Kirov – Military Fiction (Naval), by John Schettler

The battlecruiser Kirov, is the most powerful surface combatant that ever put to sea. Built from the bones of all four prior Kirov Class battlecruisers, she is updated with Russia’s most lethal weapons, given back her old name, and commissioned in the year 2020. A year later, with tensions rising to the breaking point between Russia and the West, Kirov is completing her final missile trials in the Arctic Sea when a strange accident transports her to another time. With power no ship in the world can match, much less comprehend, she must decide the fate of nations in the most titanic conflict the world has ever seen—WWII.

The novel is an intensely focused naval saga, where the crew of the lost Russian battlecruiser must struggle to understand what has happened to them, and then make a choice that could be decisive in the outcome of the war—who’s side are they on? A conflict between senior officers on the ship heightens the tension, and the course of all future history rides in the balance!

Kirov II: Cauldron Of Fire

Days after the shocking discovery of Halifax Harbor, battlecruiser Kirov heads east into the Atlantic, a lost ship in a forsaken and devastated world. Twelve days later they have entered the Mediterranean Sea finding nothing but blackened destruction on every shore. Disheartened and stricken with remorse, the ship turns west for the long voyage back to the Straits of Gibraltar when a sudden and unexpected attack leads them to the astounding conclusion that they have once again moved in time, not forward but back, returning to the cauldron of fire of the Second World War. Only this time a full year has passed and they now find themselves sailing the dangerous waters of the year 1942.

As the Royal Navy prepares for one of the largest naval operations of the war, Kirov becomes a renegade ship, trapped in the restricted waters of an inland sea with only three ways out.

With enemies on every side, the one question her beleaguered captains and crew must now answer has been reduced to the simplest possible terms—survival!

Kirov III - Pacific Storm

Admiral Tovey’s visit to Bletchley Park soon reaches an astounding conclusion when the battlecruiser Kirov vanishes once again to a desolate future. Reaching the Pacific the ship’s officers and crew soon learn that Kirov has once again moved in time. Now First Officer Anton Fedorov is shocked to finally learn the true source of the great variation in time that has led to the devastated future they have come from and the demise of civilization itself. They are soon discovered by a Japanese fleet and the ship now faces its most dangerous and determined challenge ever when they are stalked by the Japanese 5th Carrier Division and eventually confronted by a powerful enemy task force led by the battleship Yamato, and an admiral determined to sink this phantom ship, or die trying. In this amazing continuation to the popular Kirov series, the most powerful ships ever conceived by two different eras clash in a titanic final battle that could decide the fate of nations and the world itself.

Kirov Saga: Men Of War (Part 4)

Kirov returns home to a changed world in the year 2021, and as the Russian Naval Inspectorate probes the mystery of the ship’s disappearance, Anton Fedorov begins to unravel yet another dilemma—the secret of Rod 25. The world is again steering a dangerous course toward the great war that blackened the shores of a distant future glimpsed by the officers and crew. Fedorov has come to believe that time is waiting on the resolution of one crucial unresolved element from their journey to the past—the fate of Gennadi Orlov.

Join Admiral Leonid Volsky, Captain Vladimir Karpov and Anton Fedorov as they sleuth the mystery of Orlov’s fate and launch a mission to the past to find him before the world explodes in the terror and fury of a great air and naval conflict in the Pacific. It is a war that will span the globe from the Gulf of Mexico to the Middle East and through the oil rich heart of Central Asia to the wide Pacific, but somehow one man’s life holds the key to its prevention. Yet other men are aware of Orlov’s identity as a crewman from the dread raider they came to call Geronimo, and they too set their minds on finding him first…in 1942! Men of war from the future and past now join in the hunt while the military forces of Russia, China and the West maneuver to the great chessboard of impending conflict.

Kirov Saga: Nine Days Falling, Vol. I (Book 5)

As Fedorov launches his daring mission to the past to rescue Orlov, Volsky does not know where or how to find the team, or even if they have safely made the dangerous transition to the 1940s….But other men know, from the dark corners of Whitehall to the KGB. And other men also continue to stalk Orlov in that distant era, led by Captain John Haselden and the men of 30 Commando. The long journey west is fraught with danger for Fedorov’s team when they encounter something bewildering and truly astounding, an incident that leads them deeper into the mystery of Rod-25.

Meanwhile, Kirov has put to sea and now forms the heart of a powerful battlegroup commanded by Captain Vladimir Karpov. He is soon confronted by the swift deployment of the American Carrier Strike Group Five out of Yokosuka Japan in a tense standoff at sea that explodes into violence until the Red Banner Fleet faces an unexpected challenge.

The fuse of conflict is lit across the globe, for the dread war has finally begun when the Chinese make good on their threat to secure their long wayward son—Taiwan. From the pulsing bitstream of the Internet, the deep void of outer space, the oil soaked waters of the Persian Gulf and Black Sea, to the riveting naval combat in the Pacific, the world descends in nine grueling days, swept up in the maelstrom and chaos of war.

