If you enjoy historical fiction, alternate history, or stories that follow a character through decades of personal and political change, Raven's Son: A Vision Reshaping A Nation's History by Rick Surles may be worth a look. Here are a few familiar authors and books that offer a sense of what to expect.

What if a son had been born of that relationship, raised among the Cherokee, with no idea that his father was one of the most consequential figures in Texas history?

Readers naturally want to know where a story takes place. We want to picture where the characters live, where they're traveling, and how the places in the story relate to one another. Once we can see those places in our minds, the story feels more real.

History often feels fixed when we look back on it, as if there were no real alternatives. But the people who lived it stood in moments like this one, not knowing what their decisions would lead to.

History gives us a record of what happened. Names, places, events—they form the backbone of the past. But every now and then, a single unanswered question opens the door to something more.