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Booklists

Lists of books, many of which received at least one starred review (indicating a work of unusual merit) from the following review sources: Booklist , Publisher's Weekly (PW), Kirkus and Library Journal (LJ). Additional titles of interest may be included on the lists. Titles are generally listed alphabetically by author.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Overbooked specializes in providing timely information about fiction (all genres) and readable nonfiction. Overbooked has been online since 1994. Overbooked is a work in progress . . .

Overbooked is the winner of the 2008 Louis Shores - Greenwood Publishing Award: to recognize excellence in book reviewing and other media for libraries. The award recipient is selected for significant achievement related to a reviewing process that helps librarians make selection decisions.

Booklists and Suggested Reading

Alternate History Booklist

 

Page Modified: August 19, 2008

Alternative History Fiction - What If? All genres are included.

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Annotations are from Advance, the Ingram Book Magazine, unless noted.

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• Milton in America
  Ackroyd, Peter
  Publisher: Doubleday ISBN: 1856196968 Date: 1996
  Booklist Library Journal
  John Milton, aging, blind, fleeing the restoration of English monarchy, comes to New England where he soon becomes the leader of the Puritans. Ackroyd has crafted an enjoyable novel that entertains while raising provocative questions - this time about America's founding myths.
  Suggested Reading: Poets
• Corner of the Veil
  Author: Cosse, Laurence
  Publisher: Scribner List Price: $ 23 ISBN: 0684846675 Date: 1999
  Kirkus
  Already a bestseller in France where it was nominated for several literary prizes, this brilliant theological thriller asks - and answers - perhaps the most compelling question there is: "What if God's existence was proven, undeniably and irrefutably?"
  
• Daughter of the Shining Isles
  Author: Cunningham, Elizabeth
  Publisher: Barrytown $ 24.95 ISBN: 158177060x Date: 2000
  Booklist
• The Watch
  Author: Danvers, Dennis
  Publisher: Eos $ 24.95 ISBN: 0380977621 Date: 2002
  PW
  In 1921 Russia, a mysterious visitor from the far future appears at the deathbed of Peter Alexeivich Kropotkin, and offers him and extraordinary opportunity: the chance to be reborn. But as the former prince-turned-anarchist begins a new life in 1999 America, he finds his new home a difficult Eden.
  