This is the story of that deadly war to end all wars, and the desperate missions from the future and past to find the one man who can prevent it from ever happening, Gennadi Orlov. Can the mystery of Rod-25 and Orlov be solved before the ICBMs are finally launched?

Kirov Saga: Fallen Angels ~ Nine Days Falling-Vol. II

The war continues on both land and sea as China invades Taiwan and North Korea joins to launch a devastating attack. Yet Kirov and the heart of the Red Banner Pacific Fleet has vanished, blown into the past by the massive wrath of the Demon Volcano. There Captain Karpov finds himself at the dying edge of the last great war, yet his own inner demons now wage war with his conscience as he contemplates another decisive intervention.

After secretly assisting the Soviet invasion of the Kuriles and engaging a small US scouting force in the region, Karpov has drawn the attention of Admiral Halsey’s powerful 3rd Fleet. Now Halsey sends one of the toughest fighting Admirals of the war north to investigate, the hero of the Battle off Samar, Ziggy Sprague, and fast and furious sea battles are the order of the day.

Meanwhile tensions rise in the Black Sea as the Russian mission to rescue Fedorov and Orlov has now been expanded to include a way to try and deliver new control rods to Kirov from the same batch and lot as the mysterious Rod-25. Will they work? Yet Admiral Volsky learns that the Russian Black Sea Fleet has engaged well escorted units of a British oil conveyor, Fairchild Inc., and the fires of war soon endanger his mission.

All efforts are now focused on a narrow stretch of coastline on the Caspian Sea, where men of war from the future and past are locked in a desperate struggle to decide the outcome of history itself. Naval combat, both future and past, combine with action and intrigue as Volsky’s mission is launched and the mystery of Rod-25 and Fedorov’s strange experience on the Trans-Siberian Rail is finally revealed. Can they stop the nuclear holocaust of the Third World War in 2021 or will it begin off the coast of Japan in 1945?

Kirov Saga: Devil's Garden - Book 7 in the Kirov Series

Anton Fedorov and Sergeant Troyak have finally found Orlov, but the German army is coming! Now they must lead a daring assault with Russian Naval Marines in a struggle to get their man before the Germans do. The action thickens as Russian hovercraft and modern AFVs storm ashore with the Marines to face down the advancing German Panzers. And even as the battle rages, Orlov faces Commissar Molla with his one chance to fulfill a simmering personal vendetta.

In 1945, the battlecruiser Kirov has vanished in the midst of the final battle against the US Navy, and now the fate of the Russian destroyer Orlan is revealed. While Admiral Volsky and Pavel Kamenski search the history for clues of what happened to the Red Banner Fleet, Captain Karpov and his intrepid ship appear in a new era with a chance to change the future history of Russia and the world with a bold new campaign at sea.

Meanwhile, Elena Fairchild reveals a deep secret to Captain Gordon MacRae, and together they lead the Argos Fire on a strange rendezvous with destiny at a place that has spoken the voice of fate and time throughout ages past.

The strange journey of Sir Roger Ames, Duke of Elvington deepens the mystery at Lindisfarne Castle as the clock ticks slowly toward a last fateful hour when the world may be caught up in the final maelstrom of war. When Anton Fedorov learns the fate of Kirov, he launches one last desperate mission to preserve the timeline of history and prevent the great cataclysm from occurring.

Kirov Saga: Armageddon

Kirov Series, Book VIII

The lines of fate have brought the most powerful ship in the world to a decisive place in history. Driven by his own inner demons, Captain Karpov now believes that with Kirov in 1908 he is truly invincible, and his aim is to impose his will on that unsuspecting world and reverse the cold fate of Russian history from 1908 to the 21st century. But it is not just the fate of a single nation at stake now, but that of all the world.

Shocked by Karpov’s betrayal, Anton Fedorov plans a mission to stop the Captain before he can do irreversible damage to the cracked mirror of time. Now Admiral Volsky must do everything possible to launch this final mission aboard the nuclear attack submarine Kazan. The journey to the Sea of Japan becomes a perilous one when the Americans and Japanese begin to hunt Kazan in the dangerous waters of 2021.

Join Anton Fedorov, Admiral Volsky, Chief Dobrynin, and Gennadi Orlov aboard Kazan as they launch this last desperate mission to confront the man, and the ship, that now threatens to change all history and unravel the fabric of fate and time itself.

Kirov Saga: Altered States

About Altered States

Kirov is trapped in the midst of WWII once again, only the world is not the same!

The consequences of all their interventions in history have now calcified to a new reality. The political borders of nations have been re-drawn, and their homeland is a divided nation with a new Soviet Russia led by Sergie Kirov locked in conflict with the oppressive Orenburg Federation ruled by the iron fist of Ivan Volkov.

