Alternate World Fantasy

The year is 1940 and war is blossoming across the globe. The Battle of Britain enters its last phase, and it remains to be seen if the Germans will be able to master the proud British into submission. Large air fleets fight for supremacy in the English skies, and the civilians pay the price with the British cities in flames.

Eastern Europe, August 1942. The Khazar kaganate, an isolated nation of Turkic warrior Jews, lies between the Pontus Euxinus (the Black Sea) and the Khazar Sea (the Caspian). It also happens to lie between a belligerent nation to the west that the Khazars call Germania - and a city the rest of the world calls Stalingrad. After years of Jewish refugees streaming across the border from Europa, fleeing the war, Germania launches its siege of Khazaria. Only Esther, the daughter of the nation's chief policy adviser, sees the ominous implications of Germania's disregard for Jewish lives.

In 1914, the First World War ignited a brutal conflict in North America, with the United States finally defeating the Confederate States. In 1917, the Great War ended and an era of simmering hatred began, fueled by the despotism of a few and the sacrifice of many. Now it's 1942. The USA and CSA are locked in a tangle of jagged, blood-soaked battle lines, modern weaponry, desperate strategies, and the kind of violence that only the damned could conjure up for their enemies and themselves.

When We Cease to Understand the World is a book about the complicated links between scientific and mathematical discovery, madness, and destruction. Fritz Haber, Alexander Grothendieck, Werner Heisenberg, Erwin Schrödinger - these are some of the luminaries into whose troubled lives Benjamín Labatut thrusts the listener, showing us how they grappled with the most profound questions of existence.

When it comes to expressing the pleasure and pain of being just a touch too smart to be happy, Dorothy Parker is still the champion. Along with Robert Benchley, Alexander Woollcott, and the rest of the Algonquin Round Table, she dominated American popular literature in the 1920s and 1930s. This collection of more than 30 short stories and poems is essential for any Parker fan and an excellent way for new listeners to make the acquaintance of one of the 20th century's most quotable authors.

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 fearing discovery....

We've secretly lived among the humans for centuries. Anonymity is our weapon of choice. But that's about to change. An altercation between were-animals was caught on video and went viral. Now a vital member of our pack is sitting in jail, and if I can't get him out before he shifts during the full moon, then our existence will be discovered. If we are outed, there is a risk we'll take the rest of the supernaturals with us. They'll do anything to prevent this from happening, including ridding the world of were-animals. We were once a pack of hunters. Now we are the hunted.

Proto thought he’d saved the world and found true love. Or at least, he’d achieved some sort of ending, happy or otherwise. So when he wakes up in his bed, right where he’d gone to sleep before arriving at Somnus’ Palace, it’s highly disconcerting. “It really was a dream!” he muses sadly. But, for better or for worse, things are never that simple for Proto. He finds out that what he did back at Somnus’ Palace really was quite important. Overall, he did a good job there as a visitor of dreams, with one exception.

Following a year and a half of international tensions and demands from the aggressive Fuhrer of the German Third Reich, Adolf Hitler, Poland is invaded by the German Third Reich, triggering the start of the Second World War. German armies advance over the border and smash Polish forces with their Panzer forces and their powerful Luftwaffe, while the Soviet Union watches with glee, eventually joining into the spil by launching an invasion of its own.

From the creator of the Land of Elyon comes a riveting adventure set in an extraordinary satellite world—created as a refuge from a dying Earth—that begins to collapse and forever change the lives of its inhabitants.

As World War II dawns over the United States, the newly-formed Office of Strategic Services calls upon the Conjurus, people born with the ability to control various elements, to assist in the war effort. Among them is Jay Loalin, and his first mission hits close to home when he learns that an SS officer, now the head of a branch dedicated to the study of magical beings, witnessed his father’s magic and has dedicated his life to merging the delicate and dangerous magic of the Conjurus and witchcraft to create the ultimate superman.

