- Hardcover: 448 pages
- Publisher: Del Rey; 1 edition (July 27 2010)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 034549184X
- ISBN-13: 978-0345491848
- Product Dimensions: 16.8 x 3.7 x 24.3 cm
- Shipping Weight: 721 g
- Average Customer Review: 2.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #179,679 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Product Description
Review
“Turtledove [is] the standard-bearer for alternate history.”—USA Today
“As entertainment, this is as good as any alternative fiction, or historical novel, you are going to read this or any other year.”—The Washington Times
From the Trade Paperback edition.
Book Description
In 1938, two men held history in their hands. One was Adolf Hitler. The other was British prime minister Neville Chamberlain, who, determined to avoid war at any cost, came to be known as “the great appeaser.” But Harry Turtledove, the unrivaled master of alternate history, has launched a gripping saga that springboards from a different fateful act: What if Chamberlain had stood up to Hitler? What would the Nazis’ next move have been? And how would the war—which Hitler had always regretted waiting eleven months to start—have unfolded and changed our world?
Here, Turtledove takes us across a panorama of conflict fueled by ideology and demagoguery. Nations are pitted against nations, alliances are forged between old enemies, ordinary men and women are hurled into extraordinary life-and-death situations. In Japanese-controlled Singapore, an American marine falls in love with a Russian dance hall hostess, while around him are heard the first explosions of Chinese guerilla resistance. On the frontlines of war-ravaged rural France, a weary soldier perfects the art of using an enormous anti-tank gun as a sniper’s tool—while from Germany a killer is sent to hunt him down. And in the icy North Atlantic, a U-boat bearing an experimental device wreaks havoc on British shipping, setting the stage for a Nazi ground invasion of Denmark.
From an American woman trapped in Germany who receives safe passage from Hitler himself to a Jewish family steeped in German culture and facing the hatred rising around them, from Japanese soldiers on the remote edge of Siberia to American volunteers in Spain, West and East is the story of a world held hostage by tyrants—Stalin, Hitler, Sanjuro—each holding on to power through lies and terror even in the face of treacherous plots from within.
As armies clash, and as the brave, foolish, and true believers choose sides, new weapons are added to already deadly arsenals and new strategies are plotted to break a growing stalemate. But one question looms over the conflict from West to East: What will it take to bring America into this war?
Here, Turtledove takes us across a panorama of conflict fueled by ideology and demagoguery. Nations are pitted against nations, alliances are forged between old enemies, ordinary men and women are hurled into extraordinary life-and-death situations. In Japanese-controlled Singapore, an American marine falls in love with a Russian dance hall hostess, while around him are heard the first explosions of Chinese guerilla resistance. On the frontlines of war-ravaged rural France, a weary soldier perfects the art of using an enormous anti-tank gun as a sniper’s tool—while from Germany a killer is sent to hunt him down. And in the icy North Atlantic, a U-boat bearing an experimental device wreaks havoc on British shipping, setting the stage for a Nazi ground invasion of Denmark.
From an American woman trapped in Germany who receives safe passage from Hitler himself to a Jewish family steeped in German culture and facing the hatred rising around them, from Japanese soldiers on the remote edge of Siberia to American volunteers in Spain, West and East is the story of a world held hostage by tyrants—Stalin, Hitler, Sanjuro—each holding on to power through lies and terror even in the face of treacherous plots from within.
As armies clash, and as the brave, foolish, and true believers choose sides, new weapons are added to already deadly arsenals and new strategies are plotted to break a growing stalemate. But one question looms over the conflict from West to East: What will it take to bring America into this war?
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Most helpful customer reviews
2 of 3 people found the following review helpful
2.0 out of 5 stars
Well could have been better,
By
This review is from: The War That Came Early: West and East (Hardcover)
While I found Hitler's war to be average, this one was a letdown.Basically the whole book takes place from mid to late 1939. France: Stalemate near Paris, both sides pounding each other, armored back and forths but a bloody stalemate nonetheless. Poland: Soviet offensive gets as far as east of Warsaw then gets stalled by German and Polish troops. Again a bloody stalemate. Norway: Gets invaded by the Germans late 1939. The Swedes are mobilizing to deter a German invasion. Soviet Far East: Japanese cut off the Siberian railway and Vladivostok is cut off from the rest of the USSR and encircled by the Japanese but the Soviets are still fighting hard and the Japanese are being subjective to constant Soviet attacks. Spain: Stalemate, Nationalists trying to bomb the crap out of Madrid. Nationalists do probing attacks on Madrid. Atlantic: German navy is causing damage on Allied shipping but the Allies are fighting back hard. Not much advance on both sides.