The ship and crew arrive in the North Atlantic only to find the course of the war at sea has also been radically altered when the Germans adopted their Plan Z naval building program in 1936. Adding powerful new ships like the battleship Hindenburg and carrier Graf Zeppelin to their order of battle, a much more powerful Kieigsmarine rises to challenge the might of the Royal Navy, and the outcome of the war rides in the balance.

Discovering they still possess a decisive edge in weapons technology the officers and crew of Kirov must now decide which side to take in the long and terrible war that threatens millions more lives.

Don’t miss this much anticipated continuation of the Kirov Series in its 9th exciting volume that will also begin a new alternate history series covering the naval war in the West!

Kirov Saga: Darkest Hour

Altered States ~ Volume II

The first rounds have fallen, heavy shells smashing against the armored conning tower of HMS Hood, stunning the ship and its stolid Admiral Holland. Yet Hood fights on, her guns raging in reprisal as the pride of two navies meet in the largest naval engagement since Jutland. Even as Admiral Tovey reaches the action, the shadow of Hoffmann’s battlegroup looms over his shoulder and the odds stack ever higher against the embattled ships of Home Fleet. Off to the north the Stukas rush to re-arm aboard carrier Graf Zeppelin, while far to the south another ship hastens north to the scene, from a time and place incomprehensible to the men now locked in a desperate struggle raging on a blood red sea that may decide the fate of England in 1940. Can they engage without shattering the fragile mirror of history yet again?

Learn the outcome and follow Kirov north as it heads to home waters, determined to meet the man that may have changed the course of all history, Sergei Kirov. Meanwhile the action moves to the Med where the young Christopher Wells is dispatched to Force H. The British must first prevent the powerful French fleet from falling into enemy hands. The fighting has only just begun as Altered States continues the retelling of the naval war in an exciting second volume.

Altered States: Volume III ~ Hinge of Fate

As Alan Turing pursues the baffling discovery of the strange cache of information code named Geronimo, Admiral Volsky sails to meet with the British on the Faeroes, bearing an offer of formal alliance between Soviet Russia and Great Britain. There Tovey learns the startling truth behind the mysterious ship that has haunted him all his life.

Sergeant Troyak’s mission aboard airship Narva faces danger and mystery on the Stony Tunguska, even while elements of two other airship fleets converge on the inn at Ilanskiy—the hinge of fate.

Meanwhile, Hitler hopes to secure another vital ally so that he can breathe life into Admiral Raeder’s long advocated Mediterranean strategy. It will begin with Operation Felix the assault on Gibraltar. As Britain steels itself for possible invasion, the Royal Navy must now rally to the defense of the embattled garrison at Gibraltar, England’s Rock in the Med, another hinge of fate that could turn the entire course of the war should it fall. Opposing them are the three elite regiments of the German Army, and a resurgent Kriegsmarine led by a fearsome new gladiator, the Hindenburg.

The alternate history of WWII in 1940 continues in this exciting third volume in the Altered States segment of the amazing Kirov Series!

About Three Kings, Book 12 in the Kirov Series

As Admiral Tovey struggles to stop heavy German units breaking out into the Atlantic, the first of three kings falls with the embattled garrison of Gibraltar. The last two, Malta and Suez, are now under threat of imminent attack.

General O’Connor launches Operation Compass against the Italians only to be opposed by a dangerous new foe in the Western Desert, Erwin Rommel and his Afrika Korps. As British fortunes reach a desperate state, Volsky and Fedorov soon learn of two newcomers on the vast field of battle, and a triumvirate of powerful ships rises to the challenge, Three Kings of the sea to stand as mighty champions against a powerful combined Axis fleet.

The war effort on every side is soon focused on the Middle East, and Admiral Volsky accompanies John Tovey to a fateful conference in Alexandria to meet with General Wavell. Like Three Kings of the West meeting on the field of battle, they plan the future course of the war and struggle to find some way to stop the relentless Axis juggernaut before its shadow darkens the world. Yet to do so they must also reckon with the Three Kings of the East, Sergei Kirov, Ivan Volkov and Vladimir Karpov.

Kirov Saga: Grand Alliance

The Alternate History WWII Continues…

As Fedorov struggles to forge an alliance of understanding between Brigadier Kinlan and General O’Connor, Rommel prepares to launch an offensive to break the last line of resistance south of Sidi Barani. While the Afrika Korps is overstretched and dangerously low on fuel, it now threatens to break through and open the road to Alexandria–and Wavell has nothing left to throw at them until…

German oasis patrols soon encounter an unexpected mechanized force massing on Rommel’s flank, and the fate of Egypt will now be decided at an insignificant desert outpost called Bir el Khamsa when the great grandsons of the Desert Rats join their ancestors on the field of honor.

