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Prologue
June 2026. The Soviet Union has won the Cold War and occupies most of the former United States, now referred to as Soviet America. A fledgling American insurgency commits acts of random sabotage and sporadic bombing attacks against the Soviet occupiers and their collaborators. Two MIT professors of astrophysics, Paul deVere and former Special Operations Officer Lewis Ginter, have discovered a subatomic particle that accelerates matter to speeds faster than light, thereby opening wormholes in time. They create an Accelechron, which makes it possible to propel a human through a wormhole. Working with fellow resistance activists from New England, they develop a daring plan to go back to the early 1960s to alter the course of American history. As the time travelers scheme to avoid the watchful eyes of Soviet intelligence agents Igor Rostov and Natasha Nikitin, they find themselves increasingly distrusted by their fellow resistance leaders. When they finally make their daring attempt, they must confront not only history, but also their own pasts.
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First published April 6, 2011
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About the author
Greg Ahlgren
6 booksBest selling author Greg Ahlgren is a criminal defense lawyer in Manchester, New Hampshire. He received his B.A. degree from Syracuse University and his J.D. from the University of Pennsylvania School of Law. He has been a criminal justice professor, a state legislator, and a political activist, and has appeared as a frequent guest on both national and local television and radio shows on true crime and historical issues. His books include the alternative history time-travel novel "Prologue" and the international thriller "The Medici Legacy," and together with Stephen Monier he co-authored the true crime book "Crime of the Century: The Lindbergh Kidnapping Hoax."
Prior to "Crime of the Century's" publication in 1993, most commentators on America's most famous crime had questioned Hauptmann's guilt, but had been unable to offer a cogent alternative hypothesis. Combining their respective expertise as a criminal defense lawyer and a seasoned police investigator, Ahlgren and Monier were the first to theorize that perhaps there had been no stranger abduction and that the "kidnapping" had been hastily concocted to mask a domestic tragedy. Controversial at the time of the book's original publication, this theory has now gained widespread acceptance as a plausible explanation of the Crime of the Century.
In his 2006 novel "Prologue," Ahlgren inverted the usual time-travel plot line. Instead of creating protagonists intent on preserving a recognized time line from attack by those seeking to change history, Ahlgren devised an alternative future, and then, set against the backdrop of the JFK assassination, presented his protagonists with the challenge of creating a better today.
His 2011 novel "The Medici Legacy" employed a plot convention rare in an American thriller when Ahlgren created a non-American chief protagonist, Deputy Inspector Antonio Ferrara of the Italian Polizia di Stato.
Ahlgren's Civil War novel "Fort Fisher: The Battle for the Gibraltar of the South" details the four-day pivotal battle for Fort Fisher, North Carolina in the conflict's waning days. Told from the point of view of enlisted personnel on both sides, as well as a local civilian, "Fort Fisher" was the first American novel to focus on the role of the Union Navy and the life of a Union sailor.
In an interview, when asked to name two fiction writers, one past, one present, who have influenced his writing, Ahlgren named Daphne duMaurier and Tim Green.
In a pretentious law school alumni questionnaire, when asked to list his greatest achievement since graduation, he reportedly scribbled, "never, ever having voted Republican."
Recreationally, Ahlgren has been a licensed private pilot, an avid sailor, and a not-so-avid skier. To the pilot in the cockpit of that American Airlines 727 trying to land at Albany directly behind him on a beautiful summer afternoon in 1976, he wants you to know that your eyes did not deceive you.
If you enjoyed his books you are invited to share your thoughts at any Internet review website, including Amazon's. If you did not, he wants you to know that the First Amendment, in certain circumstances, does protect prevarication and under the Fifth, you don't have to say anything.
Those seeking more information about Greg Ahlgren's writing are invited to visit his website at www.GregAhlgren.com. Greg Ahlgren can be contacted at Greg@GregAhlgren.com. This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Prior to "Crime of the Century's" publication in 1993, most commentators on America's most famous crime had questioned Hauptmann's guilt, but had been unable to offer a cogent alternative hypothesis. Combining their respective expertise as a criminal defense lawyer and a seasoned police investigator, Ahlgren and Monier were the first to theorize that perhaps there had been no stranger abduction and that the "kidnapping" had been hastily concocted to mask a domestic tragedy. Controversial at the time of the book's original publication, this theory has now gained widespread acceptance as a plausible explanation of the Crime of the Century.