0 of 1 people found the following review helpful
3.0 out of 5 stars
Turtledove misses many targets,
By
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: The War That Came Early: West and East (Paperback)
Having been disappointed by the first book in this series, The War That Came Early: Hitler's War, I had no great expectations for the second tome. But, having been well entertained by Turtledove's Worldwar Saga series of five books, I still had some faith in his writing. I rated the first book two stars and will give this one two and three fifths. There is some improvement as the plot gains in complexity; there is increased suspense and the reader gets more involved with characters carried over from the first book. Every character in combat seems to have their own agendas albeit they are sadly one-dimensional. The lack of respect in the line of command is a nagging theme. Jews are strategically interwoven in almost every scenario. Members of every race, nationality and political ideology--other than their own--are disdained, despised and disparaged by everyone. Curiously, in that regard, members of the black race is spared the deprecatory venom. Could it be that Turtledove is influenced by modern day political correctness?Again, I was puzzled why the writer chose to keep most of the scenarios in the trenches, tanks, planes and U-boats. The book would have been much more dynamic and suspenseful if he had included the goings-on in the upper echelons of decision making. Actual historical characters are only alluded to but virtually absent (one page of Hitler making a phone call). Otherwise I refer to my review of the first book. Like the first, this is how I think the second book could have been made better: 1. An introductory summary of the actual historical facts for the locations and the timeline covered by the story. 2. Each chapter of the book being headed by a timeline (e.g. April 1938 to July 1938). 3. Each section of every chapter being headed by stating the location of events. 4. At a minimum ten percent of the book presenting historical figures--what they said, thought and did. 5. More involvement of civilians impacted by the politics and combat. 6. More interweaving subplots and-- especially towards the end--some of the characters from the different scenarios meeting and interacting. 7. Some sketchy maps of where the action is happening.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta) Amazon.com:
3.3 out of 5 stars (25 customer reviews) 33 of 39 people found the following review helpful
1.0 out of 5 stars
A rapid descent into repetition,
By Ed B - Published on Amazon.com
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: The War That Came Early: West and East (Hardcover)
I have read almost everything Turtledove has written from the recasting of the Byzantine Empire to the various alternate history series. A lot of these series were very well-written and interesting. I was looking forward to this series, because it has always seemed one of the major missed chances in history that Germany wasn't confronted in 1938. Several of the panzer divisions that crushed France two years later were equipped with Czech tanks that Chamberlain made a gift of to the Nazis.With this second book, the idea has fizzled out and been overwhelmed by Turtledove's focus on detailed examination of the smoking habits of a dozen or so minor characters who have minimal importance in the scheme of things. About half the 448 pages are devoted to descriptions of the characters smoking, which is tedious beyond belief. A good alternate history series needs to have a balance between the plotlines of ordinary characters who show what's happening in the trenches, and some material from the POV of high-ranking or close to high-ranking characters so we can see the more interesting developments of strategy. This series has only the low level characters, with the only one drawn from history (if you can call his autobiography history, rather than fiction) being Hans Rudel, the Stuka pilot. This will the the last book in the series I purchase, and I have to regard the money paid for this volume as not well-spent. 11 of 11 people found the following review helpful
1.0 out of 5 stars
Turtledove bloat,
By MasterChef - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: The War That Came Early: West and East (Paperback)
"It's a tough life being an everyman character in a turtledove trilogy" sighed Vaclav, the Czech cliché as bombs fell all around."How do you think I feel" muttered Cpl Von Typicalgerman-name "I expected to be a hard bitten cynical war veteran in a King Tiger in 1945 and instead I'm a hard bitten cynical war veteran and its only 1938. Also, I wish to point out that I am in a PzII, a great let down, I may say." "Don't get me started boyo, I mean, pal, I mean chum" groaned an allegedly Welsh soldier "look, he calls me Walsh, why not Llewelyn, or Griffiths something that actualy is Welsh as opposed to sounding like it. And another thing, I don't even sound welsh, see? I talk all posh I do. I bet I dont even know the words to Cwm Rhondda and I dont mention rugby once". "Way to go Tommy" commented the cut out german landser "I'm supposed to be a german but why do I speak like a yankee gangster or a US marine?" "Perhaps a lot of US Marines and gangsters were germans? or because Turtledove is trying to emphasise the common experience of the horror of war?" mused the US Marine who had done nothing so far apart from drink and sleep around and felt very nervous because obviously something bad was going to happen to his white Russian girlfriend who was very pretty even though she was made of cardboard. Meanwhile, "Heheheh" muttered the voice of the Author "you think this is bad, I can do entire trilogies of trilogies! For you the short war book is over!" I tried to like it but really you can switch in chapters from the WW2 era of the aliens books and I dont think you'd notice. Mr Turtldove is asleep at the wheel. 18 of 22 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
What if?,
By Julia A. Andrews - Published on Amazon.com
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: The War That Came Early: West and East (Hardcover)
West and East is another in the alternative history genre in which Harry Turtledove specialises. The catalyst for this different course for the Second World War is the assumption that, rather than appeasing Hitler (as, of course, he did in reality) the British Prime Minister, Chamberlain, stands up to the German dictator. This is the second in the series of novels which charts the course of the war describing what might have happened in the event that the War began almost a year earlier than it, in fact, did.Turtledove follows his well tried format of viewing the course of events through the eyes of a number of combatants and other participants. It would be all to easy to construct a muddled mess of a novel, since none of the story lines are very directly related. This is a trap which Turtledove avoids, mainly by ensuring that our interest in each strand of the story is artfully retained. Each of the characters is sufficiently well drawn to pique our interest in them as individuals. Furthermore, his knowledge of the technology of the period lends further interest and credibilty to the possibilities he outlines. The background to the story line is presented in a way which repays the obvious amount of research he has undertaken. All in all, this a first class example of the genre which I recommend to all alternate history fans and those who simply enjoy a thrilling novel. Enjoy the read! |
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