Worldwar In the Balance

This is another installment in an alternate history series, which I'm reading because my 15-year-old son ordered me to. Worldwar offers the intriguing idea of an alien invasion which occurs smack in the middle of WWII. Upsetting the Balance is the third and weakest volume. In terms of plot, it traces the war through another year as multiple human nations struggle against the invaders, the Race or, as we call 'em, the Lizards. Most of the world has fallen to the aliens, but the leading WWII powers are still fighting hard: the US, the UK, the Nazis, the USSR, Japan, and China. Honestly, this becomes very repetitive and stale through the course of Upsetting, as multiple scenes rehash the same points for each side. We don't see much development until the end, whereupon (view spoiler)[humans and Lizards suddenly launch atomic strikes against each other. Munich, Chicago, Miami, Breslau, Seattle, Honolulu, and Rome all go up in nuclear fire. The Lizards nuke Tokyo earlier in the book, but it doesn't seem to mean much. The Lizard invasion of Britain is disappointing - Atvar's decision isn't explained (and everyone hates it), and it fails pretty quickly (hide spoiler)]. One nice scene has a psychologist (!) thinking about timelines. He makes a convincing case that the gap between the Lizards' observation of humanity (1400s, I think) and WWII would not have been a problem had the gap occurred earlier in history. For example, if the Lizards had spotted the Roman Republic, they would have had no problem walking over the late middle ages. A nice point, reminding me of Ian Morris' excellent Why the West Rules (for Now). Other problems with the book: the Lizards simply suck. Every chapter sees them acting stupidly, outfoxed by clever humans. It's repetitive, unrealistic, and saps the story of much energy. Another problem: the sheer death toll doesn't seem to affect humans very much. We are more upset by lack of electricity than mass slaughter. Related to this: nuclear fallout doesn't seem to be an issue. Which is, ah, weird. Bonus problem: apparently the southern half of the world lies under Lizard control. This doesn't seem to matter. The aliens don't get any joy from it, and the other humans don't seem to care. I'd love to see a storyline from the perspective of, say, an Australian aborigine, or a Chilean peasant. While I appreciate Turtledove's inclusion of fronts usually downplayed in WWII discussions (China, even Russia), this feels racist at worst, and awkward at best. Extra-bonus problem: the US paperback shows a meeting between Einstein, Eisenhower, and Mussolini. Which actually happens in the book, but makes no sense. It's never explained, nor do any characters return to it later. Why is the Italian dictator in middle America...? I'll look into volume 4, since my son will be unrelenting, but my expectations are low.

An entertaining alternate history, _Worldwar I_ shows the pleasures and limitations of the genre. It's simply fun to follow the working-out of implications and details, once the divergence (alien invasion) appears. Will underground movements ally with the new invaders? How will Axis and Allied nations join to stop the initially overwhelming foe? How do various historical characters appear: Patton, Molotov, Churchill? The invasion's conceit (aliens scoped us out centuries ago, and thereby didn't plan for 1940s technology) is entertaining. The book uses a social novel approach, portraying dozens of characters in many plots To his credit Turtledove embraces the global nature of the second World War. Characters are drawn from rural America and China, British intelligence and Soviet fliers, Japanese military and Nazi tankers, Jewish fighters and exiles. The aliens are somewhat interesting. Their culture has a single organizing idea, which becomes implausible over time. Some characters gradually emerge. But the limitations... It's hard to do a social novel and have individual characters emerge. Think of how _The Wire_ gives as a rich, multilayered view of Baltimore, while most characters appear as distinct people. In contrast _Worldwar_'s characters are often thin perspectives, mobile optics giving us a quick sketch of what they see without developing much of an inner life. This thinness leads to a failure of historical imagination. Most of the characters are or become nice people. Some start with racist ideas, which they shed through conversation. There aren't many true believers to represent Naziism, the Japanese empire, American white racism, or the Soviet Union. We can see progressive ideas unfold, but not the concepts they react against. Some representatives appear from time to time but only as placeholders, non-player characters in gaming language. _Worldwar_ also struggles to depict the impact of large historical events. Turtledove does a good job with individual scenes, like conversations in occupied Paris or the adventures of a German tank crew. But we don't get a sense of the vast horror that would accompany, say, (view spoiler)[the nuclear destruction of Berlin and Washington, DC (hide spoiler)]. The weirdness and disorientation of first contact doesn't really appear, beyond a couple of characters being readers of Astounding. I'd contrast this, perhaps unfairly, with the way _The English Patient_'s main characters react to the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, or the way Vonnegut establishes the horror of Dresden in _Slaughterhouse-Five_. Many of _Worldwar_'s events pass by like references to other books. So: a fun book for alt.history buffs, but not much more.