Books like 'When We Cease to Understand the World'
Readers who enjoyed When We Cease to Understand the World by Benjamín Labatut also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.
historical sc-fi alternate history military, war & conflict literary-fiction historical-fiction war journey technology philosophical
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Purple Hearts by Michael Grant
Rated: 4.58 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsNew York Times bestselling author Michael Grant unleashes the gritty and powerful conclusion to the Front Line series and evokes the brutal truth of World War II: War is hell. An epic tale of historical reimagining, perfect for fans of Code Name Verity and Salt to the Sea...Categorized as:
historical-fiction war 20th-century action-adventure alternate-history book female-mc fiction -
Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson
Rated: 4.23 of 5 stars · 42 ratingsCryptonomicon zooms all over the world, careening conspiratorially back and forth between two time periods—World War II and the present. Our 1940s heroes are the brilliant mathematician Lawrence Waterhouse, crypt analyst extraordinaire, and gung-ho, morphine-addicted marine Bobby Shaftoe...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction politics technology war 20th-century action-adventure adult -
Operation Long Jump by William Peter Grasso
Rated: 4.40 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsThe Allied invasion of Papua New Guinea begins. Badly.Alternative history takes center stage as Operation Long Jump, the second book in the Jock Miles World War 2 adventure series, plunges us into the horrors of combat in the rainforests of Papua New Guinea. As a prelude to the Allied invasion, Jock Miles and his men seize the Japanese observation post on the mountain overlooking Port Moresby...Categorized as:
historical-fiction war 20th-century action-adventure adult alternate-history book espionage -
Operation Easy Street by William Peter Grasso
Rated: 4.40 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsPort Moresby was bad. Buna was worse.The WW2 alternative history adventure of Jock Miles continues as MacArthur orders American and Australian forces to seize Buna in Papua New Guinea. Once again, the Allied high command underestimates the Japanese defenders, plunging Jock and his men into a battle they’re not equipped to win...Categorized as:
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The Confusion by Neal Stephenson
Rated: 4.18 of 5 stars · 27 ratingsIn the year 1689, a cabal of Barbary galley slaves -- including one Jack Shaftoe, aka King of the Vagabonds, aka Half-Cocked Jack -- devises a daring plan to win freedom and fortune. A great adventure ensues -- a perilous race for an enormous prize of silver ... nay, gold ... nay, legendary gold...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction politics technology war 21st-century action-adventure adult -
WE SO FEW: BOOK 3 OF THE FIGHTING TOMCATS by M.L. Maki, Sofia Maki
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsWE SO FEW Lieutenant Commander Samantha 'Spike' Hunt, commander of the Black Knights, and Captain James "Papa' Holtz, commander of Task Force Yankee, are charged with protecting Great Britain at all costs. Ten F-14s. Twelve pilots. Twelve RIOs. It is all the allies have to stand against the might of the German Luftwaffe...Categorized as:
historical-fiction war action-adventure adult alternate-history book fiction historical -
Operation Fishwrapper by William Peter Grasso
Rated: 4.30 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsJune 1944: A recon flight is shot down over the Japanese-held island of Biak, soon to be the next jump in MacArthur’s leapfrogging across New Guinea. Major Jock Miles, US Army—the crashed plane’s intelligence officer—must lead the handful of survivors to safety. It’s a tall order for a man barely recovered from a near-crippling leg wound...Categorized as:
historical-fiction war 20th-century action-adventure adult alternate-history book fiction -
Long Walk To The Sun by William Peter Grasso
Rated: 4.30 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsIn this alternate history adventure set in WW2’s early days, a crippled US military struggles to defend vulnerable Australia against the unstoppable Japanese forces. When a Japanese regiment lands on Australia’s desolate and undefended Cape York Peninsula, Jock Miles, a US Army captain disgraced despite heroic actions at Pearl Harbor, is ordered to locate the enemy’s elusive command post...Categorized as:
historical-fiction war 20th-century action-adventure adult alternate-history book fiction -
The Dance of Time by Eric Flint, David Drake
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsThe Malwa and their evil have been driven back to their Indian heartland, but there they coil to strike again...Categorized as:
historical-fiction war action-adventure adult alternate-history book fiction hard-sci-fi -
Fortune's Stroke by Eric Flint, David Drake
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsAide, a human soul embodied in a jewel, journeys back in time to join forces with Belisarius, the greatest general of the sixth century, to stop Link, an evil supercomputer that is using its vast powers to rewrite history to create the powerful, technologically advance Malwa Empire. Reprint...Categorized as:
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In the Heart of Darkness by Eric Flint, David Drake
Rated: 4.19 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsThe Malwa Empire, using gunpowder weapons and ruthless terror, has conquered 6th century India and is forging the subcontinent's vast population into an invincible weapon of tyranny. The supermind that commands the Malwa intends first to rule the world and then to set its inexorable stamp over all eternity. No action is too bestial for the supermind to order, nor for its Malwa lackeys to execute... -
The 2020 Commission Report on the North Korean Nuclear Attacks Against the United States: A Speculative Novel by Jeffrey Lewis
Rated: 4.19 of 5 stars · 16 ratings“A brilliantly conceived page-turner.”—Eric Schlosser, author of Fast Food Nation and Command and ControlAmerica lost 1.4 million citizens in the North Korean attacks of March 2020. This is the final, authorized report of the government commission charged with investigating the calamity. “The skies over the Korean Peninsula on March 21, 2020, were clear and blue...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction politics war adult alternate-history apocalyptic audiobook -
An Oblique Approach by David Drake, Eric Flint
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsOnly three things stand between the Malwa and the conquest of Earth: Byzantium, the empire of Rome in the East; a crystal that urges mankind to fight; and Belisarius, general of the Byzantine Empire, and arguably the greatest commmander the Earth has ever known...Categorized as:
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A Prophet Without Honor: A Novel of Alternative History by Joseph Wurtenbaugh
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratings‘A Prophet Without Honor’ is that rare novel that provides a rich, entertaining and fully immersive reading experience, along with a resonant, thought-provoking subtext. Written in epistolary style and populated with interesting, fully-realized characters, the multi-general narrative is a seamless blend of authentic fact and sound speculation...Categorized as:
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1637: The Polish Maelstrom by Eric Flint
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsNEW SOLO NOVEL BY ERIC FLINT IN THE BEST-SELLING RING OF FIRE SERIES! The Ottoman Empire has captured Vienna and is now laying siege to the Austrian government-in-exile established in the city of Linz. Both the United States of Europe and the Kingdom of Bohemia have come to Austria’s assistance, but everyone knows this is going to be a long and brutal struggle...Categorized as:
historical-fiction war action-adventure adult alternate-history audiobook book family -
Men of War by William R. Forstchen
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsIn the aftermath of Gettysburg, the 35th Regiment of the Union Army were pulled through a time warp, leaving them stranded in a strange alien word. Now it's time for exploration -- and to discover a way to survive..Categorized as:
historical-fiction war action-adventure adult alternate-history audiobook book fiction -
Never Sound Retreat by William R. Forstchen
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsIt has been 10 years since a group of American Civil War soldiers was swept away from the battlefields of Earth to a distant world--where the only place for a human is as a slave to an alien race...Categorized as:
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Never Call Retreat: Lee and Grant: The Final Victory by Newt Gingrich, William R. Forstchen
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsNew York Times bestselling authors Newt Gingrich and William R. Forstchen conclude their inventive trilogy with this remarkable answer to the great “what if” of the American Civil War: Could the South have indeed won? After his great victories at Gettysburg and Union Mills, General Robert E. Lee’s attempt to bring the war to a final conclusion by attacking Washington, D.C., fails...Categorized as:
historical-fiction politics war adult alternate-history american-civil-war audiobook book -
Grant Comes East by Newt Gingrich, William R. Forstchen
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsIn their runaway bestseller Gettysburg, Newt Gingrich and William Forstchen answered the Civil War's ultimate hypothetical question: What if Lee's army had won the victory within its grasp at Gettysburg in 1863? Now, through the same extraordinary research and brilliant character studies, we take the next step of a provocative journey: The Army of Northern Virginia is poised to invade...Categorized as:
historical-fiction politics war adult alternate-history american-civil-war audiobook book -
Valley Forge by Newt Gingrich
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsIn To Try Men's Souls, Newt Gingrich and William R. Forstchen cast a new light on the year 1776 and the man who would become the father of our nation, George Washington.Valley Forge picks up the narrative a year after Washington’s triumphant surprise attack on Trenton, and much has changed since then. It’s the winter of 1777, and Washington’s battered, demoralized army retreats from Philadelphia...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction war 21st-century adult alternate-history audiobook book -
The Tide of Victory by Eric Flint, David Drake
Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsArmed with lancers, breech-loading rifles, steamships, and galleys, General Belisarius, accompanied by his own ally from the future, ventures into the Malwa Empire, a sixth-century kingdom ruled by Link, a horrifying and evil entity from the future...Categorized as:
historical-fiction war action-adventure adult alternate-history book fiction historical -
Destiny's Shield by Eric Flint, David Drake
Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsEric Flint and David Drake's alt-history epic devoted to real-life Byzantine butt-kicker Belisarius has reached part three--Destiny's Shield--and this installment finally busts loose with some serious head-to-head...Categorized as:
historical-fiction war action-adventure adult alternate-history audiobook book fiction -
River of Bones by Taylor Anderson
Rated: 4.31 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsThe crew of a WWII destroyer face their greatest challenge yet as they try to survive in a strange new world in the next thrilling book in the New York Times bestselling series.Commander Matt Reddy and his crew are afraid it may finally be the end of the USS Walker...Categorized as:
historical-fiction politics war 20th-century action-adventure adult aliens alternate-history -
Forget the Alamo! by Drew McGunn
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsAfter the explosion, Will didn’t expect to wake up again, especially in the past. Alive is good. Except he finds himself at the Alamo in 1836 in the body of another man doomed to die. If history repeats itself, Santa Anna is coming soon and the Alamo will fall, along with himself and 189 others. In a race against time itself, Will uses his knowledge of the future to change the past...Categorized as:
historical-fiction war action-adventure adult alternate-history book fiction historical -
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Opening Moves by Colin Gee
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsThe first of a series of books that cover World War Three, from July 1945 through to its close in September 1947... -
Bartley's Man (Ring of Fire) by Paula Goodlett, Gorg Huff
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsBartley's Man is about love, respect and honor, and becoming wealthy in the service of David Bartley, an up-timer teenager with a brilliant mind. It is the journey of Johan Kipper, a reluctant soldier in illy's tercio as he collides with the fact of Grantville's existence. Johan decides he doesn't want to be a soldier anymore...Categorized as:
historical-fiction war action-adventure adult alternate-history anthologies coming-of-age fiction -
Maid of Baikal by Preston Fleming
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsWhat if a Siberian Joan of Arc had rescued the White Armies at a critical point of the Russian Civil War in 1919? MAID OF BAIKAL offers an alternative outcome to that war through the intervention of Zhanna Dorokhina, a young woman from the shores of Siberia’s Lake Baikal...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction war 20th-century action-adventure adult alternate-history book -
The Children's War by J.N. Stroyar
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsPeter has had more identities than he can remember and suffered pains and humiliations he longs to forget. But, whether spy or prisoner, slave or propaganda tool, none of his roles has brought the one thing he wants above all: freedom. THE CHILDREN'S WAR Bad papers. That's how Peter's nightmare began...Categorized as:
historical-fiction war 20th-century adult alternate-history book espionage female-author -
Wikihistory by Desmond Warzel
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsA Hitler killing short story...Since we’re all still abuzz about the latest Hitler-killing episode of Doctor Who, we here at Tor.com thought we’d point our readers’ attention to one of the most entertaining Hitler-killing short stories we’ve ever seen... -
Colossus by Colin Falconer, Alexander Cole
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsa novel of Alexander the Great (EPIC HISTORICAL FICTION)A sweeping tale of courage, honor, and betrayal in the army of Alexander the GreatBabylon, 323 BC. Alexander the Great has survived every effort to kill him. Restless, ruthless, he wonders which world to conquer next. He has a powerful new weapon—the war elephants he brought back from India... -
Battle Hymn by William R. Forstchen
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsSwept through a time-space warp at the height of the Civil War, the 35th Maine found themselves stranded on an alien world. Now William R. Forstchen has written an all-new "Lost Regiment" adventure with an even more treacherous adversary...Categorized as:
historical-fiction war action-adventure adult alternate-history audiobook book fiction -
Terrible Swift Sword by William R. Forstchen
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsA startling series that merges history with intrepid military science fiction in a fresh and energetic package, this latest edition proves that Forstchen's talent and possibilities are limitless. "Some of the best adventure writing in years!"--Science Fiction Chronicle...Categorized as:
historical-fiction war action-adventure adult alternate-history audiobook book fiction -
1636: Commander Cantrell in the West Indies by Eric Flint, Charles E. Gannon
Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsNew York Times and Wall Street Journal best-selling alternate history series. Book #14 in the Ring of Fire series created by Eric Flint...Categorized as:
historical-fiction war action-adventure adult alternate-history audiobook book early-modern -
Rally Cry by William R. Forstchen
Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsWhen Union Colonel Andrew Keane and his soldiers were swept through a space-time warp, they found themselves in an alternate world where their rifles were centuries advanced over swords, spears and crossbows...Categorized as:
historical-fiction war action-adventure adult aliens alternate-history alternate-universe audiobook -
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In at the Death by Harry Turtledove
Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsFranklin Roosevelt is the assistant secretary of defense. Thomas Dewey is running for president with a blunt-speaking Missourian named Harry Truman at his side. Britain holds onto its desperate alliance with the USA’s worst enemy, while a holocaust unfolds in Texas...Categorized as:
historical-fiction war 20th-century action-adventure adult alternate-history book dystopia -
To Try Men's Souls by Newt Gingrich, William R. Forstchen
Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsAfter two bestselling series examining the Civil War and WWII, Newt Gingrich and William R. Forstchen have turned their sharp eye for detail on the Revolutionary War. Their story follows three men with three very different roles to play in history: General George Washington, Thomas Paine, and Jonathan Van Dorn, a private in Washington’s army...Categorized as:
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Time and Time Again by Ben Elton
Rated: 4.04 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsIt’s the 1st of June 1914 and Hugh Stanton, ex-soldier and celebrated adventurer is quite literally the loneliest man on earth. No one he has ever known or loved has been born yet. Perhaps now they never will be.Stanton knows that a great and terrible war is coming. A collective suicidal madness that will destroy European civilization and bring misery to millions in the century to come...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction politics war 20th-century 21st-century action-adventure adult -
1632 by Eric Flint
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 25 ratingsFREEDOM AND JUSTICE -- AMERICAN STYLE 1632 And in northern Germany things couldn't get much worse. Famine. Disease. Religous war laying waste the cities. Only the aristocrats remained relatively unscathed; for the peasants, death was a mercy... -
Alas, Babylon by Pat Frank
Rated: 4.03 of 5 stars · 46 ratings“An extraordinary real picture of human beings numbed by catastrophe but still driven by the unconquerable determination of living creatures to keep on being alive.” —The New Yorker“Alas, Babylon.” Those fateful words heralded the end... -
1634 The Baltic War by Eric Flint, David Weber
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 17 ratingsThe Baltic War which began in the novel 1633 is still raging, and the time-lost Americans of Grantville - the West Virginia town hurled back into the seventeenth century by a mysterious cosmic accident - are caught in the middle of it...Categorized as:
historical-fiction war action-adventure adult alternate-history alternate-universe audiobook book -
Gettysburg by Newt Gingrich, William R. Forstchen
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsThe Battle of Gettysburg has become the great "what if" of American history. Gettysburg unfolds an alternate path and creates for General Robert E. Lee the victory he might have won. Full of dramatic battle scenes, military strategy, and captivating period details, Gettysburg stands as a remarkable entry in the pantheon of Civil War literature and as a vivid novel of the realities of war...Categorized as:
historical-fiction war adult alternate-history american-civil-war audiobook book civil-war -
1635: The Eastern Front by Eric Flint
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsThe Thirty Years War continues to ravage 17th century Europe, but a new force is gathering power and influence: the United States of Europe, a new nation led by Gustavus Adolphus, King of Sweden, and the West Virginians from the 20th century led by Mike Stearns who were hurled centuries into the past by a mysterious cosmic accident...Categorized as:
historical-fiction war action-adventure adult alternate-history audiobook book early-modern -
1636: The Kremlin Games by Eric Flint, Gorg Huff
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsA new addition to the multiple New York Times best-selling Ring of Fire series. After carving a place for itself in war-torn 17th century Europe, the modern town of Grantville, West Virginia continues its quest for survival. A Grantville resident helps Russia modernize, but he in turn must deal with 1600s Russian culture and politics—or wind up dead.1636...Categorized as:
historical-fiction war action-adventure adult alternate-history book drama early-modern -
The Union Forever by William R. Forstchen
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsColonel Andrew Keane and his blue-coated soldiers were not the first humans time-space-warped to a world so familiar yet so foreign. Humans abounded on the perverse planet-humans treated like cattle by the alien warrior overlords. Keane's Civil War weaponry defeated the swords, spears and crossbows of his monstrous adversaries...Categorized as:
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Polostan by Neal Stephenson
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsThe first installment in Neal Stephenson’s three-part Bomb Light cycle, Polostan follows the early life of the enigmatic Dawn Rae Bjornberg. Born in the American West to a clan of cowboy anarchists, Dawn is raised in Leningrad after the Russian Revolution by her Russian father, a party line Leninist who re-christens her Aurora...Categorized as:
historical-fiction politics literary-fiction fiction sci-fi historical audiobook fantasy -
Singer Distance by Ethan Chatagnier
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsThe odds of the planet next door hosting intelligent life are—that’s not luck. That’s a miracle. It means something.In December 1960, Crystal Singer, her boyfriend Rick, and three other MIT grad students take a cross-country road trip from Boston to Arizona to paint a message in the desert...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction fiction alternate-history historical space audiobook aliens -
1636: The Chronicles of Dr. Gribbleflotz by Kerryn Offord, Rick Boatright
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsA sparkling addition to the multiple New York Times best-selling Ring of Fire alternate history series created by Eric Flint. An alchemist of the 17th century confronts modern science with often amusing results.Phillip Theophrastus Gribbleflotz, the world's greatest alchemist and a great-grandson of Paracelsus—and a Bombast on his mother's side—was a man history had forgotten... -
For Want of a Nail: If Burgoyne Had Won at Saratoga by Robert Sobel
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsA classic work of alternate history. Projects the far-reaching consequences if British General John Burgoyne had won this pivotal battle in the American Revolution and Britain had gone on to win the war...Categorized as:
historical-fiction war adult alternate-history book fiction historical violent-conflict -
East Wind Returns by William Peter Grasso
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsA young but veteran recon pilot in WW2 finds the fate of the greatest invasion in history—and the life of the nurse he loves—resting perilously on his shoulders. East Wind Returns is a story of WW2 set in July-November 1945 which explores a very different road to that conflict’s historic conclusion. The American war leaders grapple with a crippling setback: their secret atomic bomb does not work... -
Fox at the Front by Douglas Niles, Michael Dobson
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsThe Third Reich has been routed...But the war is far from over. A new adversary is poised to attack on the eastern front.Former opponents George S. Patton and Erwin Rommel must join forces to neutralize the remnants of SS forces bent on carrying out the Reich's "Final Solution" in Eastern Europe...
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