“Blood and Iron is a masterpiece.”—Sci Fi Weekly World War I—The Great War—has ended, and an uneasy peace reigns around the world. Nowhere is it more fragile than on the continent of North America, where bitter enemies share a single landmass and two long, bloody borders. In the North, proud Canadian nationalists try to resist the colonial power of the United States. In the South, the once-mighty Confederate States have been pounded into poverty and merciless inflation. The time is right for madmen, demagogues, and terrorists. With Socialists rising to power in the U.S., and a dangerous fanatic in the Confederacy preaching a doctrine of hate, more than enough people are eager to return the world to war. “A master storyteller as well as a trained historian with an imagination . . . [Turtledove] has succeeded in taking title as the premier writer in [alternate history], relentlessly asking what if one or two key events in our reality happened differently. The result is fascinating.”—Houston Chronicle “Turtledove is a master at weaving details of ordinary life into a much bigger canvas to produce a world that so easily could have been our own. [It] is what keeps readers coming back for more.”—Tulsa World

In this vivid fifty-year history of Germany from 1871-1918—which inspired events that forever changed the European continent—here is the story of the Second Reich from its violent beginnings and rise to power to its calamitous defeat in the First World War. Before 1871, Germany was not yet nation but simply an idea. Its founder, Otto von Bismarck, had a formidable task at hand. How would he bring thirty-nine individual states under the yoke of a single Kaiser? How would he convince proud Prussians, Bavarians, and Rhinelanders to become Germans? Once united, could the young European nation wield enough power to rival the empires of Britain and France—all without destroying itself in the process? In this unique study of five decades that changed the course of modern history, Katja Hoyer tells the story of the German Empire from its violent beginnings to its calamitous defeat in the First World War. This often startling narrative is a dramatic tale of national self-discovery, social upheaval, and realpolitik that ended, as it started, in blood and iron.

“[A] colossal and brilliant saga . . . [This novel] may be the strongest and most compelling since the opener, How Few Remain.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review) Seventy years have passed since the first War Between the States. Jake Featherston, leader of the ruling Freedom Party, has won power in the South—and is taking his country and the world to the edge of an abyss. Charismatic and shrewd, he is whipping the Confederate States into a frenzy of hatred. Blacks are being rounded up and sent to prison camps, and the persecution has just begun. As the North stumbles through a succession of leaders, Featherston is feeling his might. With the U.S.A. locked in a bitter, bloody occupation of Canada, facing an intractable rebellion in Utah, and fatigued from a war in the Pacific against Japan, Featherston may pursue one dangerous proposition above all: that he can defeat the U.S.A. in an all-out war. Praise for The Victorious Opposition “Turtledove’s Great War/American Empire series is an epic achievement, a meticulously worked-out alternate history of the twentieth century’s great two-act tragedy. . . . Bravo! A fine performance by a master-craftsman.”—S. M. Stirling, author of Island in the Sea of Time “Anyone who loves history will love what Harry Turtledove can do with it.”—Larry Bond, New York Times bestselling author of Red Phoenix

AMERICAN EMPIRE: BOOK TWO In this spectacular, thought-provoking epic of alternate history, Harry Turtledove has created an unparalleled vision of social upheaval, war, and cutthroat politics in a world very much like our own--but with dramatic differences. It is 1924--a time of rebuilding, from the slow reconstruction of Washington's most honored monuments to the reclamation of devastated cities in Europe and Canada. In the United States, the Socialist Party, led by Hosea Blackford, battles Calvin Coolidge to hold on to the Powell House in Philadelphia. And it seems as if the Socialists can do no wrong, for the stock market soars and America enjoys prosperity unknown in a half century. But as old names like Custer and Roosevelt fade into history, a new generation faces new uncertainties. The Confederate States, victorious in the War of Secession and in the Second Mexican War but at last tasting defeat in the Great War, suffer poverty and natural calamity. The Freedom Party promises new strength and pride. But if its chief seizes the reins of power, he may prove a dangerous enemy for the hated U.S.A. Yet the United States take little note. Sharing world domination with Germany, they consider events in the Confederacy of little consequence. As the 1920s end, calamity casts a pall across the continent. With civil war raging in Mexico, terrorist uprisings threatening U.S. control in Canada, and an explosion of violence in Utah, the United States are rocked by uncertainty. In a world of occupiers and the occupied, of simmering hatreds, shattered lives, and pent-up violence, the center can no longer hold. And for a powerful nation, the ultimate shock will come when afleet of foreign aircraft rain death and destruction upon one of the great cities of the United States. . . .

Ever since the devastating Werenight that spelled the end of the Elabonian Empire, Aragis the Archer has been saying he doesn't want war with Gerin the Fox, also called King of the North. But the Archer is ambitious and feels that his time is slipping by. So he makes one tiny little threat that turns out to have not such tiny consequences. Because the Fox must respond to this threat, and the Archer must again riposte. Then, just as things are getting "interesting", the Empire knocks with great authority on the door to the Northlands. "Submit or die" is the message, and suddenly the Archer and the King in the North are allies once again...

From the master of alternate history comes an epic of the second Civil War. It was an epoch of glory and success, of disaster and despair. . . . 1881: A generation after the South won the Civil War, America writhed once more in the bloody throes of battle. Furious over the annexation of key Mexican territory, the United States declared total war against the Confederate States of America in 1881. But this was a new kind of war, fought on a lawless frontier where the blue and gray battled not only each other but the Apache, the outlaw, the French, and the English. As Confederate General Stonewall Jackson again demonstrated his military expertise, the North struggled to find a leader who could prove his equal. In the Second War Between the States, the times, the stakes, and the battle lines had changed--and so would history. . .

After losing his wife and son to a devastating plague, Horace becomes a soldier, sailing to battle for the Great Crusade against Akeshia. A shipwreck lands him on enemy shores, where he finds himself enslaved and on a brutal march across the desert to destinations unknown. When the caravan of slaves encounters a fierce storm, Horace discovers he possesses zoana, a mysterious gift of magic potent enough to instill fear in his captors and to earn him a place in Queen Byleth’s court. Horace quickly learns that life at court is a complex, treacherous prison of its own kind and he remains at the mercy of his foe. With help from Jirom, a gladiator and fellow captive, and Alyra, spy and handmaiden to the Queen, Horace must outwit his enemies and harness his powerful magic to liberate himself and the thousands who have lived in oppression for far too long. With fast-paced, breathtaking action, magical adventure, and an unforgettable story, Blood and Iron is the stunning first book in the epic Book of the Black Earth series by Jon Sprunk, Compton Crook Award finalist and author of the Shadow Saga.