In the Balance (Worldwar, #1) by Harry Turtledove

In the Balance (Worldwar, #1) Reviews

• 
  Stephen

  
  
  
  3.5 stars. This is Book 1 of Harry Turtledove’s massive alternate history WW2 epic and I will say at the outset that I definitely enjoyed this enough to go on to the next book. I was really torn between 3 and 4 stars on this one as I loved the premise and the set up but there were some slow parts that were less than compelling. I decided it was either going to be a very strong 3 or a weak 4. I ended up going with a strong 3 since the first book in the series and I wanted to give the next book room to improve.
  
  As for the plot, my lead in picture really says it all. The premise is simple and spectacular. In late 1941, after World War II has raged for over 2 years and armies form almost every nation are fighting all across the globe, the Earth is suddenly invaded by an alien army called The Race. Here are the basics:
  
  1. Expectations: The aliens sent probes to Earth in preparation for the invasion but the latest information they had was from over 800 years ago (around 1100 A.D.). Since The Race is hundreds of thousands of years old and has hardly advanced technologically for millennia, they did not expect any change in the Earth’s level of technology in only 8 centuries. When they see how far Earth has advanced they are more than a little pissed.
  
  2. Technology: Despite their faulty intelligence on Earth’s level of technology, the aliens are still vastly superior to man in that department. I would describe them as similar to what the United States is today. They have the equivalent of modern jet fighters, modern tanks, automatic weapons….PLUS ATOMIC BOMBS. However, they were expecting to be up against horse-riding knights in armor and so things are not as comfortable for them as they had hoped. Basically, we have more guns and bullets but theirs are MUCH BIGGER and we have much better ability to adapt and improvise.
  
  3. Alliances: The most interesting element of the story is the alliances that form once the invasion begins. At the time of the invasion, you have Hitler and Stalin go at it in the east, the Japanese have just bombed pearl harbor and London is in flames. Now all of a sudden, you have Hitler, Stalin, Churchill, Roosevelt, Yamamoto, Mussolini and their senior personnel having to work together. It makes for some wonderful tension to the story. At the same time, you have the some groups like the Polish Jews in Warsaw and the Chinese from Manchuria who first see the aliens as liberators against the Nazis and Imperial Japan. All of this creates such a wonderful dynamic and the author does a very credible job of investing the stories with real life.
  
  I am only really scratching the surface here but I think the above is enough to give you the gist of the plot and the kind of story that the author was trying to write. This is an attempt at a credible, historically realistic “what if” that tries to make the fantastic element (alien invasion) appear plausible. I think the author took an incredibly difficult premise and succeeded, for the most part, in telling a very compelling story.
  
  This leads me to my final comment about expectations going into the story. I think you will enjoy the story more if you are coming to it as a World War II historical fiction story that happens to include aliens added on for spice. Alternatively, if you approach this as a typical SF alien invaders story with World War II added as backdrop, you may be disappointed by the level of historical detail and the pace of the plot. This is a massive World War II story that will cover 4 volumes of which this is only the first book. All told, the 4 installments will span some 2500+ pages so be prepared for detail and well developed plot lines. RECOMMENDED!!
  
• 
  Mike (the Paladin)

  This book sucked me in. It was such a good idea and the opening of the book was done so well....
  
  The idea behind this book is wonderful almost inspired. A race of extremely long lived aliens who received their last intelligence of the human race about the time humans were leaving what is called the bronze age arrive here expecting humans to be about as developed technologically as they had been at that time. After all the reptilian invaders take thousands of years to move forward...with their idea of time it's no big deal. So when they arrive during World War II and find a relatively technological people...already at war and slugging the snot out of each other they're a bit, surprised. It doesn't help as the humans turn their weapons on the invaders. It's a fantastic idea. Maybe someday someone will use it to write a good novel.
  
  How long before they'd be legally safe?
  
