Customer Reviews

Down to Earth (Colonization, Book 2)

5 star:		(21)
4 star:		(24)
3 star:		(13)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

Well, it's another Turtledove book... which is to say a big cast of interesting, well-realized characters (some with scales and eye-turrets, here), well-developed background, and a dry sense of humor.

Check out the alien pets, for instance! And the grazing animals, whose motto is: "We make a desert and call it Home!"

A generation after the Lizards land in 1942, expecting to fight the Crusaders, we find out that there's more to American policy than meets the eye; that a sane tyrant like Molotov has some disadvantages compared to a mad one like Stalin; and that some humans can make imperialist invaders from the stars look like good guys.

Speaking of which, Turtledove keeps firmly in mind a fact that a writer should never forget -- everyone is the hero in their own story. His characters have _reasons_ for what they do, reasons that make sense from the character's own p.o.v. They're never cardboard cutouts, manipulated for plot purposes. They breathe, and many of them become like old friends.

Buy the book!

Ok folks, lets get real. I can appreciate the desire to weave a story and build characters. I have read all the Worldwar and Colonization books and I have come to the conclusion that Mr. Turtledove is either stretched too thin over writing projects or just trying-for sheer economic gain-to pump out as many books at $ as possible. The plot is less a plot and more of a rehash of the SAME THINGS from the first book in the Worldwar series! I don't know what the approach is for Mr. Turtledove. If you are a new reader of his, you really don't need to read the other books in the series to know whats going on. If you're not, like me, then you're getting a little sick of reading the SAME THINGS (anybody getting this?), and waiting until the last 30 pages for the one and only substantial plot mover. And then that plot line with huge implications gets wrapped up at the end of the book! Really now. I'm starting to think this could all have been done in 1 large volume each for the Worldwar and Colonization series each. Its like reading the newspaper. Same garbage, day in and day out. Skip it. Make Mr. Turtledove work for his $.

I thought I wrote a review of this book...where did go?

Anyway, I must join in with the people who just can't stand the constant repetition of really simple ideas. There seemed to be alittle bit less of that in this book, but there was alot of side commentary of really obvious or trival things by the characters which really didn't do anything for the book. This is called filler. There was way too much filler in this book. This book could be condensed to 1/3 of its page count and not lose anything.

I did enjoy the scene between Sam Yeager, Jonathon and Kasquit on the Lizard ship. That was the only entertaining bit of writing in the whole book. At least Turtledove moved the plot forward some in the last sections of the book.

I think some of the story lines could be dropped, especially Rance and Penny. I'm hoping the lizards will catch and execute them so I don't have to read any more about them.

And what's with these really sleezy sex scenes? There not even sleezy in an interesting way, but more like 'a guy in a raincoat looking through your window while you're undressing' sleezy. Very disturbing.

I've given up hope that Turtledove will write the 3rd book of Colonization any better and it sure looks like there will be another trilogy after this one. I don't know how or why, I am hooked on the idea of the series and I probably will get the 3rd book, but I will buy it used or borrow it.

I absolutely love this series. Turtledove sure doesn't skimp on the pages. Dr. Turtledove should write 3 more novels for this series, one each for the 70s, 80s, and 90s with the conclusion happening at the turn of the millenium! I bet the Race won't much like facing stealth fighters and bombers! I am also quite happy that Turtledove kept the revolution in his writing style that he introduced in "Into the Darkness". Before that novel, all of his characters were perfect. Perfect in a sense that they understood completely what was going on around them. In this novel, his characters have the blindspots in their logic that we could expect from individuals of different ethnic backgrounds and species. I applaud Turtledove for being bold and daring in that part with the surprise nuclear missle attack on the Race's orbiting ships from a ballistic missle submarine. He didn't chicken out on that scene and did the politically correct thing to do. I now know with absolute certainty which side perpetrated that atrocity. I only have one complaint with Turtledove. Where are the massive scale battles reminiscent of WW2 and the Korean War. I swear he never depicted battles larger than battalion scale. I want to see hundreds of divisions (from each side) slugging it out. After all, the players are fighting for an entire world. By the way, this series shouldn't end with the defeat of the Race's invasion force. It should end with the conquest of Home!

Well, it looks like I'm a bit of a lone voice here. I found Down To Earth repetitive and tedious. How many ginger deals between humans and lizards do we need to see? How many unwelcome visits by the Nazi storm trooper to the French history professor do we need to see? How many discussions between Molotov and his advisors do we need to see? How many female lizards in a ginger frenzy do we need to see? How many routine orbital patrols (complete with what is, I suppose, intended to be witty repartee) in spacecraft of the various human powers do we need to see? How many human riots in lizard held territory do we need to see? How many other seemingly endless repetitions of the same scenes over and over and over do we need to see before Turtledove takes mercy on us and figures we got the point? In my opinion we see far too many in this book. It isn't until the last thirty or forty pages that the story is advanced more than microscopically. It looks to me like Turtledove didn't really have a story to tell here but he did have a publisher who was expecting a book. I find myself very disappointed with Turtledove's latest offering. However, disappointment aside, I will read his future installments in this series but I won't rush out and buy the hardcover as soon as it's on sale as I have with past installments.

I purchased the 4 books of the WorldWar series about 2 months ago and read them all through. I thought it showed a fascinating look at humanity's first contact during World War Two. I was excited to get the first book of the Colonization series, and while the story was good, it seemed to be lacking in comparison of the WorldWar series. I still had hope for Down to Earth, but it seems Turtledove is running out of steam.