In his 2006 novel "Prologue," Ahlgren inverted the usual time-travel plot line. Instead of creating protagonists intent on preserving a recognized time line from attack by those seeking to change history, Ahlgren devised an alternative future, and then, set against the backdrop of the JFK assassination, presented his protagonists with the challenge of creating a better today.
His 2011 novel "The Medici Legacy" employed a plot convention rare in an American thriller when Ahlgren created a non-American chief protagonist, Deputy Inspector Antonio Ferrara of the Italian Polizia di Stato.
Ahlgren's Civil War novel "Fort Fisher: The Battle for the Gibraltar of the South" details the four-day pivotal battle for Fort Fisher, North Carolina in the conflict's waning days. Told from the point of view of enlisted personnel on both sides, as well as a local civilian, "Fort Fisher" was the first American novel to focus on the role of the Union Navy and the life of a Union sailor.
In an interview, when asked to name two fiction writers, one past, one present, who have influenced his writing, Ahlgren named Daphne duMaurier and Tim Green.
In a pretentious law school alumni questionnaire, when asked to list his greatest achievement since graduation, he reportedly scribbled, "never, ever having voted Republican."
Recreationally, Ahlgren has been a licensed private pilot, an avid sailor, and a not-so-avid skier. To the pilot in the cockpit of that American Airlines 727 trying to land at Albany directly behind him on a beautiful summer afternoon in 1976, he wants you to know that your eyes did not deceive you.
If you enjoyed his books you are invited to share your thoughts at any Internet review website, including Amazon's. If you did not, he wants you to know that the First Amendment, in certain circumstances, does protect prevarication and under the Fifth, you don't have to say anything.
Those seeking more information about Greg Ahlgren's writing are invited to visit his website at www.GregAhlgren.com. Greg Ahlgren can be contacted at Greg@GregAhlgren.com. This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
January 27, 2013
Time travel is a common trope among alternate history and science fiction in general. People often desire to change the past for the better, even if the outcome of their intervention does not always result in the present they longed for. This trope is prominent in Greg Ahlgren's Prologue, a novel that showcases what someone will risk to save the world. This is not, however, your usual time travel novel, it is also a mystery and like any good mystery it begins with a body.
The year is 2026 and the Soviet Union has won the Cold War and occupies most of the former United States, now referred to as the American Soviet Socialists Republic, where the red states are Red and the blue states are special districts where limited capitalism is allowed to help fund the Soviet empire. Meanwhile, an American insurgency calling itself the "Descendants" commits acts of random sabotage and sporadic bombings against the Soviets and their collaborators. The rest of the world has also fallen under the Soviet yoke. Thanks to Che Guevara and the American defector O. H. Lee, Latin America fell to Communism. The Soviet Union has defeated China in a devastating war and only Europe remains free from Soviet influence.
Two MIT physics professors, Paul deVere and Lewis Ginter are working on a project to change the status quo. They have created a time machine (that follows the multiverse theory of time travel) with the help of the Descendants and have recruited deVere's ex-girlfriend and history professor. Together they develop a daring plan to go back to the early 1960s to alter the course of American history. They are being watched, however, by Soviet intelligence agents Igor Rostov and Natasha Nikitin who will take any measures necessary if they are a threat to the Soviet Union. The Descendants are also becoming more distrustful of deVere and Ginter and want one of their own in on the project. When they finally make their trip to the past they discover that not everyone is as they seem and their are plans within plans. Everything comes to a point on November 22, 1963.
The story starts off slowly as Ahlgren introduces the reader to the world and characters he created. At one point, however, I groaned when I was subjected to a "as you know Bob" moment. The entire history of this alternate timeline is revealed to us when deVere conveniently steps into a library that has a diorama and helpful young Soviet women that explains the history from the moment of the point of divergence to the present day. We learn how Kennedy's decision to not intervene in South Vietnam and appeasement tactics by his successors eventually put the United States in danger of biological and dirty nuke attacks, which caused American to welcome the Soviets in exchange for security.
Yet I stuck with the book and was rewarded for this. The reader will remained engaged in the novel as tensions mount while the characters race against time to change history before their ride back to the present closes. Historical figures like Strom Thurmond and Harrison Salisbury reflect the research Ahlgren put into the novel. Meanwhile, Ahlgren makes good use of both mainstream history and conspiracy theories to prove how plausible it is for time travellers to change the course of the Kennedy assassination.
Prologue starts slow, but makes up for it as an exciting time travel thriller that will leave the reader wondering what they would do if given the chance to change the past.
