In the Balance: An Alternate History of the Second World War (Worldwar, Volume 1) [Mass Market Paperback]

Harry Turtledove (Author)

Book Description

Release date: December 28, 1994 | Series: Worldwar

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 . . .

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

This intelligent speculative novel depicts an alternate history in which, at the height of World War II, Earth is attacked by alien beings with weapons far more destructive than any possessed by the Allied or Axis forces. Turtledove ( The Guns of the South ) gives a surprisingly convincing flavor to the time-worn story of warring nations uniting to repel extraterrestrials; his human characters, both actual and invented, ring true as they struggle to trust each other after years of enmity, and although the alien threat has a B-movie feel, he makes an effort to portray the invaders sympathetically as well. The first in a projected series, the book ends where it began: in and around a battle. The smooth writing is marred only by slightly overdone dialogue for real-life figures like General Patton. The historical details, especially those concerning the weapons and methods available in the 1940s to defend Earth, are accurate and well rendered.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Library Journal

The year is 1942. In Russia, Hitler's panzers are fighting a losing battle; in China, Japanese invaders ravage the countryside; in England, the RAF watches the skies for enemy bombers; in Chicago, scientists frantically try to unlock the secrets of the atom--and in the skies overhead, an alien army launches its forces to conquer the Earth. Turtledove ( The Guns of the South , LJ 9/1/92) excels in alternate history, and this panoramic exploration of a world at war with itself and with invaders from beyond the galaxy showcases his fertile imagination. A feast for history buffs as well as sf fans, this title belongs in most libraries.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 576 pages
• Publisher: Del Rey (December 28, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0345388526
• ISBN-13: 978-0345388520
• Product Dimensions: 4.3 x 0.9 x 6.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (130 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #52,901 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

45 of 47 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Good "what if?" June 24, 2000

By Stephen M. St Onge VINE™ VOICE

Format:Mass Market Paperback

Harry Turtledove trained as a historian, and 'alternate history' novels are one of his specialties. This is the first book in a series that I liked a lot, but many didn't. If you're not prepared to take this series on its own terms, don't bother.

The premise is that in May, 1942, just as the human race is getting ready for some serious mutual bloodletting, invaders from another star show up. These are the Race, known to humans as 'the Lizards', a species that has developed VERY slowly and patiently, and has conquered two other inhabited worlds. Both the alien races the Lizards have previously encountered were much like them. Humans aren't.

The Lizards have only sublight travel, and last surveyed Earth during the Crusades. They expect humanity to have advanced as much in 800 years as they or the other conquered races would have -- that is, barely at all. So they deploy their supersonic fighters and tanks, ready to roll over knights on horseback, and run smack into armies that are outclassed in some respects, and fully competitive in others.

A big factor determining if you'll like this series is whether you're willing to buy into the premise. You could say that these books are highly artificial -- let the Race arrive in 1932 and they'd walk over humans, let them show up in 1952 and they'd be nuked before they got a foothold. Or you can say 'the Race' is carefully contructed. Turtledove obviously started with the idea of an invasion during WWII that would be neither a pushover nor doomed, and the Lizards' characteristics follow logically from that plot requirement. As it is, humanity and the Race are "In the Balance," just matched to each other. This delighted me, but it clearly annoyed some of the reviewers.

The other big factor in deciding whether you'd like this series is pace and scope. The story develops a bit slowly, and not everyone will like following dozens of characters scattered over the globe as they make their separate decisions to fight or cooperate with the invaders, and try to stay alive in a world turned upside down. Also, things won't be resolved quickly, any more than the real WWII was over in a few months. Again, this annoyed some, but left me with lots to look forward to.

The "World War" series develops over four books, till the humans and the Race reach temporary balance, and continues in the "Colonization" series, when the aliens main settlement fleet finally arrives. If you want everything settled in one novel, this is definitely not for you. If, like me, you enjoy following dozens of characters spread through years and continents, you'll probably like this series.

Turtledove's characters are mostly well drawn, and the plotting fairly tight. His knowledge of history shows, and I mostly believed his assessments of how Hitler, Stalin, Churchill and Roosevelt would have reacted to these events. There are some things I would have insisted on changing if I was his editor, but overall I liked all four of the "Worldwar" series, and eagerly await the third volume in the "Colonization" series.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Just One Change August 3, 2004

By Jedidiah Palosaari VINE™ VOICE

Format:Mass Market Paperback

I don't always like Turtledove- he can be long-winded at times. But this one I did enjoy. I believe science fiction is best when it only minimally changes reality- you get one or two allowances for impossible things, and then work from there. This is what Turtledove does- assume WWII, and assume alien invaders at that time. Both are possible- it just didn't happen. And the neat addition- the alien invaders aren't really that advanced. In fact, if they were to have arrived when we humans were another 50 years advanced, they'd be technologically inferior.

But they don't, and thus the conflict of the story. Turtledove writes the characters quite well, and I remained interested in all of them. You feel the real emotions of these characters; you want to see what they will do next; you understand why they respond to these problems because part of you would respond the same way. Sometimes you see a long list of characters at the beginning of a novel (such as War and Peace or the never-ending Wheel of Time series), and you think, "Oh, no- I'll never be able to keep them all straight!" In this case, each character is clear, distinct, and easily remembered. Thus Turtledove pulls us from the Russian steppes to Nazi Germany to alien space craft to the radar detectors of Britian and the battlefields of Chicago- and we eagerly follow along to see how next the world can stem off invasion. Or participate with it.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars My First Turtledove Book May 30, 2007

By CV Rick

Format:Paperback

I know Turtledove has a large following and sells a lot of books in the alternate history subgenre of science fiction. Wondering if such appeal would translate well to me, I picked this one up as an interesting starting point - And It Was.

Glossing over the recap, I'm jumping right into the strengths of this book. Despite the myriad of characters each one feels real, with personality, emotions and reasons. Each one feels like a character and not a caricature - no mean feat, I assure you. This is the sign of a very strong writer and it assuaged my doubts. I came to this volume believing that a PhD historian with a penchant for military sci-fi would be a shoot-em-up action writer sacrificing characters for technology and situations. Turtledove does know the nuances of history and includes remarkable details of weapons, systems, aircraft and tanks, but he tells these things through the words and actions of the characters, not as info-dumps.

The plot moves forward, with the construction of the aliens and their Race carefully planned to fold into the happenings of World War II . . . creating a fascinating tale.

I have some problems with the book as well. The Core Premise of the book is that the Aliens weren't expecting the humans to be as technologically advanced as they turned out to be. The problem is that Turtledove repeats this surprise over and over and over and over and over again. In fact many important plot points are pounded into reader like a jackhammer through pavement that it gets annoying.

Not annoying enough for me to give up on him. I'm going to pick up the next book in the series and put it into my reading list. We'll see how that goes.

- CV Rick