Last Orders

The War that Came Early: Last Orders
©  Harry Turtledove
416 pages

This cover has nothing to do with the plot. 

Good things come to those who wait. Such is the lesson of Last Orders, the sixth book in an alternate-history series that, so far, has performed like the Kaputnik rocket. Despite some promising left turns, The War that Came Early has always disappointingly drifted back into the wake of real history. Beginning with the 1938 Munich Conference ending in a general European war,   as of the fifth book Germany is fighting the allies in France and Russia,  while the United States holds its own against the Japanese and slowly turns the tide. Sound familiar?  Last Orders leaves things in a decidedly different state, however, but such is a mixed blessing given that the series has only gotten interesting now that it is over.  

Unlike the previous books, Last Orders is largely taken up with political turmoil. Aside from an American paratroop drop on Midway Island, the war remains background noise while the characters engage in the exciting activities of everyday life -- complaining about officers,  complaining about the lack of women, getting shot, shooting others, complaining about politicians (complaining in general, really).  Other novels have been more eventful, war-wise, but here the Big Happenings are the triumph of one revolution and the beginning of another. At least two regimes have toppled by novel's end,  and the polities that will emerge from them are so promising, storywise,  that this series' end is frustrating.  There were books in this series where nothing of consequence happened, and now that we've got genuine alt-history on our hands, peace treaties are being signed. Ah, well.  If nothing else, it was good to read of the Spanish Republicans triumphing against the fascists, and equally satisfying for other fascists to get their just desserts. The characters, Turtledove's usual motley crew of irregulars,  soldiers and civilians, hounds and heroes, Axis and Allies,  have carried this series through utter tedium and flourished in its intermittent exciting periods, and they continue solid duty here; some even find the ending they deserve, whether it's a spot on the casualty lists or a tearjerking return home.

Although I enjoyed this novel well enough, the series as a whole needed sharp editing. At some point the books seem like potboilers, and it doesn't help that the book covers have gotten similarly unimaginative -- compare Last Orders' with that of books four and five,  Two Fronts and Coup d'Etat.   Even the titles have gotten tedious;   the Timeline-191 WW2 books sported titles like The Center Cannot Hold, In at the Death,  and so on.   That series at least acknowledged the implications of its ending -- but there's nary a word here despite the fact that England is being run by the military at this point and Europe is still buzzing with fascists despite the peace.  Last Orders is frustratingly "OK". 

If you want the book's big spoiler, either click here or think....valkyrie. 

Two Fronts

The War that Came Early: Two Fronts
© 2013 Harry Turtledove
416 pages

In Hitler's War,  Harry Turtledove began a new alternate history of the Second World War, one in which the conflict started in 1938 when Britain and France decided Hitler was being too obvious a budding supervillain in invading Czechoslovakia, and declared war on him for want of anything better to do.  The following years have seen the powers of the world enter into conflicts and alliances with one another, and drop out of them, with ease.  Every dramatic derivation from real life has been reversed, to the point that the series has been a disappointment. But in Two Fronts, Turtledove has produced a military action-adventure novel that's enjoyable regardless of how similar is setting is to our own.

In 1942, the situation is thus:  Germany is in the midst of a two front war, fighting Britain, France, and the Soviet Union while simultaneously throwing men and material into Africa to bail Mussolini out after Il Duce discovers his new Roman Army is still no match for the crazy Scots defending Egypt. In the east, Japan os still trying to conquer China in total, and is now merrily engaged in a war against the United States, which it initiated by sneak attack. Sound familiar?  That's pretty much the situation of reality's World War 2, but with one notable exception: the United States is not at war with Germany. Two Fronts covers the year 1942 in the history of the war that came early, and is is not progressing as one might expect -- but the war which is taking place is interesting in its own right, even if it makes little sense.  It is an in-between novel, in which there aren't any major obvious happenings -- though there are a few subtle happenings which will have major consequences for savvy readers -- but there is an awful lot of fighting. Turtledove's cast of characters is as strong and varied as I've yet seen from him, with viewpoints from all theaters, countries, and branches of the service: whatever military action readers look for, it's here. Tanks, infantry, sea, special operations, even a little aviation are included.  (Aerial warfare isn't downplayed, but bombers are mostly in the background making everyone's lives just a bit more exciting/miserable.)

