1945, by Newt Gingrich and William R. Forstchen: A Reappraisal

Full confession here: in my initial post discussing this novel, I referred to 1945 as “odious.” Well, I may have a retraction to make. Upon finishing my second reading, I found myself rather enjoying this novel – with one big caveat, which I will explain later.

I always had to hand points to authors Newt Gingrich and William R. Forstchen for asking this intriguing question: what if Hitler didn’t declare war on the United States following the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor? Contrary to what many may think, there was no treaty obligation that forced Germany to declare war. When Hitler declared war on the U.S., on December 11, 1941 he granted FDR’s most desperate wish to enter the war on the side of Britain against Germany. 

In Gingrich and Forstchen's alternate history, the authors posit Hitler being involved in a plane crash that puts him into a coma, just after Pearl Harbor.  In his place, a junta of German generals takes control, first pulling their troops in more defensive positions on the eastern front, second, signing an armistice with exceptionally easy terms with the British, and third, and most importantly, not declaring war on America. By the time Hitler had recovered enough to take power again, the Soviet Union had been defeated and Nazi Germany was victorious. Meanwhile because the United States is able to pay its full attention to Japan, the Great Pacific War, as it is called, is fought and won on a shorter timeline.  It is not clear however, while the authors state the atom bomb is not ready for use by 1945, how that war is finally ended though.

By the end of the Pacific War, the United States and Nazi Germany are eyeing each other across a narrowing Atlantic Ocean. When word of a Manhattan Project that will shortly bare fruit reaches Berlin, the Nazis launch a desperate plan.

That’s as far as I will go as I will not be dropping spoilers. Against Gingrich’s and Forstchen’s fast-moving plot and generally well-drawn backdrops, characters, both historic and fictional, are introduced. Once again, these characters when to compared to those in similar genre novels, are generally well-handled with good developmental arcs. However, the dialogue sometimes falls into modern techno jargon which unfortunately, does not ring true.

So, these are the positives, which are many. However, it’s time for that caveat. It’s a big one, and despite what I said in the last paragraph, it’s kind of a spoiler and at the same time is infuriating: on the very last page, as the bombs start to fall, it says in big letters, To Be Continued…

…the problem being, it never was continued. Although the authors had apparently mooted a sequel entitled, Fortress Europa, this, for whatever reasons, has never seen print.  As I said, very infuriating. So that’s it. If you think you can read a book that has a cliff-hanger ending that leaves you hanging, go ahead. On its own merits, 1945 is a very good book; however, it’s the follow-though that is exceptionally lacking and therefore disappointing.  

If like me, you can sketch out in your mind’s eye, what would happen afterwards, again, this book might be for you. I’ve developed a pretty good sequel in my own head; if either author wants to reach out and kick it around with me, they know where to find me.

What’s Next?

I’m reading two books for future reviews on this blog. The first is Clemhorn: Nightfall, by Andrew J. Harvey, and the second is the eighth book in the Laundry Files series by Charles Stross and its latest paperback entry, The Delirium Brief. Also forthcoming, sometime in this autumn, is the fourth and final season of Amazon’s The Man in the High Castle, which I am eagerly anticipating.  Until that time and to whet our appetites, the good folks at Amazon have provided us a preview:

In the meantime, you can help out a poor unemployed writer by purchasing Elvis Saves JFK! for just 99 cents and War Plan Crimson, A Novel of Alternate History, for $2.99 and now The Key to My Heart, also $2.99 (all are free to preview). All books -- which are already on Smashword's premium distribution list -- are also available through such fine on-line retailers such as Sony, Chapters Indigo, Barnes & Noble and Apple's iTunes Store.  Thanks.

Book Review: The Day After Gettysburg by Robert Conroy and J.R. Dunn

The American Civil War is an evergreen topic for alternate historians. Staring with short fiction such as If Lee Had Had Not Won the Battle of Gettysburg, by Winston Churchill, or Bring on the Jubilee by Ward More, it has grown to become a full-on sub-genre, populated by such works as The Guns of the South, by Harry Turtledove, and the epic Southern Victory Series, also by Turtledove, or lesser-appreciated works such as David C. Poyer’s The Shiloh Project (reviewed earlier in this blog).

Some authors like Churchill, Moore, and Peter G. Tsouras, author of Gettysburg: An Alternate History, have rightly focused on the Battle of Gettysburg, as a key turning point. Digging deeper, some others have focused on “the high-water mark of the Confederacy,” which is the area along the stone wall on Cemetery Ridge and furthest point reached by the Confederates, during Pickett’s Charge on July 3 1863, and the last best chance for the Confederates to break the Union Army and to force an end to the war on their terms.

Obviously this is a topic I could go on about at length, but we do have a book review to get to, don’t we? And that book is The Day After Gettysburg, by Robert Conroy and J.R. Dunn, and published posthumously after Conroy’s death in 2014.

I will tell you right now that I really like this book.  If we are talking personal high-water marks, this must be one for Conroy as an author. I believe this is his best work since 1882: Custer in Chains and 1901. Conroy’s eye for detail and history clearly shines here. Together, with Dunn, Conroy chooses a moment in history when after Union General Meade has won his victory at Gettysburg and Lee is retreating back into Virginia, he is goaded by President Abraham Lincoln to attacking Lee’s retreating columns with the hope to ending the war then and there.

In our history, Meade did no such thing. However, in Conroy and Dunn’s book, Meade, who was a far better general on the defensive, attacks Lee with disastrous results.  This sets the stage for a battle that not only threatens the city of Washington, but the Union itself.

