Okay then!
Well, I liked it a lot. I called it about halfway through that Turtledove would not leave the door open for yet another sub-series, but would have the war end and spend the last few chapters showing the aftermath. I don’t see room for an epilogue, although you never know. If it does happen, though, it would have to be with like, Major Toricelli and Joshua Blackford and some guy from the Josephus Daniels. He’s taken these characters as far as he possibly can.
And as far as being halfway through, I rarely drink these days, but after about the third superbomb, on top of Lavochkin’s massacres, I had to have a whiskey-and-diet. This was an experience, believe me. But it was well worth all the time I invested in the series.
Yes, I do think Carsten has skin cancer. What else could that be? At least now the endless reminders that Sam Burns Easily have been justified. Poor guy, though; I’m glad we didn’t have to see him get the diagnosis.
Poor Dowling, too. A lot of these characters ended on a down note. He’s on the shelf; O’Doull is bored in Riviere-du-Loup, not that I blame him; Grimes is stuck; Potter and Rodriguez are burnt out; and others will be jumping at every dropped pin from now on. That’s how it is, though.
And I also thought Potter would get plugged in his last scene. Glad he didn’t, though. I still like him and always have. He may have been on the “wrong” side, but he is a true patriot. And the fact that he was never implicated in the attempted coup seems to indicate that he’s clever in ways Featherston could never fathom.
And what delicious irony for Featherston. His Army career was crippled because of a black man, and it was a black man who left him dead in a ditch. I always get first crack at these books, with Mr. Rilch saying, “Don’t tell me; don’t tell me!” Last time, I couldn’t let him see me brooding about Scipio. This time, I’m glad he wasn’t home at the time so I was free to jump around saying, “GO CASSIUS! It’s your birthday! Go Cassius! Go on with yo bad SELF!”
The real-world references were fewer and less :rolleyes: inducing this time, except that I could have done without Clark Butler being told “Frankly, I don’t give a damn.” I did squee when Eric Sevareid was on the radio, though. And it took me a second to process “King Edward and his family.” Then I caught on: since the USA and England are not allies, Edward VII never met Mrs. Simpson, and therefore never abdicated.
Now, what was so godalmighty important about Goodson Lord’s sexual orientation, that O’Doull had to be shown wondering about it three times? This has come up before, with Enos Jr. wondering why the same guy is always there when he wants to sleep, and Moss thinking the guerrilla who washes a lot is being femme until he realizes it’s part of being stealth. Is Turtledove implying that homosexual is going to be the new black, or what?
Anyway, I think I’m going to skim through the series from the beginning. Not word-for-word, but just checking to see how many foreshadowings there have been, and how the threads were interwoven.