  Alas, after coming up with this gem of an idea Turtledove shifts the focus to a plot that I suppose we'd call "the soap opera". Our focus instead of closing in on the invaders strategy and the geopolitical implications of the Allies and Axis having to repel this incursion settles on some of the individuals involved. We get involved in the life of a missing scientist who's wife thinks he might be dead and can't wait to fall in love and marry...err, I mean "remarry" wow. I suspect a lot of women during WWII waited longer on the home front than this woman did to see if her husband was alive. She's quick to fall for her new man. When her husband the scientist inconveniently shows back up he goes sort of crazy when he finds out....
  
  Want to hear more? Maybe about aliens checking out the sex lives of humans?
  
  There's more...some more good ideas, some more one star story lines.
  
  Yeah, you get the idea. It could have been a good book. I give it 2 stars because the idea was great and it stared out really well....before it crashed and burned.
  
  
  You know...two stars is a gift. I've decided to drop it to 1 star. The fact I liked the opening and find the idea excellent doesn't change the fact that as the book developed it kicked me in the teeth. This is another sad example of a "might have been" novel.
  
  As noted, I'd like to see someone take this idea and actually write a good military science fiction/alternate history novel. Maybe someday someone will. Dropped to 1 star.
• 
  Nick Borrelli

  Harry Turtledove writes great outlines of stories. Where he fails is filling a book with the meaty stuff that constitutes a compelling story. He does it once again here. Great idea for a story - an alien invasion of Earth around the time of WWII. After the aliens invade, the countries of the world must put aside their animosity toward each other and unify to throw back the alien threat. I love it. But Harry just doesn't give you enough to care about what happens. All of the historical figures are cardboard cutouts of their historical persona. None of the regular citizens of Earth are in any way interesting. The aliens aren't even that interesting quite frankly. There are some cool battle scenes but that's about it. Pedestrian alternative history fiction. Skip it.
• 
  Shelly

  Parts of this I really liked but it was sooooooo long that I kept getting antsy for the plot to move along. The story is set up as an alternative history where aliens invade the Earth right at the height of World War 2. I think the way Mr. Turtledove ties in all of the various warring countries into new factions based on the invasion is excellent. There were just so many point of view characters and so much going on that I never got a sense of momentum to the story. It was good and I am curious to see what happens next but I might wait awhile before reading book two.
• 
  Kara Babcock

  Without a doubt the Second World War is one of the most influential and significant events to occur in the past hundred years. The scope of this war was magnified and bigger than ever in every way: in the countries involved, in the technology and tactics developed and deployed, and in the atrocities committed. And so World War II has seared itself onto the collective consciousness of our species as something never to be forgotten. It was a watershed time, and it acted as a catalyst for some of the most dramatic changes in our society. Were it not for World War II, the twentieth century would have progressed differently—but exactly how that might have happened isn’t necessarily straightforward. No doubt that’s why World War II is such a powerful lure for authors of alternate history.
  
  Alternate history, of course, is kind of Harry Turtledove’s thing. He’s written enough of it—and in sufficient quality—to be called “the Master of Alternate History” by some critics. Such titles do not get bestowed lightly. Yet my own recent experience with Turtledove left me
  less than lukewarm. I kept Worldwar on my list, though, because I have vague memories from when I was younger of reading another book about Lizard-like aliens called the Race on Earth—I suspect it was part of Turtledove’s Colonization trilogy. So I decided to go back to where the series begin: World War II, 1941, with the Race arriving in orbit to make Earth the fourth world in its stultifying empire.
  
  They find this a tad difficult, because their 800-year-old intelligence is out of date. They were expecting to be facing armoured knights, swords, maybe some extremely primitive forms of gunpowder-based weaponry. Unlike the Race, however, which thinks in terms of millennia and changes even more slowly, humanity advances in fits and starts. In 800 years we’ve managed to get to the point where we are speculating about nuclear weapons. And none of this bodes well for the Race’s invasion fleet.
  
  Turtledove tells his story through a large cast of characters from around the world. First, props to Turtledove for including a Chinese character. We spent a lot of time in World War II in Grade 10 history, and it was admittedly Canadian-centric for a good reason. But you know what? I know almost nothing about China during World War II. I knew that Japan invaded, but that was it. So as someone who recognizes this gap in my knowledge but was a little too lazy to do anything more than look it up on Wikipedia, I commend Turtledove for including this perspective, as limited as it might be.
  
