Category: books

Drive to the East

The next book in the Settling Accounts series from Harry Turtledove will be published soon, it is called Drive to the East.

The thrilling sequel to RETURN ENGAGEMENTS – the next part in this fascinating alternate history series by the creator of AMERICAN EMPIRE and WORLDWAR. It is 1942, and the Confederate States of America are locked in a tangle of jagged, blood-soaked battle lines with the United States of America. In Richmond, dictator Jake Featherston is shocked by what his own aircraft have done in Philadelphia – killing U. S. president Al Smith in a barrage of bombs. But he presses ahead with a secret plan on the dusty plains of Texas, where a so-called detention camp hides a far more evil purpose. The United States face a furious thrust by Confederate army into Pennsylvania. But with the industrial heartland under siege, Canada in revolt and US ships fighting against the Japanese in the Sandwich Islands, the most dangerous place in the world may be overlooked.

Drive to the East

Though from the covers I do prefer the UK version.

The UK covers seem to have a theme of using actual World War Two hardware with Confederate colours, maybe this is something that wouldn’t wash in the US.

Settling Accounts: Drive to the East is published on the 9th August in the US and on the 10th October in the UK, though Amazon will sell you the US edition in the UK from the 9th August.

Buy Drive to the East from Amazon.

Collaborator, a good read

I have just finished reading Collaborator by Murray Davies which is set in a nazi occupied Britain and tells the story of a British soldier working for the occupying forces as a translator who then gets involved in the resistance…

CollaboratorDecember 1940 and England lies under German occupation. In the West Country, Nick Penny comes home after four months as a prisoner of war to act as interpreter to the provincial governor. He finds his father dead, his mother crippled, and his best friend Roy heavily involved in a resistance movement. When war hero Matty Cordington returns to run his father’s estate, the three friends are re-united in a common purpose.

Life under the occupation becomes a compromise at every level. Nick’s sister Joan sleeps with a profiteer to find food for her family. There are leaks in the resistance movement, and Matty’s girlfriend is fingered and dispatched. The occupation turns nastier as Hitler invades Russia, with less food and greater demands on the civilian population to labour in the Reich. Britain’s Jews are first deported, then the ‘Final Solution’ is enacted on English soil.

But treachery still dogs the resistance and, hunted by the Gestapo and the British police, Nick and his girlfriend Angel desperately race to eliminate the real traitor. The story then escalates to an explosive climax at the very centre of occupational power.

It is a very good read and though it has something of a slow start it certainly picks up towards the end of the book.

Get Collaborator from Amazon.

Collaborator

There seems to be a wealth of alternative history novels set in a nazi occupied Britain following invasion released over the last few years.

Picture from recent Channel 5 programme on occupied Britain.
Picture from recent Channel 5 programme on occupied Britain.

Len Deighton’s SS-GB was one of the original novels set in a nazi occupied Britain, but recently I have seen ands read many more.

My favourite so far was All the King’s Men.

I am currently reading Collaborator by Murray Davies which is set in (you guessed it) a nazi occupied Britain and tells the story of a British soldier working for the occupying forces as a translator who then gets involved in the resistance…

CollaboratorDecember 1940 and England lies under German occupation. In the West Country, Nick Penny comes home after four months as a prisoner of war to act as interpreter to the provincial governor. He finds his father dead, his mother crippled, and his best friend Roy heavily involved in a resistance movement. When war hero Matty Cordington returns to run his father’s estate, the three friends are re-united in a common purpose.

Life under the occupation becomes a compromise at every level. Nick’s sister Joan sleeps with a profiteer to find food for her family. There are leaks in the resistance movement, and Matty’s girlfriend is fingered and dispatched. The occupation turns nastier as Hitler invades Russia, with less food and greater demands on the civilian population to labour in the Reich. Britain’s Jews are first deported, then the ‘Final Solution’ is enacted on English soil.

