Alternative history book series in reading order

by Taylor Anderson

by Genevieve Cogman

Harry Turtledove

141 books• 28 series

Harry Turtledove, born June 14, 1949, is an American historian and novelist of alternate history, historical fiction, fantasy, science fiction and mystery, based in Southern California. The catalogue counts 142 books, starting with Wereblood and Werenight (1979), published as Eric G. Iverson, and listing The Succulent Succubus for 2027. Other pen names are H. N. Turteltaub, Dan Chernenko and Mark Gordian. The Videssos Cycle, Southern Victory / Timeline-191, Worldwar, Colonization, Crosstime Traffic, The War That Came Early and Gerin the Fox are among the series. World War II and the American Civil War are frequent subjects.

Eric Flint's catalogue opens with Mother of Demons (1997) and runs to 1637: The Pilgrim's Passage (2026). 1632 appeared in 2000, alongside Fortune's Stroke and Rats, Bats & Vats, and In the Heart of Darkness (1998) and Destiny's Shield (1999) came before it. Series include Ring of Fire: Assiti Shards, Grantville Gazette, Belisarius, Jao, Boundary, Pyramid, Demon Rift and Rats, Bats & Vats, and two short fiction lines carry Dave Freer's name alongside Flint's. Subjects include time travel, alternate history, West Virginia, Europe, the Thirty Years' War and life on other planets.

S.M. Stirling

96 books• 25 series

Born in France on September 30, 1953, Stephen Michael Stirling writes science fiction and fantasy as S.M. Stirling and holds Canadian and American nationality. Stirling is the author of the Draka alternate history novels, the Nantucket books combining time travel with alternate history, and the Emberverse. The catalogue starts with Snow Brother (1985), then The Sharpest Edge (1986), Marching Through Georgia (1988) and Under the Yoke (1989). Series include Raj Whitehall, Fifth Millennium, Island in the Sea of Time, Dies the Fire, Lords of Creation, Shadowspawn and T2. Subjects include time travel, the regression of civilization, imaginary wars and space warfare.

Taylor Anderson is a former history professor, an artillery and firearms expert, and a re-enactor. His Destroyermen series follows the crews of the USS Walker, the USS Mahan and the USS S-19 in their fight against the Grik, and short stories extend the same fictional universe. The catalogue holds 24 books published between 2008 and 2026, opening with Into the Storm and Crusade in 2008 and reaching Fleet of Ghosts in 2026, with the Artillerymen and Corps of Discovery sequences alongside. Alternative history, naval battles, the Second World War and time travel recur as subjects. Anderson has consulted on weapons for media organisations, including the 2004 film The Alamo.

Robert Conroy, born Joseph Robert Conroy, was an American writer of alternate history novels who lived from August 24, 1938, to December 30, 2014. The catalogue opens with 1901 (1995), and 1862 (2006), 1945 (2007) and 1942 (2009) follow. World War II, Germany, international relations and war and military fiction are among the subject tags. Castro's Bomb (2011), Himmler's War (2011), North Reich (2012) and 1920: America's Great War (2013) are other titles.

Stephen Baxter

78 books• 19 series

Time travel, alternative history, space exploration and prehistoric peoples run through the 78 catalogued books of Stephen Baxter, an English hard science fiction author born in 1957 who holds degrees in mathematics and engineering. Raft (1991), Timelike Infinity (1992), Anti-Ice (1993), Flux (1993), Ring (1994), The Time Ships (1995), Voyage (1996) and Titan (1997) are among the early titles, and Hearthspace (2025) is the newest. Series include the Xeelee Sequence, Manifold, Destiny's Children, Time's Tapestry, Northland, NASA Trilogy, Mammoth, Flood and World Engines.

Mercedes Lackey

230 books• 52 series

Valdemar, a country in the world of Velgarth, is the setting for many of Mercedes Lackey's interlinked fantasy novels and trilogies. Lackey, an American writer born on June 24, 1950, brings human and non-human protagonists from many cultures together in the Valdemar books. A second Lackey setting resembles Earth but hides populations of elves, mages, vampires and other mythical beings. Bedlam's Bard follows a young man who works magic through music, SERRAted Edge features elves who race cars, and the Diana Tregarde thrillers star a Wiccan fighting evil. Arrows of the Queen (1987), Arrow's Flight (1987) and Arrow's Fall (1988) are among the listed titles, and Elemental Masters and Five Hundred Kingdoms are further series.

