Down to Earth (Colonization, Book 2)
by Harry Turtledove
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Book Summary Information
Author: Harry TurtledoveEdition: Mass Market Paperback
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Published: 2001-01-02
ISBN: 0345430239
Number of pages: 624
Publisher: Del Rey
Book Reviews of Down to Earth (Colonization, Book 2)
Book Review: Turtledove revels in the chance to wander off rambling about nothing
Summary: 1 Stars
As I complained in the review of the first book, this book continues more of the same... constant nagging, needless repetition. Every time a subject is brought up, Turtledove essentially copies and pastes a little description of it every single time it comes up, padding a 200-300 page story into one DOUBLE the size.
The overall summary of this book is that nothing happens, until Heinrich Himmler dies, and Germany decides to invade Poland and attack the Lizards, then gets defeated in a war lasting less than 50 pages.
That's it. It would be badly stretching it to fill 300 pages with that story, and Turtledove's editor is either nonexistent or not doing his job, as Turtledove gets away with the same crap he did in the first book of this miserable series.
Minor storylines creep along at a sluggish pace, while major events happen almost immediately and by the next chapter, either everyone knows about it, or it's three weeks into the past.
By the end of the book, inevitable war opens up between Nazi Germany and the Race, and Turtledove is clearly not interested in it, as he rushes it with a greater speed than he did even in individual battles in the Worldwar tetraology. One moment, Johannes Drucker has been given clearance to fly to space to fight the Lizards, and the next chapter it's a month later and he's stuck in space without orders and growing a beard.
The war goes from the opening shots on Poland, followed by multiple nuclear bombs exploded on cities of the Reich and cities of the Race, followed by Germany's practical destruction, followed by Germany's surrender, all in a matter of 50 pages or less, or even less than that. All I remember is I spent half a month trudging along this book, then breezed past the war within two hours.
Turtledove showed me with the Worldwar tetraology that despite his flaws in pacing, literature, and psychology, he is a tremendous storyteller who could keep me interested in a storyline that ultimately, upon retrospect, was downright dull and ended nonsensically. And yet he made it work.
He's not staggering here... he's fallen on his ass and yet keeps moving. As much as I love the characters and storyline here, I would much rather wait until he comes up with great ideas for stories than to have him rush out and churn 1200 pages of nothing in text form.
By the way, the covers are always misleading, but in this edition it is just completely and blatantly false: John Kennedy is not in this book at all and never even mentioned, and Khruschev is not the Russian Premier, and while he was mentioned in the previous book, he is not in this book at all either.
Summary of Down to Earth (Colonization, Book 2)
In 1942 Hitler led the world's most savage military machine. Stalin ruled Russia while America was just beginning to show its strength in World War II. Then, in Harry Turtledove's brilliantly imagined Worldwar saga, an alien assault changed everything. Nuclear destruction engulfed major cities, and the invaders claimed half the planet before an uneasy peace could be achieved.A spectacular tale of tyranny and freedom, destruction and hope, Colonization takes us into the tumultuous 1960s, as the reptilian Race ponders its uneasy future. But now a new, even deadlier war threatens. Though the clamoring tribes of Earth play dangerous games of diplomacy, the ultimate power broker will be the Race itself. For the colonists have one option no human can ignore. With a vast, ancient empire already in place, the Race has the power to annihilate every living being on planet Earth . . .
Colonization: Down to Earth marks part two of part two of Harry Turtledove's epic alternate history in which WWII gets interrupted--and violently abridged--by a hostile alien invasion. With some of the same characters introduced in the four-volume Worldwar series and Colonization: Second Contact, the story arc continues through the 1960s, as the Lizards (along with their second fleet, composed not of soldiers but of colonists) continue to grapple with their not-quite-subdued conquest, Tosev 3 (a.k.a. earth). And Turtledove's alt-'60s are not--to say the least--about peace, love, and understanding.
Now the reptilian ETs must face off against three world superpowers in an uneasy truce: the United States; Molotov's SSSR; and the psychotic, nuke-wielding Nazis under Himmler. Elsewhere, the U.K. flirts with fascism, Red China (commanded by none other than Chairman Mao) wages a bloody resistance against its scaly oppressors, and the Arab world does likewise under the guidance of Ayatollah Khomeini. As ever with Turtledove, plot takes precedence over characterizations, but his suspenseful twists and turns don't disappoint. And while Down to Earth proves a bit less martial than its predecessors, the action still satisfies--if nothing else, the bang-up finale is worth the wait. --Paul Hughes
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