Customer Reviews

The Valley-Westside War (Crosstime Traffic)

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

As a longtime fan of Harry Turtledove, I've read many of his works, but his "Crosstime Traffic" series is among his best. The premise - a world in the late 21st century that has discovered the ability to travel between alternate timelines - is one that he has used to create some imaginative divergences and the civilizations they have spawned. The timeline in this book is typical of this creativeness; an atomic war in 1967 had left a Southern California at a pre-industrial level of technology, splintered into squabbling domains.

His plot is just as engaging: the Mendozas, a family researching the origins of the war in the remnants of the UCLA library, find themselves in the middle of a war between the kingdom of the Valley and the Westside. Their neighborhood is quickly conquered, and teenaged Liz Mendoza draws the unwanted attentions of Dan, a young soldier in the Valley army. As the war drags on, the Mendozas come under suspicion, and they soon find themselves having to navigate both sides of the war while struggling to complete their project.

Turtledove succeeds in creating an entertaining tale for readers. Though the characters are somewhat underdeveloped, his alternative Los Angeles is well-visualized, with people living in the ruins of 1960s America, using the leftover artifacts as best they can and adopting the slang of the era as their everyday language. Readers should not be put off by the "juvenile fiction" label; this is a novel that can be enjoyed by people of all ages.

Like many other reviewers, I was interested in this vision of a southern California where the familiar is mingled with desolation. It was fun. I really did like the book overall and for the same reasons given by other reviewers. But I also agree with many of the criticisms.

1) Turtledove talks down to his young readers. Heinlein did not do that. There is too much repetition (as some have pointed out) of arguments, etc. Teenagers want to be treated with respect. Mostly Harry does that. His characters are in difficult situations, usually not of their creation, and they generally come off well. That is, they get by, using their wits and the advantages of their knowledge. Luck plays a part too.

2) No ipods or sliderules. OK, this is something Heinlein did too. He had characters using log tables and sliderules for astrogation in Starman Jones. Granted, I don't know if anyone could have predicted mice or touch screens, etc. Still Heinlein came up with no-moving parts controls for the giant starship in "Universe" so he might have done something. But Turtledove should know better than to talk about iPods etc. Some of the repetition in other places could be used to imagine the technology of the future.

3) If the Cross-time corporation is so concerned about mention of the cross-time travel, then use some hypnotic suggestion or other techniques to help the characters not slip up. It won't catch everything, but give the characters some help. Like explaining that all passwords should not reference things knowable in the current time line, no matter how cute.

I think the slips that Liz makes are fairly natural, and actually are part of the growth of Liz's character. She learns the difference between ignorance and stupidity. I think all of that is pretty well done. Still, more training for Liz would be useful.

Dan is handled pretty well, I think. But if he really has any ambition or gumption, the things he has seen and learned should motivate him to want to improve things in his home area. If he were really wise, he would realize that working with the Cross-time folks, even in a limited way, would do more than railing against them. But that is a step well beyond where he is now. His reactions I think are pretty natural.

A cute little paragraph deals with the dissemination of scientific knowledge. I do, however, think that journals would get around faster than two years.

It is a good book and the series is getting better (Gladiator was very good.)
Kick it up a notch, Harry.

Harry Turtledove's Crosstime Traffic series, based on the time travel concept originally developed by H. Beam Piper in the 1950s and 1960s, is Turtledove at his finest. Crosstime Traffic is a giant international corporation in our world circa 2097 which uses the secrets of traveling between alternate worlds to exploit and sometimes help them. In earlier volumes in the series Turtledove has written of worlds where the Soviets won the Cold War, the US Constitution was never written, or the Roman Empire still exists. The Valley-Westside War is his finest work in the series thus far.

In this alternate, a nuclear war broke out in 1967. One hundred thirty years later, the ruins of Los Angeles are populated by petty kingdoms struggling for power. In the middle of the conflict the Mendoza family, agents for Crosstime Traffic, are doing historical research trying to find out why war broke out back in 1967. A young soldier for the Valley side in the fighting recognizes there's something different about the Mendozas and hangs around them trying both to find out more and to get into the good graces of the Mendoza daughter, Liz.

The depictions of post-war Los Angeles and the society that grew up there are very well done. Los Angelenos in our own time will be particularly intrigued by the geography of the setting, which covers much of the Westside and parts of the San Fernando Valley. Much of the language used is also amusing, being a mixture of 1960s hippy lingo and Valley slang. As always in this series, Turtledove's teenage protagonists learn some useful lessons and some important moral issues are discussed.

