The Big Switch

May 2, 2011
Hugo-winner Turtledove slowly reaches the midpoint of the five-book War that Came Early series, in which numerous countries fight an alternate WWII and Spanish Civil War. Viewpoint characters in Spain, France, Poland, and the U.S.S.R. are joined by Philadelphian Peggy Druce, who seeks to influence the U.S. to fight against the Nazis; soldier Pete McGill in Manila, recuperating from injuries suffered in Shanghai; and detainees in Manchukuo, making the full global scope of the war more evident. An unexpected death changes everything as alliances are re-examined and reworked, and finally a Japanese attack on American territories draws the U.S. into the war. There are obvious similarities to our own world's time line, but at last the alternate history has begun to diverge.

June 15, 2011

Turtledove's latest foray into alternate history is based on the premise that Chamberlain did not appease Hitler in 1938 and that World War II was thus launched a year early, before many of the Third Reich's superstructures were in place. As the war progresses slowly, the sudden death of a key player changes the game, and suddenly no one is certain where the lines of loyalty are drawn. The Hugo Award winner continues to delight in exploring the world of "what if?" as he tackles a formidable subject in the third entry in his World War II series (after Hitler's War and West and East). VERDICT The author's fans should enjoy this further permutation of world history, even while wondering how many "new" ways to tell a familiar story remain. [Library marketing.]

Copyright 2011 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from May 15, 2011
The third volume of Turtledoves latest alternate-historical reworking of WWII, the War That Came Early, is definitely the strongest yet. Good and bad rain down on the characters in seemingly random fashion. British Sergeant Alastair Walsh leaves Norway alive but then chooses to leave the British army when Britain allies itself with Hitler. French Sergeant Luc Harcourt has to march with the panzers. Peggy Druse is finally home from her travels, no thanks to the war, and starts another fight against American isolationism. In Hitlers Germany, Sarah Goldman finds love even with the axe hanging over the Jews, while Hans-Ulrich Rudel (a believer in Nazi racism) also finds love (or at least lust) with, of all things, a half-Jewish Polish woman. In Spain, Chaim Weinberg has also found love, with his political commissar, but has managed to get her pregnant. At the far end of Asia, Sergeant Fujitas reward for being part of the victorious imperial army is guarding Russian POW guinea pigs sent to the Japanese biological warfare center in Manchuria. And so it goes. In fact, it mostly goes downhill, too, because the U.S. seems to be the only country that hasnt fallen under a dictatorship or at least eroded its democracy. The implications of this are, frankly, more than a little terrifying, so this latest Turtledove saga is not for the faint of heart or weak of stomach. It is for lovers of high-quality alternate history.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2011, American Library Association.)