The World War (Gamekeeper Series, Book 2) [Paperback]

Dave J. Putnam (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 27, 2004

The World War is the second novel in Dave Putnam's riveting Gamekeeper Trilogy. We find Britain entering the twentieth century by attacking, Germany, Russia, and every other despotic regime, sparking a global conflagration, and, perhaps, biting off more than it can chew.

As the world goes up in flames, the pace of technological advance quickens. World War I technology morphs into World War II technology, but with a twist: Animals armed with unique weapons fight alongside panzers and submarines.

From the ashes of the World War, this alternate history timeline continues to diverge from our reality. Fascism does not emerge in Europe, communism becomes a more potent force than anyone can imagine, and humanity enters a strange, new world.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

This novel pushes the envelope in the alternate history genre, pulling and tugging it in a direction that no other author has gone before. Rather than follow convention by making a single change, or point of divergence, and then keeping the rest of history relatively intact, it creates a cascading butterfly effect after the point of divergence. In this alternate reality, Britain wins the Boer War more rapidly than it did in actual history, a seemingly small point of divergence. After all, in most alternate history novels the outcomes of wars are reversed, not merely accelerated. But after this seemingly mild point of divergence, every aspect of history becomes profoundly altered. This process started in The Gamekeeper’s Night Dog and rapidly accelerates in The World War.

This cascading butterfly effect changes technology, social mores, geopolitics, and economics. In short: all aspects of the human condition are radically transformed. The novel takes the reader through a global war where WW I technology evolves directly into WW II technology, without the intervening period of the roaring twenties and the Great Depression.

Throughout history, the seeds of future conflicts have always been sown by problems that remain unresolved as the original war is waged. For instance, the innate contradiction of the Soviet Union and the United States fighting on the same side in WW II led to the Cold War. The premise behind The World War is that an alternate war will sow alternate dichotomies and alternate contradictions that will spin future events away from the path of actual history.

As the global conflagration rages in The World War, nationalism becomes a weaker and weaker force. Rather than sowing the seeds of nationalistic strife, the war that takes place in the novel sows a different set of contradictions and problems. Every page takes the reader away from the course of actual history and deeper into a highly believable and logically consistent alternative. The World War puts the alternate into alternate history with a vengeance.

About the Author

Dave Putnam is a nationally recognized sculptor, specializing in abstract and representational animal figures. He has pieces in the Audubon Zoo in New Orleans, the International Wildlife Museum in Tucson, Arizona and many private collections throughout the country.He has written the definitive book on the American Bulldog, The Working American Bulldog in addition to the prequel to this novel The Gamekeeper’s Night Dog. Dave lives in Northern California with his wife and four American Bulldogs.

Product Details

• Paperback: 402 pages
• Publisher: Bulldog Press (February 27, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0967271061
• ISBN-13: 978-0967271064
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 5.8 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,650,434 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars I missed the flying spider monkeys, June 14, 2004

By 

Zvonimir Siljkovic (Zagreb Croatia) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The World War (Gamekeeper Series, Book 2) (Paperback)

What can one say about a book in which the main battles are won by bulldogs and sealions with magnetic mines. I never could get serious about this book. Why two stars, read a whole lot of AH books that were much worse! Its readable if you have nothing better to do but be prepared for war winning bulldogs and sealions. I was expecting parachuting spider monkeys to appear at the end. Sorely dissapointed!

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Interesting sub-plot, December 25, 2004

By 

A Quick - See all my reviews

This review is from: The World War (Gamekeeper Series, Book 2) (Paperback)

One of the interesting sub-plots (in The World War) was the development of mechanized combined armies by Germany. In the prequel (Gamekeeper's Night Dog) Germany is given the designs for a T35, the most effective main battle tank in the real WW II. Unlike the real world Germany, the fictional Germany does not develop mobile war tactics on the battlefields of the Spanish Civil War. It conducts massive war games on a remote North Sea island, operating on a scale equal to the Spanish Civil War, but in secrecy. Therefore the fictional Germany springs a devastating blitzkrieg on the Western Allies that is more effective than [...] blitzkrieg. Why is the fictional Germany smarter than the real one? Answer: General Alfred Graf von Schlieffen. The real Schlieffen was an unparalled military genius. He designed Germany's plan for defeating France in WW I. But he died before the war and his plan was weakened and modified. There is a school of thought that the original Schieffen plan would have delivered victory to Germany. In the World War, the fictional Schlieffen's plan is allowed to come to fruition.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A True Giant Among Alternate History Authors, September 20, 2005

By 

Dr. Fred R. Eichelman "arous" (Salem,, VA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The World War (Gamekeeper Series, Book 2) (Paperback)

To show how much I loved The World War by Dave Putnam, I was not bored as I usually am with long descriptions of military tactics and weaponry. I also hate spiders with a passion, yes I have a phobia and the spider on the cover of the book cover was turned face down when I wasn't reading it. Having said that, it is a great work of alternate history and continues the Gamekeeper Trilogy. Favorite characters like Fred Greystone, David Banner, and others return plus some interesting new ones. The greatest treat for me was the continuing saga of a man I consider the most outstanding leader in the 20th century, Winston Churchill. There are also nice segments on the aging Queen Victoria and many others. The World War begun in the first book is covered in detail, a combination of our two World Wars. There is a creation of a real life and death war game that is supposed to help the human race become less blood thirsty over all and to develop new technology well ahead of its time. Animals again play a major part in this second book. The book, like the first one, is not afraid to make religion and belief in God the focal point. The book plants the seeds for the third book in the series that sees the world faced with the greatest Godless threat of all time, communism. There is also a bow to how leftist Hollywood film companies try to influence elections. I only read other reviews after I have written mine so that I will not be influenced. I was concerned with some snobbery from a reviewer on the first book about the publisher "Bulldog Press". I will honestly say that threw me a bit myself until I remembered that thanks to the net and other factors, small publishers can now slug it out with the big ones. No longer does an author have to be concerned whether he or she will be loved by the New York Times. Thanks to Amazon, our own reviews carry at least as much weight (I'd like to think more) than reviews in the so called big press, "the old media". And David Putnam carries a lot of weight gaining equality with Eric Flint and again surpassing Harry Turtledove. As I said in my review of the first book, I wish that this series had been available when I was teaching full time, but after 40 years I am retired. I did use alternate history and government books in my classes and have even had some published myself.