Three Kings

Author’s Note:

For readers who might be dropping in without having taken the journey here from Book I in the Kirov Series, this is the story of a Russian modern day battlecruiser displaced in time to the 1940s and embroiled in WWII. Their actions over the many episodes have so fractured the history, that they now find themselves in an alternate retelling of those events. In places the history is remarkably true to what it once was, in others badly cracked and markedly different. Therefore, events in this account of WWII have changed. Operations have been spawned that never happened, like the German attack of Gibraltar, and others will be cancelled and may never occur, like Operation Torch. And even if some events here do ring true as they happened before, the dates of those campaigns may be changed, and they may occur earlier or later than they did in the history you may know.

This alternate history began in Book 9 of the series, entitled Altered States, and you would do well to at least back step and begin your journey there if you are interested in the period June 1940 to January 1 1941, which is covered in books 9 through 11 in the series. That time encompasses action in the North Atlantic, the battle of Britain, German plans and decisions regarding Operations Seelowe and Felix, the action against the French fleet at Mers-el-Kebir and Dakar, and other events in Siberia that serve as foundations for things that will occur in this book.

To faithful crew members, my readers who have been with me from the first book, the Altered States trilogy concluded with Hinge of Fate, and this is now the sequel to that set, and the bridge novel leading to the next trilogy, which will begin with Book 13, Grand Alliance. As we enter these next six fateful months of 1941, the war moves to the Western Desert, and so this series will present those actions as well, and not be merely confined to naval events. And as always, Fedorov, Volsky, Orlov and Karpov and others will be right in the thick of things, on land or at sea, for good or for ill. Enjoy!

— J. Schettler