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In the Balance: An Alternate History of the Second World War (Worldwar, Volume 1) Mass Market Paperback – December 28, 1994

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Harry Turtledove (Author)
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Harry Turtledove (Author)
3.8 out of 5 stars 165 customer reviews
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Product Details

  • Series: Worldwar (Book 1)
  • Mass Market Paperback: 576 pages
  • Publisher: Del Rey (December 28, 1994)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0345388526
  • ISBN-13: 978-0345388520
  • Product Dimensions: 4.2 x 1.6 x 6.9 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (165 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #156,427 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Top Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 starsGood "what if?"
By Stephen M. St Onge on June 24, 2000
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.Read more ›
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4.0 out of 5 starsMy First Turtledove Book
By CV Rick on May 30, 2007
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
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4.0 out of 5 starsAn excellent alternative history series about aliens & WWII.
By A Customer on July 12, 1998
Format: Mass Market Paperback
Turtledove's first Worldwar book introduces us to the Lizards, an alien race bent on conquring the planet during World War II. An interesting read in alternative history sci-fi, to say the least, one that WW II military buffs will be especially pleased with. Turtledove's narrative takes us from the US to the German front to China to Russia, and how humans attempt to resist conquest. Especially good are the "talks" amongst world figures Molotov, Ribbentrop,Hull et al, and each regime's reaction to the invasion. Ultimately, Turtledove asks us: What would happen if, during the period of tense alliances and fierce battles of WW II, an even greater enemy bent on conquering the entire planet appeared? A solid series, and an especially solid start.
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5.0 out of 5 starsJust One Change
By Jedidiah Carosaari VINE VOICE on August 3, 2004
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.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

3.0 out of 5 starsLots of errors in the Kindle edition

The story is interesting but the Kindle edition is RIDDLED with errors. Punctuation errors, typos, even some sentences without a period at the end, commas all over in the wrong... Read more

Published 7 days ago by J. S. Harbour
3.0 out of 5 starsGreat story and very interesting premise

Pros:
Great story and very interesting premise. The politics were interesting. The plot covers the globe -- literally. Read more

Published 23 days ago by Klondike Eddie
4.0 out of 5 starsEnjoyable to read and imagine how 1940's technology would cope with an...

Not great literature perhaps but it is entertaining enough that I intend to read the other books in this series. Read more

Published 2 months ago by Seaberry11
2.0 out of 5 starsPassable

This book is passable as a work of science fiction, but only that. Setting aside that it is littered with spelling and grammatical errors, not to mention a host of misplaced... Read more

Published 4 months ago by graymachine
5.0 out of 5 starsFive Stars

It is the beginning of an interesting and fascinating story.

Published 4 months ago by Kindle Customer
5.0 out of 5 starsGreat story. Would make ONE great book, but not FOUR!

Wonderful story and told well. The characters are well done and the history fits perfectly. This book (book 1) ends with the plot far from resolved. Read more

Published 5 months ago by Harvey W. Powers
5.0 out of 5 starsFive Stars

Awesome historic mashup with classic sci fi tropes.

Published 7 months ago by David
5.0 out of 5 starsFive Stars

What can you a say, its Harry Turtleove...

Published 8 months ago by Amazon Customer
2.0 out of 5 starsInteresting, but disappointingly bad writing

I'll just start with the basics: the writing in this book is bad. I bought the second book because the concept was interesting to me and I was curious where the plot was going, but... Read more

Published 9 months ago by C. Gauss
5.0 out of 5 starsHistorical Figures, in Non-Historical Situations! Great Fun!

I have to admit that this book had it all for me. Some WWII history, little green spacemen and a lot of believable dialogue makes this first book a treasure! Read more

Published 10 months ago by Kyle

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