Two Fronts sees a few interesting changes hovering around the sides of the action, both involving superweapons. Not only do the Japanese begin to introduce biological warfare into their struggle with the United States (dropping rats filled with the Black Death into Hawaii), but a little project in Tennessee named after Manhattan loses its funding. The implications as the war goes are enormous, but then again I've been saying that for four novels, so who knows?  I belatedly realized in reading this that The War That Came Early isn't so much about  a logical series of events that builds off of the war starting in 1938: rather,  that alteration is only one of many. Turtledove seems to be using the early war as a way to turn the Second World War into a sandbox, in which he can explore what-if scenarios like the failure of the Manhattan Project, or the introduction of 'secret weapons' into the field of combat. While I'd prefer the aforementioned logical buildup, this approach has its own merits: it's like the airships  and steam-powered cars in The Two Georges, an interesting take at what-might have been. It is World War 2 with different toys. This is only problematic in that sometimes the plot doesn't make sense. For instance, in this 1942, the United States is only fighting Japan. While it's also sending some resources to Britain and some to Russia to help fight Hitler, the majority of its industrial capacity should be free to be focused squarely on Japan, a Japan which should be weakened by the fact that it decided to invade Russia first. And yet, instead of the United States slowly but surely checking the Japanese advance and swinging a few punches of its own, it's floundering. Maybe its industrial capacity simply hasn't hit full war-time mobilization yet since it doesn't have the added challenge of taking on Hitler, but this amateur-hour performance on their part is bothersome.

Two Fronts is perplexing because I like it. I didn't expect to like it, because it didn't address the fact that this history isn't very 'alternate' despite the early start. It may be that the differences are more subtle than I'd expected, and their consequences will take longer to be noticeable as a result.  Despite the fact that the general sequence of events is unchanged I genuinely enjoyed the variety of military action presented here, especially since Turtledove didn't repeat himself too much. (The exception:  he has decided infantrymen do not like artillerymen, who can kill them without risking being killed in turn. He saw fit to tell the reader this several times. I'm starting to wonder if he doesn't do this on purpose.)    Perhaps this World War 2 with a twist was just the light reading I was looking for this weekend.

Coup d'Etat

The War that Came Early: Coup d'Etat
© 2012 Harry Turtledove
416 pages

Coup d'Etat is the fourth book in Turtledove's War that Came Early series, in which World War 2 begins at the 1938 Munich Conference when the Allies call Hitler's bluff. Soon joined in his invasion of Czechoslovakia by the Polish,  Germany found itself engrossed in a two-front war after Russia rushed to the tiny republic's defense. But in 1940, Hitler pulled off a diplomatic coup, convincing Britain and France to join him in a war against Stalinism by offering to withdraw the Wehrmacht from the low countries.  Considering that the Soviets were also under attack by the Japanese empire, the Big Switch was making World War 2 out to be a general dogpile against the the Russians -- but in Coup de'Etat, the alliance between Hitler and the west breaks down after an "extralegal" change of government in Britain, and what was shaping up to be a vastly different war is now simmering down to an only marginally interesting conflict.

