Starred review from February 1, 1999
In high fashion, the master of alternative SF launches a sequel series to his acclaimed Worldwar tetralogy (Striking the Balance, etc.). It is 1963, and Earth is divided among five independent powers (the U.S., the Soviet Union, the Third Reich, Britain, Japan) and the invading alien Lizards. Human adaptations of Lizard technology (including space flight) and the Lizard leaders' painful experience of fighting humans have led to an armed truce among all the parties. Now, however, the Lizard colony fleet, with 40 million sleep-frozen colonists, arrives to settle what they expect to be a completely subdued world. That the Tosevites (humans) are still holding out is only the first of several surprises to greet them. The nastiest is probably that ginger, merely addictive to Lizard males, brings Lizard females violently into heat--arousing an irresistible mating urge in the males. The Third Reich, meanwhile, under the leadership of Himmler, continues its odious ways; Jews maintain an uneasy peace with the Lizards, who saved them from the Holocaust; the Soviet Union (under Molotov) survives; and the U.S. is building a huge space station. Characters who have become old friends to readers of the earlier tetralogy abound, and new ones both human and Lizard appear by the double handful. Turtledove handles sexual themes with good taste and appropriate humor. With his fertile imagination running on overdrive, he develops an exciting, often surprising, story that will not only delight his fans but will probably send newcomers back to the Worldwar saga to fill in the backstory.
Starred review from January 1, 2001
Hugo winner Turtledove lives up to his billing as the grand master of alternative history in the concluding volume of his trilogy (after 2000's Colonization: Down to Earth), set in the same universe as his Worldwar series, about a close encounter between the reptilian "Race" (or Lizards) and their human hosts/enemies/subjects (pick any or all) on "Tosev 3" (aka Earth) in the 1960s. Here he develops the previous volumes' theme of an emerging common culture, as revealed in the vivid saga of the Yeager family and the Lizard-raised Japanese-American woman, Kassquit, who gets a belated introduction to human sexuality. The author shows he can be just as deft with relationships as with action. Having already discovered politics, change, intrigue, treason and cold weather, the invading race is now learning about bribery and monogamy. The humans have cheerfully looted their conquerors' technology to the point where the United States is fitting small asteroids with large rocket engines to use as bombardment weapons. In Europe, the ongoing complexities of human society show up in the much-diminished German Reich, where Jewish leader Mordecai Anielwicz and Luftwaffe astronaut Johannes Drucker join forces to find their missing families and prevent Jewish desperadoes from wreaking havoc with a stolen A-bomb. This novel is altogether excellent of its type, even if the end will leave readers wondering hopefully about possible sequels.