Meanwhile, Volsky, Tovey and Fairchild forge a grand alliance at sea to oppose a powerful Axis fleet. The hubris of Italian General Iachino brings his force into contact with these powerful new foes as the Franco/German fleet rushes to the scene of battle. And Sergei Kirov receives a visit from Vladimir Karpov as the wily ex-Captain of Kirov seeks to further enmesh himself in the decisive campaigns about to open on the eastern front. But Karpov’s grand vision of alliances he hopes to form will soon lead him to a most unexpected place, where he will again hold the fate of nations in the palm of his hand.

Battle rages on land and sea in this opening volume of the Grand Alliance trilogy, book 13 in the amazing Kirov Series.

Series Note: This is the first book in the 4th trilogy of the of the Kirov Series. New readers should enter this segment by first reading the bridge novel "Three Kings." This alternate history began with Book 9 in the series "Altered States," and has cover the period June 1940 through February 1941, including action in the North Atlantic, Mers el Kebir, Dakar, Operation Felix (the German attack on Gibraltar), O'Connor's offensive, the arrival and first offensive of Rommel, the German attack on Malta, and a startling development that now comes to fruition in this book.

Kirov Series: Hammer Of God

The decisive battles of February 1941 on both land and sea present new challenges for the Germans and British. Fedorov meets with Wavell and Tovey when a plan to inform Churchill leads to a vital conference at Siwa. There the Allies plan the difficult campaign in Syria and Iraq, and Fedorov volunteers to lead a daring mission to secure key objectives near the ancient Roman city of Palmyra in the Syrian desert. Yet the Germans react with plans of their own.

Paulus has convinced Hitler not to abandon his Mediterranean strategy, and strong new reserves are ready to move to North Africa.

The Germans contemplate their next move in the Mediterranean, and hope to press a two pronged offensive while continuing to build up forces for the next big operation, Barbarossa. In a meeting with Eric von Manstein, Hitler is convinced that he must solve “the Turkish question” if he is to proceed with his grand vision of conquest—Directive 32. He soon upsets OKWs careful timetable by sending Kurt Student’s hunters from the sky to a most unexpected place.

Meanwhile, Vladimir Karpov is also in a most unexpected place, and confirms that the mighty airship Tunguska has indeed moved in

time. Now he plans to use this sudden unexpected turn of events to his great advantage, but a simple chess game has him curious about possible threats to his own family tree.

The action and mystery abound in this action packed continuation of the amazing Kirov Series!

Kirov Saga: Crescendo Of Doom

Tyrenkov’s trip up the back stairway at Ilanskiy has led him to a most unexpected place, and now Karpov has a moment that could change all history within his grasp, and a means of getting his revenge on Ivan Volkov. Will he seize the day? Yet Tyrenkov has also brought something back with him that is of great importance, and Karpov soon learns more of the days ahead than any man alive could ever wish to know. Even so, Ivan Volkov has plans of his own, to take a massive airship fleet to Ilanskiy and seize the day himself. Can he succeed, or will Karpov become the ruin of all he had plotted and built in his long sojourn to the past.

Meanwhile, Anton Fedorov has a mind to become the next Lawrence of Arabia, and leads his mobile force to Raqqah to impede the German retreat, and in daring raids against the old Hejaz rail lines from Homs to Aleppo. As the battle for Syria continues, Erwin Rommel launches a sudden new offensive in North Africa, this time aimed at the vital port of Tobruk, and the Germans strive to crush the British defense in the Middle East in a mighty pincer attack. As these events play out, Hitler now plans to unleash his greatest attack of the war, Operation Barbarossa. The storm clouds of war darken the Russian border, and the thunder of the guns soon deafens the world, as the conflict rises in a dreadful Crescendo of Doom.

About Paradox Hour - By John Schettler

The hour and day that Fedorov and the crew of Kirov have long feared draws nigh, the moment of insoluble conflict, when their greatest enemy is not another hostile ship or plane, but their own selves—Paradox Hour. Yet before that moment comes, the ship finds itself in one of the greatest naval chases of all time. It is May, 1941, and a powerful German battlefleet has broken out into the Atlantic. Admiral Tovey is fast on the heels of Hindenburg, but must first run the gauntlet of Gibraltar to get into the hunt. With him are three of the most powerful ships in the world, Kazan, Argos Fire, and the battlecruiser Kirov. Yet Admiral Lütjens will not fight alone. The Kriegsmarine sorties with all its might as Raeder throws the dice in a desperate bid to prove his navy’s worth and power. Soon the Royal Navy is reaching for every warship it can find to beat to quarters. One ship called to the action, HMS Rodney, harbors a secret—the long missing key revealed by Elena Fairchild. It is now at grave risk, and should it be lost, the secret it might unlock will die with it, and the doom Fairchild so darkly describes may then be unavoidable. It is a race against time itself, and the shadow of doom that hangs over the world. Meanwhile, consumed by the fire of his own thirst for vengeance, one other man figures prominently in that fate—Vladimir Karpov—for he holds yet another key to the outcome of all these events, as he sets himself on chase of his own, desperate to find and cow his arch rival and enemy, Ivan Volkov.

