Appeasement [Import] [Hardcover]

Harry Turtledove (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover: 512 pages
• Publisher: Hodder (October 2, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0340921811
• ISBN-13: 978-0340921814
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.1 x 1.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 2.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (56 customer reviews)

More About the Author

Harry Turtledove is the award-winning author of the alternate-history works The Man with the Iron Heart; The Guns of the South; How Few Remain (winner of the Sidewise Award for Best Novel); the Worldwar saga: In the Balance, Tilting the Balance, Upsetting the Balance, and Striking the Balance; the Colonization books: Second Contact, Down to Earth, and Aftershocks; the Great War epics: American Front, Walk in Hell, and Breakthroughs; the American Empire novels: Blood & Iron, The Center Cannot Hold, and Victorious Opposition; and the Settling Accounts series: Return Engagement, Drive to the East, The Grapple, and In at the Death. Turtledove is married to fellow novelist Laura Frankos. They have three daughters: Alison, Rachel, and Rebecca.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

46 of 49 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Turtledove milks the WW2 cow again, August 6, 2009

By 

Chris Swanson "I'm just this guy, you know?" (Phoenix) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Hitler's War (Hardcover)

Harry Turtledove, dubbed by some as "the master of alternate history" is at it again. This time it's in the book "Hitler's War", a book that's clearly the start of (yet another), alternate history based around World War II.

The point of departure this time concerns a Spaniard, Sanjurjo, who died in our world but survived in this one. That somehow leads to a Czech assassination of a leading Nazi, which means that, rather than Hitler getting Czechoslovakia as a form of appeasement, he instead has to go to a war that neither he nor the allies are really prepared for.

What follows are the usual multiple POV characters, the standard blood and gore and, for Turtledove at least, a remarkable lack of semi-graphic sex-scenes. We see the war through the eyes of Americans fighting the Spanish Civil War, an American Marine legation in Peking, soldiers on all sides and an American woman stranded in Berlin. Of course there's also the requisite Jewish POV character and a German U-Boat commander who, in this universe as well as ours, sinks a ship called the SS Athenia...

One problem I, and many fans have, is Turtledove's repetitiveness. Did you know, for example, that in the "Worldwar" series, Sam Yeager has false teeth from having the Spanish Flu back in 1918? It's true! You might not notice it since it gets mentioned in every single book. Also, Clarence Potter in the "Timeline 191" series speaks like a Yankee. Again, something you might not notice, since it gets mentioned in every book.

I actually don't have a huge problem with this when it's from book to book. After all, most of these are published a year apart from each other, so little reminders of various things are ok, and it's only an issue when reading them as a group.

But this book really takes the cake. Twice we're told that the German uniforms make the French ones look old fashioned, three times we learn that the French uniform in the first war was the wrong color, and no less than FOUR TIMES we're told that a Stuka becomes lighter and more maneuverable once the bombs are dropped. Turtledove really needs to be aware of this issue and give his audience at least a little credit for paying attention so he doesn't have to make the same point multiple times IN THE SAME BOOK.

That said, the book is also usual Turtledove in that it is well-researched and entertaining. It's clearly part one of what I'm guessing will be a several part series (it covers time from 1937 to 1939), and I'm guessing each of the next books will cover about a year or so. If the war ends in 1945, we can expect seven books in the series. That should be entertaining. If the rest are as well-done as the first, we're in for a real treat!

50 of 54 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A slow start to Turtledove's latest series, August 8, 2009

By 

Mark Klobas (Tempe, AZ, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Hitler's War (Hardcover)

For the past sixty years, the name "Munich" has been synonymous in the historical imagination with the craven surrender of Czechoslovakian territory in return for a peace settlement that proved illusory. But what if it had turned out differently? What if, instead of postponing the Second World War for a year, the conference in Munich between the European leaders had failed? What if war broke out over Czechoslovakia instead of Poland? This is the premise of Harry Turtledove's latest alternate history series.

In it, Turtledove tries something new; instead of positing a single point of divergence, he imagines two: the avoidance of the plane crash in 1936 that killed the Spanish general Jose Sanjurjo and allowed Francisco Franco to take over Nationalist forces during the Spanish Civil War, and the assassination of Sudeten German leader Konrad Heinlein in the midst of the Munich Conference. Turtledove uses these to create a different Second World War, one in which Germany begins the conflict without some of the advantages they would enjoy a year later, and with the Soviets fighting against the Nazis from the outset.

In narrating this conflict the author uses his usual technique of using the experiences of a series of fictional soldiers and civilians to depict events. While some fans will find this familiarity comforting, it gives the distinct sense of the novel as nothing more than another by-the-numbers alternate history work in the Turtledove mold, with little outside of the premise that is original. This would matter less if the book were up to his earlier standards, yet it is not. Character development is particularly lacking. Unlike his earlier novels, there is little description of their backgrounds; instead they are simply dumped into the narrative, with their experiences and views leaving them often indistinguishable from one another.

The result is a subpar start to what is otherwise an enjoyably different take on the sub-genre of alternate-Second World War scenarios. Ending as it does in the middle of the conflict, a sequel will probably come out next year while will move events forward, perhaps even wrap them up. Hopefully the follow-up will be embody more of the enthusiasm and energy that has been a hallmark of Turtledove's best work, lest his new series be written off as a failed opportunity with a new premise.

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars NEEDS IMPROVEMENT, August 24, 2009

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P. Menconi - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Hitler's War (Hardcover)

I think I'll stop reading Turtledove entirely. He's fallen into a lousy habit of repeating himself to "pad" the volume. He must be paid by the word: and they should cut his pay for repeats. Every scene in this book seems to start, or end, with someone lighting up and complaining about the quality of the tobacco. Multiply by about 30 times, and you get really irritated. Well, readers now know that the Ju87 is a slow plane, because he has the characters repeat it a dozen times. Etc. Etc. Guy needs a new shtick.