# Harry Turtledove **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 3, 2009, 1:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/harry-turtledove/505159 "2009-08-03T13:19:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![DrFidelius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drfidelius/32/3447_2.png) [@DrFidelius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrFidelius)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2009, 11:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/harry-turtledove/505159/21 "2009-08-04T11:21:59Z")
Agreed on Conroy. He had a clever idea in 1901, but then someone told him he should alternity other wars. His contracts have outrstripped his ability. ---
**Author:** ![RikWriter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/49beb7/32.png) [@RikWriter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RikWriter)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2009, 1:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/harry-turtledove/505159/22 "2009-08-04T13:56:24Z")
> [@butler1850](#): > > I read his “Worldwar” series, about “lizard” aliens that invade Earth in the middle of WW2, planning to find an Earth inhabited by Middle Ages technologically equipped people, only to find a more advanced populace. I kind of enjoyed these books up to the point in one of the Colonization novels where I found myself hoping someone would kill Yeager. At that point, I stopped reading the series. ---
**Author:** ![johnspartan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a183cd/32.png) [@johnspartan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/johnspartan)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2009, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/harry-turtledove/505159/23 "2009-08-04T14:21:53Z")
> [@zamboniracer](#): > > Put me in the camp that think Turtedove is a terrible writer with very original premises. When I read _Guns of the South_ I think he used the word “butternut” to describe the color of the Confederates’ uniforms roughly eleventy-billion times in a paperback book of approximately 300 pages. It drove me nuts. Ya know, it’s funny because I’m not entirely sure I can disagree with your conclusion — and yet at the same time I enjoyed _How Few Remain_. Some of his other series seem silly — alien attacks in the middle of world wars and whatnot. But the premise in this one, shifting history by changing _one_ seemingly incidental point in the Civil War and having it play out from there, is certainly an intriguing starting point. Even How Few Remain could have been better. But it’s an entertaining read, if alternate history is your sort of thing. ---
**Author:** ![TJVM](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b38774/32.png) [@TJVM](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TJVM)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2009, 2:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/harry-turtledove/505159/24 "2009-08-04T14:51:17Z")
> [@Smeghead](#): > > what really got me was his awful, awful dialogue. The man can’t write a conversation to save his life. Same here. I tried reading the first of his Worldwar series, and I couldn’t get past the fact that everyone talked like they were consciously trying to be characters is a really bad dime novel. I coudn’t get immersed in the story, because I kept thinking, “Nobody _talks_ like that!” It’s unfortunate, because I think the premise was interesting, and I would have liked to follow the story to the end, if the reading wasn’t so unpleasant. ---
**Author:** ![schnuckiputzi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecb155/32.png) [@schnuckiputzi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/schnuckiputzi)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2009, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/harry-turtledove/505159/25 "2009-08-04T16:36:57Z")
I think I’ve read pretty much everything he’s written, mainly because as a teacher I get a charge out of real life characters he randomly throws into the stories. As a Southerner, I love ‘The Guns of the South’. YES!! Give those Yankees a taste of Uzis! Sorry…continue on. ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2009, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/harry-turtledove/505159/26 "2009-08-04T17:10:04Z")
I fully realize the problems with his writing, but I still buy the books the day they come out and read them straight through until they’re done. ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2009, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/harry-turtledove/505159/27 "2009-08-04T17:18:04Z")
> [@Captain\_Amazing](#): > > I fully realize the problems with his writing, but I still buy the books the day they come out and read them straight through until they’re done. ☹ Me too. It’s like crack cocaine, only worse for ya. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![villa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/bc79bd/32.png) [@villa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/villa)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2009, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/harry-turtledove/505159/28 "2009-08-04T17:31:04Z")
> [@schnuckiputzi](#): > > As a Southerner, I love ‘The Guns of the South’. YES!! Give those Yankees a taste of Uzis! Sorry…continue on. AK-47’s unless my memory has gone astray. ---
**Author:** ![Mosier](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ea924/32.png) [@Mosier](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mosier)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2009, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/harry-turtledove/505159/29 "2009-08-04T17:34:11Z")
> [@TJVM](#): > > Same here. I tried reading the first of his Worldwar series, and I couldn’t get past the fact that everyone talked like they were consciously trying to be characters is a really bad dime novel. I coudn’t get immersed in the story, because I kept thinking, “Nobody _talks_ like that!” It’s unfortunate, because I think the premise was interesting, and I would have liked to follow the story to the end, if the reading wasn’t so unpleasant. You must have hated Star Wars. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2009, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/harry-turtledove/505159/30 "2009-08-04T17:41:42Z")
> [@villa](#): > > AK-47’s unless my memory has gone astray. It started with AKs, Uzis made a brief appearance later along with presumably .50cal class machine guns. ---
**Author:** ![villa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/bc79bd/32.png) [@villa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/villa)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2009, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/harry-turtledove/505159/31 "2009-08-04T17:49:56Z")
> [@runner pat](#): > > It started with AKs, Uzis made a brief appearance later along with presumably .50cal class machine guns. Ah OK. I managed to buy most of the plot. What was completely unreasonable, however, was Turtledove protraying the Southerners as less racist than the Afrikaaners. I kid… I kid… ---
**Author:** ![TJVM](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b38774/32.png) [@TJVM](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TJVM)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2009, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/harry-turtledove/505159/32 "2009-08-04T21:28:28Z")
> [@Mosier](#): > > You must have hated Star Wars. 🙂 As far as I’m concerned, the dialogue in Turtledove’s first Worldwar book made Star Wars seem like _The Wire_. ---
**Author:** ![Icerigger](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/icerigger/32/432_2.png) [@Icerigger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Icerigger)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2009, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/harry-turtledove/505159/33 "2009-08-04T22:10:09Z")
I very much enjoyed **The Guns of the South** but gave up on the **World War** series after the third book, when almost nothing happens to advance the story. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/harry-turtledove/505159.md?page=1)