30 of 35 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Clueless "what-if", June 8, 2009
This review is from: 1942: A Novel (Paperback)
The real "what-if" in Robert Conroy's 1942 is WHAT IF IT HAD BEEN AS TOLERABLE AS HIS EARLIER 1901. I am not going to be nearly as patronizingly polite as the other reviewers here because someone has to tell it like it is.
Simply put 1942 just isn't very good. As "alternative history" goes; it is quite wooden and 2-dimensional. Much of the Japanese dialog read as ill-timed as if one were watching some Japanese monster movie with a cheesy over-dubbed English translation. Too many sloppily composed sex scenes and laughable caricatures of "evil Japanese" as heinous torturers.
Then there is the very glaring poor research scholarship. Mr. Conroy is absolutely clueless when it comes to naval warfare of the period. Only F4F-4 Wildcats (presumably since his model has 6 wing mounted mg's) and A6N "Zeros" are ever featured by name. What? No Val's, Kate's, Dauntlesses, or Devastator's? Wow, this really is an alternate universe! Night CAP patrols and night combat missions? Not even remotely possible with those aircraft of mid-42.
The Japanese super-battleship Yamato is mentioned time & time again but in the closing chapter her sister-ship the Musashi suddenly gets a one-liner cameo as she sinks in the middle of Pearl Harbor from a surprisingly uber-effective US air attack. The only problem is that Robert Conroy imagines that she sailed to Hawaii a month before she was even commissioned and 4-5 months before she completed her shakedown trials. Good god Mr. Conroy, you claim to be a history teacher; feel free to mix in a little research before you sit down to write your next one.
One final ax to grind...
Very poorly imagined tactical and strategic doctrines throghout. No way FDR could have continued to insist on his Europe-First policy with the scenario as described in 1942. The entire West Coast laid bare with the inability of ships to continue to stage and patrol from Pearl? The real panic of our timeline was bad enough but in 1942 Robert Conroy insists that that the Atlantic Fleet would stayed right where it was with an unprotected West Coast. USN fleet carriers sent to the Southwest Pacific? Coral Sea fought almost as it actually was? What? Is the fall of the Hawaiian Islands occurring in a time bubble?
The Japanese bottling up their entire fleet in the cozy confines of Pearl just so it can sneak-attacked by a motley force of SUPER Wildcat fighter-bombers and decrepit Boeing flying boats just defies explanation but it matters not in Mr. Conroy's contrived universe. He simply waves magic wand of pen & paper and all just falls conveniently into place.
Of course Pearl now cluttered by the detritus of TWO destroyed fleets is completely useless to anyone as an operating base.
Be forewarned, save your $10-$15 and avoid this book.
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11 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Wonderful ending to a novel about December 7th., March 27, 2009
This review is from: 1942: A Novel (Paperback)
Alternative History novels must be completely logical where "real" History sometime isn't as believable. Robert Conroy creates real people to follow during his novels. 1942 has the Japanese sending the "Third Wave" of attack on Pearl Harbor. The Third Wave destroys the Dry Docks and Fuel Tanks at Pearl. This sets up the logical retreat from Pearl Harbor for the U.S. Navy and for the Japanese to decide to invade Hawaii. The ending which I will NOT spoil for the readers is completely logical and emotionally satisfying.
Readers who have enjoyed Newt Gingrich & William R. Forstchen books "Pearl Harbor-A novel of December 8th" and "Days of Infamy" along with Harry Turtledove's "Days of Infamy (Pearl Harbor)" and "End of the Beinning" must buy Robert Conroy's "1942"!
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Wa and War, October 23, 2009
This review is from: 1942: A Novel (Paperback)
Alternative history usually diverges at a set point and keeps diverging, becoming more and more unlike our timeline. In 1942, Conroy posits that Admiral Nagumo follows up the original air strike on Pearl Harbor with a raid that takes out the U. S. planes and oil storage tanks - as Yamamoto indeed ordered. The Japanese fleet, with its carriers, planes, and pilots, proceed to conquer the Hawaiian islands.
But then our 'actual' timeline, or perhaps the author's patriotism, at once determined and determining, reasserts itself and orchestrates a return to historical homeostasis and an American victory in the Pacific.
Several factors sabotage the initial triumph of the Japanese military force. The historically accurate ones include the code of bushido, a kind of hubristic honor, that lead the highly trained and irreplaceable pilots to die with their planes because they refused to wear parachutes - even in defiance of direct orders. On the fictional side, a heroic army captain named Jake Novacek leads a guerilla resistance force of military irregulars, Hawaiian natives and Japanese Americans. He contrives to communicate with US forces on the mainland, arranging for supplies and personnel, eventually staging a multi-pronged uprising that reverses the fortunes of war. His work is made easier in several ways: the governing Japanese quickly lapse into self-indulgent behavior; and the more brutal ones, who clearly never read Machiavelli, arouse the hatred of the entire native population, provoking them to rebellion.
Along with all the action, there is an emerging love story between Jake and a young widow. Her harrowing experiences show the face of that war from the woman's perspective. Another love story happens on the mainland between a young officer, Jamie Priest, the sole survivor of the battleship Pennsylvania, and a young woman on the intel team.
As with any really good alternative history, actual historical personages and events are scattered throughout, and actual political pressures are described. One of the mini-storylines is Roosevelt's failing health, and the genuine horror his military advisors feel at the prospect of him dying and leaving vice-president Henry A. Wallace in charge. They may not like their Democratic president much, but Wallace, who admires Stalin, would be their worst nightmare. Another side story details an investigation into the failure of the Mark 14 torpedoes to detonate. Thousands of navy personnel, and millions of dollars' worth of submarines and destroyers were lost because they did not perform as marketed. That's the real world of warfare for you.
Most WWII fiction focuses on the Atlantic front. Conroy has done an excellent bit of work presenting the Pacific side.
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