Kirov Saga: Doppelganger

Season 3 of the Kirov Series opens with Volume 17: Doppelganger, where the answer to the dilemma that now faces Mother Time will finally decide the fate of the ship and crew. Battle still rages in the Atlantic, and Elena Fairchild arrives on the scene to discover the crisis aboard Rodney has made her quest for the lost key impossible. Yet there she meets one other uninvited guest, an American officer who reveals that he is not the man he seems. Together they consider what they may have lost, and how it might yet be saved

Meanwhile, Vladimir Karpov has discovered that his own personal fate is also in jeopardy as his dwindling lease on time runs thin. Realizing the dilemma that had plagued Fedorov for so long, he rises in Tunguska, intent on seeking the heart of a gathering storm, in a desperate attempt to save his own twisted soul from the ravages of Paradox. As he peers through the shattered glass of history, deep into the mirror of time, he suddenly discovers his own self looking right back at him.

The exciting alternate history of WWII careens towards 1942, as Germany now makes its great bid to destroy Kirov’s Soviet Russia and smash the last of the stubborn British resistance in the Middle East. Yet plans for new weapons of war will appear, strange doppelgangers spawned from the legacy of Kirov. Soon they will darken the battlefields of Europe, when the tempo of technology will leap ahead to produce a new generation of tanks, aircraft and the deadly art of missile warfare arrives years early.

Don’t miss the premier of Season 3 of the amazing Kirov Series—Doppelganger

Kirov Saga: Nemesis

The second volume in the third season of this long running tale carries the story into the turbulent waters of the north. With Admiral Volsky fallen ill, Fedorov struggles to prevent Karpov from repeating the awful events that ended in nuclear fire, and the explosion that again sent the ship reeling through time. With his memory intact, knowledge of Rod-25 and everything Karpov would do, he sets his mind on gaining control of the ship, yet must face the dangerous wrath of Karpov if he is to succeed.

Meanwhile, the Siberian, as the second Karpov is now called, has struck a dangerous bargain with Sergei Kirov, but one that could bring about another fatal collision in time. Learning that the ship has reappeared, he sets his mind on trying to find Kirov, and in so doing gain control over the most powerful weapons in the world. Unaware that his duplicate self even exists, he soon finds he has a shadowy accomplice.

The war continues on the Russian front as the Germans slowly begin to introduce new prototype tank designs, born of the shock and fire delivered by Kinlan’s heavy brigade. The story takes us into this action on the Soviet front with the cutting edge of Guderian’s 2nd Panzergruppe, and the veteran divisions of the 24th Panzer Korps spearhead the final German assault aimed at winning the war in 1941, Operation Typhoon. In doing so they run right into Sergie Kirov’s last available reserves, and the 1st Siberian Shock Army launches a daring counterattack to try and stem the German tide.

Kirov Saga: Winter Storm

Harried by the Captain’s suspicion, Fedorov desperately tries to find allies on the ship, and gets a most unusual visit from Doctor Zolkin that gives him a faint glimmer of hope. Kirov is bound for the Pacific, with tensions slowly rising on the ship itself as the crew is briefed to gird themselves for war.

On the Russian Front, Sergei Kirov struggles to hold the line at the gates to Moscow when the Big Cats arrive on the scene of Guderian’s bold thrust at Tula. The action soon brings two storied tank killers face to face in the desperate fighting, where the battlefield becomes the scene of a very personal duel.

In the Western Desert, the British try to move Rommel off his Gazala Line in a modified version of Operation Crusader, but both sides learn some valuable lessons in the crucible of war.

The action soon moves east, where bigger battles loom when the ship and crew find themselves on the eve of a most fateful day as Japan prepares to strike. Karpov has plans for the Japanese Navy, and he soon sets the ship on a collision course that threatens to ignite the fires of the Pacific War in a massive conflagration that threatens to change that history forever.

Meanwhile, Admiral Volsky has secretly made contact with the Commander of a British submarine, and sails for a rendezvous with Admiral Tovey. He is bound to deliver his charge in the precious key entrusted to him by Anton Fedorov.

Kirov Saga: Tide of Fortune

The action continues on both land, sea, and air as the explosive engagements of late 1941 conclude. Operation Typhoon drives on to its high water mark as the tides of war reach the embattled city of Moscow, and the fate of Sergei Kirov is revealed.

In the Pacific, as Japanese planes begin their attack on Pearl Harbor, Halsey’s ‘missing carriers’ find themselves in a perfect location to launch a devastating counterattack against the Kido Butai. Can they prevail, or at least intervene to prevent the great disaster that Pearl Harbor became? Or will their presence there, badly outnumbered by the Japanese carriers, merely assure the complete destruction of the American fleet?

Days later, a lost convoy bound for the Philippines meets an unexpected enemy, and a pair of most unusual ships rush to the scene, finding a battle that soon involves ships from five nations.

