Am I the only one that hated this book? I read it after it was recommended several times here, and I don’t see where anyone didn’t like it.
I found the writing completely atrocious. I never even remotely believed in this alternate world that was created - the authors never made it feel real or plausible. Also, I couldn’t buy the plot. On my own, I can’t imagine the theft of a painting causing nation-wide or empire-wide anguish. Hell, I can’t imagine people reacting that way if the Declaration of Independence was stolen. The authors did nothing to convince me that the painting was really such a big deal.
The characters were worse than cardboard cutouts of stereotypes. And worse, they constantly behaved in ways they shouldn’t have. The main character, that is supposed to be so sharp and intelligent? He couldn’t piece together that his wife was having an affair. The guy that’s supposed to be an expert on the enemy group? He doesn’t know or act like the group is dangerous, which apparently everyone else knows. He seems to be the last on earth to hear of that important tidbit of info, even though he’s the expert!
Cliches were piled on cliches and every plot “twist” was telegraphed 50 pages or more before it happened. Race was constantly trotted out as a supposed issue, but it felt contrived and forced. Just like everything else.
No, it was not a very good book. Still it was a nifty read at the airport. A chance to visit a world that never was. I liked it. (Now that you mention it, writing a better story in that universe might be fun for NaNoWriMo this year.)
I didn’t like it or hate it. I just wasn’t sure what to make of it.
I’ve never found anything Turtledove had a hand in to be atrocious. But…
Ah, but I believed in it, and I found it abhorrent. Because…
I thought they did do a good job of setting a scene in which the theft of that particular painting would cause national panic. And that’s what I found horrifying. The society was not outright fascist, but with no constitution or bill of rights, the government did have a lot of leeway. And with half the globe being the British empire, there was little competition, and little advancement since the late 18th century. Technology has benefited society more than it’s hurt it, I think, and these people were still driving steam automobiles.
Late in the book, one character states that the North American Union is actually far better off than it would have been if they’d gained independence. I thought that was pretty easy to say when you’re a cop in a society where cops can order steak without batting an eye. Not so much if you’re a coal miner and don’t have running water in your house. In the 1990s.
Word to that.
That, too. However, I got a kick out of the portrayals of Nixon and JFK.
My problem with the book (and with alt-history fiction in general) is that, in that world, there is no way any historical personage should have been born, due to changes in the timeline (a butterfly effect, if you will). It spoils my ability to suspend disbelief to have Nixon, JFK, and MLK,Jr running around in that universe.
Other than that, I found the book to be just OK. Not sad that I read it, but I don’t consider it to be any great shakes.
Either you like Turtledove’s trademark, repititious, belaboring-the-obvious, then-another-locust-came-and-carried-away-another-grain-of-corn writing style or you don’t. He’s badly in need of an editor. The only book of his I’ve ever read that is free of that egregious habit is Every Inch a King.
I came in here just to say that. Turtledove does that quite often and it annoys the crap out of me. If the South won the Civil War chances are Patton would have never been born. And if he had been there’s no way in hell it’s guaranteed that he’d still have the same personality traits or that he’d even become a general.
What I found striking was the lack of any details as to how the colonists’ grievances had been settled, in that famous meeting between George III and George Washington. Their original protest was, “No taxation without representation!” As of 1999 the Americans still have no representation in the House of Commons at Westminster and still remain, ultimately, under its authority – so what exactly did they get? Abolition of the mercantilist policies that held back development of American industry and encouraged British America to remain an agriculture-and-raw-materials-export-based economy? How could that possibly have been sold to the British PTB – the ones even the king must fear?
The real cause for the war, in fact, was that the Americans did not want to end up like the Scots and the Irish – tenants dependent on English landlords – and feared exactly that would result from the planned integration of the colonies into the imperial system after the French and Indian war. From The American Way of Strategy, by Michael Lind:
Part of the fun of Alternate History novels is the name dropping. You could have had character Joe Blow instead, but what’s the fun of that? It gives the reader a feeling of knowing something the characters don’t know. You can argue that the Nixon, Kennedy, and King families still exist, and they happened to name their kids Richard, John, and Martin.
What I thought was stupid was the stunted technology. So there’s no business reasons to build airplanes or automobiles or televisions in the home.
Well, from what I remember of the book, they have Dominion status, and has a governmental system a lot like Canada’s when Canada had Dominion status…it’s got an elected Parliament that controls North American internal affairs, and defers to London in its international relations.
But who controls – more importantly, who controlled, when the settlement was worked out in the 1770s – economic relations between Britain and the colonies? As noted above, it would have been politically problematic for Britain to simply jettison its mercantilist policies vis-a-vis the colonies – too many powerful interests benefitted.
Probably the same relationship as Canada had with Britain, if only because (and I love him), Turtledove’s too lazy an author to come up with anything different.