Historical Fiction Science History

Sean O'Connor, a former Union soldier turned gunslinger, is running from his past. In the dead hours of night, he is visited by the Devil himself, offering the deal of a lifetime; the power to cheat death and become the most deadly man on the planet. The price? Once a season for a hundred years, Sean will do the bidding of the Devil. The rewards are great but what is the real cost? Why choose Sean? What is Old Scratch's goal?

It is a matter of historical record that in 1823 the Handel and Haydn Society of Boston (active to this day) sought to commission Beethoven to write an oratorio. The premise of Paul Griffiths' ingenious and delightful novel is that Beethoven accepted the commission and traveled to the United States to oversee the first performance of the work.

Battle of Kursk, 1943. A young German conscript in an elite division of the Wehrmacht and his Kompanie are pinned into a factory. Just before his life is to end, he finds himself awake in a very strange world where animals talk and walk on two. Knowing only terrifying and confusing battles for two years, Hans is elated to be taken out of the colossal struggle which consumed him. Hans' past follows him even into this world, and he soon finds that he is not alone. In this wild new land, Hans must confront the dangers that await him and the reality of the cause he once served.

Mia is not sure what she is, but she isn't human. Smarter, stronger than her peers, all she knows are the rules: there can never be three for too long; always run, never fight. When she finds herself in Germany 1945, she must turn the Nazis' most trusted scientist with an offer: abandon the crumbling Nazi party, escape Germany with your life, come to work for the Americans building rockets. But someone is watching her work. An enemy who's smarter, stronger, and decidedly not human....

New York Times bestselling authors Newt Gingrich and William R. Forstchen conclude their inventive trilogy with Never Call Retreat, a remarkable answer to the great "what if" of the American Civil War: Could the South have indeed won?

There is a saying in Rome: The Tarpeian Rock is near the Capitoline - meaning that even at the height of power, one is never far from a fall. As the Vestalis Maxima, Pomponia has guided her order through the collapse of Rome’s Republic and the rise of the empire. Her wit and piety have elevated the Vestals to a position of unprecedented prestige - and her friendship with Caesar Augustus has personally afforded her a life of political influence and privilege. She has been adored and untouchable.

When smallpox kills her parents, Camille must find a way to provide for her younger sister while managing her volatile brother. Relying on magic, Camille painstakingly transforms scraps of metal into money to buy food and medicine they need. But when the coins won’t hold their shape and her brother disappears with the family’s savings, Camille pursues a richer, more dangerous mark: the glittering court of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette.

Two young witches, once inseparable, are set at odds by secrets and wildly dangerous magic.

Paris, 1889. When the Exposition Universelle opens in Paris, 18-year-old Nathalie Baudin welcomes a much-needed break from the heartache of her friend's murder. The fair is full of sensational innovations, cultural displays, and marvelous inventions from around the world. But someone is celebrating the 100th anniversary of the guillotine with a gruesome display of their own: beheaded victims in some of the Exposition's most popular exhibits.

Peach Blossom Paradise, set at the time of the reform, is the story of Xiumi, the daughter of a wealthy landowner and former government official who falls prey to insanity and disappears. Days later, a man with a gold cicada in his pocket turns up at their family estate and is inexplicably welcomed as a relative.

Josie Jackson has been stranded in the past. When a Mongol warrior named Batu becomes her protector and guide, she can't decide if she's better off with him or alone. Strong, brave, loyal, and quick to both laugh and kill, Batu and his world initially baffle her. With nowhere else to turn and no other option, Josie takes a chance to find happiness in the beautiful yet dangerous steppes of 13th century Mongolia.

Aurelia Isendare is a princess of a small kingdom in the North, raised in privilege but shielded from politics as her brother prepares to step up to the throne. Halfway around the world, Athan Dakar, the youngest son of a ruthless general, is a fighter pilot longing for a life away from the front lines. When Athan’s mother is shot and killed, his father is convinced it’s the work of his old rival, the queen of Etania - Aurelia’s mother. Determined to avenge his wife’s murder, he devises a plot to overthrow the queen, a plot that sends Athan undercover to Etania.

Twelve-year-old Makepeace has learned to defend herself from the ghosts which try to possess her in the night, desperate for refuge, but one day a dreadful event causes her to drop her guard. And now there's a spirit inside her. The spirit is wild, brutish and strong, and it may be her only defence when she is sent to live with her father's rich and powerful ancestors. There is talk of civil war, and they need people like her to protect their dark and terrible family secret.

A young Yale academic is summoned to Ireland to claim the contents of her grandfather's safe-deposit box, in which she finds only one thing: a nonfiction manuscript by James Bond author Ian Fleming. The manuscript, detailing Fleming's own involvement in British espionage during World War II, contains evidence that the Duke of Windsor was in a treasonous plot with Hitler, information so confidential that people are willing to kill to continue its secrecy.

When four college kids are buried alive and there’s only one way out, don’t ask questions. Just survive. After barely escaping a torturous series of undiscovered tunnels far beneath the Sierra foothills, Mae and her friends emerge, dehydrated and nearly dead from starvation. But everything Mae knows and loves is now gone. Through some bizarre tangle in time, they’ve been reeled back into the past. To a time that, according to Mae - “is constipated with antiquated gender inequality.”

SideQuests are stand-alone stories or novellas that chronicle the heroes, villains, and adventures in The Foreworld Saga across numerous eras and ages. They can be listened to in any order with or without prior knowledge of The Foreworld Saga. In this quick-witted and action-packed addition to The Foreworld Saga series, the leader of the Shield-Brethren has dispatched two of his men northward to secure land for a new citadel. When Tyr and his companion come upon the perfect spot, they discover that it is owned by Voldrun, a northern king with a questionable sense of justice.

Irene Radford offers new and old stories that reach from a weapon of mass destruction that could change the outcome of the U.S. Civil War, the truth behind why the ballet Giselle disappeared for nearly fifty years, pirates in Indonesia questioning whether we should control technology or be controlled by it, to a glimpse of Princess Victoria coming of age as secret operatives try to protect her from madmen acting in the name of long dead Lord Byron.

The year is 1917, and the Russian Empire is on verge of collapse. Florence Cavell - codename Geist - takes her special force team of sorcerers into allied territory in an effort to hunt down spies and keep the Russian royals alive. If the Russian Empire falls, the Germans and Austro-Hungarians will turn their full attention to France and Britain. That can't be allowed to happen.

Everyone has heard of the French and Indian War and the American Revolution. However, they have not heard about them this way! The American Founding Fathers had a lot more to deal with at the end of the 18th century than tariffs and tea; avoiding hurled trees from wendigos and gargoyles falling from the sky took a lot of patience. How is Samuel Prescott supposed to hunt the leader of the Rippers when the British keep infringing upon the colonists' rights?

On Crow Island, people whispered, real magic lurked just below the surface. But Annie Mason never expected her enigmatic new neighbour to be a witch. When she witnesses a confrontation between her best friend, Bea, and the infamous Emmeline Delacroix at one of Emmeline's extravagantly illicit parties, Annie is drawn into a glittering haunted world. A world where magic can buy what money cannot; a world where the consequence of a forbidden blood bargain might be death.