Rachel Caine

63 books• 11 series

Rachel Caine was the pen name of Roxanne Longstreet Conrad (April 27, 1962 to November 1, 2020), an American writer of science fiction, fantasy, mystery, suspense and horror. The catalogue lists 63 books under the Caine name, starting with The Undead (1993) and Cold Kiss (1995). Series include Weather Warden, Outcast Season, Morganville Vampires, Stillhouse Lake, Great Library, Red Letter Days and Revivalist. Subjects on file include vampires, weather control, jinn and university towns.

Genevieve Cogman

11 books• 2 series

Genevieve Cogman's Invisible Library sequence opens her catalogue: The Invisible Library (2014), The Masked City (2015), The Burning Page (2016), The Lost Plot (2017), The Mortal Word (2018), The Secret Chapter (2019), The Dark Archive (2020) and The Untold Story (2021). The Scarlet Revolution series follows with Scarlet (2023), Elusive (2024) and Damned (2025), for 11 books in all. Librarians, rare books, secret societies and alternative history are the recurring subjects. Cogman is a British writer of fantasy and of role-playing games, and remains actively publishing.

Mike Resnick

139 books• 24 series

Mike Resnick, born Michael Diamond Resnick, was an American science fiction writer and editor who lived from March 5, 1942 to January 9, 2020. Resnick won five Hugo awards and one Nebula, was guest of honor at Chicon 7, served as executive editor of Jim Baen's Universe and created Galaxy's Edge magazine. The catalogue lists 139 books from The Goddess Of Ganymede (1967) to The Hex Is In (2020). Tags cover space opera, alternative history, private investigators and psychics, and series include Chronicles of Lucifer Jones, Starship, Widowmaker and John Justin Mallory Mystery.

Ian Tregillis is an American author with a Ph.D. in physics and a Clarion Workshop background. Nine books are catalogued between 2010 and 2020, and two series are recorded under the name: Raybould Marsh and Alchemy Wars. Tregillis also wrote the alternate history trilogy The Milkweed Triptych and has contributed to George R. R. Martin's Wild Cards series. Bitter Seeds (2010) opens the catalogue, and The Coldest War, Necessary Evil, Something More Than Night, The Mechanical, The Rising and The Liberation follow before Hammer and Tongs and a Rusty Nail (2020). Subjects record alternative history, the Second World War, espionage, robots, crime and the occult.

Anne Bishop writes dark fantasy. The Black Jewels series begins with Daughter of the Blood (1998) and runs on witches and the imagined realm of Terreille; The Others and the World of the Others turn to shapeshifters, werewolves and vampires. Ephemera, Tir Alainn and An Isle of Wyrd fill out 32 catalogued titles, with Storms of Fate scheduled for 2027. Books run 430 pages at the median.

Jo Walton

24 books• 3 series

Jo Walton, born 1964, is a Welsh-Canadian writer of fantasy and science fiction, and a poet. Among Others took both the Hugo and the Nebula in 2012, Tooth and Claw the World Fantasy Award in 2004, Lifelode the Mythopoeic Award in 2010 and My Real Children the Tiptree Award in 2015. The Small Change books, Farthing, Ha'penny and Half a Crown, set alternate history against the cozy mystery. Walton's catalogue holds 24 titles from The King's Peace (2000) to Everybody's Perfect, dated 2026, with Tir Tanagiri and Thessaly the recorded series.

Charlaine Harris

78 books• 14 series

Charlaine Harris, born Jean Charlaine Harris Schulz on November 25, 1951, in Tunica, Mississippi, is an American author specialising in mysteries. The Southern Vampire Mysteries, Harris's best-known series, became HBO's True Blood, which ran for seven seasons from 2008 to 2014. The catalogue starts with Sweet and Deadly (1981) and A Secret Rage (1984) and reaches The Last Wizards' Ball (2025). Sookie Stackhouse, Aurora Teagarden, Lily Bard, Gunnie Rose and Midnight, Texas are among the series. Vampires, werewolves and women librarians appear in the subjects, and Harris lives in Texas.

Neal Stephenson

34 books• 8 series

Neal Stephenson (Neal Town Stephenson, born October 31, 1959) is an American writer of speculative fiction classed as science fiction, historical fiction, cyberpunk and baroque. Mathematics, cryptography, linguistics, philosophy, currency and the history of science recur in the novels. The site lists 34 books from The Big U (1984) to D: Heavy Water (2026), including Snow Crash (1992) and Cryptonomicon (1999). Baroque Cycle and Foreworld Saga are series. Stephenson and George Jewsbury, an uncle, co-wrote novels as Stephen Bury.