I trust this Turtledove series continues for many more volumes, and my only regret is that I can't get a job at Crosstime Traffic myself!

In Young Adult literature, there are more and more examples of amazingly good writing; writing that is accessible to teens and at the same time descriptive, thoughtful and engrossing to readers of all ages. I was disappointed that The Valley-Westside War did not come close to that potential. I'm not sure that I would have been all that impressed even when I was a teenager myself.

Turtledove tells the story of a family living in about 2097, in a world that could easily be our own future. This mother, father and daughter travel to an alternate reality, one in which nuclear war devastated the USA and Russia in 1967. They pass themselves off as locals in the 2097 version of this world, while trying to discover what led to nuclear war in this timeline. They live in the rebuilt ruins of Westwood.

When the Westside leaders erect a toll barrier on the 405 near Mulholland, the Valley goes to war to fight it, and our alternate-time travelers struggle not to get caught up in the conflict.

I got a kick out of the familiar settings, as much of the action takes place near where I live, and on the UCLA campus, including the Young Research Library, where I used to work. But once the novelty of that wore off, I wasn't left with much.

There is a sad lack of character development here. We know that Liz, the girl who visits this timeline with her parents, is very pretty. We know that Dan, the Valley soldier who likes Liz and gets a little too close to her -- and to her real identity -- is smart and stubborn. And that's about all we know.

This reads like a book written in a hurry. We're told some things about this world over and over again. Why do I need to read at least four times that drinking untreated water gives people "the runs?" Characters' internal monologues even tend to repeat themselves. Are these careless mistakes, or did the author feel the need to repeat things because he underestimates his teenage readers? It's hard to tell.

There is some suspense toward the end of the book, as Liz and her family are forced to go on the run, but the situation dissipates quickly and we're left with... not much at the end. Not even much food for thought, despite the potent underpinnings of the situation.

Oh yeah -- and you know when you're watching a movie, and there's some product placement that is so blatant that it's annoying and distracting? Well, there's a scene like that in this book. I doubt money changed hands, but I was irritated at the lovefest given to a particular soft drink near the end of the book. It got a little silly.
And I also find it kind of odd that in the 2097 home timeline of this family, they're still using iPods and MacBook computers. I guess Apple's marketers are going to stick with these names for another 89 years or so!
Reading this book was a quick distraction, and I was amused at some of the winking pop culture references involved. I wouldn't say that I completely wasted my time here, but I wouldn't particularly recommend that you bother, whether you're a teen or an adult.

One last note: I know this book is part of a series, and I know nothing about the other books in the series. Reading the previous ones wasn't necessary to understand this book.

In The Valley-Westside War, Harry Turtledove once again does a nice job of writing about the interaction of people from a technologically advanced society with those from a less advanced society. If his characters are what you read his Crosstime Traffic books for, then read no further. This book handles the people as well as any other in the series, and better than some.

If, however, you read the books for the author's usually well-realized descriptions of possible alternate timelines, you may want to give this one a pass. The book is set 130 years after a nuclear war between the USA and the USSR that took place in 1967. This has been used as an excuse for providing whatever technology is needed for the story, and for creating a social setting that advances it. There are huge gaps that drove me absolutely crazy.

The part of the US we see is broken up into very small city states with authoritarian governments that occasionally war on one another. No explanation as to why there has been no coalescence into larger states in 130 years, and no explanation as to why some other nation less affected by the war (say Brazil) didn't move into the vacuum at some point. There would have been unaffected nations - while presumably both sides hit the People's Republic of China, it was 1967, and there was only so much that could be delivered. Further, the war seems to have been limited given the absence of any mention of the effects that would have resulted if everything had been used.

Then there is the technology. To give a single example, it is repeatedly noted that the alternate only has a few telegraphs, telephones being beyond the capabilities of its inhabitants. Apparently every single person who ever worked maintenance for Bell Telephone was killed in the war, along with every veteran of World War II who knew how to set up a sound-powered phone system by cannibalizing old style phone handsets. I could believe the absence of a country-wide network, but there would at least be local phone nets for military use. (And didn't more than one library survive? - if so, there is a point where the Crosstimers make a really dumb decision about their movements)

Early on in the book, there was a page-long exposition by Liz, the Crosstime viewpoint character, on how religion was the same as superstition which led me to expect to learn that the reason for these incongruities was that a fundamentalist anti-technology church had come into being after the war and was suppressing things. However, after the exposition, religion vanishes from the story. We never learn anything about the religious beliefs (or lack of them) of Dan, the alternate viewpoint character. We never get an explanation for why things are as they are except the inadequate one that it all came from the war.

