Tom Anderson

Follow to get new release updates and improved recommendations

About Tom Anderson

My day job is science, but I have always had an interest in writing fiction and in history, and it’s probably not surprising that those all end up crossing over. Alternate history is a genre devoted to exploring the ‘what ifs’ of history, a recent high-profile example being the Amazon adaptation of Philip K. Dick’s seminal “The Man in the High Castle”. However, much of the interest to me comes in areas rather more obscure and subtle than the now-overdone ‘the Nazis win WW2’ type scenarios, and in exploring how different the world can become from a tiny change, as in the ‘For Want Of A Nail’ poem. My longest AH scenario, “Look to the West”, is about a king tripping on his coronation carpet, which ultimately leads to America staying British, industrialised Maori New Zealand and a steam-driven French Revolution, for instance. Straightforward science fiction and fantasy also remains a major love of mine and an area I am increasingly writing more in. Most of my works have been published by Sea Lion Press (please like their page as well!). In 2018 my co-writer Bruno Lombardi and myself were nominated for the prestigious Sidewise Award for Alternate History for our short story “N’Oublions Jamais”, about a very different First World War, which was published in the Martinus anthology “Altered Europa”.

Matthew Kresal

Peter Rhodan

Nicholas Sumner

Alexander Rooksmoor

William Stroock

D.G. Valdron

Are you an author?

Help us improve our Author Pages by updating your bibliography and submitting a new or current image and biography.

Learn more at Author Central

1 11 1

$4.99

Kindle Edition
$6.28

Kindle Edition
$5.16

Kindle Edition
$6.99

Kindle Edition
$6.41

Kindle Edition
$4.99

Kindle Edition
$2.99

Kindle Edition
$3.64

Kindle Edition
$4.50

Kindle Edition
$5.07

Kindle Edition
$8.50

Kindle Edition
$8.07

Kindle Edition

Author Updates

Titles By Tom Anderson

All Formats Kindle Edition Paperback

Fantastic Schools: Volume Two (Fantastic Schools Anthologies Book 2) Oct 12, 2020

by Christopher G. Nuttall, Morgon Newquist, J. F. Posthumus, Christine Amsden, James Pyles, Misha Burnett, Becky R. Jones, Audrey Andrews, David Breitenbeck, Tom Anderson, Patrick Lauser, James Odell, Paul A. Piatt, L. Jagi Lamplighter

( 102 )

$4.99

Have you ever wanted to go to magic school? To cast spells and brew potions and fly on broomsticks and—perhaps—battle threats both common and supernatural? Come with us into worlds of magic, where students become magicians and teachers do everything in their power to ensure the kids survive long enough to graduate. Welcome to ... Fantastic Schools.

Follow a mundane teacher striding into a world of magic, a spy on a mission, a guided tour of a magical school, a school dance for monsters, a dangerous reunion ... and many more.

Follow us into worlds different, magical ...

... And very human.

Stories by:

J.F. Posthumus
Christine Amsden
James Pyles
Becky R. Jones
Morgon Newquist
Tom Anderson
Patrick Lauser
James Odell
Misha Burnett
Audrey Andrews
Christopher G. Nuttall
Paul A. Piatt
L. Jagi Lamplighter
David Breitenbeck

Other Formats: Paperback

This title and over 1 million more available with Kindle Unlimited.

Grapeshot and Guillotines: Revolutions that never were May 18, 2021

by Gary Oswald, Jared Kavanagh, Alex Langer, Adam Selby-Martin, J. Concagh, J.A. Belanger, Paul Hynes, Ryan Fleming, Brent Harris, Tom Anderson

( 6 )

$6.28

The history of the world is, in many ways, a history of revolutions. Not only those that succeeded, though a great many did, but those that failed and those that were averted.

What if they weren't? What if Canada had won its independence in 1837? What if the Taiping rebels had formed their own country in China? What if Trinidad revolted against the British in the 1930s? What if a Socialist Commune arose in East Sussex?

In this collection of 13 short stories, the authors of Sea Lion Press explore the revolutions that never happened.

The Twilight's Last Gleaming Jul 15, 2017

by Tom Anderson

( 16 )

$5.16

A VICTORIAN ARMAGEDDON

Global disaster strikes as an asteroid impact causes a megatsunami in the Indian Ocean and the eruption of the Yellowstone Supervolcano in the United States. The people of the world, reeling from the blow, struggle to survive.

But this is not the present day. This is the year 1886, a crucial moment in time for everything recognisable about our lives. Socialists riot in Chicago, the Irish Question topples British governments, African borders are drawn by ambitious imperialists. Inventions like the car, the electric lightbulb and even Coca-Cola are just dawning. This is an age where the rich still rule but the poor are making their voice heard, when it is still considered the birthright of the white man of Europe and America to dominate the world. Names that would score the pages of history, from Theodore Roosevelt to Mr Marks and Mr Spencer, are but young men ready to rise to a challenge.

How will that society respond to a cataclysm that threatens to plunge the world into eternal winter? Find out in The Twilight’s Last Gleaming.