  Juggling so many characters can be challenging, both for the author and for the reader. I kept wanting to follow some of the characters for longer periods of time—and of course, there were a few I would be happy never to see again. Also, with so many different characters, their voices start to sound the same. I don’t really question Turtledove’s decision to include such a large cast—it’s about the only way he could cover so much territory—but the price is a narrative that, at times, is very flat. Combined with what I feel is a somewhat indulgent length, this means that Worldwar: In the Balance is not necessarily a smooth read. However, depending on your own tastes, there could be a few mitigating factors.
  
  Firstly, of course, there’s how much you’re interested in World War II. Turtledove had obviously
  done his research. He provides a glimpse into the wartime operations along various fronts: Britain, France, Russia, China, and the United States. Even though the war itself gets put on hold to fight the alien threat, this is still a world where the war is happening, with all the attendant nationalistic impulses, cultural enmities, and political tensions. Those are what make the temporary alliances between, say, Russia and Germany, so fascinating.
  
  I have to confess I’m not all that into World War II, either its history or its non-history. I recognize its significance as an event and will read the occasional book set during it, but it’s not exactly a setting I seek out. It’s difficult to articulate my reasons for this, although I am sure it is partly the result of how meticulous true World War II fans are about their details. I’m not a details person when it comes to history; I like the grand, sweeping, political intrigue of it all. Give me a king marrying six women in succession, and we’ll tango.
  
  Secondly, Worldwar: In the Balance is very much still a story of war, even if it’s no longer the same war. Instead of Allies versus Nazis, it’s humans versus the Race. I have to admit that I’m rather disappointed with the armament the Race brought: their technology seems only marginally superior to the stuff the humans are using. This is a species that can cross the gaps between stars at half the speed of light! Sure, I understand that their pace of technological innovation is slower than humanity’s—but even so, we tend to assume that anyone who has managed feasible interstellar travel is going to have better technology than bullets, tanks, and helicopters. Turtledove has set up what makes for the most interesting fight instead of what is perhaps the most plausible scenario from a science-fiction standpoint.
  
  Finally, Worldwar: In the Balance ends on a cliffhanger. There is no resolution to the overall conflict. This disappointed me, after over 500 dense pages of incredibly detailed descriptions and back and forth. I really could have used a nice denouement: not necessarily something that ties up every loose end, but enough for the work to stand alone. As it is, I probably will read the sequel—but not any time soon, and probably not before I try another Turtledove series that might be more to my liking. Still, if cliffhangers entice you, this book might be a nice match.
  
  These factors combined to tempt me to dismiss this book. Little of its content or characterization grabs me or my interests. Yet, objectively speaking, it isn’t that bad. As a work of alternate history both its premise and its execution offer a compelling story: really, what would have happened if an alien threat arrived while we were in the middle of World War II? How would the Allies, the Nazis, Russia, and Japan have reacted? And really, how would the aliens react if they were expecting a much different Earth than the one they got? In a way that reminds me of Jared Diamond’s
  Guns, Germs, and Steel, Turtledove engages in fascinating speculation as to how Earth’s topology and climate influenced the rapid development of our species vis-à-vis the more sedate pace of the Race. Does our tendency for conflict—not to mention our ability to love—give us an edge? By raising such questions, both explicitly and implicitly, Turtledove elevates Worldwar: In the Balance from a mere “what if” story to a work that truly represents the nature of alternate history. I cannot say I loved this book, but neither can I deny its power or its presence as a work of speculative fiction.
  
  
  
• 
  Allie

  I found this book hard to get into, and never really forged any sort of attachment with it until the last 150 or so pages. The characters seemed at times more like devices to demonstrate 'ideas', for want of a better word, rather than robust, developed characters. This is the nature of the book and, to some extent, the genre, however. I probably didn't enjoy it as much as other people for this reason, the military aspects not really grabbing my attention, and the political interactions and aspects perhaps a bit too simplistic.
  
