SJPL Picks: Alternate HistoriesLike this list

35 items

• The Man in the High Castle

  Dick, Philip K,

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  START HERE! If you're new to the genre, here is a well-known example which gives a good idea of what the genre holds; but of course, feel free to start wherever strikes you. Also in eBook and eAudiobook. "It's America in 1962. Slavery is…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Mania

  a Novel

  Shriver, Lionel,

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  What if calling someone stupid was illegal? In a reality not too distant from our own, where the so-called Mental Parity Movement has taken hold, the worst thing you can call someone is 'stupid'. Everyone is equally clever, and…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Cahokia Jazz

  a Novel

  Spufford, Francis, 1964-

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  Cahokia Jazz inhabits a different version of America, now through the lens of a subtly altered 1920s—a fully imagined world full of fog, cigarette smoke, dubious motives, danger, dark deeds. And in the main character of Joe Barrow, we have…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Exordia

  Dickinson, Seth,

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  “Anna, I came to Earth tracking a very old story, a story that goes back to the dawn of time. it’s very unlikely that you’ll die right now. It wouldn’t be narratively complete.” Anna Sinjari―refugee, survivor of genocide, disaffected…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• The Wages of Sin

  Turtledove, Harry,

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  With the “Wasting” (HIV) creating a mid-nineteenth-century England and London almost unrecognizable to us, Viola, extremely intelligent and growing up in a house full of medical books, can only travel to far-off places in her imagination…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Let the Dead Bury the Dead

  a Novel

  Epstein, Allison,

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  "Saint Petersburg, 1812. Russian forces have defeated Napoleon at great cost, and the tsar's empire is once again at peace. Sasha, a captain in the imperial army, returns home to Grand Duke Felix, the disgraced second son of the tsar and…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• The Strange

  Ballingrud, Nathan,

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  "1931, New Galveston , Mars: Fourteen-year-old Anabelle Crisp sets off through the wastelands of the Strange to find Silas Mundt’s gang who have stolen her mother’s voice, destroyed her father, and left her solely with a need for…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Halcyon

  a Novel

  Ackerman, Elliot,

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  "Virginia, 2004. Gore is entering his second term as president. Our narrator, Martin Neumann, recently divorced, is living at Halcyon, the estate of renowned lawyer and World War II hero Robert Ableson. When news breaks that scientists…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Quantum Radio

  Riddle, A. G.,

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  "On September 10th, 2008, the Large Hadron Collider began operating at CERN in Geneva, Switzerland. It was - and still is - the largest machine ever built. It has a simple purpose: to examine the smallest building blocks of the universe.…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Biography of X

  a Novel

  Lacey, Catherine, 1985-

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  "... an audacious novel of art and ideas set in an alternate late 20th century. It comprises a book titled Biography of X, which was published in 2005 by a journalist named C.M. Lucca. That book’s subject, X, a pseudonymous…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• The Shamshine Blind

  a Novel

  Pardo, Paz,

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  "In an alternate 2009, the United States has been a second-rate power for a quarter of a century, ever since Argentina’s victory in the Falkland’s War thanks to their development of “psychopigments.” Created as weapons, these colorful…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• The Unfolding

  Homes, A. M.,

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  "The Big Guy loves his family, money and country. Undone by the results of the 2008 presidential election, he taps a group of like-minded men to reclaim their version of the American Dream. As they build a scheme to disturb and disrupt,…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Midnight on the Marne

  Adlakha, Sarah,

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  " In the summer of 1918, WWI rages through France and Marcelle Marchand, both a nurse and a spy for British Intelligence, crosses paths with American soldier George Mountcastle, who is immediately captivated by her beauty. When Marcelle’s…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Thrust

  Yuknavitch, Lidia,

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  Also in eBook and eAudiobook. "It’s 2079, and Laisve is escaping a Raid. A penny tucked into her cheek, she escapes the flooded Brook by diving into the currents that slice between times. There, she enters other stories: of the designer of…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Aphrodite and the Duke

  a Novel

  McAvoy, J. J.,

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  Also in eBook. "[S]et in an alternate Regency England where race is not a factor in class and racial prejudice does not exist. Aphrodite Du Bell returns to London for her sister’s first season. Though she was the belle of her own first…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• When Women Were Dragons

  a Novel

  Barnhill, Kelly Regan,

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  Also in eBook and eAudiobook. "Alex Green was a child in Wisconsin in 1955 when over 600,000 American women spontaneously turned into dragons, including her beloved Aunt Marla, and flew away. Alex’s mother brings Marla’s daughter Beatrice…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• To Paradise

  Yanagihara, Hanya,

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  Also in eBook and eAudiobook. "In an alternate version of 1893 America, New York is part of the Free States, where people may live and love whomever they please (or so it seems). The fragile young scion of a distinguished family resists…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• You Feel It Just Below the Ribs

  a Novel

  Cranor, Jeffrey, 1975-

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  "Born at the end of the old world, Miriam grows up during The Great Reckoning, a sprawling, decades-long war that nearly decimates humanity and strips her of friends and family. Devastated by grief and loneliness, she emotionally exiles…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Mr. Beethoven

  Griffiths, Paul, 1947 November 24-

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  Also in eBook. "What if Beethoven had travelled to the United States in their infancy, taking up his commission to write a Biblical oratorio for Boston's Handel and Haydn Society? As Beethoven wrestles with his muse, and his librettist,…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Civilizations

  Binet, Laurent,

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  "Freydis is a woman warrior and leader of a band of Viking explorers setting out to the south. They meet local tribes, exchange skills, are taken prisoner, and get as far as Panama. But nobody ultimately knows what became of them. Fast…Read moreRead more of this annotation