Like Supervolcano: Explosion, Coup d'Etat succeeds initially purely on premise alone. The Big Switch completely recovered this slow-to-start series for me, and the new set course of events it initiated carry the novel: with the Allies and Germany both pouring resources into Russia, it's as if we're seeing the Cold War served hot and early.  Will Russia collapse? What will Europe look like with Stalin gone, but with Hitler still reigning? Unfortunately,  that question becomes moot by novel's end.  Not only are we back to the same basic World War 2 we know -- complete with Italy invading British Africa, being turned back, and then aided by the Germans -- but the dramatic event that restores the status quo isn't even dramatic. One minute a character is being interrogated by British intelligence for planning to take over the government, the next minute he's free because his cohorts have done it. Whoopee.  How did they do it? The reader isn't shown.  The ramifications of a military coup of Britain aren't explored, either: the new powers-that-be simply inform us that they have to be very discrete to avoid popular sentiment turning against them.  The war in the Pacific isn't any more interesting,  perhaps because the American war engine is only starting to rev up. With Hitler at war with Britain, France, and Russia, and about to waste his resources in Africa, and the Japanese already weak after also taking on Russia,  the end-game seems as though it will be inevitably similar to our own. And if that's the case, what's the point of a writing an alternate history novel?

The Big Switch

The War that Cane Early: The Big Switch
© 2011 Harry Turtledove
432 pages

In 1938, the powers of Europe met to maintain the peace -- but Hitler's arrogance resulted in a continent at war.  In response to Hitler's invasion of Czechoslovakia, the two western powers invaded Germany. Despite his ambitions, the newly remilitarized Germany state is in no condition to make short work of its neighbors, especially after the Soviet Union invades Germany's unlikely ally, Poland. Faced with a two-front war, 1939 looked to be a grim year for Hitler...but then the Japanese invaded Russia's Pacific coast, seeing an opportunity to expand its own Asian territory.

If that intro reads a bit like the intro for West and East, it's because little actually happened in West and East. The story being told was all-too familiar and began to lose my interest -- but that's over with The Big Switch. This is a novel aptly named, for in it the storyline drastically departs from history as we know it. Before this point the changes in the timeline were marginal only: indeed, in West and East it appeared as though Germany was headed toward defeat in the exact manner its real-world counterpart  met in 1945. Japan's invasion of Russia balanced the odds against Germany, though, and in The Big Switch events will drastically alter the balance of power -- imperiling the Soviet Union. Neither Germany or the Soviet Union were prepared for a war of this intensity or magnitude, but Hitler is about to pull off a diplomatic triumph that will be a complete game-changer. While I don't want to spoil anything, let's just say Winston Churchill's death shortly after his protesting rumors of a western alliance against the Soviet Union may not have been an accident.  The result is a war that is NOT our World War 2. This is a World War 2 without D-Day, without Pearl Harbor, and perhaps even without a large-scale Holocaust -- but it's already delivering its own epic ambushes, tragedies, and conflicts.

Turtledove retains the same multinational cast of characters as in his previous novels, though he introduces a couple of newcomers. My favorites remain the German submarine captain, the American socialist fighting in the Spanish Civil War, and a Czech soldier who fled German occupation to fight against the Nazis in France. The Big Switch has completely enthused me about this series, despite a couple of niggling weaknesses (like Turtledove's customary repetitiveness. Yes, Harry, I know Japanese soldiers don't think much of enemy troops who surrender.).   I'm greatly looking forward to what this alternate World War 2 develops into .

West and East

The War that Came Early: West and East
© 2010 Harry Turtledove
436 pages

In 1938, the Munich Peace Conference ended in a general European war. Britain and France, outraged by Hitler's transparent attempts to manipulate them, pledged to defend Czechoslovakia -- resulting in a war that came early, with all sides largely unprepared. The conflict between Britain, France, and Germany widens into a two-front war for Hitler after Russia, discomfited by the Germano-Polish entente that emerged following their sacking of Czechoslovakia, invades his western neighbors. Imperial Japan seizes the opportunity to expand its puppet-state in Manchuria into Siberia.  So ended The War that Came Early: Hitler's War.