  Despite having pushed myself to finish it, I have no real inclination to read the rest of the series. I'd like to follow up with Barbara and Jens Larsson, Liu Han and Bobby Fiore, but definitely wouldn't trawl through another book in order to do so! Unfortunately the ending very much leads into the next book rather than allowing it to stand alone.
• 
  James

  The beginning of one of the best alternate history/science fiction sagas around - in this story, World War II is interrupted when an alien invasion fleet shows up to disrupt the human war, forcing the countries to postpone their war with each other to combine forces against the aliens. A large cast of characters, both real historical figures including politicians, soldiers and scientists, and fictional people; extensive period detail showing meticulous research and a real love of history on the author's part; and a believable but not predictable plot.
• 
  David

  An interesting premise...reptilian aliens invading earth in the middle of WWII. But there is a definite lack of authorial skill at work here. Characters, plotting, story, dramatic incident are all flat and predictable. Dialogue is the worst kind of popular tripe. In the end it was a painful challenge just to finish the book.
  
  I gave it two stars rather than one because the premise was amusing. If the writing had spent more time on constructing characters and fleshing out these I would have given it three. Needs an editor badly.
  
  This is a shame because I was looking forward to the series.
  
  Not recommended
• 
  Don

  I really wanted to like this - I usually enjoy alternative history stuff. But I found the pace too slow for my liking and it spent more time coming back to points than I cared to read. Yes, we get it, the invaders are put off by our pace of technological advancement. Showing me that would be fine, but too much telling.
  
  It made me sufficiently curious to know how it wound up but not enough to slog through 3 more books. The summaries on wikipedia satisfied my curiosity and freed me up to read things I actively enjoy.
• 
  Mark Harrison

  Lizard aliens invade Earth during WW2. Hitler has to ally with the West to fight them, all manner of interesting characters join the fight, the aliens get addicted to ginger, the Jews are the only allies of the aliens as they try and escape the horror of the Holocaust and there is a lot of fighting, battles and interesting cameos from some of histories biggest names. Totally mindless with little real literary merit - I thought it was excellent.
• 
  Jordan

  This is a nice mix of historical fiction/counter factual history and sci-fi. Harry Turtledove is good at mixing the genres, but he makes a few minor mistakes (i.e. inaccurate military references). If you are able to ignore these mistakes (which most people probably wouldn't pick up on anyway) this is a well written series. It is a commitment though as it takes a while to read.
• 
  James

  565 pages of build up to a climax that starts in the sequel. The aliens in this book were not portrayed as fearsome or dominant which makes it seem even more unrealistic for them to be competent of distant space travel. I've liked some of Turtledove's other works but this one is pretty bland all the way through. I will not be reading the 2nd book.
• 
  Bryan Alexander

  An entertaining alternate history, _Worldwar I_ shows the pleasures and limitations of the genre.
  
  It's simply fun to follow the working-out of implications and details, once the divergence (alien invasion) appears. Will underground movements ally with the new invaders? How will Axis and Allied nations join to stop the initially overwhelming foe? How do various historical characters appear: Patton, Molotov, Churchill? The invasion's conceit (aliens scoped us out centuries ago, and thereby didn't plan for 1940s technology) is entertaining.
  
  The book uses a social novel approach, portraying dozens of characters in many plots To his credit Turtledove embraces the global nature of the second World War. Characters are drawn from rural America and China, British intelligence and Soviet fliers, Japanese military and Nazi tankers, Jewish fighters and exiles.
  
  The aliens are somewhat interesting. Their culture has a single organizing idea, which becomes implausible over time. Some characters gradually emerge.
  
  But the limitations... It's hard to do a social novel and have individual characters emerge. Think of how _The Wire_ gives as a rich, multilayered view of Baltimore, while most characters appear as distinct people. In contrast _Worldwar_'s characters are often thin perspectives, mobile optics giving us a quick sketch of what they see without developing much of an inner life.
  