Good Points: 1. The whole thing with the ginger is good. It could have strong reprocussions for the Race. 2. The characters, like Molotov and Yeager, are good. Sometimes one-dimensional, but mostly fleshed out well. 3. Drucker having to question what the Nazis are doing, once he learns his wife's heritage. 4. the introduction of Mickey and Donald, the captured Race babies.

Bad Points: 1. How long are will the Race keep complaining about the fact humans adapt quickly? Enough already! 2. Where are the moon bases or bases on Mars? If the Race is letting humans build space stations, why not bases on the Moon? 3. I'm getting tired of Kassquit. She is just too boring, trying to decide between the Race or humanity.

I hope the next book has some battles in space, more of Mickey and Donald, and more on the Japanese (they played a bigger role in the first series, and now they seem to be forgotten).

After reading the WWII series and both Colonization books, Dr. Turtledove's biases are becoming an impediment to the flow of the narrative. The amount of time spent on describing the activities of the Jewish and Zionist characters is out of all proportion to their actual impact on the events so far. Further, his portrayal of them as collaborators with the aliens, and thus traitors to humankind, fails to make them particularly admirable -- and may well play into the preconceived notions of many readers.

Secondly, Turtledove bias leads him to portray the Deutsche as one-dimensional and exceedingly stupid Eric von Stroheim stereotypes. Twenty years after peace we still see only such idiots leading the German State as Himmler and Kaltenbrunner. To have allowed Himmler and Kaltenbrunner to lead Germany down the path set in the narrative without preciptating a 20th of July action and the likely end of Nazism is a major weakness -- particularly given the fate of Berlin in the first series.

So also is the author's failure to allow a generally more liberal development of the major national protagonists. Can one really believe that intervention by and a world war against the aliens would not have brought major change to both the deutsche and russkie NotEmpires? It may be that the war would have strengthened those regimes; but 20 years of peace should have resulted in some interesting development. Vietnam and Iran provide evidence of changes wrought by time and the absence of external pressure. Only Cuba and North Korea remain in a timewarp. However, the death of North Korea's Maximum Leader has resulted in a slight thaw and when Cuba's Maximum Leader is gone we may fairly expect major changes.

There continues to be tiresome emphasis on the comings and goings of fairly mundane and low-level human actors. I fail to see the point of wasting so much ink on the exploits of a couple of ginger-runners or the sexual awakening of a couple of teenagers, for example.

Still, this is one of the more imaginative yarns I've read in years and I buy and read everything Turtledove has published. I just feel things are getting stale. He's into a new fantasy series revisiting the Civil War and is in Book 2 of another fantasy series revisiting the Second World War. I just hope he doesn't rigidly follow events as they happened in both real-time historical tableaux. I'd like to see him go back to Videssos or the Misplaced Legion, both which I thought were more interesting series than the current series. His real strength is in the Roman and Byzantine Empire periods.

While I could not have written these novels and admire Turtledove for his enormous talent, I feel three stars is fair for this outing.

I've been enjoying this entire series from the first book, but the last two are a bit more slow-moving than I think they need to be. I too wonder if the author isn't trying to milk the series for all it's worth. The last two books could easily have been combined into one. And who's the idiot designing the covers? This one has Khruschev and JFK featured on the cover. JFK appears NOWHERE in the text and Khruschev is mentioned in passing just once. Surely someone could design a more appropriate cover.

Turtledove's newest book in the Worldwar/Colonization saga lives up to the greatness of its predecessors. It is a fun read that will get you very frustrated as you fall behind on work and sleep because you can't put it down.

Same style as usual here. Turtledove has many different storylines interconnecting as he tries to illuminate conditions on the entire planet. I could have done without the sections on Rance Auerbach and Monique Dutourd, mainly because I felt they didn't add much to the story, but that is a minor criticism.

What makes this book particularly unique is the effectiveness with which the author develops the character of Kassquit (the human who was captured by the race and raised as a citizen of said Race). Not to give anything away, but Kassquit does reconsider the decision she made in Second Contact not to have Ttomalss provide her a male for sexual gratification.

The Cold War atmosphere threatens to turn hot as the Nazis have never lost their desire to lay a claim to at least a part of Poland. Chinese Communists are still in rebellion, and Islamic Fundamentalists in Iraq and Israel are giving the race all it could handle and more. This is a wonderful read, but I suggest that those who have not read the Worldwar series and Colonization: Second Contact do so before reading this novel.

One of the leading reviews claimed that Turtledove was biased against Jews, presenting them as "collaborators" and thus traitors to humanity. I agree with th reviewer thatTurtledove concentrates overmuch on Zionists and Palestine- their high profile is indeed not commensurate with thier actual influence on world events.

I don't think Turtledove intends to present Jews in a negative light, however. Jew side with the Lizards only because the Lizards saved them from their human oppressors, the Nazis, and still act as a firewall between them and Arabs and Poles.

Where Turtledove fails is in his examination, or lack therof, of relations between subordinate groups that are normally hostile to each other, like arabs and jews, and how thier relations would change under Lizard rule. Arabs and Poles are pretty much invisible except as supporting charachters.

Another interesting element Turtledove could explore is conflict between the Colonization fleet and Home. If cultural change wrought upon the Lizard colonists is immense, as it has been, due to thier contact with Tosevites and the intrdocution of Ginger- disrupting their mating cycles, then one would expect "culture shock" when the colonists confront the home world.

One thing I love about the series is the logical way that Trutledove extrapolates some basic biological differences (especially mating patterns) into socio-technical differences. It is well done.

All in all, I hope the story speeds up a bit- this volume was a little slow.