The Worldwar and Great War series are great, so is Guns of the South. The fantasy stuff is terrible.
OTOH, I think that Ruled Britannia is up at the same level as Guns of the South. The level of detail and the characterizations were great. It seemed to hit his strengths well and his weaknesses did not take me away from the story.
I particually liked the promotional blurb on the back of Into the Darkness where the copywriter boasted of it being a fantasy retelling of the *first * world war. I know these guys don’t tend to actually read the book they’re writing the blurb for but come on. It was obvious it was actually WW2 being retold about 5 pages into the book.
As long as we’re mentioning other stuff, I’ll say I loved Harry Harrison’s “Stars and Stripes” series. It assumes a war with Britian(!) during the Civil War, so North and South get together to kick some British butt.
Your kidding right? They were terrible. I struggled through them because i normally quite like Harrison but they were awful.The basic premise is laughable, the British accidentaly attack the wrong place and both North and South abandon there decades long distrust and rivalry. Slavery, bitter disputes, bloody battles with each other instantly forgotten. Then there’s the technology.The Americans just happen to have a Genius inventor jack of all trades on their side. Who single-handed invents first steam powered battleship, then all sorts of new toys climaxing with the internal combustion engine and electricity.Handy man to have around.
Now if you want good Harry Harrison alternative history go find a copy of his “One Kings Way” trilogy.
I’ve always really wanted to like Turtledove’s books, but I just can’t get into them…I like the premises alot, but he never draws me in.
Although these points have been stated above, I have to chiome in with my support. Aside from short fiction, I’ve only read two of Turtledove’s books. Guns of the South is a wonderfully written, well-researched piece of science fiction/alternative history. There is no way you can call this a bad book, even if you happen to disagree with his premises or solution. It’s just too well done. The Case of the Toxic Spell Dump is a great piece of fantasy, crammed to the brim with in-jokes, yet with decent characters, sweep, and dialogue. Again, I can’t see anything at all to complain about. I’ve read a lot of bad fiction, and neither of these books come anywhere close to fitting the bill. Eventually I’ll probably get around to some of the others cited here, and I’ll see if they’re deficient. If so, I’ll bet they’re early works.
HT was the Guest of Honor at Arisia 2003 this past January, where I bought some of his books and got to meet the man. “Harry Turtledove!” I said, seeing a bunch of his books for sale at one dealer’s table – I had intended to pick several of them up. I was startled to hear a voice say “Yes?” I turned to see him stabnding, Ent-like, over the books (He’s tall). He autographed them all for me.
I’ve always been fascinated by alternative history stories. I’m in the middle of Marching through Peachtree (the second of the War Between the Provinces series) right now. The biggest problem I have with it is that I know just enough Civil War history that I keep getting distracted by the twists in names he uses. (Commissioner Mountain were driving me nuts until I realized that it was a reference to Kennesaw Mountain.)
I had never gotten around to his “Darkness” series, and never finished the Worldwar series. The latter was mostly because of personal matters that came up shortly after the third book came out and I just never got back to it. I read the Great War/American Empire books as fast as they come out in paperback.
One of the things I like about Turtledove’s books is the way he weaves all the different storylines together. I find myself getting caught up in all these different people’s lives and how they are affected by the events around them. Although I do agree that sometimes he does get a little wordy and repetitive.
On preview, I have to agree with CalMeacham’s comments on Guns of the South and The Case of the Toxic Spell Dump (although it’s been a while since I’ve read the latter).
If you’re going to read Harry Turtledove, you have to read the Misplaced Legion series. Videssos is a great creation, but I have to agree that the magical World War of Into the Darkness was generic dreck.
I read the first two books of his world war series and by the time I got to book three I’d had it. I felt like I was rereading the same book over and over.
I got sick of the commander stroking his chin and looking at the globe and wondering aloud why these humans were so hard to defeat. He did it over and over and over… sigh.
The books moved at a soap opera pace and the aliens were so mind bogglingly inept that I could never feel they were a threat.
I found his style rather irksome too, the dialogue was more exposition than actual conversations. But that is my opinion.