  This thinness leads to a failure of historical imagination. Most of the characters are or become nice people. Some start with racist ideas, which they shed through conversation. There aren't many true believers to represent Naziism, the Japanese empire, American white racism, or the Soviet Union. We can see progressive ideas unfold, but not the concepts they react against. Some representatives appear from time to time but only as placeholders, non-player characters in gaming language.
  
  _Worldwar_ also struggles to depict the impact of large historical events. Turtledove does a good job with individual scenes, like conversations in occupied Paris or the adventures of a German tank crew. But we don't get a sense of the vast horror that would accompany, say, the nuclear destruction of Berlin and Washington, DC. The weirdness and disorientation of first contact doesn't really appear, beyond a couple of characters being readers of Astounding. I'd contrast this, perhaps unfairly, with the way _The English Patient_'s main characters react to the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, or the way Vonnegut establishes the horror of Dresden in _Slaughterhouse-Five_. Many of _Worldwar_'s events pass by like references to other books.
  
  So: a fun book for alt.history buffs, but not much more.
  
• 
  Ahmed

  Review of the First and Second books.
  
  This series, I imagine, is self-consciously styled after Tolstoy's "War and Peace".
  
  Also, it is not the sort of series where a book can stand alone and provide any sort of meaningful conclusion. The "Balance" is just one big book, broken for length, not plot.
  
  The "Balance" is the story of a war, drawn out across several years and numerous characters. The war is WWII, with the added twist of an alien invasion midway through. So, it is an alternate-history novel with a science-fiction twist.
  
  This bears repeating: the science-fiction component is just a twist. The aliens psychology is anthropomorphic, and they even look quite humanoid (despite being egg-laying lizard-like beings!). The realization of technical details is a little shoddy. Also, the historical development of technology is mixed up in certain places. Things get shoddier as the series advances, too.
  
  One example of shoddy technological history, I think, is the conspicuous use of audio recording as a plot device in the first and second books. This is historically inaccurate, as the first audio tapes were developed in Nazi Germany toward the end of WWII, and used to record Hitler, then broadcast his speeches so he wouldn't have to be at the radio station. Later, they were adopted by US radio stations. Before that, audio recording quality was sub-par and quite recognizably not-live.
  
  The characterization is good, but not outstanding, and a few characters are practically interchangeable. More variety here would have been welcome.
  
  In the second book, characterizations gets derailed even more. Worse luck.
  
  The pace is rather slow, drawn out, really, even stretched thin in certain parts. Every now and then, skipping a few pages (representing one character's PoV) is quite OK. The situation is even worse in the second book.
  
  Overall, OK. I think I'll need to read more before forming a more definitive judgement; like War and Peace, this is really one giant novel split apart for convenience. Unlike War and Peace (which I'd never read), I think this one gets old and crappy rather quickly...
• 
  Hannah Polley

  This book is set during Wold War II but the idea is that aliens have invaded and the war has to stop while everyone bands together to fight them. I was already put off by the back of the book where it says about Jews uniting with Nazis. It just seems so insensitive. I guess the war itself is not enough drama for some people.
  
  The actual book is not as bad as I thought it would be but it was long and I got bored of reading it a lot. The books jumps around between characters without really building them up so I struggled to remember the backstory of the character when we returned to them.
  
  Oh, and of course, the aliens want to watch people having sex. I guess that just had to be thrown in there.
  
  What is really annoying is that you get to the end and it doesn't end because it is the first one in the series so you have slogged through the whole book without getting a resolution.
  
