Although, his "Castro's Bomb" novel was really pretty good. At least I liked it.
AH Novels to Avoid
- Thread starter Willmatron
- Start date
Although, his "Castro's Bomb" novel was really pretty good. At least I liked it.
The Tboverse series and the books of L. Neil Smith are to avoid unless you share the same exact political ideas
Even if you do. No one should ideologically pleasure themselves with a world that would never happen and an irrational setting.
I find the madness fairly fun. And to not have a point to the series... Well, he is trying to entertain these days I hope.
The Nixon part was a joke because of campaign posters asking if you would buy a used car from that man. I do dislike MLK being shoehorned into things or being made a saint as well, though.
Man, look at that cover. You could pay someone to do a better cover for five bucks. I'd do it for free.North Reich, by Robert Conroy. Need I say more?
It's a good read if you're in the market for inexplicably lengthy descriptions of food.
Grey Wolf
Donor
Only 75 pages and marketed at book prices seems rather cheeky. I agree with the reviewer who said it read like a synopsis and wanted the full story. Maybe the naval design revolution would have made better sense if played out, and maybe there would have been more Alt Hist outcome-focused.
Still, if it were free or cheap I'd download it and see what I thought.
...Petike's done a good job of advertising it now!
Best Regards
Grey Wolf
Whoa there, big fella. Warday is easily the best and most interesting book about the results of a Soviet/US nuclear exchange in the 1980's ever written. I was completely absorbed.
Is it better than Protect & Survive? It's on my to-read stack. I've been putting it off because I've been in no mood for dystopia lately.
MLK is officially a saint OTL in the Episcopal Church, USA, however. Haven't read Two George's but since the ECUSA is the lineal descendent of the Church of England in the independent USA, why not a saint in Turtledove's and Dreyfus's world? They guy presumably did great things to become Governor-General..
Don't know 'cause I haven't heard of Protect and Survive. What I especially liked about Warday is that it was written as a cross-country travelogue 10 or so years after the brief war (that did not "end civilization as we know it", just messed it up). Had some really great ideas and details.
Here you go - one of the best TLs on this site and the gold standard for WW3 alternate history, in my view.
Actually it's excellent advice. Those books raised my blood pressure like nothing else before or since and I ended up throwing them away, which for a book nut like me is the ultimate rejection. Harry Harrison must have been drunk when he wrote them.
This. When you read Turtledove you have to admit that plausability takes a step back in favor of the premise.
When the premise is "Fall of the Nazi World Government through the eyes of secret Jews" or "Japanese Hawaii" or "Militarism and Ersatz Nazism dominates America" it's alright, because the story is enjoyable at the end of the day. But when the premise is "Every WW2 POD ever proposed shoehorned after one another in a dry 6 book series for the sake of it"... it is not.
Robert Conroy's not so bad. It's just that his approach to alternate history is way too simplistic for the tastes of many people here. His books are meant to be short, diversionary military thrillers set in alternate history settings. His sense of geopolitics is very limited and black-and-white, and this combines with predictable storylines in which every book sees the plucky and determined good guy Americans faced with scenarios that should realistically spell their doom against the eeeeeeevil Germans/British/Japanese/Russians/Cubans, but the stars all align perfectly, everything turns out great for the United States, and the "bad guys" are totally vanquished.
But if your standards are low and you're looking for a quick bit of alternate history, like to read on a plane ride or something, his books are fine.
But if your standards are low and you're looking for a quick bit of alternate history, like to read on a plane ride or something, his books are fine.
Actually, the difference between "good" Turtledove and "bad" Turtledove you cite is more related to the differences between his "one-of" (or occasionally "two-of") books and his interminable multi-book series. The single novel formats (and the publishers' requirements presumably) forces Turtledove to focus on many fewer characters and fewer specific plot lines extrapolated from his basic "what if" PODs. The problem with huge series like TL-191 or Worldwar is that they too are based on very simple "what ifs" but then Turtledove invents so many irrelevant characters and subplot lines based on OTL prototypes, that only the most dedicated readers care what is happening.