Customer Reviews

Aftershocks (Colonization, Book 3)

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(21)
2 star:		(11)
1 star:		(16)

 

 

After following the life & times of a very changed world for seven books, I was hoping for a sense of closure that I didn't get from AFTERSHOCKS. That's the only thing I found wrong with the book, though--Turtledove has done his usual masterful job of extrapolating what could have happened from what did, human nature, and the elements of the world that he changed.

Also, Turtledove drops waaaaay too many hints over the first half of the book about which nation attacked the colonization fleet with nuclear weapons in DOWN TO EARTH, and mentions how dangerous the knowledge is each time it's mentioned. I got it. I'm sure the other readers got it too.

The rest of the book is typically fine Turtledove alternate history. It's interesting to see things like Caller ID or the decades-premature invention of the Furby in a different world, and the usual care has been lavished on all of the different political factions--the USA, the Greater German Reich, the USSR, China, Canada, South Africa and the conflicts between the invasion and colonization fleets. Here's hoping that if there is another sequel series it ends slightly more definitively.

Also, it would have been nice to see alien-obsessed British music producer Joe Meek in the series--the Colonization books take place right around the high point of his career and it's not like other real people never appear in the books.

I've been a fan of Harry Turtledove since the Worldwar cycle of books began and have read that cycle and the subsequent Colonization cycle including the latest, Aftershocks. In general, I like Turtledove's presentation. His characters seem human to me (yes, even the aliens) and the situations, while taking place in an alternate history, are at least believable.

I was appalled, however, when I read Aftershocks. I won't give the whole plot away, but Turtledove has one of the entire cycle's main characters giving certain information to the Race which ultimately costs tens to hundreds of thousands of humans their lives when the Race retaliates. Supposedly, the character commits the act because the Race too are intelligent beings; however, this begs the question. The Race, however lovable and understandable they may be, are alien invaders. In earlier episodes, they completely exterminated the people of Australia as well as erasing major cities in other countries in their attempted conquest of Earth.

I may be old-fashioned, but I think Turtledove has done a real disservice here. For a major (and hitherto respected and respectable) character to do what occurs in Aftershocks with the author's symbolic arm around him as if he were some kind of hero is to carry tolerance way past the crazy point. After the Race's invasion of Earth, and the immense death and destruction they have caused, they deserve anything they get and as far as I'm concerned, any human passing them information, whatever their intention may be, is not only a traitor to their country, but to the entire human race.

I hope that Turtledove does something in the next book to redeem my previously good opinion of him.

How is it that a book can take 600 pages or thereabouts to take you on a ride that goes nowhere? I scored this book as 2 stars rather than one because I believe it takes considerable stringing-along skill to maintain the deception of progress for such a duration, hence one point for the book and one, with a tip of my hat for such, er, technique.

Not only that but the story finishes, if such a word can be used, with more loose ends than a mop. As I was nearing the end of the novel, with maybe 50 pages to go, I was thinking "wow, it's going to be exciting to see how this gets wrapped up - any page now, something big is going to happen!". Then there were 30 pages left, then 20, then... well, I got this sinking feeling. Which proved to be well founded.

Will there be yet another trilogy? Frankly I no longer care.

When Harry Turtledove is good (How Few Remain, Guns of the South, The Misplaced Legions series), he's very good. And when he's bad, he's terrible. And in this book, he's really, really bad. As the third and final book in his series that should have been called the Nothing Happens series, as you might guess, with one exception, pretty much nothing happens. Subplots are built up and never resolved. And things end pretty much were they started at the beginning of the first book, the race controls half the planet, the humans the other half. The entire 1500 pages of this series could have been told in one short 300 pages if Turtledove had omitted the unnecessary gratuitous sex scenes, endless repetitions of the same themes, and boring dialog and subplots that really don't go anywhere.
I have no idea why I read all the way through this series. I guess I enjoy pain.