The year is 2026 and the Soviet Union has won the Cold War and occupies most of the former United States, now referred to as the American Soviet Socialists Republic, where the red states are Red and the blue states are special districts where limited capitalism is allowed to help fund the Soviet empire. Meanwhile, an American insurgency calling itself the "Descendants" commits acts of random sabotage and sporadic bombings against the Soviets and their collaborators. The rest of the world has also fallen under the Soviet yoke. Thanks to Che Guevara and the American defector O. H. Lee, Latin America fell to Communism. The Soviet Union has defeated China in a devastating war and only Europe remains free from Soviet influence.
Two MIT physics professors, Paul deVere and Lewis Ginter are working on a project to change the status quo. They have created a time machine (that follows the multiverse theory of time travel) with the help of the Descendants and have recruited deVere's ex-girlfriend and history professor. Together they develop a daring plan to go back to the early 1960s to alter the course of American history. They are being watched, however, by Soviet intelligence agents Igor Rostov and Natasha Nikitin who will take any measures necessary if they are a threat to the Soviet Union. The Descendants are also becoming more distrustful of deVere and Ginter and want one of their own in on the project. When they finally make their trip to the past they discover that not everyone is as they seem and their are plans within plans. Everything comes to a point on November 22, 1963.
The story starts off slowly as Ahlgren introduces the reader to the world and characters he created. At one point, however, I groaned when I was subjected to a "as you know Bob" moment. The entire history of this alternate timeline is revealed to us when deVere conveniently steps into a library that has a diorama and helpful young Soviet women that explains the history from the moment of the point of divergence to the present day. We learn how Kennedy's decision to not intervene in South Vietnam and appeasement tactics by his successors eventually put the United States in danger of biological and dirty nuke attacks, which caused American to welcome the Soviets in exchange for security.
Yet I stuck with the book and was rewarded for this. The reader will remained engaged in the novel as tensions mount while the characters race against time to change history before their ride back to the present closes. Historical figures like Strom Thurmond and Harrison Salisbury reflect the research Ahlgren put into the novel. Meanwhile, Ahlgren makes good use of both mainstream history and conspiracy theories to prove how plausible it is for time travellers to change the course of the Kennedy assassination.
Prologue starts slow, but makes up for it as an exciting time travel thriller that will leave the reader wondering what they would do if given the chance to change the past.
June 15, 2012
I bring you today a book called Prologue, which falls perfectly into two of my favorite genres - History and Sci fi.
Greg Ahlgren brings us a world where the Soviet Union has won the Cold War (which wasn't so cold after all) and the United States is now part of it. Actually, half the world is Communist.
Our heroes, Paul DeVere and former Special Operations Officer Lewis Ginter have discovered a way of working with wormholes and going back in time. With that, they develop a plan to go to the past and change the course of history. But the soviets are on to them, Igor Rostov and Natasha Nikitin are watching them to find out what they are doing and how can they stop them.
I absolutely loved the story. Sci fi and history mixed up, both genres get this girl moving and in love.
We also have Amanda, to complicate the story, who is Paul's ex-girlfriend from years ago, who was shipped to the most soviet part of the soviet countries to study and be taught just how to be a good comrade.
The questions asked are important: if we change the future, what happens to us and the ones we love? Why are some people supporting the soviet system if even them are crazy to go to the not-so-soviet parts of the USA? And could that really have happened?
I think Greg has painted a very well done picture, considering several alternatives, several pieces, that put together avoided the advance of communism, but if apart, might have let open the frontiers.
The explanation to how the USA becomes part of the soviet union is perfect and it makes sense - conquer and fear, so instead of a cold war, we get a war war, and a dirty one at it.
Our characters here have fears and ambitions, they want revenge, love, friendship and are suspicious of each other, they are real people. They choose their paths, not always the best one, not always the right one, not always the easy one either, but they choose and work the best they can.
I think one of the most interesting things, aside form the human drama that surprises us around the end of the book and is, because of that, a spoiler, it's how we can see that changing the past isn't so easy. Who would believe you? How can you choose one moment, one definite point of time that can be changed and that will result on whatever you want? Are there such things?
I mean, if you wanted to change the world today, what would you do? When would you go back and what would you do there? And how?!
You can't talk people out of what they wanted, how would you prove you are from the future? Wouldn't they just lock you up? Because if someone came to me today saying they were from the future, I very much doubt they'd stay out of the mental institution...