Further east, Ivan Volkov has planned a third massive attack on the strategic hamlet of Ilanskiy, where Captain Karpov aboard Tunguska is now thrust into the crucible of war. As the desperate fight is joined, his elder brother races south aboard Kirov with a message of retribution and warning to Imperial Japan.

In the Atlantic, the Axis fleet, now based in Gibraltar and Casablanca, begins a most unexpected attack. Admirals Tovey and Volsky must now join together with Argos Fire to face the storm at sea, and a tragic loss hints at yet another level of mystery surrounding Admiral Tovey’s Key.

Action from start to finish as the war careens into 1942 in the amazing Kirov Saga!

Kirov Saga: Knight’s Move

Knight’s Move… The Germans would call it Rosselsprung, the leaping move of a Knight in a heated game of chess. In the aftermath of the naval duel off the Canary Islands, Admiral Raeder turns loose his surface units to adopt a strategy of commerce raiding as part of his effort to choke British supplies and material bound for Egypt. Surviving the battle largely unscathed, Kaiser Wilhelm joins the light escort battle carrier Goeben in a daring sortie into the South Atlantic. Still reeling from losses sustained off Fuerteventura, the Royal Navy struggles to give chase and engage the German raiders in a harrowing naval saga. Yet the Germans find much more than they ever expected in the desolate reaches of the icy South Atlantic.

In the Pacific, the Japanese General Yamashita presses his Banzai Blitzkrieg through Malaya to the final attack against Singapore, the “Rock of the East,” but finds the British defense is now led by a most unexpected arrival. Can the British hold Singapore? The outcome is presented here in a detailed account of the battle to decide the fate of this jewel in the Empire's crown.

In the Atlantic, the Germans now begin Phase II of Operation Condor with the attack on Gran Canaria, and the British stage a desperate and stubborn defense. Now they must decide whether to risk everything to hold the island, or fall back to Tenerife and live to fight another day.

Meanwhile, Vladimir Karpov has taken Kirov north to support the opening moves of his own chess game against Japan. He musters his resources to stage a surprise attack on lower Kamchatka and Sakhalin Islands, his first bid to win back territories lost to Japan long ago in the aftermath of his fateful sortie to 1908. Now the Japanese must finally realize and deal with the substantial threat Karpov poses from the north, dispatching Knights of their own to challenge the Siberian in a major alternate history battle.

Action from start to finish as the war careens into 1942 in the amazing Kirov Saga!

KIROV SERIES: Turning Point

Season 3, Book 6

Series Volume 22

About Turning Point… Battlecruiser Kaiser Wilhelm and the light carrier Goeben have stumbled upon a prize of great value deep in the South Atlantic. As they move north, the hunt for the German raiders is taken up by a pair of new British cruisers, and neither side knows how much may be at stake in the outcome.

Half a world away, the Soviets launch their winter counteroffensive in a desperate attempt to stem the German tide, and force a turning point in the bitterly contested struggle on the frozen east front of early 1942.

In the Pacific, Montgomery has stopped the Japanese and saved the embattled island of Singapore, but for how long? The rising tide of the Japanese offensive now sweeps around the Rock of the East to threaten Sumatra and Java, forcing Churchill to make the most difficult decision of the war. The battle begins with a brave challenge by Admiral Doorman in the Java Sea, yet soon both Axis and Allied forces will find their plans rudely interrupted by a force and power no one ever expected. Something has emerged from the ashes of a great disaster that now threatens to weigh heavily in the balance of the Pacific War.

Meanwhile, Generals Wavell, O’Connor, and Kinlan launch a new offensive in ‘Operation Supercharge.’ Holding nothing back, they hope to engage and defeat Rommel’s Afrika Korps once and for all, to decide the contest in Libya and pave the way for the great campaign against French North Africa.

The continuing alternate history of WWII in the amazing Kirov Saga!

Kirov Series: Book 23

ABOUT STEEL REIGN By John Schettler

The Steel Reign of the Japanese offensive reaches its high water mark as Yamamoto launches Operation FS in a bold attempt to storm the Islands of Fiji and Samoa and isolate Australia. He is opposed by a determined stand made by Admirals Fletcher and Halsey in the desperate battles of the Coral Sea and Koro Sea to decide the fate of Empires.

Meanwhile Vladimir Karpov continues his long planned invasion of Sakhalin Island, but Japan now has a powerful new champion as the Destroyer Takami is detached north to join Admiral Kurita’s task force. Now Captain Harada and the crew of Takami plot how to find and confront the dark, unseen enemy of the north that the Japanese have come to call Mizuchi, the mighty battlecruiser Kirov.

In the Atlantic, Admiral Raeder discovers the strange ship and cargo taken as a prize of war by Kaiser Wilhelm. Now he orders the Hindenburg north to Saint Nazaire to complete repairs in the only dry dock that can hold the massive battleship. But Admiral Tovey leads a plan to launch a surprise raid to destroy those facilities, and to do so he calls on the able services of the Argos Fire.