Having enjoyed the "WorldWar" and "Colonization" books on the whole, I would say this installment - maybe the last, maybe not? - is a fairly worthy continuation. The reptilian Race with whom Mankind is sharing the Earth in an alternate 1960s continue to be fascinating characters in their own right, especially with their new ginger-induced discovery of continuous sexuality now maturing into a more human outlook; sexual and emotional awakening are, obviously, among the oldest themes in literature, but Turtledove pulls it off in an engaging fashion.
One other human trait which seems to have rubbed off on the Race, unfortunately, is gross environmental misconduct: originally, THEY cared more than US about the condition of the Earth, being reluctant to simply nuke humanity into submission for fear of rendering Earth useless for colonization. In the latter half of this series, however, they seemed to throw nuclear devices around with abandon - admittedly, after some provocation in kind from the Greater German Reich and the USA. One wonders just how much megatonnage must have been used to defeat Germany in "Down to Earth" (a war treated far too briefly, certainly compared to the alternate World War II!) As much as all the nuclear tests of the real 1960s combined? And there were the German nuclear attacks on the Race. Surely, there would subsequently be enough fallout in the atmosphere to cause thousands of deaths in its own right, especially in Russia? The author might have been better to concentrate on this particular "aftershock" than on drug-smuggling in the newly-liberated France.
The human characters continue to be interesting, for the most part: Sam Yeager, hardly ever seeing direct action, is now at the center of what could determine the fate of the world. The American astronauts in the asteroid belt embody a truly fascinating question of what humans might have achieved in space decades ago, given a big enough incentive (like the arrival of aliens as a rival power here on Earth). And in the belated but determined Chinese revolution, Liu Han - once a meek and sweet-natured peasant - shockingly evolves into a brutual Maoist inquisitor!
Some individuals, however, have clearly outlived their entertainment value. For example, Rance and Penny have become pretty dull, not achieving much beyond backstreet intrigue and routine sex; Pierre and Monique Dutourd seem intended only to represent "Frenchness" for its own sake; and (though I hope this doesn't offend anyone) the Russie family are no more than a mouthpiece for Jewish post-holocaust moralising. If what Mr. Turtledove wants to write is primarily entertainment, perhaps the constant reminders of Nazi war atrocities could be left to real history books. In this fictional timeline, I think the German Reich has been punished more than enough. Aren't millions of nuclear deaths - to say nothing of the undoubtedly countless burned, blinded and crippled Germans - a rather larger holocaust than the concentration camps? If there is another book in the series, please, Mr. Turtledove, give the Jewish issue a rest!
It would be fun to see if Mankind do eventually surpass the Race and come to dominate them on Earth; maybe the ultimate in vengefully satisfying conclusions would be a fleet of Earth starships arriving at Tau Ceti, to return the favour of invasion. At least, one more book in this timeline would be appropriate, perhaps set around 2000 AD - it could tie up the Chinese independence issue, the ecological impact of plants and animals from Home, and the recovery or submission of Germany. Perhaps the most significant outcome of alien colonization could be a self-sustaining human civilization in space. But if such a book is written, it should be without all the dead wood.

I wish I could say that my opinion of "Aftershocks" is substantially improved over my opinion of "Down To Earth" but it isn't. Furthermore, I see that many of the reviewers of the current book have come around to my point of view. I said much the same things about "Down to Earth" as many of the reviewers are saying now about "Aftershocks". Namely that it (they) are repetitive and tedious, have very little in the way of plot advancement and generally reflect either a distracted or uninterested author. This is really a shame since the idea for the series is so compelling and it got off to such a good start in the "Worldwar" series. However, if Turtledove has really abandoned this universe I will not spend too much time lamenting the loss given the hash he has made of it over the last two books. At least I had sense enough to check a copy out of the library this time instead of wasting my money buying a copy of it.

I generally look forward to the continuing novels in this series by Harry Turtledove. The ongoing conflict between "the race" (lizards) and mankind is an interesting "gedanken" experiment. The setting of this particular episode is the mid 1960's and mankind has both created new technology ad also "borrowed" from the lizards creating an uneasy balance of power on Tosev 3. Most,if not all,of the old familiar faces are present in their usual roles. That in my view is the major problem with this book. I am getting a bit tired of Rance Auerbach and Penny Summers being tossed into the lizard clink for ginger smuggling. What leads me to believe that we have yet one more episode in this series is the lack of a real closure to the story or a real conclusion. We are left scratching our collective heads about Hans Drucker and the Reich. We wonder if Monique Doutard was really serious for her reasons stated to Ttomalis for getting Rance Auerbach out of lizard jail. Dr. Turtledove needs to spend a little more time on this series and get a real rousing wrap-up. He needs to speed up the pace of action and concentrate more on the main theme of lizard-human conflict instead of Kassequit and her eternal self-introspection and whining. I would expect a return to open warfare and alot more from Lewis and Clark/Glen Johnson. Overall, a good concept for a series, but a real letdown in some of the execution. Could have been a 5-star if better paced with some real action leading to a conclusion. It would help if some of the less essential characters were "retired".I strongly suspect that volume 4 in this series is in the works;if not,it needs to be.