  Not as awful as I thought it would be but I don't want to read any more of the series.
• 
  Dan

  A fantastic great wonderful beginning of a long series. What would happen if it is 1942, WW 2 is in full swing, and aliens show up., basically with 2010 technology. The little devils want to take over the planet, but us Big Uglies seen twilling to give it up. Would countries previously at war get together? Would Russia trust Germany? As I said what a great concept. As usual Turtledove delivers with his unique ability to tell multiple stories, from multiple nationalities as well as the aliens point of view all at the same time!!
• 
  Erik

  [4 years later, downgrading to 1 star because Footfall by Niven/Pournelle is so much better]
  not as creative as it should be. space-faring aliens with only 1980's equivalents of military technology makes no sense. Its clear Harry is a better alternate history author than sci fi author. It could have been a lot better
  
  Too many sex scenes.
• 
  Tex-49

  Romanzo ucronico molto interessante per la sua ipotesi ed il momento storico in cui fa partire la storia parallela. Notevole per la coralità della vicenda e per un taglio quasi cinematografico della narrazione, infatti pare quasi di assistere ad un film.
  La storia continua necessariamente nel successivo volume del Ciclo dell'Invasione.
• 
  Alison

  565 pages and it doesn’t even end…I read the Wikipedia plot summaries of the other SEVEN books and they got shorter as they went on, clearly no one has the time for this.
  
  Interesting set up, absolutely ludicrous execution that went on and on. I lost track of characters as there were so many…but a few I liked enough to keep reading, and go for 2 stars (Ludmila as a female fighter pilot of code, Russe and the Jewish fighting leader, vaguely some of the Lizard characters). A few really powerful moments calling out Nazis, too - though also more than a few hideously racist moments, such as to the handful of Black characters (none important in any way), and particularly to the Asian characters. The Chinese were backwards idiots and the Japanese were murderous idiots, gotcha, Harry.
  
  Sometimes I see books on the shelf that I bought ages ago and feel embarrassed and just have to read them so as to not have bought a book for nothing. Current me, don’t do this! Sometimes past me knew what they were thinking by shoving it in an out of the way shelf. Really wish past me had just given it away instead, though.
• 
  Redfox5

  I don't know why but I had got it into my head that this was about what would have happened if Germany had won the war. But it's actually about aliens.
  
  During WWII Earth is invaded by 'The Race' who we nickname Lizards. They have better weapons than us but they are not very good at quick thinking or tactics.
  
  This forces the human race to begrudgingly work together, which throws up all sorts of feelings and questions for the characters. The Nazi finding that he likes the Jew he is working with. The Russian liking the Nazi. The Jews turning to the lizards for help. And the biggest question of them all, what happens after?
  
  This wasn't a bad book, maybe overly long but I liked all the main characters. I even liked some of the lizards that had been captured and made POW. It's a good idea, not one I've come across before but I'm not sure it's enough to make me hunt out the next book in the series.
• 
  Jared Race

  What if aliens invaded in the middle of World War 2?
  
  The premise was too good for me to not read this, and as my first foray into alternate-history it was an interesting read. It’s a little unnerving to find such attention to historical accuracy in a book that also includes lizard people. The actual bulk of the story ran a tad slow, however - entire sections had painfully little going on - but the meticulous detail and scope of this story (not quite on the scale of Asimov but trying its best) made it engaging enough for me to power through the dry parts.
• 
  Jim Prevott

  for the audioook. Good alt history start. Alien invasion interrupts WWII. The aliens equipped with advanced technology make amazing progress until the former foes band together to figure the common enemy. it's a fairly long book that follows several storylines of both famous historical figures and common people on both sides. First book in the series.
• 
  Quinton

  You know I wouldn't have expected to like it as much as I did!
• 
  Mark

  If the sentence "Aliens invade during World War II" doesn't make you want to read a book, then there is nothing more I can add.
  
  I would have filed this under three stars, guilty pleasure sort of thing, except for one thing that's not the particular book's fault: the eBook copy I purchased through B&N is one of the worst I have ever seen for typographical mistakes. These are all small things, but numerous, approaching and perhaps passing one per page.
  
  The mistakes include things like extraneous punctuation "." "," or quotes, or missing punctuation, like no "." at the end of what's clearly a sentence because the next word is capitalized. Other times, a word is rendered with the wrong spelling; for instance, "Germany" became "Gennany" (just once or twice), and in the same way "door" might appear once as "cloor". These nuisance mistakes abound. I can only conclude that no human being ever laid eyes on the manuscript in the process from transferring it into eBook form, because if this many mistakes were present in a paper book as it went to press, anyone involved would be fired.
  
