Sidewise Awards 09

Award Winning Science Fiction

The Sidewise Award for Alternate History Best Novel 1995—2008 2008 - The Dragon’s Nine Sons by Chris Roberson

2002 ~TIE~ - The Severed Wing by Martin J. Gidron

In a distant future where the Chinese control the Earth and have colonized the stars, a disgraced naval captain and a commando who knows secrets he should never have learned are picked to lead a suicide mission. But when they arrive to find dozens of prisoners destined to be used as human sacrifices, their suicide mission suddenly becomes a rescue operation.

World War I ended much sooner, avoiding the harsh Versailles Treaty and the rise of Nazi Germany and its Holocaust. But European anti-Semitism persists into the late 20th century, so young journalist Janusz Spiegelman flees to America. He finds that his safe world is disappearing, daily returning to the grim reality of the Holocaust.

2007 - The Yiddish Policeman’s Union by Michael Chabon

2001 - The Children's War by J.N. Stroyar

The Federal District of Sitka is a “temporary” safe haven created for Jewish refugees and their descendants in the wake of the Holocaust and the shocking 1948 collapse of the fledgling state of Israel. Now the District is set to revert to Alaskan control, and homicide detective Meyer Landsman finds himself embroiled in controversy when he begins to investigate a suspicious murder.

2006 - Merchant Princes series by Charles Stross In The Family Trade, a woman from our world accidentally "world walks" into an alternate timeline in which Norse colonies in North America survived even as Europe was overrun by the Turks and Mongols. There she finds she is a lost scion of a politically powerful clan of cross-time merchants, and her appearance has made her a target for murder. The series continues in The Hidden Family and The Clan Corporate.

2005 - The Summer Isles by Ian R. MacLeod What would life in England look like in 1940 had the British lost World War I, replacing Germany 's role in history? A gripping story of a closeted homosexual trying to survive in an alternate history England, this novel explores what might have happened had England become the equivalent of Nazi Germany.

2004 - The Plot Against America by Philip Roth Set in an alternate world in which Charles Lindbergh defeats FDR in the 1940 presidential election, Roth builds an eerie narrative that shows how isolationists emboldened by Lindbergh's blatant anti-Semitism enact new laws and create an atmosphere of religious hatred that culminates in nationwide pogroms.

2003 - Collaborator by Murray Davies This is the story of a former British officer in 1941, forced to serve the Germans as translator for a regional military governor but gradually drawn into the local resistance. But are his activities really secret or is he being used as an unwitting stooge?

2002 ~TIE~ - Ruled Britannia by Harry Turtledove Since the Spanish Armada's successful invasion of England in 1588, Elizabeth I has languished as a prisoner in the Tower of London while the Spanish crown rules the land. William Shakespeare is recruited by the English underground to write a play that will serve as a call to rebellion against the Spanish.

What if Germany won World War II, and the Third Reich continues to rule Europe as a hostile, totalitarian regime into the 21st century? In an authentic vision of what might have been, The Children's War is an epic modern-day thriller of a Europe ruled by Nazis and of the people determined to defeat them.

2000 - Ash: A Secret History by Mary Gentle This story starts with the discovery of a previously unknown manuscript by a historian, one that purports to tell the story of a woman who fought in and eventually led battles in Europe from 1465 through 1476. What follows is not only a scholarly mystery story, but also a brutal, horrifying and compelling journey through the medieval landscape of Europe and the Middle East.

1999 - Resurrection Day by Brendan DuBois It has been ten years since the Cuban Missile Crisis had escalated into a full-blown atomic war and the U.S. and Soviet Union are in ruins. A young reporter with The Boston Globe uncovers an Anglophile conspiracy, a plot that if successful would convert—or rather, reconvert—the States into a British colony.

1998 - Making History by Stephen Fry Michael Young, an earnest young history grad student, has just finished his dissertation, an exploration into the roots of evil and the early life of Adolf Hitler. When he meets up with an aging German physicist, they concoct an idealistic experiment that involves time travel to prevent the conception of the Führer.

1997 - How Few Remain by Harry Turtledove Twenty years 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. And so began the Second Civil War.

1996 - Voyage by Stephen Baxter An epic saga of America's might-have-been, Voyage is a powerful, sweeping novel of how, if President Kennedy had lived, we could have sent a manned mission to Mars in the 1980s.

1995 - Pasquale’s Angel by Paul J. McAuley In an alternative Renaissance Florence, the assassination of a renowned figure thrusts young artist Pasquale and the brilliant investigator Niccolo Machiavegli into the witchcraft-ridden underworld of the city.

The Sidewise Awards for Alternate History were conceived in late 1995 to honor the best "genre" publications of the year. More information can be found at www.uchronia.net/sidewise/