The sky is not the limit. From an alley in New York to an interstellar wormhole, the path to the future looks different for everyone. These cosmic short stories from some of today’s most influential Black authors reveal a universe of possibilities.

Count Hamnet Thyssen is a minor noble of the drowsy old Raumsdalian Empire. Its capital city, Nidaros, began as a mammoth hunters camp at the edge of the great Glacier. But that was centuries ago, and as everyone knows, its the nature of the great Glacier to withdraw a few feet every year. Trasamund, a clan chief of the mammoth-herding Bizogots, the next tribe north, has come to town with strange news. A narrow gap has opened in what they'd always thought was an endless and impregnable wall of ice.

The Japanese surprise attack on Pearl Harbor was a resounding success - except for one detail: A second bombing mission, to destroy crucial oil storage facilities, was aborted that day. Now, in this gripping and stunning work of alternate history, Robert Conroy reimagines December 7, 1941, to include the attack the Japanese didn't launch, and what follows is a thrilling tale of war, resistance, sacrifice, and courage. For when Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto sees how badly the United States has been ravaged in a two-pronged strike, he devises another, more daring proposal.

In the first months of 1936, Adolf Hitler risked everything by ordering his untrained military to reoccupy the Rhineland. It was a bluff. The Germans would have been forced to retreat if the French or British had offered the slightest opposition. But the bluff succeeded. History changed decisively. Hitler quieted the opposition at home, and marched the world relentlessly on, to the edge of destruction and beyond.

Teenage supersoldier Ryn Whittaker started an uprising. For three years Ryn was stationed at The Battle Ground Rift site - one of the 14 mysterious and unpredictable tears in the fabric of the universe that serve as doorways to alternate Earths - and then she met Ezra Massad. Falling in love and becoming a rebel Citadel wasn't part of Ryn's life plan, but with Ezra there asking all the right questions, they began to decode what's really going on with the Allied Rift Coalition, and what they discovered was enough to start a civil war.

Proto wakes up in the misty halls of the palace of Somnus, the Lord of Dreams. Why is he there? Who knows? But as long as he’s there, he’s been given a job—to visit sleeping people’s dreams and try to make sure they turn out properly. By guiding dreams to the right conclusions, Somnus and his crew of dream visitors help keep the world from going off the rails. During his adventures as a dream visitor, Proto fails, makes a fool of himself, and—against all odds—makes friends too. And maybe more than friends . . . ? It’s hard to tell. There’s something off in how people here are looking at him.

In sixteenth-century New Spain, witchcraft is punishable by death, indigenous temples have been destroyed, and tales of mythical creatures that once roamed the land have become whispers in the night. Hidden behind a mask, Pantera uses her magic and legendary swordplay skills to fight the tyranny of Spanish rule. To all who know her, Leonora de las Casas Tlazohtzin never leaves the palace and is promised to the heir of the Spanish throne. The respectable, law-abiding Lady Leonora faints at the sight of blood. No one suspects that Leonora and Pantera are the same person.

Germany, late summer 1945. The war is over, but the country is in ruins. Millions of refugees and holocaust survivors strive to rebuild their lives in displaced persons camps. Millions of German soldiers and SS men are held captive in primitive conditions in open-air detention centres. Everywhere, civilians are desperate for food and shelter. No one admits to having voted Nazi, yet many are unrepentant. Adolf Hitler is said to have killed himself in his Berlin bunker. But no body was found - and many people believe he is alive.

Jaxon had just one job—to return three baby dragons to the realm of magic. But when he got there, only two dragons were left in the bag. His best friend's sister, Kavita, is a dragon thief! Kavita only wanted what was best for the baby dragon. But now every time she feeds it, the dragon grows and grows! How can she possibly keep it secret? Even worse, stealing it has upset the balance between the worlds. The gates to the other realm have shut tight! Jaxon needs all the help he can get to find Kavita, outsmart a trickster named Blue, and return the baby dragon to its true home.