The above question forms the basis of Alternity, the first installment of a trilogy. The novel’s title is derived from “alternate” and “reality,” and describes the world created by Walter Bayer, a graduate student of physics at the fictional Adams University, and Lieutenant Colonel Adam Halstead, a military history instructor at West Point, when they travel back in time to November 11, 1918.
November 11th, of course, is Armistice Day, the final day of World War I. Halstead travels to chaotic post-war Germany and, after murdering the would-be Nazi dictator, assumes his victim’s identity and begins to implement plans for world domination.
Bayer the accidental time traveler is less prepared for the world of 1918, but he finds his own route to success. He becomes first a bootlegger, then a Wall Street investor, and finally a self-described “entertainment financier.” Bayer uses his layman’s knowledge of dormant talents and untried technologies (such as Ernest Hemingway and “talkies”) to create a fortune that he then parlays into efforts to stop Halstead. Unfortunately, things seem to never quite turn out the way he expects…