In The Balance
by Harry Turtledove
Author's Description:
“No one could top their power—not the Germans, not the Japanese, not the Russians, not the United States.
From Pearl Harbor to panzers rolling through Paris to the Siege of Leningrad and the Battle of Midway, war seethed across the planet as flames of destruction rose higher and hotter.
And then, suddenly, the real enemy came.
The invaders seemed unstoppable, their technology far beyond human reach. And never before had men been more divided. For Jew to unite with Nazi, American with Japanese, and Russian with German was unthinkable.
But the alternative was even worse.
As the fate of the world hung in the balance, slowly, painfully, humankind took up the shocking challenge.”
From Pearl Harbor to panzers rolling through Paris to the Siege of Leningrad and the Battle of Midway, war seethed across the planet as flames of destruction rose higher and hotter.
And then, suddenly, the real enemy came.
The invaders seemed unstoppable, their technology far beyond human reach. And never before had men been more divided. For Jew to unite with Nazi, American with Japanese, and Russian with German was unthinkable.
But the alternative was even worse.
As the fate of the world hung in the balance, slowly, painfully, humankind took up the shocking challenge.”
My Review - Rating - 7/10
The WorldWar series by Harry Turtledove has an interesting premise and mostly accurate historical technology and tactics. It also has good characters and an interesting plot. Unfortunately, I found it hard to enjoy any of that because it’s just so poorly structured. I finished the book less than an hour before writing this review and honestly, I’m not sure if I can name all the important characters because there are just too many of them. There’s a Chinese peasant, an American NCO, a nuclear scientist, a German tank commander, a Russian pilot, a Jewish resistance leader, an alien tank driver, Vyacheslav Molotov (the historical Soviet Minister of Foreign Affairs), and probably some more characters I’m forgetting. And each of those characters is effectively a main character, and to understand the book you have to remember their situation, their background characters, and where they were before because this book switches perspectives constantly. Because of that, the book has a horrendously slow pace, and honestly, you don’t even begin to care about the characters until halfway through the book. Overall, my thoughts on this book are that it’s a great concept that was ruined by cramming too many perspectives into it.
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