  I can appreciate, from a cost perspective, that there's not likely to be a strong return on porting a random obscure niche genre book from 1994 into eBook form, but if that's the case I would just have to say to the publisher: don't do it! Let it lie in the dustbin, or if it's being treated cheaply then sell it cheaply. If this book cost a dollar, I wouldn't complain about nuisance typographical mistakes no matter the quantity. At $8, I paid full paperback price for second-class work.
  
  Oh well. A fun enough read, but I don't like it enough to spend money on the rest of the series when I assume they will have the same quality of electronic transfer. I'll have to be more careful and view the free samples first in the future.
• 
  Alex Lee

  This book turned out to be more enjoyable than I thought. The beginning was a little rough since there appears to be too many characters for us to get a sense of what matters. I liked how this "alternate history" mixes plots and real life antagonisms to show us a greater unity. Humans unite in the face of a greater other. That's how Good Guys always play out, we recognize each other despite our differences against a Bad Guy who totally doesn't get our way of life, the righteousness of what is NORMAL for humans and how we are meant to be.
  
  I liked the strong Soviet female pilot but I disliked how the Chinese woman is basically another Asian sex toy for the aliens and the white guy. It's ironic that the Chinese man exploits the aliens the way the British exploited the Chinese with opium -- Turtledove seems to be giving the British a pass on this one, saying the Chinese are just as money grubby as the British were. Of course the different Americans are the heros, with their pure way of life, their more sophisticated reasoning. So while the humans come to understand the inadequacy and stiffness of the aliens, we do not get to see the inadequacy and stiffness of the human Americans, since thats what is normal.
  
  I didn't think I would like the book but I liked it enough to want to read the next one in the series. We know how this will end though, since the aliens are in a book written by a human. In a way, this book is about how humankind comes together probably for a greater future to unify to go into space... probably.
• 
  David

  Three stars only because I liked the basic concept so much- what if there was an alien invasion in the middle of World War II? However, execution of the concept left a lot to be desired.
  
  So let me get this straight-
  1) the aliens have had nuclear weapons for 14,000 years,
  2) they've traveled through interstellar space to get here,
  and yet their most advanced weapons are hydrogen-powered tanks and hydrogen-powered jet fighters with turbofan engines and heat-seeking missiles? That's it?? Where are the hovercraft with death rays? Where are the exothermic suits that enable human-size creatures to run superfast while carrying tons of gear?
  
  Great concept, but disappointing in how it's written.
• 
  Chip

  Having read the second in this series inadvertently first, I went back to enjoy the beginning and some of the detail I was missing. Again, Turtledove has created a wildly expansive book about multiple fronts of World War II. Our enemy is a powerfully alien race here to conquer the human race. Faced with superior technology, German, Russian, Japanese, Chinese, Polish, American, British come up with unique ways to attack the naive Race. We get exposed to soldiers, generals, world leaders, scientists and general people all dealing with this war. This book just gets the story started for what seems to be an epic tale.
• 
  Joe Jackson

  An amazing start to a series that unfortunately didn't hold up for me after a few books. But what a premise!
  
  Imagine: right as World War II is starting to hit critical levels, the Allies and Axis powers have to unite to combat an alien invasion. Think "V" but on a grander scale. This book set everything up nicely, starting with some everyday folks having to step up and join the war effort, as attack from above means no place is safe, not even heartlands USA.
  
  I stopped halfway through book 3, but you might be more forgiving of the issues I had with this series, and if you like alternate history and/or alien invasions, you might really dig this.
• 
  Joel

  Excellent book by an excellent author. Turtledove isn't afraid to approach sensitive subjects--in any of his novels. This one is no exception.
  Foraging through the fascinating accounts of war and conflict, Turtledove presents this novel in a way that the reader can also interpret human nature from a different perspective.
  And again as in "Guns of the South" he does his research. He finds the tiny pebbles of often ignored history and facts, and builds a dam with them. But instead of holding back water, the dam constructed by Turtledove, is suspense.