Award Winning Science Fiction
The Sidewise Award
for Alternate History
Best Novel 1995—2008
2008 - The Dragon’s Nine Sons by Chris Roberson
In a distant future where the Chinese control the Earth and
have colonized the stars, a disgraced naval captain and a com-
mando 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.
2007 - The Yiddish Policeman’s Union by Michael Chabon
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 Shake-
speare is recruited by the English underground to write a play
that will serve as a call to rebellion against the Spanish.
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/
2002 ~TIE~ - The Severed Wing by Martin J. Gidron
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.
2001 - The Children's War by J.N. Stroyar
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 un-
covers 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 power-
ful, 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.