Terraplane

Book excerpt: Terraplane, the second novel in Jack Womack's acclaimed Ambient series, is a vision of an alternate realiy-New York, 1939, as experienced by travelers from the twenty-first century. Retired general Luther Biggerstaff and his hit man Jake are on a covert mission to kidnap Soviet superscientist Alekhine for the multinational Dryco. But Alekhine has disappeared, leaving behind a device that catapaults them headlong into the past. And this 1939 is different-F.D.R has been assassinated; the Great Depression has cut even deeper; Churchill died in a street accident; and the world is at Hitler's mercy. The only hope Luther and Jake have of getting home again depends on an unlikely conjunction of the New York World's Fair, the blues of Robert Johnson, and the avant-garde physics of Nikola Tesla. Terraplane is a surreal and darkly comic journey into the twilight zone of history gone mad.