Harry Turtledove
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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 107
Average rating: 3.5 of 5
Great storytelling marred by amateurish writing 4 out of 5 stars.
1 of 2 people found this review helpful.
Having put down "How Few Remain" largely out of disinterest, my yearning for a good World War II alternate history novel (before I learned of "Fatherland" and others) inevitably lead me here.
Lizard-like aliens (called "Lizards" by humanity) invade Earth in 1942, expecting to encounter resistance from Earth in the 1600s, so thus they become embroiled in a turbulent version of World War II in which the Axis and Allies must work together to overcome the Lizards.
Another reviewer pointed out that little thought was put into the Lizard's technology, which appears to just be a manifestation of 90s-00s military technology. From a certain point of view, that does appear remarkably true, but if it weren't for that reviewer, I would never have thought of that or imagined it as so.
The writing is definitely no Steven Pressfield or Jeff Shaara, but it serves its purpose in being easily readable for most reading levels and progressing the plot.
There is an immense amount of characters to keep track of, which can be disorienting sometimes, but also add different layers to the book to keep you from becoming sick of one character's tired old plight or whatever. The Lizards in particular are very interesting, and their reactions to humanity's aptitude in adapting is intriguing to listen to.
Another major flaw which greatly irritates me concerns the leadership. For the first hundred or so pages of the book, NONE of the world leaders are shown or written about. And if it weren't for the exposition progressing different events, you'd think the leaders all suddenly died in the invasion, and the military and civilian populace is handling diplomacy and war on its own. Indeed, by the end of it, Adolf Hitler appears only once, yelling at Ambassador Molotov over the Jews "betraying" humanity by siding with the Lizards, Churchill acts as representative for Britain in peace talks among the world leaders, Stalin, Roosevelt, Hirohito, Mussolini, and other high ranking leaders (aside from General Patton and General Marshall) don't appear at all. For a story mostly centered around certain characters, this is okay, but considering this is the ONLY alternate history book series dealing with this sort of event, we'd like to see how the world leaders would react!
I would like to see Hitler confronting Stalin and being forced to negotiate a peace and try to secure uranium for both countries equally. I would like to see Winston Churchill and Adolf Hitler arguing over military strategy. Instead, they barely ever show the leaders.
Not only are the leaders barely shown, but major events happen as soon as they're mentioned. For example, the Lizards debate amongst themselves to make the tough decision to drop a nuclear bomb on Berlin, and in the next section, a character is hearing on the radio how Berlin was bombed yesterday or whatever. This happens a LOT, and it is annoying.
The flaws aren't enough to detract from this being a highly entertaining series, with some genuinely likeable characters amongst the massive bunch. Not only are there three more in the series to look forward to, but three more when the Lizard Colonization fleet arrives, twenty years after the invasion...
Editorial Review:
From Pearl Harbor to panzers rolling through Paris to the Siege of Leningrad and the Battle of Midway, war seethed across the planet as the flames of destruction rose higher and hotter.
And then, suddenly, the real enemy came.
The invaders seemed unstoppable, their technology far beyond human reach. And never before had men been more divided. For Jew to unite with Nazi, American with Japanese, and Russian with German was unthinkable.
But the alternative was even worse.
As the fate of the world hung in the balance, slowly, painfully, humankind took up the shocking challenge . . .