• A Country With No Name: Tales from the Constitution
  Author: De Grazia, Sebastian
  Publisher: Pantheon $ 27.50 ISBN: 0679419772 Date: 1997
  Booklist
  Nineteen-year-old Oliver Huggins is in for the tutorial of his life. For twelve afternoons, Claire St. John, a beguiling British graduate student, will reveal to him the untold story of American Constitutional history. Her message: that the Constitution was illegally written, and that its authors' inability to agree on a name for the republic muddied the document's meaning for decades to come.
  Updated 9.22.04
• Resurrection Day
  Author: Dubois, Brendon
  Publisher: Putnam Price: $ 23.95 ISBN: 0399144986 Date: 1999
  Booklist PW Library Journal
  A chilling tale of intrigue and betrayal in the aftermath of an American nuclear war. Boston, 1972: Ten years after nuclear bombs decimate parts of the U.S. and Russia, a young reporter makes some startling connections about the events that led up to the war.
  Suggested Reading: All Stars
• The Eyre Affair
  Author: Fforde, Jasper
  Publisher: Viking $ 23.95 ISBN: 0670030643 Date: 2002
  PW
  Based on an imaginary world where time and reality bend in the most convincing and original way since Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, The Eyre Affair is a an endlessly inventive caper unlike any other.
  Suggested Reading: Time Travel Stars
  Updated 12/13/01
• Atomik Aztec
  Author: Foster, Sesshu
  Publisher: City Lights $ 15.95 ISBN: 0872864405 Date: 2006
  PW
  In the alternate universe of this glitteringly surreal first novel, the Aztecs rule, having conquered the European invaders. Zenzontli, Keeper of the House of Darkness, is visited by visions of a parallel world run by the Europeans, where consumerism reigns supreme. Aztecs armed with automatic weapons, totemic powers and blood sacrifice conquer and colonize 1940s Europe, as ghosts of the world wars emerge to haunt contemporary Los Angeles. - Publisher Marketing.
  Suggested Reading: Aztecs
  Updated 10.24.05
• A Mankind Witch
  Author: Freer, Dave
  Publisher: Baen $ 25 ISBN: 0743499131 Date: 2005
  PW
  In an alternate world where magic works, the Holy Roman Empire still rules Europe, and the time of the Renaissance has come with very different results. When a sacred relic is stolen, Signy, the older stepsister to King Vortenbras is accused. Her only partisan, the Corsair-Captain Cair, knows the truth and is determined to rescue her.
  Updated 6.13.05
• Making History
  Author: Fry, Stephen
  Publisher: Random List Price: $ 23 ISBN: 0679459553 Date: 1998
  Booklist
  An extravagantly imaginative, funny, and troubling supposition, Making History is based on a deceptively simple premise: What if Hitler had never been born? The most ambitious work yet by British actor/writer Stephen Fry.
  Suggested Reading: Humorous Fiction
• Grant Comes East
  Author: Gingrich, Newt and William R. Forstchen
  Publisher: St Martins $ 24.95 ISBN: 0312309376 Date: 2004
  PW
  The former Speaker of the House's re-imagination of the Civil War continues in this sequel to the New York Times bestselling Gettysburg.
  Updated 5.17.04
• Carter Beats the Devil
  Author: Gold, Glen David
  Publisher: Hyperion $ 24.95 ISBN: 0786867345 Date: 2001
  Booklist PW
  Filled with historical references that evoke the excesses and enthusiasm of postwar, pre-Depression America, Carter Beats the Devil is the complex and illuminating story of one man's journey through a magical, and sometimes dangerous world.
  Suggested Reading: Historical Fiction Stars | Debuts
  Updated 8/30/01
• Fatherland
  Author: Harris, Robert
  Publisher: Random $ 21 ISBN: 0679412735 Date: 1992
  Kirkus PW
  Berlin 1964: It has been 20 years since Nazi Germany won World War II, and most good Germans citizens are gearing up for Hitler's 75th birthday celebration. But amidst the preparations, a disillusioned detective investigates a murder and discovers a conspiracy of astounding terror.
  Updated 9.22.04
• King and Emperor
  Author: Harrison, Harry and John Holm
  Publisher: Tor $ 24.95 ISBN: 031285692x Date: 1996
  Kirkus
  Rome threatens Shef's fearsome Viking navy with a new invention of unparalleled destruction--Greek fire. Unable to defend his fleet against this awesome weapon, Shef travels East in search of new wisdom. His quest leads him to the lavish court of the Muslim Caliph and, ultimately, to the secret hiding place of the Holy Grail.
  Updated 9.9.04
• Black Cross
  Author: Iles, Greg
  Publisher: Dutton $ 19.95 ISBN: 052593829x Date: 1995
  Booklist Kirkus PW
  It is 1944. The world awaits the Allied invasion of Europe. Churchill has learned that Nazi scientists have developed Sarin--a new weapon that could turn the tide for Hitler. Two men--a pacifist American doctor and a fanatical Jewish assassin--must embark on a murderous mission into Germany. Their target--a human hell where Jews fuel Hitler's last hope.
  Updated 9.22.04
• The Calculus of Angels (Age of Unreason, Book 2)
  Author: Keyes, J. Gregory
  Publisher: Del Rey $ 14 (trade paper) ISBN: 0345406079 Date: 1999
  PW
  The uncanny adventures of Newton and Franklin continue as sorcery wreaks havoc across eighteenth-century Europe - demolishing London with a hurtling comet, uniting Peter the Great of Russia with Adrienne and beckoning a host of colonial America's famous figures across the ocean on a most extraordinary expedition.
  
• Elvis and Nixon
  Author: Lowry, Jonathan
  Publisher: Crown $ 22.95 ISBN: 0609608185 Date: 2001
  Kirkus
  Equal parts documentary, myth, and hallucination, Elvis and Nixon is a fictional two-week road trip through one of the most bizarre and untethered eras in America's history, presided over by two of its greatest icons.
  Updated 1/18/01
• The Light Ages
  Author: MacLeod, Ian R.
  Publisher: Ace $ 23.95 ISBN: 0441010555 Date: 2003
  PW
  In this moody work set in a fantastical Age of Industry, Robert Borrows runs away from Bracebridge, West Yorkshire, only to find that he cannot escape from the magical secrets of his past.
  Updated 4.14.03
• Terrible Angel: A Novel of Michael Collins in New York
  Author: McEvoy, Dermot
  Publisher: Lyons $ 22.95 ISBN: 1585747424 Date: 2002
  PW
  An Irish hero seeks redemption on the streets of New York, seventy years after his death.
  Updated 9.7.02
• Mrs. Einstein
  Author: McGrail, Anna
  Publisher: Norton List Price: $ 24.95 ISBN: 0393046117 Date: 1998
  Kirkus LJ
  When Albert Einstein was a young man, his wife-to-be gave birth to a daughter, Lieserl, whom they soon gave up for adoption. Beyond this, all knowledge of her is lost to history. A tour-de-force of the literary imagination, this novel of breathtaking audacity constructs Lieserl's fierce quest for revenge.
  