Diverge and Conquer (Look to the West Book 1) Jan 30, 2016

by Tom Anderson

( 31 )

$6.99

History can turn on the smallest of things. In the history we know, King George II’s son Prince Frederick was an obscure footnote of history. Hated by his father (who threatened to exile him to the American colonies), his political career cut short when he was fatally struck by a cricket ball, of all things. The Prince never became King Fred and instead the throne passed to his inexperienced son, George III, who proceeded to lose America.

But what if one tiny slight—a trip on a coronation carpet, a misplaced laugh—had tipped George II over the edge and he had made good on his threat? What if, in the year George Washington was born, the American colonies had found themselves home to an exiled Prince stripped of his inheritance? And what if that Prince had ambitions to reclaim his birthright by any means necessary, including with the help of his colonial subjects…?

The Look to the West series begins with the story of Frederick and the very different America that results from his exile, but it is a tale that encompasses the whole world. Every action we take has unforeseen impacts: a revolutionary South America, a defeated Prussia, a divided India, a European Enlightenment transformed by phlogiston theory, Cugnot steam engines and Linnaeus’ Theory of Evolution. Diverge and Conquer covers the history of this world from the time of Frederick to the era when Europe is torn apart by a French Revolution very different to the one we know—and hints at a mysterious future to come…

Other Formats: Paperback

This title and over 1 million more available with Kindle Unlimited.

Uncharted Territory (Look to the West Book 2) Oct 7, 2016

by Tom Anderson

( 8 )

$6.41

THE WORLD KING FRED MADE

The year is 1800. The French Revolutionary Wars rage across Europe but as you have never seen them before. In Paris, Jean de Lisieux, L’Administrateur of the French Latin Republic, plots to reshape the world in his own image by the dark light of perverted science. Legions of conscripts man steam-driven warships and cannons, experimental balloons, rocket batteries. Enemies of the state choke to death in phlogiston chambers. A network of semaphore towers ties the armies of the Republican Empire to the dictator at its heart. As Jacobin soldiers subdue Spain, the German and Italian states and Lisieux’s hand stretches as far afield as Haiti, Australia and India, can any country escape his grasp? The last hope for peace in Europe lies with the French Royalist government of Louis XVII and his Prime Minister, Napoleon Bonaparte.

Meanwhile, the Americas too are engulfed in flames as the exilic princes of Spain attempt to hold onto their ancestral empire in Mexico, only to be confronted by the two titans of the New World, the Empire of North America and the United Provinces of South America. China, also, is consumed by civil war and Japan falls ever deeper under the domination of the Russo-Lithuanian Pacific Company and its maverick leader, Moritz Benyovsky.

The eyes of the world are held by these grand clashes of gunpowder and steam, but in one obscure Spanish village, a little boy is growing up whose ideas will one day divide the planet in a way which no one could have predicted.

The story of 'Look to the West' is far from over.

Other Formats: Paperback

This title and over 1 million more available with Kindle Unlimited.

The Unreformed Kingdom Sep 25, 2015

by Tom Anderson

( 12 )

$4.99

It’s the twenty-first century! Thanks to the inevitable tide of historical progress, we live in a liberal and democratic society! Except…that anonymous tide was made of real people making the decision to work to change things. What if, starting with the Great Reform Act of 1832, they had decided otherwise?

The Unreformed Kingdom explores a very different, yet oddly familiar, Britain of a 2015 in which you can download an app to watch public executions, many MPs still represent rotten boroughs, and your religion determines your right to vote. Along the way, we meet some surprising figures from our own world, such as Jacob Rees-Mogg, the dangerously modernising Leader of the Tory Opposition, the intellectual patrician American Ambassador George W. Bush, and Jeremiah Clarkson, the controversial Mayor of Doncaster. Will the attitudes of the past rule over this land forever, or is there hope for the cause of liberty from a very unexpected source?

This edition includes a new appendix describing the historical background to the setting and the events leading up to the world of 2015.

Reviews

“I read this all the way through in one go because I couldn't stop. A really interesting timeline with some good points about how history works and lots of moments where I nearly fell off my chair.”
“A superb thought-experiment counter to historical determinism.”
“Really engaging and a very well-crafted universe defying established ideas.”
“A wonderfully witty read.”

Altered Europa Apr 2, 2017

by Martin T. Ingham, Dan Gainor, Sam Kepfield, William Rade, Bruno Lombardi, Ryan McCall, Dave D'Alessio, Tom Anderson, Deborah L. Davitt, Alex Shalenko

( 30 )

$2.99

Behold History the way it wasn't! Explore the age-old question, “What-if,” with 21 tales of alternate history!

What if Rome had never fallen?
What if the Soviet Union sent a man to Mars?
What if the Austrian Empire reigned supreme?
What if Ireland had fought for their independence in the 1860’s?
What if World War III had struck in the 1980’s?
These and many more scenarios are explored in Altered Europa!