Warriors from a future time now launch themselves into the fires of WWII in a daring attempt to halt the enemy advance and end the Steel Reign of the Axis powers.

Steel Reign is Book 23 in the longest running Alternate History of WWII ever written, by John Schettler

About Kirov Saga: Second Front

Vladimir Karpov has already opened a Second Front in the north against Japan with his bold invasion of Sakhalin Island. Now the battlecruiser Kirov has come upon a most unexpected challenger in the Pacific as the crew of Takami join Admiral Kurita in a daring attempt to sink the Siberian raider. The fast paced naval combat extends through the first six chapters here as two modern day warriors at sea duel in the waters of 1942.

Then the action moves to the frigid Norwegian Sea where Britain launches one of its biggest relief convoys ever bound for Murmansk., PQ-17. The combined British and American covering forces are soon challenged by a powerful German battlegroup centered on the battleship Tirpitz and the newly commissioned carrier Peter Strasser.

Meanwhile, General Dwight D. Eisenhower puts the finishing touches on the first joint US/British offensive of the war, Operation Torch, only this time, with the Straits of Gibraltar closed, there can be no landings at Oran and Algiers. Instead the British come ashore at Lisbon when Portugal joins the Allied cause, and Patton leads the entire US Torch order of battle in a much bigger landing at Casablanca. The objective of both forces is the long lost bastion of Gibraltar, where a dangerous secret lurks in the unexplored depths of St. Michael’s Cave.

The invasion is well underway when Fedorov is alarmed to discover what he believes is an insoluble paradox looming on the near horizon. As the history of 1942 is re-written, how could Sergei Kirov ever come to power if Fedorov fails to warn him of his fate at the hands of Staliln? A mission to Ilanskiy is launched to attempt to shore up the history… But Karpov has other ideas….

Kirov Saga: Tigers East

Vladimir Karpov orders Fedorov to abort his mission to Ilanskiy, but Fedorov has other ideas. With the odds against him growing ever higher, the sudden appearance of a most unexpected visitor changes everything.

While Patton leads the fledgling US Army against Kesselring in Algeria, a major engagement at sea north of Algiers decides the fate of the Western Med. The Allies must command those seas if they are to move units to Oran for the campaign against Algiers. Meanwhile, far to the east, Erwin Rommel awakens from his gloom at Mersa Brega and hatches a plan for a new offensive to stop O’Connor’s drive into Tripolitania. He must first persuade Hitler to relinquish his stand fast order in North Africa, and then choose ground where his vaunted Afrika Korps can make one last dance in a desperate battle of maneuver.

Meanwhile, the Germans make a dramatic breakthrough at Voronezh, following the original intent of Operation Blue. Rundstedt orders Model and Hoth to drive east and then turn south to threaten the Russian line on the Don. As Sergei Kirov and his generals struggle to respond, Manstein’s attack towards the Volga secures the vital bridgehead at Kalach on the Don. Now the Russians launch a daring series of counterattacks from their Don bridgeheads in a desperate effort to unhinge the German offensive and prevent Steiner’s SS from storming the city. Manstein then calls on one of Germany’s finest division commanders with the elite 11th Panzer Division, Hermann Balck.

Germany’s newest heavy tanks lead the attacks as the Tigers head east on two exciting fronts!

About Thor's Anvil - Book 26 in the Kirov series

An Alternate History of WWII

The crew of Takami returns to the South Pacific to meet with Yamamoto, and now they must undertake a new operation. A daring raid into the Indian Ocean is planned, as the Japanese aim to capture the last British outposts on Ceylon.

Lost in time, Anton Fedorov now confronts his moment of destiny in the lonesome village of Ilanskiy, and the decision he makes will decide the fate of the world he hopes to return to.

Meanwhile, the Germans now drive to the city of Volgograd, cutting it off as their troops reach the Volga in the north. There, a vital bridge links Hitler’s legions to those of Ivan Volkov, and the Germans mass their toughest Pioneers to attempt to break through at Rynok. Steiner is determined to storm this last Soviet bastion in the south, but Chuikov and Shumilov plot the stalwart Soviet defense that made this place an anvil of doom for Germany’s fortunes in the war. As the elite German divisions strike one by one to hammer upon that anvil, General Zhukov unleashes his long awaited winter counteroffensive aimed at Kursk.

About 1943, Book 27 in the Kirov Series (Season 4, Volume 3)

Admiral Halsey returns leading three new Essex Class carriers into 1943. While the US makes a big push to defeat the Japanese on Fiji, Halsey must fend off the skillful maneuvers of King Kong Hara as Japan moves to garrison her vital holdings in the New Hebrides. The action on both land and sea heats up as the U.S. launches a series of bold new offensives to challenge the Rising Sun.