I gave it three stars because the characters were still interesting to me, but I have to say this is the least believable setting Turtledove has ever written. Unlike his other books, I probably won't read this one again.

To those of you who live in Los Angeles, the backdrop may be grimly familiar. A place that reached its peak in the 1960s, only to stagger thru a limited nuclear war. Some places like the UCLA campus and its adjoining Westwood are depicted in telling detail. Like the Bunche Hall of humanities, called the Waffle because of its protruding window frames.

The focus of the book is in a place known as the University Research Library (URL). UCLA's graduate library, now called the Young Research Library. Having spent many hours in it, reading this book with the scenes in a future decayed library was strange and piognant. Readers not from LA might miss out on this cogency.

Like the earlier books, it is a somewhat breezy read, to accomodate a teenage audience. Technically, the book is solid. With accurate details about technology and slang and detritus from the 1960s, as well as descriptions of a fallen civilisation. Take the remarks about putting alcohol into your water. Not to get drunk but to purify it. Or what it means to put meat on the dinner table. On this subject, and by the way, you can get a live chicken killed in much the same manner as mentioned in the book, in today's Los Angeles! No bull. Go to Chinatown, and look for the places with live chooks. The butcher will prepare (kill etc) one you pick, right in front of you.

There is a moment of pure pathos in the book when a character confronts the girl from our timeline, accusing her of going to URL to find information about superior weapons. Whereas to her, the library only knows of technology outdated by over a century. Perhaps evoking a similar scene in Harrison's Deathworld. When the space-travelling hero lands in a backward human inhabited world. A local girl shows him a primitive crystal and asks that he not take it from her. The hero considers that her ancestors went to the stars, while she is reduced to this forlorn state.

There is one slightly discordant note in Turtledove's book. In a passage, the protagonist, who is from the late 21st century in our timeline, refers to an iPod. A bit suss. The iPod hails from the 1st decade of this century. Granted, we don't know how many years the iPod brand will persist, through future iterations of its technology. But is it really likely to be trendy and germane some 80 years hence? It would be like you running a Hollerith card tabulator every day. If you're not sure what that is, this is my point. A naive teenage reader might accept the iPod reference unthinkingly. But a more discerning reader could wonder.

A terrific science fantasy book! Thought-provoking, easy to read and yet very, very intriguing! Great for adults or young adults. A classic book I am keeping on my shelf for a very, very long time - and it takes a DARN good book to hit that level with me!!

The other Crosstime novels are young adult fiction, but adults can enjoy them.

This effort, not so much. The author ported in his usual WLB (Whiner Little Bitch) viewpoint character used in all the series. This one was even more cardboard than usual. (The WLB viewpoint character in the series can be male or female, what counts is being annoying and pissy).

Anyhow, in most of the series the WLB has some reason for being that way, even if it is just being overly young or lonely. This time, just the pissy without much reason, and being stupid pissy to the point of endangering themselves and others.

Moving past the WLB, all the characters were also cardboard. Just very little fleshed out there. When something would happen that normally would advance our view or understanding of a character, it felt more like the author had been using a checklist. "Okay, being a archer is....check. Now he feels loyal to his commander but sorry for the bad thing....check!"

The setting was interesting, but no more than that. As others observed, the political and tech setting simply does not stand up to a few minutes thought.

The plot moves along well, but is hampered by the characters not existing as other than cut-outs and the lack of thought or good reason for their actions and decisions.

The Valley-Westside War (2008) is the sixth SF novel in the Crosstime Traffic series, following The Gladiator. In the previous volume, Eduardo took Gianfranco back to the home timeline, where he received a mental treatment to protect him from spilling the secret. Then he was returned to The Gladiator subbasement and worked his way home.

Annarita, her family, and the Mazzillis were very pleased at the return of Gianfranco, but the Security Police were not happy. They questioned Gianfranco and learned little about his disappearance. His father was very irritated at the Security Police, but Comrade Mazzilli's position within the Communist Party left the Security Police with nothing on which to vent their frustrations.

In this novel, Liz Mendoza is the daughter of a historian and a doctor specializing in genetics diseases and the effects of radiation. When her parents get a grant to study a timeline where nuclear war had started in 1967, Liz went along to add protective coloration. After all, a couple looked more normal with an eighteen year old daughter.

Dan is about the same age as Liz, but is a native on this timeline. He is a private -- a lowly archer -- in the Valley Army.