But treachery still dogs the resistance and, hunted by the Gestapo and the British police, Nick and his girlfriend Angel desperately race to eliminate the real traitor. The story then escalates to an explosive climax at the very centre of occupational power.

Still reading, but quite good.

Get Collaborator from Amazon.

The Leader by Guy Walters

I always liked the film version of Richard III set in an alternative 1930s England. So when I saw this book I was intrigued by the storyline which is set in an alternate 1937.

The Leader by Guy Walters has Edward VIII deciding not to abdicate which results in a constitutional crisis and after much political machinations, Oswald Mosley manages to grasp power and once there he institutes a wide range of despicable policies from internment of the Jewish population to the formation of a Gestapo-like HMSSP (His Majesties State Secret Police). Soon Britain moves from a democracy to a fascist dictatorship.

Stopping him is a Great War hero who has to avoid capture and meanwhile plan a coup to bring back democracy.

Also within all this is a plot by the USSR to put in a puppet Communist government.

It’s not a bad story, but there is a lack off characterisation, some characters just appear and the die. Some historical flaws also make the whole thing lacking.

It’s not a bad read and if you like alternate history then you may enjoy this.

Arc Light

Arc LightA nuclear war and then the action really starts…

I am currently reading Arc Light by Eric L Harry.

In the late 1990’s, locked in an escalating conflict with China, Russia is forced to take up nuclear arms. Unfortunately a critical mistake is made as a Russian general seizes the code cases and warheads rain down on the United States.

I have read this book quite a few times and it is still a good read and recommended.

The Da Vinci Code

I have just started to read the Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown.

Having seen the Tony Robinson debunk of some of the *facts* on Channel 4 recently and as my wife thought highly of it, I decided that I would give it a go and see what it’s like.

I have quite enjoyed it so far, but some way to go…

Robert Langdon, Harvard Professor of symbology, receives an urgent late-night call while in Paris: the curator of the Louvre has been murdered. Alongside the body is a series of baffling ciphers. Langdon and a gifted French cryptologist, Sophie Neveu, are stunned to find a trail that leads to the works of Da Vinci – and further. The curator, part of a secret society named the Priory of Sion, may have sacrificed his life to keep secret the location of a vastly important religious relic hidden for centuries. It appears that the clandestine Vatican-sanctioned Catholic sect Opus Dei has now made its move. Unless Landon and Neveu can decipher the labyrinthine code and quickly assemble the pieces of the puzzle, the Priory’s secret – and a stunning historical truth – will be lost forever.

Amazon.co.uk Review

With The Da Vinci Code, Dan Brown masterfully concocts an intelligent and lucid thriller that marries the gusto of an international murder mystery with a collection of fascinating esoterica culled from 2,000 years of Western history. A murder in the silent after-hours halls of the Louvre museum reveals a sinister plot to uncover a secret that has been protected by a clandestine society since the days of Christ. The victim is a high-ranking agent of this ancient society who, in the moments before his death, manages to leave gruesome clues at the scene that only his granddaughter, noted cryptographer Sophie Neveu, and Robert Langdon, a famed symbologist, can untangle.

The duo become both suspects and detectives searching not only for Neveu’s grandfather’s murderer, but also the stunning secret of the ages he was charged to protect. Mere steps ahead of the authorities and the deadly competition, the mystery leads Neveu and Langdon on a breathless flight through France, England and history itself. Brown has created a page-turning thriller that also provides an amazing interpretation of Western history. Brown’s hero and heroine embark on a lofty and intriguing exploration of some of Western culture’s greatest mysteries–from the nature of the Mona Lisa’s smile to the secret of the Holy Grail. Though some will quibble with the veracity of Brown’s conjectures, therein lies the fun. The Da Vinci Code is an enthralling read that provides rich food for thought.

Buy the book from Amazon.

Finished Homeward Bound

I have now finished Homeward Bound.