Lilith Saintcrow, born December 31, 1976 in New Mexico, is an American author of urban fantasy, historical fantasy, paranormal romance and steampunk, living in Vancouver, Washington. Books for teenage readers carry the pen name Lili St. Crow. The catalogue lists 83 books from Dark Watcher (2004) to Nigel (2026). Jill Kismet, Dante Valentine, Bannon & Clare, Steelflower Chronicles and Gallow and Ragged are among Saintcrow's series, and Working for the Devil dates from 2006.

Robert J. Sawyer

36 books• 6 series

Canadian and American science fiction writer Robert J. Sawyer was born in Ottawa on April 29, 1960. Sawyer has published 25 novels, and short fiction by Sawyer has appeared in Analog, Amazing Stories, On Spec and Nature. Awards include the Nebula for Best Novel in 1995, the Hugo for Best Novel in 2003, the John W. Campbell Memorial Award in 2006 and the Robert A. Heinlein Award in 2017, plus more Aurora Awards than any other writer. The catalogue has 36 books from Golden Fleece (1990) to Sawyer on Science Fiction (2026), including the Quintaglio Ascension, Neanderthal Parallax and WWW series.

Douglas Niles

60 books• 28 series

Douglas Niles, born December 1, 1954 in Brookfield, Wisconsin, is a fantasy author and game designer. Niles helped create the Dragonlance world, wrote the first three Forgotten Realms novels, and designed the Star Frontiers space opera setting and the Top Secret S/I espionage role-playing game. The catalogue holds 60 books from Against the Cult of the Reptile God (1982) to A Noble Cause (2015), taking in the Forgotten Realms Moonshae, Maztica and Druidhome trilogies and the Dragonlance Icewall, Dwarf Home and Rise of Solamnia sequences. The Fox on the Rhine series and the subject heading World War, 1939-1945 mark a strand outside fantasy. The listing is marked likely complete.

David Mack

46 books• 20 series

David Mack is an American writer best known for freelance Star Trek novels, and has also had a Star Trek script produced and worked on a Star Trek comic book. The catalogue lists 46 books from Invincible, Part 1 (2001) to Echoes in Eternity (2026). Series include Star Trek: Vanguard, Star Trek: The Next Generation: Destiny, Star Trek: The Next Generation: Cold Equations, Star Trek: Seekers and the Star Trek Mirror Universe relaunch. Other titles include Wildfire (2002), The Starfleet Survival Guide (2002), A Time to Heal and A Time to Kill (both 2004). Keith R.A. DeCandido shares the credit on 2 books and Robert Greenberger on 1.

Paul J. McAuley

44 books• 7 series

Paul J. McAuley, born 23 April 1955, is a British botanist and science fiction author who writes mostly hard science fiction. Biotechnology, alternative history and space travel are recurring themes in McAuley's novels. The first was the far-future space opera Four Hundred Billion Stars (1988), followed by Eternal Light and the planetary-colony adventure Of the Fall. Red Dust (1993) is set on a far-future Mars colonised by the Chinese. The catalogue holds 44 McAuley books running to Loss Protocol (2026), and the series include Quiet War and Confluence.

David D. Levine

23 books• 5 series

David D. Levine, born 21 February 1961 in Minneapolis, is an American science fiction writer. The 2006 Hugo Award for Best Short Story went to Levine's story Tk'tk'tk, and the novel Arabella of Mars, issued by Tor Books in July 2016, took the Andre Norton Award for young adult science fiction and fantasy. The catalogue lists 23 titles dated 2008 to 2023, from Space Magic (2008) to The Kuiper Belt Job (2023), with Mars, Venus, alternative history and life on other planets among the recorded subjects. Adventures of Arabella Ashby is the second series in the listing.

Alternate history shapes Laura Andersen's catalogue: kings and rulers, queens, inheritance and succession, and Elizabeth I of England head the recorded subjects. Eight books are listed, grouped into the Anne Boleyn Trilogy and the Tudor Legacy Trilogy. The Boleyn King (2013) is the first title and The Forgotten Boy (2024) the most recent, with The Virgin's Daughter and The Virgin's Spy both dated 2015. Five books total 1,816 pages at a median of 358. Laura Andersen books in order begin with The Boleyn King.