SJPL Picks: Alternate HistoriesLike this list

41 items

• The Man in the High Castle

  Dick, Philip K,

  Add The Man in the High Castle to your for later shelf

  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 legal once…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• The Book of Guilt

  a Novel

  Chidgey, Catherine, 1970-

  Add The Book of Guilt to your for later shelf

  After a very different outcome to WWII than the one history recorded, 1979 England is a country ruled by a government whose aims have sinister underpinnings and alliances. In the Hampshire countryside, 13-year-old triplets Vincent, Lawrence and…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Powerless

  Turtledove, Harry,

  Add Powerless to your for later shelf

  Charlie, a shopkeeper in the West Coast People’s Democratic Republic, has reached the limit of his tolerance for his oppressive government and its constant propaganda and hypocrisy. When he receives a new propaganda poster to put in his shop window,…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Blood Slaves

  Redmond, Markus, 1974-

  Add Blood Slaves to your for later shelf

  In the Province of Carolina, 1710, freedom seems unattainable for Willie, for his beloved Gertie, and for their unborn child. They live, suffer, and toil under their brutal master, James “Big Jim” Barrow, whose grand plantation was built by the…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Daikon

  a Novel

  Hawley, Samuel Jay, 1960-

  Add Daikon to your for later shelf

  War has taken everything from physicist Keizo Kan. His young daughter was killed in the Great Tokyo Air Raid, and now his Japanese American wife, Noriko, has been imprisoned by the brutal Thought Police. An American bomber, downed over Japan on the…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Ten Incarnations of Rebellion

  a Novel

  Patel, Vaishnavi,

  Add Ten Incarnations of Rebellion to your for later shelf

  An epic and daring novel that imagines an alternate version of 1960s India that was never liberated from the British, and a young woman’s struggle to change the tides of history. In the city of Kingston, built upon the ashes of Bombay, Kalki Divekar…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Masquerade

  Sangoyomi, O. O.,

  Add Masquerade to your for later shelf

  Set in a wonderfully reimagined 15th century West Africa, Masquerade is a dazzling, lyrical tale exploring the true cost of one woman’s fight for freedom and self-discovery, and the lengths she’ll go to secure her future. Òdòdó’s hometown of…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Mania

  a Novel

  Shriver, Lionel,

  Add Mania to your for later shelf

  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 discrimination based…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Cahokia Jazz

  a Novel

  Spufford, Francis, 1964-

  Add Cahokia Jazz to your for later shelf

  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 a hero of…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Exordia

  Dickinson, Seth,

  Add Exordia to your for later shelf

  “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 office…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• The Wages of Sin

  Turtledove, Harry,

  Add The Wages of Sin to your for later shelf

  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 since her…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Let the Dead Bury the Dead

  a Novel

  Epstein, Allison,

  Add Let the Dead Bury the Dead to your for later shelf

  "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 his…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• The Strange

  Ballingrud, Nathan,

  Add The Strange to your for later shelf

  "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 vengeance. Since…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Halcyon

  a Novel

  Ackerman, Elliot,

  Add Halcyon to your for later shelf

  "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 funded by the…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Quantum Radio

  Riddle, A. G.,

  Add Quantum Radio to your for later shelf

  "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. That work…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Biography of X

  a Novel

  Lacey, Catherine, 1985-

  Add Biography of X to your for later shelf

  "... 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 multidisciplinary art…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• The Shamshine Blind

  a Novel

  Pardo, Paz,

  Add The Shamshine Blind to your for later shelf

  "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 chemicals can…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• The Unfolding

  Homes, A. M.,

  Add The Unfolding to your for later shelf

  "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, the Big Guy…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Midnight on the Marne

  Adlakha, Sarah,

  Add Midnight on the Marne to your for later shelf

  " 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 assignment…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Thrust

  Yuknavitch, Lidia,

  Add Thrust to your for later shelf

  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 the…Read moreRead more of this annotation