Striking the Balance (Worldwar Series, Volume 4) [Mass Market Paperback]

Harry Turtledove (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 30, 1997 | Series: Worldwar

WORLDWAR: BOOK 4
At the bloody height of World War II, the deadliest enemies in all of human history were forced to put aside their hatreds and unite against an even fiercer foe: a seemingly invincible power bent on world domination.
With awesome technology, the aggressors swept across the planet, sowing destruction as Tokyo, Berlin, and Washington, D.C., were A-bombed into submission. Russia, Nazi Germany, Japan and the U.S. were not easily cowed, however. With cunning and incredible daring, they pressed every advantage against the invader's superior strength, and, led by Stalin, began to detonate their own atom bombs in retaliation.
City after city explodes in radioactive firestorms, and fears grow as the worldwide resources disappear; will there be any world left for the invaders to conquer, or for the uneasy allies to defend?
While Mao Tse-tung wages a desperate guerrilla war and Hitler drives his country toward self-destruction, United States forces frantically try to stop the enemy's push from coast to coast. Yet in this battle to stave off world domination, unless the once-great military powers take the risk of annihilating the human race, they'll risk losing the war.
The fatal, final deadline arrives in Harry Turtledove's grand, smashing finale to the Worldwar series, as uneasy allies desperately seek a way out of a no-win, no-survival situation: a way to live free in a world that may soon be bombed into atomic oblivion.


From the Hardcover edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Turtledove's grand tetralogy of an alternate WWII interrupted by an alien invasion draws to a satisfactory conclusion in this follow-up to Upsetting the Balance, and with a few surprises to boot. The Chinese woman Liu Han, for example, is seen climbing the hierarchy of the Chinese Communist Party as it comes under the control of Mao Zedong. Moishe Russie helps negotiate the final armed truce between the alien Lizards and the humans, with the Lizards withdrawing from most human territory in return for being allowed to settle many deserts in anticipation of the arrival of their colonists. (Neither side can survive an indefinitely prolonged nuclear exchange, and the Lizard edge in technology has been rapidly vanishing.) Readers will be happy to see Ludmila Gorbunova and Heinrich Jaeger reunited, and to note their roles in the final disposition of the heroic lunatic Otto Skorzeny. Turtledove's historical scholarship, narrative technique, dry wit and deft characterization distinguish this novel just as they did its predecessors, making it a rousing wrap-up to a monument of alternate history from a master of the genre.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

In this fourth book and conclusion to the alternate World War II history series (the prior installment was Worldwar: Upsetting the Balance, LJ 12/95), Turtledove mixes historical and fictional characters in a war of combined Axis and Allied forces against invading reptilian aliens. Recommended for collections with the earlier books.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 560 pages
• Publisher: Del Rey (July 30, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0345412087
• ISBN-13: 978-0345412089
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.2 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (49 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #110,167 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #10 in Books > 4-for-3 Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Authors, A-Z > ( T ) > Turtledove, Harry

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

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Could have been worse for humankind, November 5, 2001

By 

Alex Krylov (Kyiv, Ukraine) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Striking the Balance (Worldwar Series, Volume 4) (Mass Market Paperback)

So, Striking The Balance finally sums up all the lines Turtledove had started in his first book of the Worldwar series.
For those who have already read first three books, the further development is quite predictable. After over two years of fighting all around the world, with its fronts spread too wide, and its lines becoming yet thinner from day to day, with too many cities levelled down to eatrh, and several of them lying in radioactive ruins, the Race stands now before two unpleasant options: either they will have to turn all this world together with all its inhabitants into a radioactive desert unsuitable for colonization, or make peace with Major Forces of this world (USA, Third Reich and USSR) and those who were able to prevent their occupation by Race's forces (Great Britain and Japan) on conditions of status quo. And this means that all these nations with all their Tosenite's ability to pick up and introduce innovations into technologies they develop on basis of what they've stolen from Race, and with all thier aggression, will have time to prepare themselves for a new round of fighting. This very idea alone should make Atvar feel uneasy...
Historisn by profession, Turtledove has a brilliant insight to predict what would have happened if...
What will happen with the main characters of the novel? Will Ludmila Gorbunova and Heinrich Jaeger meet at last? Will Liu Han become a promimemt leader of of Chinese Red Force? Will Reich's terrorist No.1 Otto Scorzeni become "Osama BenLaden" of this alternate world, or will he fail, and only one thing can make him fail - his death? Read the book, it's worth reading.
And finally, a remark from the reader from the other side of "iron curtain", which has finally (and fortunately) fallen. The specialist on Byzantium, Turtledove came close to understanding of Russian character and mentality in the parts of the novels, which consern the events in USSR, but sometimes not close enough. His attitude reflects general attitude of an American historian to the events of WW II. Despite all the horrors of Bolshevism, despite all the insuffeciensy of Soviet system, and its neglect of a person, despite the Red Army's inflexible doctrine it really had in 1941 and in early 1942, the Russians could learn and managed to learn. But for this, they would have never finished war in Berlin. Germans were tough teachers, but Lisarzs would have become yet tougher teachers.
For all who are interested in history of Soviet preparations for WW II I advise that they read Ice-breaker by Victor Suvorov (translated to English). This book had created quite a stir in ex-USSR having divided it into two camps of those who supported it completely, and those who who rejected the very idea put in its basis.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Be Prepared for a Long Haul, July 7, 2000

By 

Robert A. Cohen (Wilmette, Illinois United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Striking the Balance (Worldwar Series, Volume 4) (Mass Market Paperback)

This initial offering of Turtledove's first WWII alternative history tetrology (amazingly, there is more than one) is, regrettably, the best that will be offered. Alternatingly fascinating and draggy, the four books could easily have been condensed into two. This first installment presents intriguing premises, e.g. what if extraterrestrial invaders came to Earth expecting the late middle ages, only to find a technological global war in progress? What if they could not find a way to use their superior technology to vanquish the combined armies of Earth without ruining the environment for their upcoming colonization fleet (see next tetrology)? The reptilian invaders owe a great debt to Niven and Pournelle's pachyderms (Footfall) in their persistent inability to understand the complexities of human behavior. Unfortunately, these premises are often poorly realized and insufficient to carry even one book, let alone four.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A very believable conclusion, August 24, 2002

By 

Michael Mathis (Yokohama, Japan) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Striking the Balance (Worldwar Series, Volume 4) (Mass Market Paperback)

Turtledove manages to finish this series off in a way that leaves us both satisfied and longing for more.

As with the previous novels, Turtledove shows his talent for getting inside the minds of very different characters.

If you are even consering not buying this, it is probable that you haven't read the previous 3, because they are addictive page-turners. Buy all the books in the series and enjoy.