The Worldwar Series
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The Worldwar Series
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In the Balance
by
Harry Turtledove
From Pearl Harbor to panzers rolling through Paris to the Siege of Leningrad and the Battle of Midway, war seethed across the planet as the flames of destruction rose higher and hotter. And then, suddenly, the real enemy came. The invaders seemed unstoppable, their technology far beyond human reach. And never before had men been more divided. For Jew to unite with Nazi, American with Japanese, and Russian with German was unthinkable. But the alternative was even worse. As the fate of the world hung in the balance, slowly, painfully, humankind took up the shocking challenge . . . |
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Tilting the Balance
by
Harry Turtledove
The second volume in Turtledove's splendid alternative history saga about an alien invasion in the middle of World War II is as satisfying as In the Balance. The invading Lizards are making some progress but are handicapped by human tenacity, terran weather, and widespread addiction to ginger. Among the continuing characters, the German Col. Heinrich Jaeger and the Russian pilot Ludmilla Gorbunova have become lovers only just before being packed off in opposite directions to renew fighting the invaders. The American nuclear program is lurching forward, as is Sam Yeager's relationship with Barbara Larssen, whom he marries just before they discover that her husband Jens is still alive. Moishe Russie's flight from the Lizards requires the help of his British cousin, David Goldfarb; and so on through Turtledove's large cast of well-drawn figures both fictional and historical. And besides those well-realized characters, there is Turtledove's thorough command of storytelling and historiography to assure us that this is an irresistibly readable book. |
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Upsetting the Balance
by
Harry Turtledove
More than balance is upset in the third volume of Turtledove's massive saga about an alternative World War II in which all Earth combatants must unite against invading aliens. The book begins with the defection of a high-ranking Lizard leader to Earth and ends with the first recorded mutiny in Lizard military history. Meanwhile, human nuclear programs bear fruit, and Lizard retaliation follows apace, so that both sides wonder whether the planet will be habitable at the end of the bombslinging. On the individual level, Jewish refugee Moishe Russie finds a way to return to Jerusalem; killercraft pilot Teerts frees himself from the Japanese, then gets into combat almost as dangerous as his captivity was; Jens Larssen is finally and drastically cured of jealousy over his wife's remarriage; and Colonel Jager and Ludmila remain separated by politics, nationality, lots of hostile Lizards, and the general exigencies of war. |
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Striking the Balance
by
Harry Turtledove
At last, the triumphant conclusion to Turtledove's alternate history of a World War II in which reptilian invaders from outer space intervene. As faithful readers may have anticipated, the military outcome is an armed truce. The invading Lizards are ceded certain desert areas in return for evacuating the rest of the territory they occupy. The two sides, human and alien, watch one another carefully, the Lizards in fear of explosively developing human technology and the humans in fear of the Lizard colonizing fleet that is scheduled to arrive in the 1960s. As for the large cast of continuing characters, it can safely be said that Colonel Jx8a ger and Ludmila Gorbunova are together again, Otto Skorzeny goes out fighting, and in a real tour de force, Liu Han retrieves her daughter from Lizard scientists and works her way rapidly up the ranks of the Chinese Communist Party. There is plenty more that could be told: read this fine book. |
