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41 of 42 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
"What if" things had been done differently at Pearl Harbor?, April 13, 2008
I previously picked up a copy of Pearl Harbor by Newt Gingrich and William R. Forstchen. Much to my surprise, it was far better than I expected, and gave me a greater appreciation of Pearl when we visited Hawaii last year. I was recently contacted by the publicist for an advanced reader copy of their follow-on novel Days of Infamy. Of course, I accepted. :) As with Pearl Harbor, it's a well-written historical novel that looks at how the Japanese/American conflict might have played out if the Japanese had made a few different choices in their strategy.
The novel covers a four day period after the initial two attack waves on Pearl Harbor. In this alternative history, the Japanese lead a third wave over the islands along with a coastal bombardment with two of their battleships. This has everyone thinking that an island invasion might be imminent, when in reality it's a ploy to draw out the carriers that fortunately happened not to be docked in Pearl during the attack. Due to a complete and total destruction of the communication facilities, there is little intel that the US can use to figure out where the Japanese fleet is, how large it is, and what their plans might be. Likewise, the Japanese don't know where or exactly how many carriers the US has available or where they were if not docked at Pearl. It's a chess match between Halsey and Yamamoto that involves millions of tons of naval and aerial equipment, tens of thousands of lives, and quite possibly the fate of the free world. The story also involves James Watson, a cryptographer who lost a hand in an earlier conflict, and is not well-equipped to be part of a battle zone. His wife and mother-in-law are Japanese, and that brings an additional burden to his work. The social backlash against *all* people of Japanese descent in the US is starting to whip up, and he can't guarantee that those he loves will be safe from marauding bands of thugs seeking revenge.
Since the timespan covered in this installment of the story is much smaller, there's not as much character development as there was in the first episode. More of the action is focused on the battle strategy and the actual attacks from both sides. Still, there is plenty of personal material here to keep you interested in the characters. Watching people overcome (or be overwhelmed by) their prejudices is a strong theme covered. I was also struck by how much warfare has changed since then. It was possible back then to be within 100 miles of each other and still not know what was going on. Now with satellite imagery and other technology, war is fought at a completely different level.
If you haven't yet read Pearl Harbor by these two authors, do so before this book comes out. That will lay the groundwork for what continues here. For fans of alternative historical novels, this is a great read.
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20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
After Pearl Harbor, Yamamoto goes for the American carriers, May 9, 2008
With their "Gettysburg" trilogy, Newt Gingrich and William R. Forstchen played out how the Civil War might have ended if the Confederates had won the pivotal battle between North and South in the first days of July 1863. Despite the assumptions of critics who leaped to the conclusion the authors were closet Southern apologists, the trilogy basically validated the argument that Forstchen laid out in an essay in "Alternate Gettysburgs" that Robert E. Lee and the Confederates could not have taken Washington, D.C. and that the losing the war was inevitable (although I should not that Forstchen posits a Confederate victory at Gettysburg on the second day while the trilogy he co-authored with Gingrich shifts the pivotal battlefield to Union Mills). With their World War II series, Gingrich and Forstchen take a similar approach. "Pearl Harbor: A Novel of December 8th" rewrites history so that the Japanese surprise attack is even more devastating, and in "Days of Infamy" start playing out what happens after that point.
The crucial change in the historical calculus at the heart of the first book in this series is that Admiral Yamamoto accompanies the task force and personally leads the attack, and consequently the Japanese launch a third attack wave against Pearl Harbor. By blocking the entrance to the harbor, destroying the largest dry-dock, and setting the fuel farms afire, Pearl Harbor is put out of business. I can certainly quibble with the title, because FDR was right: the day of the sneak attack was a "day of infamy," and what Gingrich and Forstchen come up with for the next few days (when the novel ends it is only December 10th) does not constitute additional "days of infamy." But I had trouble making the title of the first volume work and still enjoyed reading the book.
"Days of Infamy" is the more interesting book because Gingrich and Forstchen are now making everything up instead of just setting up their point of divergence from history. The Japanese ambassador in Washington still does not get the declaration of war delivered in time, so Americans are still outraged by the attack, but the key point they focus on this time around is that the attacked missed the American carriers. Having knocked Pearl Harbor out of commission, Yamamoto wants the two carriers. Equally important, Admiral Halsey on the "Enterprise" and Rear Admiral Newton with the "Lexington" are eager to hit back despite the odds (six Japanese carriers in a battle group versus two American carriers hundreds of miles apart). There is nothing Yamamoto can do about the diplomatic foul up, but he has a plan to get the American carriers and baits a trap for them. The Americans know that it is a trap, but after what happened on December 7th they have to strike back despite the long odds. This naval chess match takes up most of the action of "Days of Infamy."
I do not know as much about World War II as I do about the Civil War, but so far in these books I do not have a sense that the authors are indulging in having key details of history repeat themselves. This is one of the pitfalls of alternative histories that authors have to beware, trying to have their cake and eat it too when it comes to rewriting history (i.e., I really, really, really wanted General James B. McPherson to survive their version of the Civil War). What are more fascinating are when the authors play off of history (e.g., Bohunks), and when they come up with rationales for cleaning up some things (e.g., Eleanor's brief little chat with FDR).
Taken together "Pearl Harbor" and "Days of Infamy" comprise the opening act of this series, and I wish they had been one book because the whole point of such a story is to get to the point where things get different and that is pretty much where the first book ends. I have no idea how many volumes will be involved, but there is no way this is a trilogy (my assumption is that the end game is going to involve the invasion of Japan simply because the authors are not going to want to dig a giant hole with their alt history and then pull a couple of atomic bombs out of their hat). I think the next volume will be the pivotal one in the series because it essentially replaces the Battle of Midway by being about the attempt to stop the Japanese from taking all of the American possessions west of Hawaii. The authors have something of an advantage in rewriting the war in the Pacific because nothing they come up with as fiction could compare with the true history of the Battle of Midway, but coming up with something comparable for the next volume will be key.
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38 of 44 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Second in a Great Alt History Series, April 29, 2008
The first book in this series, Pearl Harbor, was just the opening act in a days long horror that will set the Pacific ablaze as two of World War II's greatest commanders, Yamamoto and Bull Halsey, clash in the greatest naval battle never to have happened. It is the narrative genius of Newt Gingrich and William Forstchen that makes one think that the battle in Days of Infamy must have happened.
Days of Infamy is also a meditation on one of the essential truths of war. Whatever the issues, whatever the cause, whatever the failure that led up to it, the one thing that is true of every war, especially World War Two, is that young men die decades before their time. There is plenty of such death in Days of Infamy, much of it heartbreaking.
In Days of Infamy young pilots take off from the pitching deck of a carrier with the dawn, knowing that very likely they will not live to see the dusk. Some face that prospect with resolution, some with terror.
Even more horrendous than the terror of battle thousands of feet over the Pacific, taking minutes or even seconds to resolve, is the horror of the aftermath. Days of Infamy tells about burning ships, taking on water, and crews desperately trying to keep them afloat and operational, or at least moving toward some form of refuge. Death by fire or death by water is the fate of too many long after the din of battle stills.
In Days of Infamy Gingrich and Forstchen have done it again, as they did with their epic Gettysburg trilogy, and have captured what war is like, in all of its horror and glory, by showing the reader events in another World War Two that never happened, but might have.
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