author:
    Bolaño, Roberto
    Summary:

    Comprising short biographies about imaginary writers, this novel is an entirely original mini-encyclopedia of nonexistent Nazi literature in our hemisphere.

  • Author:
    McEwan, Ian
    Summary:

    In an alternative 1980s London, Britain has lost the Falklands War, Margaret Thatcher battles Tony Benn for power, and Alan Turing achieves a breakthrough in artificial intelligence. In a world not quite like this one, two lovers will be tested beyond their understanding. Charlie, drifting through life and dodging full-time employment, is in love with Miranda, a bright student who lives with a terrible secret. When Charlie comes into money, he buys Adam, one of the first batch of synthetic humans. With Miranda's assistance, he co-designs Adam's personality. This near-perfect human is beautiful, strong, and clever -- a love triangle soon forms. These three beings will confront a profound moral dilemma: What makes us human? Our outward deeds or our inner lives? Could a machine understand the human heart?

  • Author:
    Cravens, Claudia
    Summary:

    NATIONAL BESTSELLER - A thrilling, raucous, and gloriously queer debut about a scrappy orphan bent on making her own luck in the American West-and finding friendship, romance, and her true calling along the way, now in paperback. "A powerful feminist battle cry... [and] rollicking good fun."-Minneapolis Star Tribune LONGLISTED FOR THE VCU CABELL AWARD - A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: Autostraddle, Chicago Public Library, Kirkus Reviews, Library Journal The heart wants what it wants. Saddle up, ride out, and claim it. When Bridget arrives penniless in Dodge City, already disillusioned by feckless men and the uncompromising landscape, she has only her wits to keep her alive. Thanks to the allure of her bright red hair and country-girl beauty, she's recruited to work at the Buffalo Queen, the only brothel in town run by women. Bridget takes to brothel life, appreciating the good food, good pay, and good friendships she forms with her fellow "sporting women." But with the arrival of some infamous outlaws at the start of winter, tensions in Dodge City run high. When the Buffalo Queen's peace and security are threatened, Bridget must decide what she owes to the women she loves and what it looks like to claim her own destiny. A thoroughly modern reimagining of the Western genre, Lucky Red is a masterfully crafted, propulsive tale of adventure, loyalty, desire, and love.

  • Author:
    Wayne, Michael
    Summary:

    Yale Templeton, an undistinguished professor of History at a university in Toronto, has made a shocking discovery: Abraham Lincoln was not, in fact, assassinated, but faked his own death so that he could assume a new identity and move to Canada. And the reason for Lincoln's ruse? Even more shocking. When the news breaks, the sitting President enlists his chief security officers to find the incriminating evidence and silence Templeton. Lincoln's Briefs is both a burlesque of university life and a satiric unravelling of Canadian - and American - national identity. It is also, in its own madcap way, a manifesto for the right of all people to lay claim to their true selves.

  • Author:
    Atkinson, Kate
    Summary:

    What if you could live again and again, until you got it right? On a cold and snowy night in 1910, Ursula Todd is born to an English banker and his wife. She dies before she can draw her first breath. On that same cold and snowy night, Ursula Todd is born, lets out a lusty wail, and embarks upon a life that will be, to say the least, unusual. For as she grows, she also dies, repeatedly, in a variety of ways, while the young century marches on towards its second cataclysmic world war. Does Ursula's apparently infinite number of lives give her the power to save the world from its inevitable destiny? And if she can -- will she? Darkly comic, startlingly poignant, and utterly original -- this is Kate Atkinson at her absolute best.

  • Author:
    Walton, Jo
    Summary:

    Young Girolamo's life is a series of miracles. It's a miracle that he can see demons, plain as day, and that he can cast them out with the force of his will. It's a miracle that he's friends with Pico della Mirandola, the Count of Concordia. It's a miracle that when Girolamo visits the deathbed of Lorenzo "the Magnificent," the dying Medici is wreathed in celestial light, a surprise to everyone, Lorenzo included. It's a miracle that when Charles VIII of France invades northern Italy, Girolamo meets him in the field, and convinces him to not only spare Florence but also protect it. It's a miracle than whenever Girolamo preaches, crowds swoon. It's a miracle that, despite the Pope's determination to bring young Girolamo to heel, he's still on the loose...and, now, running Florence in all but name. That's only the beginning. Because Girolamo Savanarola is not who--or what--he thinks he is. He will discover the truth about himself at the most startling possible time. And this will be only the beginning of his many lives.

  • Author:
    Caine, Rachel
    Summary:

    In an exhilarating new series, New York Times bestselling author Rachel Caine rewrites history, creating a dangerous world where the Great Library of Alexandria has survived the test of time ... Ruthless and supremely powerful, the Great Library is now a presence in every major city, governing the flow of knowledge to the masses. Alchemy allows the Library to deliver the content of the greatest works of history instantly-but the personal ownership of books is expressly forbidden. Jess Brightwell believes in the value of the Library, but the majority of his knowledge comes from illegal books obtained by his family, who are involved in the thriving black market. Jess has been sent to be his family's spy, but his loyalties are tested in the final months of his training to enter the Library's service. When he inadvertently commits heresy by creating a device that could change the world, Jess discovers that those who control the Great Library believe that knowledge is more valuable than any human life-and soon both heretics and books will burn ...

  • Author:
    Wong, S. G.
    Summary:

    Enter the world of Crescent City, an alternate history 1930s "Chinese Los Angeles" and home turf of private investigator, Lola Starke... A double murder. A tangle of deceit. A woman committed to the truth. A chance reunion with her schoolgirl crush, Stuey Lim, has Lola Starke dreaming of new possibilities, but her nascent hopes are brutally crushed as she witnesses Stuey and his best friend, Tommy, a world-famous comedian, gunned down in front of Crescent City’s most exclusive club. Shocked and grieving, Lola is nonetheless duty-bound to investigate the deaths at the request of her mentor, Nicky Lo. Puzzling out the intricate history of Tommy’s tight-knit show business family, intent on guarding their status as closely as their secrets, is dangerous enough. But Lola must also protect Stuey’s parents from a gangster with suspect claims to Stuey’s cherished missing pocket watch—all while navigating a new phase in her contentious relationship with her Ghost, Aubrey. This is the ’30s and this is Crescent City, where hauntings are a normal part of life and magic-fuelled funeral rites determine the dead’s journey in the sacred cycle of reincarnation. Where traditions and family can nurture a comedic genius—or destroy him. And where, no matter how old the secret, blood will out.

  • Author:
    Turtledove, Harry
    Summary:

    A generation after the South wins the Civil War, it annexes critical territory in Mexico. Outraged, the United States declares total war. This time the American army faces danger on all sides -- Confederates, outlaws, Apaches, French, and even the British.

  • Author:
    Novik, Naomi
    Summary:

    In the Napoleonic era, the worlds' militaries are replete with aerial corps of fighting dragons and their handlers. When Captain Laurence of HMS Reliant captures a French frigate, the cargo includes a dragon egg, and when the hatchling chooses the captain to be his handler, Laurence's naval career comes to an end. He is now an aviator, but finds himself bonded with Temeraire, his most elegant and intelligent Chinese dragon. Followed by "Throne of jade" (DC29365). Some descriptions of violence. 2006. (Temeraire ; 1).

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