Featuring stories by William Rade, Sam Kepfield, Dan Gainor, Dave D’Alessio, Bruno Lombardi, Tom Anderson, Cyrus P. Underwood, Alex Shalenko, Charles Wilcox, Tim Moshier, DJ Tyrer, Deborah L. Davitt, Mark Mellon, Ryan McCall, Mike Jansen,
Murray Braun, Sergio Palumbo, Ben Prewitt, Martin T. Ingham, & Michael McAndrews Bailey.

Other Formats: Paperback

This title and over 1 million more available with Kindle Unlimited.

How to write Alternate History Aug 4, 2019

by David Flin, Tom Anderson, Paul Hynes, Alex Richards, Nick Peel, Nicholas Sumner, Tim Venning, Ryan Fleming, Andy Cooke

( 6 )

$3.64

Alternate History has been around for almost as long as history has been recorded, and the question: “How would things have been different if …?” has resulted in many debates. What would have happened if a Yankee inventor had arrived in the Court of King Arthur? Would Britain have been different if Bonnie Prince Charlie won the Battle of Culloden? How would WWI have been different if penicillin had been discovered just before the start of the war?

There’s a whole genre of literature devoted to Alternate History, where all these questions of “What If?” are addressed. There’s one What If question that hasn’t been addressed.

“What if I decided to write an Alternate History book? How would I go about that?” That has been a question without an answer.

Until now.

Not An English Word May 7, 2016

by Tom Anderson

( 6 )

$4.50

HE’S BACK IN TOWN

With the Liberal Democrats facing electoral annihilation, Nick Clegg resorts to desperate measures. He plots to use a forbidden Celtic ritual to resurrect one of the Victorian Prime Ministers who made the Liberal Party great. But he gets more than he bargained for when a mysterious MP named Harry Church appears on the scene to turn British politics – and the world – upside down…

Featuring creative live news subtitles, the importance of choosing a cheap colour dye for cult outfits, penguins in microwaves and the Second Crimean War.

This book can be enjoyed alone but also comes with a soundtrack: each chapter has a suggested, thematically related song in a footnote which may be played alongside it to enhance the reading experience.

The Surly Bonds of Earth Jun 4, 2019

by Tom Anderson

( 7 )

$5.07

SCIENCE FICTION MEETS ALTERNATE HISTORY IN THIS EPIC NEW STORY FROM SIDEWISE AWARD NOMINATED AUTHOR TOM ANDERSON

The year is 2052, the future of an Earth subtly different from our own. The human race has survived nuclear war, climate change and global terrorism—but now faces the approaching brick wall of the ever-limited resources of one world to be shared between ten billion people (and rising). Who will be the author of humanity’s escape strategy from this hopeless situation, who will find a way to slip the surly bonds of Earth?

The Graham family, captains of global industry? Rachel Lerousse, inventor of ever more ambitious artificial intelligences? Quynh Nguyen, rising political star of ASEAN?

But in Switzerland, two young students in love share a dream that will outshine them all…

A song of ascents, a story of beginnings.

This title and over 1 million more available with Kindle Unlimited.

To Dream Again (Look to the West Book 5) May 18, 2021

by Tom Anderson

( 10 )

$8.50

The Great American War is over. For the world of ‘Look to the West’, he second half of the nineteenth century is a golden age, an age in which both prosperity and inequality grow to unprecedented heights. The calcified old Imperial American constitution faces a reform movement, while the United Provinces of South America builds an economic hegemony that leaves its own democracy vulnerable to pressure from its mega-corporations. Railways and telegraph lines criss-cross the world, with some Asian countries modernising to challenge the Europeans and the New World. Dissatisfied with the status quo, extreme ideological movements plot to overturn it – but in this Long Peace, will they ever get their chance?

This is the calm before the storm, the age of remembered glory, the beautiful time. But all good things must end.

This title and over 1 million more available with Kindle Unlimited.

Cometh the Hour... (Look to the West Book 4) Feb 27, 2020

by Tom Anderson

( 8 )

$9.09

The world of “Look to the West” reaches the mid-nineteenth century. Many things are different; America never had her Revolution, though these days the Crown rather prefers things in the old colonies over the motherland, wracked by unrest and increasingly run by the working classes. This is the age of the Democratic Experiment across both the Old and New Worlds. Optical semaphore is challenged by the electric telegraph, and inventors work on the first submarines.

But some things are inevitable. America is still politically divided, tensions rising between the slaveholding Confederation of Carolina and the northern provinces. Tensions mount in Europe over the question of German unification. Charismatic leaders lead revolts in India and West Africa. One spark in restive California ignites the Great American War. For America is not the only great power in the New World; the United Provinces of South America is drawn into the vast, bloody conflict that will reshape the world.

And down there in the UPSA, a man named Pablo Sanchez writes of the absurdity of war and the united destiny of humanity, and finds he is making converts…

Look to the West Volume IV: Cometh the Hour… comes complete with over a dozen maps, flags and other graphics to accompany the story, as well as full appendices and an accompanying chronology.

This title and over 1 million more available with Kindle Unlimited.

More Information

Are you an author? Visit Author Central to change your photo, edit your biography, and more

Tom Anderson

Similar authors to follow

About Tom Anderson

Customers Also Bought Items By

Are you an author?

Author Updates

Titles By Tom Anderson

More Information