I really enjoyed it, a very good read. One reason I think I enjoyed it, was that Turtledove focussed on much fewer characters than he does in his other books. One characteristic of most Turtledove novels is the preponderance of characters, this was more like Guns of the South, in that there are few characters. My only thought was that in order to use characters from previous novels and the fact it is set in 2031 means that Harry has had to use a plot device of cold sleep to keep the characters young enough to be in the new book.

It certainly has its twists and turns and it is well worth reading, though to appreciate it you do need to have really read the rest of the series.

Review from Amazon:

Alternate-history maestro Turtledove’s conclusion to his Worldwar and Colonization sagas, about how lizard-like aliens known as the Race invaded Earth during WWII and were fought to a stalemate by the major Allied and Axis combatants, lacks the vividly described battle scenes of its predecessors, but more than compensates by closely examining the Race’s culture and society.

While the Race have colonized much of Earth, they’re amazed by the human ability to adapt to change. (The aliens’ probe some 600 years earlier led them to expect they’d be facing armored knights.) When an American starship makes the trip to Home, the Race’s planet of origin, the lizards fear the loss of their technological dominance and decide to annihilate Earth, their colony included—until another Earth spaceship arrives, this one with the faster-than-light drive the Race never developed.

The question of how much common ground exists between the lizards and humans wouldn’t have been out of place in old issues of Astounding. The author dramatizes the old “nature versus nurture” argument through the moving stories of a human woman raised from birth by the lizards and of two aliens raised as humans. Fans will be pleased that room remains for a sequel.

Order the book from Amazon.

Homeward Bound

Started reading the new Turtledove novel…

I eventually got round to ordering Homeward Bound, the new Turtledove novel based from his WorldWar series.

I have only read the first thirty pages and doesn’t time fly….

Review from Amazon:

Alternate-history maestro Turtledove’s conclusion to his Worldwar and Colonization sagas, about how lizard-like aliens known as the Race invaded Earth during WWII and were fought to a stalemate by the major Allied and Axis combatants, lacks the vividly described battle scenes of its predecessors, but more than compensates by closely examining the Race’s culture and society.

While the Race have colonized much of Earth, they’re amazed by the human ability to adapt to change. (The aliens’ probe some 600 years earlier led them to expect they’d be facing armored knights.) When an American starship makes the trip to Home, the Race’s planet of origin, the lizards fear the loss of their technological dominance and decide to annihilate Earth, their colony included—until another Earth spaceship arrives, this one with the faster-than-light drive the Race never developed.

The question of how much common ground exists between the lizards and humans wouldn’t have been out of place in old issues of Astounding. The author dramatizes the old “nature versus nurture” argument through the moving stories of a human woman raised from birth by the lizards and of two aliens raised as humans. Fans will be pleased that room remains for a sequel.

Order the book from Amazon.

Berlin The Downfall 1945, a disturbing time in history…

Berlin The Downfall 1945, a disturbing time in history...

I am in the middle of reading Berlin: The Downfall 1945 by Antony Beevor, the author of Stalingrad.

The Soviet attack on Germany in 1945 did result in the end of the war, and this book does not hide any of the nasty and gruesome details of that part of the war.

The advance on Berlin – it was to be the largest battle in history – began at exactly 4am on 16 April, 1945. Along the Oder Neisse front, two and a half million Soviet troops attacked one million Germans. The panic this induced in the German civilian population is easy to imagine. Hitler had sworn that Germany would never be invaded, yet now overwhelming Soviet armies were advancing on Berlin. Hitler, ensconced deep in his concrete bunker, could only scream at his military staff, denouncing the cowardice of the Wehrmacht. He had become convinced that Germany’s defeat proved that its people were not worthy of him – that they deserved to die. With many a score to settle from the German invasion of Russia in 1941, the battle was one of the most terrifying examples of fire and sword recorded, with mass rape, murder, pillage and destruction. Men, women and children suffered to the end from folly, cruelty and the naked exercise of power on a massive scale.

As with Stalingrad this book certainly evokes the horror of the time.