In this story, Dan is part of the parley group that warns the Westside troops to remove the wall built across Sepulveda Pass. Colonel Morris refuses in the name of the Westside Council. Captain Kevin takes his troops back to the Valley to report to King Zev.

When the Valley army returns, they have a surprise for the Westside forces. The heavy machine gun shatters their defenses and drives the troops back through Westwood Village. The Valley forces pursue the fleeing troops.

Liz and her parents are surprised when Dan knocks on their door and demands entry. Liz's father opens the door and allows the the Valley troops to enter. He gives them his trading goods and the cash box. Then the invaders leave.

However, Sergeant Chuck leaves one trooper behind to let other Valley troops know that the house has already been looted. Dan spends several hours talking to Liz. Soon he develops a crush on her.

Liz knows that she shouldn't be too offensive toward the occupying troops, but Dan is really getting on her nerves. She spends quite a bit of time complaining about him to her father and mother. Naturally, they are rather amused by the situation.

Then Dan sees Liz leaving the UCLA library and asks what she is doing there. She tells him that she is looking for the cause of the nuclear war. He finds her explanations a little weird. Who wants to know anything about history?

Sergeant Chuck warns the troops about spies and Dan begins to wonder if Liz is searching for Old Time weapons in the library. He reports his conversations to Sergeant Chuck, but the noncom doesn't think that his interest in Liz is really about spying. The sergeant tells him to report anything suspicious in future talks.

This tale turns more dangerous when the Valley troops break into the house and then Dan finds the secret subbasement. Naturally, the Mendozas have already fled the timeline. But then they decide to come back.

The story is mostly about Liz's reactions toward Dan. She sees him -- and his whole timeline -- as ignorant, flea bitten barbarians. Yet Dan impresses her with his intelligence. Ignorance is not the same as low mentality! Read and enjoy!

Highly recommended for Turtledove fans and for anyone else who enjoys tales of nuclear disaster, cultural differences, and thwarted romance.

-Arthur W. Jordin

[Note: this review first appeared in my "Guest Reference Library" column in the January/February 2009 issue of Analog Science Fiction and Fact, and then was reprinted on SFScope.com.]

The Valley-Westside War is the sixth book in Harry Turtledove's "Crosstime Traffic" series, but it works just fine as a stand-alone novel. The series is set in the many parallel worlds accessible through the technology discovered by the company Crosstime Traffic. This particular story is set a century and a quarter after a nuclear war didn't destroy the planet, but did knock all of humanity back to a pre-electricity era. Buildings are left, along with a partial knowledge of the time before, but none of the comforts the home timeline is used to. In this milieu, Liz and her family are researching the causes of the nuclear war. They know it happened in 1967, but they are trying to figure out who started it (the US or the USSR?) and why.

Teenaged Liz has recently graduated from high school in the home timeline, and is on assignment with her researcher parents. She's thinking of becoming a crosstime researcher herself, and is hoping to bulk up her resume before entering college. Her parents' grant has sent them to this timeline, where they're living as traders in the mini-kingdom known as Westside. The cover works, as Liz spends most of her days at the remains of UCLA, in the library, reading 150-year old copies of Time, Newsweek, and any other contemporary news sources she can find.

Her research is threatened when the neighboring kingdom of The Valley invades Westside, in response to the Westsiders attempting to charge their neighbors a toll through the wall across the 405. The war is limited in the ways of war with bows and arrows, a few flintlocks, and the exceedingly rare high-powered guns from a distant past must be. Indeed, one machine gun discovered by the king of the Valley is enough to turn the tide, and suddenly Liz and her family are living under an occupying force while trying to continue their research. Keeping their heads down as unremarkable traders wouldn't be terribly difficult... if Liz hadn't attracted the attention of Dan, a soldier in the Valley army who is smitten with her.

Young Dan has the stirrings of intelligence that is untapped in this world. It isn't just Liz's looks and attitude that keep Dan coming back. He isn't sure if she's different, or suspicious, so he keeps coming around. Liz, for her part, finds him an uncultured savage, and barely tolerates his attention, which of course makes Dan suspect even more.

Dan's suspicions and intelligence also come to the attention of his superiors, he is promoted, and life becomes too hot for Liz and family. They flee, only to return through another transposition chamber to try to continue their research. Unfortunately, as with all historical research, there is never a definitive answer.

Liz and Dan are fully fleshed-out characters, though most of the rest seem little more than ciphers to me. all in all, this is an interesting exploration of what a post-apocalyptic world might be, and how our more advanced descendants might interact with it.