Good second novel in the series. Fun to see how adaptable humans often foil the consistent aliens. Interesting to see how history could have been different in this alternate history series. ( )

much better than the first one ( )

I read through Turtledove's Southern Victory series during the 00s. The paperbacks ended with a preview of the World War series. I was always intrigued, but ended up never picking them up.

Earlier this year I saw the first 4 books at a thrift store and decided to give them a try. The first book was good enough to peek my interest, but this second book is already reminding me of all the aspects of Southern Victory that I got burnt out on.

Turtledove has a really bad tendency of repeating himself. Repeating descriptions every single time he switches the POV character. But that's not even the worst of it. The paperback is nearly 600 pages. The first 3 books of Southern Victory were about 300-400 and hit a really good sweet spot in length. The 600 pages wouldn't be an issue, except it feels like almost nothing happens for the whole book.

The book also struggles with the whole idea of a "World War", as Turtledove is constantly shuffling around characters in order to have events happen around them. The only characters that feel like they stand on their own are all characters who stay in the same general area. Sam Yeager, a former American baseball player who is a liaison with lizard POWs on the American Nuclear project, Ludmila Gorbunova a female Russian pilot whose antiquated plane manages to annoy the Aliens, and Mutt Daniels, Sam Yeager's former coach, a WW1 vet and a front line fighter on the American front and Liu Han, a Chinese peasant who is abducted by the aliens and then put in a POW camp.

Even with this going on, the book still struggles to tell a coherent story about the War. Which isn't all that surprising, while Turtledove's vision of a WW1 between the Union and Confederacy managed to be very immersive, the WW2 between both sides sputtered considerably. It was as though he had an overall image of the story he wanted to tell, but struggled to fill in the details in both cases. This despite the books ballooning in size.

I might continue the series just to get through the WorldWar section of these books, but even then they are definitely getting put on the backburner after I struggled so hard to make my way through this book. ( )

The second volume in the initial trilogy of the Worldwar Series does do more character development, and does a decent job of exploring the ramifications of the complexity of the world crisis at the time. So I am pleasantly pleased at the level of suspense pacing demonstrated by HT in this volume. Sadly, the book retains its European and North American focus, but one plays to one's strengths, I guess. ( )

Interesting concept, showing how a common enemy, can unite the worse of allies ( )