There's nothing outright wrong with this novel, but as a conclusion-for-the-time-being to his most well-known franchise, I would have hoped Turtledove could do a bit better.

The book reminds me of those moments in Worldwar where Turtledove was just marking time with ultimately meaningless plot developments that would have little to no influence on the future course of the series just so that he could fill his allotted pages before exploding some nuclear weapons at the end.

Similarly, this book contains one and only plot development: the discovery of who attacked the Colonization fleet in Down to Earth and what the Lizards do about it. This occupies about 20% of the book and a similar fraction of the characters. For the rest, there's just the predictable, schmaltzy, politically correct process of kids getting married, families getting put back together after the nuclear war at the the end of the previous book, and Lizards getting bribed and blackmailed by ginger dealers. Outside of the book's one Major Development, the rest is near-meaningless wasted text.

Almost none of the other subplots in the book are even brought to some semblance of conclusions. The Chinese are still rebelling (and failing). Rance and Penny are still dealing ginger. The Americans are still putzing about in the asteroid belt doing what everyone knows they're doing but which Turtledove feels he's been sufficiently sly about to keep a secret. The general feeling is just that life goes on. Yawn.

"Aftershocks" was supposed to be the final book of a series, and although it's unrealistic to expect each and every individual story in the series to come to an end (absent mass death), the reader does have a right to some type of closure. Instead, "Aftershocks" simply sets up another trilogy, perhaps set in the '70s or '90s.

I won't be there.

Harry Turtledove is no hack, but the viewpoint characters in the WorldWar/Colonization series all talk like they have IQs of about 80, or stepped out of some '40s movie script. Although I was gratified to several of the stories converge, the book was driven almost entirely by dialogue instead of action. I was also waiting (and still waiting) to see when the traitorous character would get strung up; that was a major disappointment, too. The passage of time was never clear, and by concentrating every story into a five-page snippet, the book is way too repetitive. I could tell about half-way through it wasn't really going to conclude, and little gems like the invention of caller ID, Furbies (why Furbies?) and the presidential commission were few and far between.

Harry Turtledove currently is writing at least three major "series" books, each with an annual installment, and that's just too much. Quantity does not equal quality.

I must say Harry Turtledove has brought his Worldwar/Colonization to an exciting and stirring conclusion. His tale of a Second World War interupted by an invasion of reptiles has played out superbly over the course of seven books, and while not every moment has been a gem, the whole experience has been extremely entertaining.

Following the events of Down to Earth, Germany finds itself crippled, and France and Finland have regained independence after two decades of Nazi rule. The USA and the USSR now must deal with the shift in the balance of power. Plus, the mystery of who launched the missiles at the fleet in Second Contact, the mission of the Lewis and Clark, and who Straha's driver is are all resolved. Naturally, not everything is tied up completely, prompting further books.

What is most interesting about this series is how much change has been affected not only on the world, but on the various characters who populate this world. David Goldfarb makes his fortune using Race technology for variour commerical products (caller id being a noteworthy one). Liu Han, originally a peasant, is now firmly entrenched in the Chinese Communist Party. Sam Yeager, the USA's leading authority on the Race finds his life drastically, almost tragically, altered because of a little bit of knowledge he obtains. Wounded veteran Rance Auerbach finds himself embroiled in the ginger trade.

There are some glitches, of course. Certain characters appear more because for variety rather than the stories they tell. V.N. Molotov has nothing really important to do but show the USSR's plot and schemes, but ultimately tells no interesting tales. Monique Dutourd, while an interesting character, really doesn't have anything to do either but be a token French character, though that changes at the end. David Goldfarb too loses some momentum as the novel progresses. While I understand, and applaud, Turtledove's desire to show a wide spectrum of view points and characters, some of these characters could easily have been retired as their individual stories achieved closure.

Now, while Turtledove has stated he has no plans immediately write a sequel to Colonization, certainly he leaves the ending open. Personally, I would enjoy a return to this alternate history at some point, preferally in the form of self-contained novels. But for now, this is enough, and I would rather Turtledove concentrate on his other, very numerous, projects.

In the meantime, I recommend Aftershocks (after reading the previous books). It is a first rate series in its characterization, its plots and themes, and its ability to take a very stale idea (alien invasion) and set it on its head, while taking it to its most logical conclusion.