The War That Came Early: Hitler's War [Paperback]

Harry Turtledove (Author)

Book Description

Series: The War That Came Early | Publication Date: June 22, 2010

A stroke of the pen and history is changed. In 1938, British prime minister Neville Chamberlain, determined to avoid war, signed the Munich Accord, ceding part of Czechoslovakia to Hitler. But the following spring, Hitler snatched the rest of that country, and England, after a fatal act of appeasement, was fighting a war for which it was not prepared. Now, in this thrilling alternate history, another scenario is played out: What if Chamberlain had not signed the accord?

In this action-packed chronicle of the war that might have been, Harry Turtledove uses dozens of points of view to tell the story: from American marines serving in Japanese-occupied China and ragtag volunteers fighting in the Abraham Lincoln Battalion in Spain to an American woman desperately trying to escape Nazi-occupied territory—and witnessing the war from within the belly of the beast. A tale of powerful leaders and ordinary people, at once brilliantly imaginative and hugely entertaining, Hitler’s War captures the beginning of a very different World War II—with a very different fate for our world today.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“[Harry Turtledove’s] mastery of the ever-widening ripples that small changes make in history is unchallenged, his storytelling always gripping, and his research impeccable.”
—Library Journal
 
“Turtledove is always good, but this return to World War II . . . is genuinely brilliant. . . . The characterizations in particular bring the book to extraordinary life and will make most readers hope this is the beginning of another saga.”
—Booklist
 
“Turtledove [is] the standard-bearer for alternate history.”
—USA Today

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.


From the Hardcover edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 528 pages
• Publisher: Del Rey; Reprint edition (June 22, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0345491831
• ISBN-13: 978-0345491831
• Product Dimensions: 6 x 1.1 x 9.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #290,183 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.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Harry's War - Alternate History Series' Ad Infinitum, August 2, 2010

By 

Robert Mosher "The Military Philosopher at h... (Virginia, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The War That Came Early: Hitler's War (Paperback)

I bought this in the mistaken view (hope really) that it was not yet one more endless series from the Harry Turtledove heavy book building industrial complex. I was wrong. It is apparently the first volume of a new alternate history series based upon the interesting premise that the Munich talks in 1939 fall through and Hitler gets the war that he (thinks he) wants rather than having to wait until the following year as historically occurred. From that premise, the author launches a workmanlike and reasonably plausible account of the resulting war - to include its most likely outcome within the time frame alloted for this first volume. As noted, the writing is easy to read and the story not without interest. The only problem for me being that I had just recently finished reading a small collection of memoirs of World War I and II infantrymen - American, British, and German - and Turtledove's version of infantry warfare actually pales by comparison to the reality. The failure herein of fiction to keep up with history surprised me, however realistic this story might be otherwise. If you are a Turtledove fan, you will enjoy the book and the series, I hope you do. Personally, I'm getting off of the bus at this stop, thanks anyway.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A good alternate history novel, August 13, 2010

By 

J.Flood (Dublin,Ireland) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The War That Came Early: Hitler's War (Paperback)

What if World War Two broke out a year earlier, during the Czech Crisis of 1938? That is the premise of Harry Turtledove's new alternate history novel, Hitler's War. Germany invades Czechoslovakia in September 1938. As a result, Britain, France and the Soviet Union declare war on Germany. Poland more fearful of Stalin than Hitler, ends up going to war against the Soviet Union.

I found this novel an enjoyable read. There are a few subtle differences in the politics of the time. For example, although the Soviet Union is fighting against the Nazis, they are not quite allies with Britain and France.

The action takes place mainly in Europe, with a bit of attention given to the Japan and the Soviet Union's ambitions in the Far East. There is a rarely a dull moment in the storyline, which is a real roller coaster ride, with a large cast of characters.

Unfortunately, which such an vast amount of characters, it is hard for the author to go too much in-depth about each one, but as this is the first volume of series, I am sure we will learn a lot more about them, in future installments.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Not the Good Stuff, June 19, 2011

By 

Kevin Kissell (Somewhere in France) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The War That Came Early: Hitler's War (Paperback)

Harry Turtledove has done some extraordinary work in alternate history. "How Few Remain" is amazing. But now that Turtledove is a full-time writer and no longer a history professor, he is very often given over to a painfully mechanical and repetitive writing. There's an awful lot of that in "Hitler's War". In his best books, Turtledove researched historical characters and used them convincingly to drive his plot lines. In this one, we have a quick glimpse of the collapse of the alternate Munich conference, and are promptly dropped into watching the alternate history unfold before a bunch of everyman characters scattered around Europe and Asia, none of whom has any role in actually shaping events. One German character has a moment where you think he might have changed the course of the war, but no, of course he doesn't. Apart from the fact, beaten repeatedly into our heads, that they wear different colored uniforms, his French, German, British, Czech, Russian, characters are largely interchangeable. I've lived a lot of my life in France, and Turtledove's French characters don't sound very French to me. Turtledove picks two or three superficial distinguishing national details and pounds them into the ground. And when he gets it wrong, it's really, really annoying.

For all that, I did read through to the end. Turtledove has a genius for posing the question, "suppose this had happened differently...", and the premise for this novel/series is interesting enough where I wanted to know what was going to happen. I probably won't bother buying the next in the series, though.