Meanwhile, Vladimir Karpov leads the battlecruiser Kirov into the warm waters of the South Pacific, intent on causing harm to his enemy. He hatches a plan to take the war right to the heart of Combined Fleet operations with a daring raid on the main Japanese naval base at Truk.

Then, after a long slow journey beneath the ice, Captain Ivan Gromyko arrives in the Pacific with a very special guest aboard the submarine Kazan. Sent by Director Kamenski he must make the difficult decision to decide the fate of Kirov, yet Vladimir Karpov has other ideas that could set the two former allies into dangerous opposition… Now he uses his devious skills to try and persuade Fedorov and Volsky otherwise.

In Book 28, Lions at Dawn, the war moves back to North Africa, where Eisenhower, Montgomery, Patton and the Air Marshalls plan their drive on Tunis. General Patton has ideas of his own, and they do not involve waiting for Monty to fight his way along the Algerian coast. His plan presents a major crisis for Kesselring and Von Arnim when Hitler orders the withdrawal of all Germany’s elite paratroop units. The Führer has eyes on a new prize in the Middle East, and devises a daring return to that theater in Operation Phoenix. Meanwhile, General O’Connor’s British 8th Army begins its big push to capture Tripoli, but he meets a determined and skillful defense by the Desert Fox, Erwin Rommel.

An exploration of St. Michael’s Cave at Gibraltar by Fairchild & Company leads to a hidden mystery beneath the Rock, and far to the east, the isolated atoll at Eniwetok receives some very unexpected visitors. The surprising developments set the destroyer Takami on a dangerous collision course with Vladimir Karpov and Ivan Gromyko, when the Russians set out to cleanse the timeline of all contamination, including their own! Events lead to a dramatic battle at sea that neither side ever expected.

Season four continues with Stormtide Rising

Book 29 in the Kirov Series

With the Allied forces closing on Tunisia from two sides, the Germans conceive a bold new plan that sends Rommel west to the heartland of Tunisia where he confronts the American Army under General Patton. The Axis forces launch Operation Sturmflut (Stormtide) as the famous names etched in the original history at Kasserine, Faid, Gafsa and El Guettar will again see the rising tide of war.

At the same time, Hitler presses his daring invasion of Iraq and Syria in Operation Phoenix, while launching the cream of his airborne troops against the British outpost on Crete with a much belated Operation Merkur. As Guderian pushes into the heartland of Persia, Hitler sets his eyes on the richest prize in the world, all the oil the Reich will ever need to fuel the fires of war. Yet before Guderian can drive south, he must first secure his lines of communication. That necessity leads to a dramatic battle for the ancient capital city of Baghdad, with both sides risking all they have to rule the hour.

Meanwhile, Fedorov and Karpov face the grim reality of their situation and come to a decisive conclusion about how they must proceed.

The war continues in 1943, as Japan launches a bold new attack against the Fiji Islands that leads to a decisive battle off Yasawa. In Syria, Erwin Rommel unleashes a classic flanking attack towards Damascus with “Operation Eisenfall,” even as the Allies attack Kesselring in Tunisia with Eisenhower’s “Operation Hammer.”

Then, as the German 11th and 17th Armies slowly grind down the last of Soviet resistance in the Caucasus, tensions reach a breaking point when they meet Volkov’s forces dug in west of Maykop. The Führer has ordered his legions to take and occupy that place, and Ivan Volkov chooses to stand his ground. The war in the east now threatens to spiral out of control, with new fighting erupting on every frontier when General Zhukov opens his Spring offensive in a massive attack towards Kharkov that now threatens to reshape the entire front.

Meanwhile, Elena Fairchild finally learns the fate of the men she sent into the hidden passage beneath St. Michael’s Cave, and makes a discovery that will give her the means to find and retrieve the key lost on the Battleship Rodney. As she plans her mission, Fedorov and Karpov arrange a meeting with Volsky and Gromyko to discuss their new plan to shatter this altered meridian by traveling to 1908.

ABOUT NEXUS DEEP: Kirov Series, Volume 31

The Fairchild Group launches its mission to seek the key lost aboard Rodney, even as the Allies close the door on the war in North Africa with Operation Chariot. As the 5th Panzer Army dies in Tunisia, Hitler must now find a way to shore up Armeegruppe South while also finding divisions to guard the West. Both sides now plan operations for the late Spring and early Summer. The Allies must decide whether to strike at Sardinia or Sicily in an attempt to topple the regime of Mussolini and knock Italy out of the war, while the Germans must choose from several operations in the south, Habicht, Panther, and Zitadelle. The Soviets plan new offensives of their own that will prove, once and for all, that the tide of the war in the east is shifting. Meanwhile, the work of Lord Elgin is strangely mirrored by the action of his son, the 8th Earl of Elgin, and a seemingly small squabble on the China coast at Canton escalates into an event that has sinister implications for the quest Elena Fairchild has undertaken. Then, just as Fedorov and company begin to finalize their plans for the mission to 1908, Admiral Tovey makes a dramatic request.