That last plot development ensured that I would read the second book in this series, West and East, for it had the potential to radically change the story of the war. While Turtledove's eventual story may read quite differently from our own history books, West and East isn't the book that does it. Though outfitted with interesting, mostly sympathetic characters and not being bogged down in too much trivia, West and East isn't much of an "alternate" history novel. True,  Europe's situation is different --  France, though partially occupied, has not fallen -- but  Germany expanding then falling back against a two-front war isn't much of a change. The most promising twist -- a Russo-Japanese war -- never amounted to much in this novel. The Japanese viewpoint character spends his chapters swatting mosquitoes, avoiding being hit by Russian bombers and mortars, complaining about the weather, and thinking patriotic thoughts about the Japanese race and empire. If Russia and Japan's armies did something other than throw things at one another, it's not apparent here. I was hoping for a wider altercation, but Japan is apparently too busy consolidating its rule in China, where a resistance movement has begun a terrorist campaign against Dai Nippon's occupational forces.

It's a...fair read. I looked forward to hearing from some of the characters, especially the American communist fighting in the Internationals and a Czech soldier embedded inside France's army, who uses an anti-tank rifle to duel with German snipers. The fate of Peggy Druce, an American stranded in Berlin after the war began, was also of interest. Other viewpoint characters include English, Welsh, French, German, and Russian military officials and a Jewish family in Germany. Though  the characters' stories interested me, I'd hoped to see more overall plot development. This is the second of a planned six-book series, though, so it's not altogether surprising development is so slow. Hopefully the events here will be the germ for more interesting developments later on. I'm especially interested on the Russo-Japanese war's impact on Japan's Pacific ambitions, and whether or not Germany will rally to continue to be the villain through the remaining four books. I'm sure Turtledove can pad out a long retreat through four books, but mixing things up -- having an early German defeat followed by an immediate cold-war-turned-hot featuring Russia and Japan as twin evils, for instance -- would be an improvement over a so-far predictable recounting of historical events with a slight twist. I'll read the third when it comes out, but I'll only finish the series if the divergence widens.

Hitler's War

Hitler's War
© 2009 Harry Turtledove
496 pages

The year is 1938, and war wages in Spain between the Popular Front -- a collection of democrats, liberals, socialists, communists, and anarchists --  and the Nationalists, those supporting the attempted military takeover of the Second Spanish Republic. German chancellor Adolf Hitler, who has recently remilitarized the German border with France and effected the annexation of Austria in violation of the Treaty of Versailles, is meeting in Munich with representatives from the British and French governments over the fate of Czechoslovakia. The western powers created Czechoslovakia following the Great War, and its mountainous border regions are peopled by Germans whom Hitler believes belong in the Fatherland.  He expects the allies to concede these regions and more to him, and the unexpected political assassination of those Czechoslovakian Germans' leader seems a godsend to his cause.

He does not anticipate Chamberlain's reaction, for the British prime minister sees this assassination as an obviously staged event on the part of the German ruler. Angered by the Chancellor's arrogance, Britain and France affirm their support of Czechoslovakia. The political leaders leave the room and return to a Europe at war: soon, Russia will join the Allies in condemning this fragant display of imperialism.  World War 2 has begun. While Hitler's newly-revived Wehrmacht goes into action in the Czech mountains, French and British troops gingerly tip-toe into Germany to run over a few mailboxes and blow raspberries. Meanwhile, smaller nations bordering Czechoslovakia join Germany in its evisceration and tensions rise between Russia and the "fascist" state of Poland.

As the struggle develops, people continue to live their live -- and it is their story told here. Some are soldiers who fight in the various conflicts -- a German tanker, Republican and Nationalists in Spain,  French and British infantrymen,  fighter pilots, and submarine commanders -- that emerge after Munich, but others are innocents caught in a miserable situation. As is typical for Turtledove, these viewpoint characters are multi-national and range the moral spectrum. Some even existed in reality, as did their triumphs and humiliations. Although Turtledove is tasked with making only a small derivation from the standard course of history interesting,  those minor changes force the conflict to develop in a wholly different way by novel's end. Hitler's War is typical Turtledove in style, strengths, and weaknesses, and is the first in a six-volume series. Although initially unimpressed except by the novel's depiction of the Spanish Civil War, the book's final fifty pages whet my appetite and I am eager to see what develops from here on out.