I’ve heard him called that many, many times. It’s on the cover of every single book. Now, I’m not saying he isn’t an entertaining writer (no way would I say “good.” But he is entertaining), but could you honestly say he is the master of alternate history?
When I picture someone being the master of the genre, I’d picture someone like Robert Sobel for creating an entire new world in For Want of A Nail. Heck, there are some amatuers who are able to take a small change and extrapolate from there ([url=http://alternatehistory.com/decadesofdarkness/]Decades of Darkness] is a really good one. I hope this guy gets a book deal).
Turtledove, on the other hand, has been lazy for a long while now. Yeah, Guns of the South was different and original, as was his alien war series, but after How Few Remain Turtledove has just started taking what really happened in our time line (OTL) and placed it in his world. Presence of Mine Enemies just transferred the Soviet Union to Nazi Germany and the Atlantis series is a blatant ripoff of our timeline. Even in the second book is called The United States of Atlantis. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out which OTL country Atlantis is based upon. He even has the same people show up (Thomas Paine etc), despite it being safe to say that if there were an eight continent in teh middle of the Atlantic, chances are Europe’s timeline would have diverged greatly.
I’m not saying Turtledove is a hack, by any means, nor do I believe he has run out of ideas. His Crosstime series is fairly decent (although very light alternative history). His worlds are sometimes not really thought out, but at least they’re original. But I don’t believe he deserves the title “Master of Alternative History.”
I just tried to read one of his books (never encountered him before). Made it through about a chapter before deciding the writing was to bad to continue. So I guess my vote is “no.”
Turtledove has gotten better. In his first Worldwar books, the entire narrative would consist of POV vignette after POV vignette, and much of the important action (like atom bombs exploding) would take place “off-camera.” Drove me freakin’ nuts! These days, I think he is willing to show a little more of the action, and he has even attempted a few panopticon descriptions, although he has not attempted the montage as far as I know. And he’s still stuck in POV, but that may actually be a strength. It kept me coming back year after year to keep up on the wacky antics of those Timeline-181 characters. Not the best literature, nor the best-researched, but darn hard to put down. Kind of like a soap opera, don’t you know. And now I wish he would continue 181 up to the present day!
But if you’re talking about real talent in telling an alternative history story: that would be Kim Stanley Robinson, The Years of Rice and Salt.
I read Turtliedove like he’s crack in written form. Yeah, the books can be irritating at times, sure his writing is clunky and his characterization is usually awful (his bad guys (Jake Featherston) are a lot more interesting than his good guys (the skipper with the very light skin tone, Sam something or other… Caswell?), but there’s something about his work that I can’t put down.
And I don’t mind that his Timeline-181 worlds general timeline(s) still follow the real worlds timeline… it’s hard to see how a different result in the Civil War would’ve prevented WW1, for example, and (I really don’t want to spoil things here) I found it very believable that the Negro experience developed the way that it did.
I liked KSR’s Years of Rice and Salt, but I hesitate to call it true Alternative History, for the story hinged on two aspects:
The reality of reincarnation
The ability of people in “purgatory” (or wherever you stay waiting to be reincarneted) to communicate with each other in order to influence future events.
Once he added those elements, the book essentially became fantasy.
I read about half of the book, but I got bored with it. I guess my favorite AH would be the ones mentioned in my OP. For Want of a Nail read just like a history text book, and I loved that.
I knew Turtledove briefly in the early 80s and met through his wife. He introduced himself to me as a writer of bad science fiction, explaining it was under a pseudonym and wouldn’t give me any more details. He is a very pleasant fellow (or at least was) so I am pleased he made a ton of money on his alternate history books.
I liked Guns of the South, it was cheesy but I was willing to take the leap of faith and accept the time-travelling sillyness to see how it might have affected the outcome of the Civil War and the Confederacy.
I read through How Few Remain and picked up the next three books (Great War trilogy) and couldn’t get past 100 pages in American Front. I was just too bored. I think, for me personally, I get bored by seeing his made-up characters do everything - I like to see the effects alternate history has on figures I’m familiar with (even if that might not be “realistic” - undoubtedly no-name people would be more important and vice versa - but it doesn’t make for interesting writing). And on top of that it was just BORING in general.
I think Turtledove deserves the title of Master of Alternate History. The genre pre-existed his career but he really brought it into the mainstream. It’s like horror existed before Stephen King but his success vastly popularized the genre as a whole.
I’m a big fan. I noticed him when he was writing under the pseudonym. Back in the 80s he wrote under the name Eric G. Iverson because an editor thought no one would believe that Harry Turtledove is a real name. He uses a few pseudonyms now when he is writting in different genres.
I’ve read a few of his books over the years but got tired of his using the same research and situations but changing the world around it. He knows a lot about the American Civil War and seems to recycle it by using a fantasy setting, or changing the peoples’ colours and so on.
I have, though, just picked up his first Crosstime Traffic book, having ignored the series for years, as the latest (6th) looks less like a juvenile than the earlier ones… Not sure I’ll read the whole series (or even finish the first book) but I suspect they’re perfectly good juveniles.
I liked KSR’s Years of Rice and Salt a lot but haven’t reread it yet, which I think it deserves.
Also just finished Other Earths, a new paperback anthology with some extremely good AH stories and ideas from authors not especially noted for writing AH. The Robert Charles Wilson, Alastair Reynolds, Lucius Shepard and Joel Rosenblum were especially good, although the Shepard and the Rosenblum were definitely not your standard AH stories!
I’ve enjoyed many of his books, but who can keep up?
A quick count on his wikipedia pagegives me 77 books written since 1979. That’s 2.5 books per year. How does he keep up that pace? It’s not like he’s writing 150 page dime novels, some of those series’ books are more than 500 pages.
I really used to like him quite a lot and still do to some extent, but my interest has definitely waned in the past few years and I’ve not bothered to get around to the last book or two of the inter-war trilogy, let alone start his WW II trilogy.
I really like his Crosstime series as quick fluffy reads, though. Perfect for something to read on vacation or over a couple days when nothing else is going on.
Loved the Worldwar series, loved Guns of the South, but lately I’ve just not been able to get into him that much. My mother gave me The United States Of Atlantis for Christmas. When I found out it was actually the second book in that particular series, I gave it a big ol’ ‘meh’. I still haven’t bothered to go pick up the first book.
Yeah, gotta admit, he seems to be mailing it in on some of them lately.
I adored Guns of the South and some of the other stuff but the Timeline 181 series went on a bit long and become sort of trite with its adherence to our timeline for WWII and the depression.
On the other hand I dug a few of the standalones such as ‘Ruled Britannia’ and ‘In the Presence of Mine Enemies’ and the two volume ‘Days of Infamy’ series.
Your Sam Carsten comments upthread gave me a giggle. Yes, there are definitely times when you can practically chant the text along with him, but I have read tons of his books and really like them. I like the way he postulates the rise of socialism due to the German influence post WWI and how that would have changed American thought. It’s not deep, but it got me through chemo. And I like being surprised when he sneaks in a real life person.