Either way, I don't want to tell much about the story, because I don't want to spoil it. Parts of it I thought a bit predictable, like what they were going to do to change history, but a major part I could not discover before it was happening and, I must say, the signs were there, but so well placed that I couldn't see - that's a major thing to say.
Recommended to: Sci fi fans, history fans and everyone who likes a good "what if".
Greg Ahlgren brings us a world where the Soviet Union has won the Cold War (which wasn't so cold after all) and the United States is now part of it. Actually, half the world is Communist.
Our heroes, Paul DeVere and former Special Operations Officer Lewis Ginter have discovered a way of working with wormholes and going back in time. With that, they develop a plan to go to the past and change the course of history. But the soviets are on to them, Igor Rostov and Natasha Nikitin are watching them to find out what they are doing and how can they stop them.
I absolutely loved the story. Sci fi and history mixed up, both genres get this girl moving and in love.
We also have Amanda, to complicate the story, who is Paul's ex-girlfriend from years ago, who was shipped to the most soviet part of the soviet countries to study and be taught just how to be a good comrade.
The questions asked are important: if we change the future, what happens to us and the ones we love? Why are some people supporting the soviet system if even them are crazy to go to the not-so-soviet parts of the USA? And could that really have happened?
I think Greg has painted a very well done picture, considering several alternatives, several pieces, that put together avoided the advance of communism, but if apart, might have let open the frontiers.
The explanation to how the USA becomes part of the soviet union is perfect and it makes sense - conquer and fear, so instead of a cold war, we get a war war, and a dirty one at it.
Our characters here have fears and ambitions, they want revenge, love, friendship and are suspicious of each other, they are real people. They choose their paths, not always the best one, not always the right one, not always the easy one either, but they choose and work the best they can.
I think one of the most interesting things, aside form the human drama that surprises us around the end of the book and is, because of that, a spoiler, it's how we can see that changing the past isn't so easy. Who would believe you? How can you choose one moment, one definite point of time that can be changed and that will result on whatever you want? Are there such things?
I mean, if you wanted to change the world today, what would you do? When would you go back and what would you do there? And how?!
You can't talk people out of what they wanted, how would you prove you are from the future? Wouldn't they just lock you up? Because if someone came to me today saying they were from the future, I very much doubt they'd stay out of the mental institution...
Either way, I don't want to tell much about the story, because I don't want to spoil it. Parts of it I thought a bit predictable, like what they were going to do to change history, but a major part I could not discover before it was happening and, I must say, the signs were there, but so well placed that I couldn't see - that's a major thing to say.
Recommended to: Sci fi fans, history fans and everyone who likes a good "what if".
January 31, 2013
I read this book because I had read The Medici Legacy by Ahlgren and liked it. But as much as I liked Medici I think Prologue is even better. It starts out in the future where Russia has won the Cold War and pretty much controls America. Two college physics professors at MIT, Paul deVere and Lewis Ginter (who is also a former American army officer), figure out how to go back in time, and they come up with a plan to go back to try and set things right. They end up recruiting Paul's ex-girlfriend (and history professor) Amanda Hutch and fellow revolutionary and explosives expert Pamela Rhodes, and the four plan to go back to the early 1960's.
BUT, they are being watched and pursued by two Soviet agents, Natasha Nikitin and her supervisor Igor Rostov. They are also distrusted by their fellow revolutionaries who they are purposefully keeping in the dark, and they even distrust each other.
The book is science fiction and alternate history, and filled with historical analysis. It is a fun book with interesting characters. As in Medici Ahlgren's dialogue is superb, and he has a real good sense of humor. The book is also a clever whodunnit with an ending I never saw coming, even though looking back all the clues were there.
Anything else would be a spoiler.
A very fun and informative read.
BUT, they are being watched and pursued by two Soviet agents, Natasha Nikitin and her supervisor Igor Rostov. They are also distrusted by their fellow revolutionaries who they are purposefully keeping in the dark, and they even distrust each other.
The book is science fiction and alternate history, and filled with historical analysis. It is a fun book with interesting characters. As in Medici Ahlgren's dialogue is superb, and he has a real good sense of humor. The book is also a clever whodunnit with an ending I never saw coming, even though looking back all the clues were there.
Anything else would be a spoiler.
A very fun and informative read.
February 24, 2009
This book combines an alternative analysis of post World War II American foreign policy with a darn good cozy mystery - all set in a science fiction genre.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews