Is travelling on The Train a means to an end...a way to complete one's journey...or is The Train the destination itself, rolling endlessly through realms both magical and mechanical?And what of Javan, the lad from Pingaspor, whose third-class ticket entitles him to a spot on a hard bench? He has given up everything he had for that cherished spot. But where, exactly, is he headed?Javan's story is followed by the tale of nanny Eli, hired by Baroness Vasri to take care of her son and daughter as they travel on The Train in first class. But the Baroness' agenda may run contrary to that of those running The Train...and what will become of the children?"Turtledoves père and fille offer two stories set on a railroad-girt world. Harry Turtledove (Supervolcano) introduces Javan, a young man from the city of Pingaspor whose third-class ticket allows him to expand his worldview, and whose ambition allows him to make a life for himself in the narrow confines of the Train. Rachel Turtledove's...

After King Avram, new ruler of Detina, frees the blond serfs upon which the northern part of the kingdom relies, civil war erupts, with Avram's cousin, Geoffrey, as commander of the rebels. The armies of the divided country face each other in the embattled province of Peachtree eager to claim the strategically vital city of Marthasville. Turtledove's sequel to Sentry Peak continues his fanciful retelling of the Civil War as a fantasy struggle involving swords and sorcery. American history buffs should enjoy figuring out the real-world parallels in the colorful cast of characters.

David Fisher is an EPA agent, assigned to investigate possible leaking from the Devonshire dump site, in part because of an increase of birth defects in the surrounding area. The most devastating birth defect is aphysica, being born without a soul. In this world the Other Side is very real and all the religions have their actual spiritual counterpart. The gods and whatnot need adoration to survive, so sometimes religions that lose adherents became endangered, and artificial temples and worshippers are made to save the entity. Fisher gets deeper and deeper into what turns into a plot to revive one of the most evil spirits in both Worlds.

The novel is set in 1963, eighteen years following the end of the alternate World War II shown in the Worldwar series. Earl Warren is President of the United States, Vyacheslav Molotov is the Premier of the Soviet Union, and Heinrich Himmler leads Nazi Germany. At the start of the novel, the colonization fleet of the Race enters the Solar System, bringing with them, forty million colonists for settling on Earth. As the fleet enters Earth orbit, a human satellite unleashes a nuclear attack that kills millions. As Germany, the USSR, and the United States each have large-scale space capability, either nation may have been responsible for the attack. In addition, while there is peace between the independent human nations and the Race, Mao Zedong and Ruhollah Khomeini continue to lead popular resistance to the invaders in China and the Middle East, respectively. Meanwhile, the Race colonists, who expected to encounter an Earth that was already conquered with the natives still at medieval levels of advancement, have to deal with the consequences of the cold war with the humans. The fleet brings with it not only the first civilians, but also the first Race females, both of which cause tension among the male soldiers who formed the invasion force. To the Race males, ginger is a euphoric drug; to the females, it causes them to go into estrous, resulting in wide-scale social implications.