• The Moon and the Sun
  McIntyre, Vonda
  Pocket Books PubDate: 1997-09 $ 23.00 ISBN: 0671567659 Date: 1997
  Publishers Weekly Kirkus
  In 17th-century France, King Louis XIV manages to obtain a rare sea monster. The king considers the shrieking creature to be the key to immortality, but for Marie-Josephe de la Croix, it is something much more. The mysterious sea animal's gaze and haunting cries foretell a different future--one in which Marie-Josephe will find herself challenging her most fundamental loyalties.
  
• Judgement of Tears: Anno Dracula 1959
  Author: Newman, Kim
  Publisher: Carroll & Graf $ 22.95 ISBN: 0786705582 Date: 1998
  Kirkus
  Continuing this popular vampire history with the heroes, heroines and villians from Anno Dracula, Newman presents an entertainingly chilling alternate 20th century, where high society is run by the undead and romance mixes with the bloodiest horror.
  
  
• The Years of Rice and Salt
  Author: Robinson, Kim Stanley
  Publisher: Bantam $ 25.95 ISBN: 0553109200 Date: 2002
  PW LJ
  With the same visionary scope that brought his now-classic Mars trilogy to life, award-winning author Kim Stanley Robinson constructs an alternative history of the last 600 years--a history where the Black Death kills nearly everyone in Europe and where China, India and the nations of Islam control the world.
  Updated 2/19/02
• Freud's Megalomania
  Author: Rosenfield, Israel
  Publisher: Norton $ 21.95 ISBN: 0393048985 Date: 1999
  Kirkus
  What if Freud had left a final paper declaring that morality arises not from the guilt caused by Oedipal desires but, instead, from fear of the unchallengeable authority demonstrated in megalomania? CUNY history professor Rosenfield makes this the premise of his novel debut--and produces a wonderful, chewy, intellectual delight.
  Updated 9.9.04
• The Plot Against America
  Author: Roth, Philip
  Publisher: Houghton $ 26 ISBN: 0618509283 Date: 2004
  Kirkus PW Booklist LJ
  In this alternate history, Pulitzer Prize-winner Roth considers what it would be like for his Newark family--and for a million such families all over the country--during the menacing years of a Charles Lindbergh presidency, when American citizens who happened to be Jews would have every reason to expect the worst.
  Suggested Reading: All Stars
  Updated 9.22.04
• Hybrids
  Author: Sawyer, Robert J.
  Publisher: Tor $ 24.95 ISBN: 0312876904 Date: 2003
  Booklist
  In Hominids, Nebula Award-winning author Sawyer introduced a character readers will never forget: Ponter Boddit. Now, Boddit and his homo sapien lover, geneticist Mary Vaughan, are torn between two worlds, struggling to find a way to make their star-crossed relationship work.
  Updated 9.22.03
• The Children's War
  Author: Stroyar, J.N.
  Publisher: Atria $ 29.95 ISBN: 0743470393 Date: 2001
  Kirkus
  In a searingly authentic vision of what could have been, The Children's War is an epic modern-day thriller of a Europe ruled by Nazis and of the men and women determined to defeat them. "Great historical detail, fascinating premise, and nonstop suspense".--Nelson DeMille.
  Updated 9.9.04
• My Other Life
  Author: Theroux, Paul
  Publisher: Houghton $ 24.95 ISBN: 039582527x Date: 1996
  PW
  Ffrom internationally acclaimed travel writer and novelist Paul Theroux a semi-autobiographical work that spans almost 30 years in the life of Theroux's fictional self, who moves through young bachelorhood in Africa, in and out of marriage, affairs and employment, and between continents. "Among the strongest things Theroux has ever written". "New York Times Book Review".
  Updated 9.27.04
• The Presence of Mine Enemies
  Author: Turtledove, Harry
  Publisher: NAL $ 24.95 ISBN: 0451529022 Date: 2003
  Booklist
  In the 21st century, Germany's Third Reich continues to thrive after its victory in World War II--keeping most of Europe and North America under its heel. But within the heart of the Nazi regime, a secret lives. Under a perfect Aryan facade, Jews survive--living their lives, raising their families, and trying to avoid discovery.
  Updated 9.22.03
• American Empire: The Victorious Opposition
  Author: Turtledove, Harry
  Publisher: Del Rey $ 27.95 ISBN: 034544423x Date: 2003
  PW
  The monumental conclusion to the American Empire trilogy finds the Confederacy racing along the path toward renewed war with the United States. In a drama of spies and traitors, lovers and soldiers, Turtledove has created an unforgettable reimagining of history itself.
  Updated 7.7.03
• Jaws of Darkness
  Author: Turtledove, Harry
  Publisher: Tor $ 27.95 ISBN: 0765304171 Date: 2003
  PW
  Turtledove's masterful saga of a magical world's cataclysmic war, which began with Into the Darkness, has earned accolades from readers and reviewers alike. In this fifth volume of the series, hope may be dawning. The terrible onslaught of the forces of Algarve begins to founder as it runs into Habakkuk: a sorcerous ship of ice.
  Updated 3.13.03
• Ruled Britannia
  Author: Turtledove, Harry
  Publisher: NAL $ 24.95 ISBN: 0451207173 Date: 2002
  Booklist PW
  The year is 1597. The Spanish invasion was a success. King Phillip holds the English throne captive while Elizabeth I languishes in the Tower of London. And in the streets of that city, a stranger approaches a young playwright named William Shakespeare and makes him an offer that could change the course of history.
  Updated 10.24.02
• American Empire: Blood and Iron
  Author: Turtledove, Harry
  Publisher: Del Rey $ 27.95 ISBN: 034540565x Date: 2001
  PW
  The first novel in the "American Empire" trilogy picks up where the "Great War" trilogy left off and begins a new epic of the United States and the Confederacy by the acclaimed master of alternate history.
  
• Aftershocks
  Author: Turtledove, Harry
  Publisher: Del Rey $ 26 ISBN: 0345430212 Date: 2001
  PW
  Set in the same universe as the Worldwar series, this installment brings us to Earth in the 1960s, where four superpowers rule: the United States, Russia, Nazi Germany, and the aliens of the Race.
  
• Breakthroughs
  Author: Turtledove, Harry
  Publisher: Del Rey $ 26.00 ISBN: 0345405633 Date: 2000
  Booklist
  Hailed by USA Today as "the master of Alternate History", Harry Turtledove has re-created the War to End All Wars--a World War I where the Confederate States of America and the United States of America are on opposite sides, and all the viciousness of modern combat comes to the shores of North America.
• Darkness Descending
  Author: Turtledove, Harry
  Publisher: Tor $ 27.95 ISBN: 0312869150 Date: 2000
  Booklist
  In the sequel to the acclaimed Into the Darkness, Turtledove returns to a world at war, where the reader sees the conflict from all sides and understands how the death and destruction benefit no one, not even the victors.
  
• Colonization: Second Contact
  Author: Turtledove, Harry
  Publisher: Del Rey $ 25.95 ISBN: 034543190 Date:1999
  PW
  The "master of Alternate History" (Publishers Weekly) offers the first novel in a new series that continues the action of the acclaimed Worldwar saga. The 1960's are a time when humanity must face its greatest challenge: alien colonization of planet Earth.
  
• The Great War
  Author: Turtledove, Harry
  Publisher: Del Rey $ 25 ISBN: 034540615x Date: 1998
  BL
  The United States sides with Germany, while the Confederate States ally with Britain and France in this alternate history of WWI - the stunning sequel to How Few Remain.
  
• Cheops: A Cupboard for the Sun
  Author: West, Paul
  Publisher: New Directions $ 25.95 ISBN: 0811215199 Date: 2003
  Kirkus
  Known for wrapping readers in his historical web, Paul West, in his marvelous, new novel, Cheops; A Cupboard for the Sun, turns his attention to the 4th Dynasty (approx. 2680 BC) of ancient Egypt. Here, we find the pharaoh Cheops, building the great pyramids at Giza, surrounded by workers and solar boats. According to the Greek historian Herodotus, "a hundred thousand men were made to toil constantly for him, " and, as Herodotus claimed, Egypt was "plunged into all manner of wickedness." In Cheops, West delightfully has Herodotus transported back in time, to meet the great pharaoh, face to face. Nearing death, getting ready for his final "transportation to the stars, " the blind Cheops is obsessed with preparing for his end. All the while, the intrigues of his daughters, sons, wives, and courtiers are revealed, uncovering murder, incest, and rebellion. - Publisher Marketing.
  Suggested Reading: Time Travel Stars
  
• Darwinia
  Author: Wilson, Robert Charles
  Publisher: Tor Books $ 22.95 ISBN: 0312860382 Date: 1998
  PW
  A breathtaking science fiction novel of a very different 20th century - haunted, wonderful, and strange. In 1912, history was changed by the Miracle, when the old world of Europe was replaced by Darwinia, a strange world of nightmarish jungle and antediluvian monsters.
  

 

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