Both authors – and I believe it is a testament to Dunn's work  - that is so seamless, that it reads like a Robert Conroy book, weave a mixture of historical fact and fiction so the end result is a very believable work of alternate history with all of the far-reaching implications. Characterizations, which have always been on the problematic side with me with some books by Conroy, are well-presented with clear motivations and well-defined arcs. One of the interesting things here is that there, as in war, there are no protagonists or antagonists, just people making decisions, for better or worse.  Historical players such as Lincoln, Lee, Grant, Booth (whoops!), Meade, and others are similarly well-handled.

This book is highly recommended and a fitting adieu to a major figure in the alternate-history field.

What's Next?

I've also started to re-read 1945, by Newt Gingrich and William R. Forstchen, with a view to conducting a serious reappraisal. Does it still earn that Worst Alternate History Book Ever rating? Will I throw it across the living room yet again in disgust? Stay tuned and find out.

In the meantime, you can help out a poor unemployed writer by purchasing Elvis Saves JFK! for just 99 cents and War Plan Crimson, A Novel of Alternate History, for $2.99 and now The Key to My Heart, also $2.99 (all are free to preview). All books -- which are already on Smashword's premium distribution list -- are also available through such fine on-line retailers such as Sony, Chapters Indigo, Barnes & Noble and Apple's iTunes Store.  Thanks.

A Look At Season Three of Amazon’s The Man in the High Castle

I’ve finally binge-watched season three of The Man in the High Castle and what I’m writing now are my initial impressions. 

First, I’ll say I liked what I saw. Although I was concerned that as they entered season three that showrunner Frank Spotznitz and his crew would have precious little left from the original Philip K. Dick novel from which to mine. The first season stayed pretty close to the novel’s plot and while season two tied up some loose ends to be close enough, what they would do with season three left me with those nagging questions.  I had speculated (and correctly as it turned out), that they might take a piece from Dick’s unpublished sequel to High Castle by exploring the concept of the Nebenwelt, or a larger multiverse.

Details, details...

I continue to admire the care and attention to detail given by Spotznitz the others behind the show to building a believable alternate world.  It’s all about the details, whether it’s the cars on the streets or the picture phone on Smith’s desk or having historical persons like J. Edgar Hoover and American Nazi leader George Lincoln Rockwell make appearances during the course of the season. It adds up to that feeling of a waking nightmare. 

Now a warning: here be spoilers. Several major character arcs came to apparent ends or transitions (with a whole multiverse in play, as we’ve seen, we can’t be too sure) and new characters far removed from the original book, are introduced. We see Tagomi and Juliana Crain draw closer as they discover they have more in common than they thought. We see the newly-minted Reichsmarschall John Smith as the ultimate survivor and careerist as he moves up the Reich’s food chain. With the death of his son and the gradual disintegration of his family throughout the third season, we can only guess what must be going through his mind. Smith is still human enough, after all, to be quietly horrified at the Nazis’ plans for Year Zero and the experiments of Dr. Mengele in his maniacal pursuit of the Nebenwelt project. There may yet still be time for him to save his soul.

The Nebenwelt welcomes careful drivers

Juliana Crain’s own character arc has intersected with that of Smith's and his family during season two. The third seasons sees her begin her relentless drive to unravel the mystery of the Nebenwelt at all costs and has her reunited with Smith, much to his chagrin and with some major revelation. 

Trade Minister Tagomi walks a fine line. He is one of a growing number of Travellers, those who the ability to cross universes (and we meet more in season three). He also represents the Empire of Japan, that we see at the beginning of the third season has just detonated its first nuclear device. Tagomi, among others, recognizes they can’t win an arms race with the Reich and begins to seek another way, which may mean a “lighter touch” and eventual liberalization of Pacific States of America. Certainly, by the end of Season Three, this realization is even dawning on people like Kenpeitai Chief Inspector Kido. 

The big news is that season four of High Castle has already been greenlit, so we will see how this all plays out. Season three ends with some major cliff hangers. I will be watching.

     
What’s Next?
I have a couple of projects on the go: I am currently reading the last book written by James Conroy, The Day After Gettysburg, which was published after his death. I hope to have a review on this for you soon.  As well, I will be looking at what I remember as the worst alternate history novel I’ve ever read, 1945, by Newt Gingrich and William R. Forstchen. Does it still earn this label? Have I been too harsh? I will let you know with a review after I’ve read it again.

In the meantime, you can help out a poor unemployed writer by purchasing Elvis Saves JFK! for just 99 cents and War Plan Crimson, A Novel of Alternate History, for $2.99 and now The Key to My Heart, also $2.99 (all are free to preview). All books -- which are already on Smashword's premium distribution list -- are also available through such fine on-line retailers such as Sony, Chapters Indigo, Barnes & Noble and Apple's iTunes Store.  Thanks.

Book Review: The Lady Astronaut Series, by Mary Robinette Kowal

This is an admirable pair of alternate history novels that has already earned its place on my favourites list.  So much did I like The Calculating Stars, and its sequel, The Fated Sky, that I read them both in the space of a few weeks.  These are two meaty epic novels that are dependent as much as upon their well-drawn characters as is the plot, and setting.  

The point of divergence occurs in an already alternate 1952, where the United States under President Dewey has managed to loft a satellite into orbit, beating the Soviets in our timeline by five years. However, the big change comes when a giant meteorite slams into the earth off the eastern seaboard of the U.S. not only obliterating Washington, New York City, and other major population centres but has also set in motion a climate disaster that threatens to make the planet uninhabitable.

In order to at least save some part of the human race, the United Nations bands together through the International Aerospace Coalition (IAC) on a crash program of space colonization. The chief protagonist of both books is Elma York, a Second World War WASP (Women Airforce Service Pilot) and mathematician who is the titular Lady Astronaut who almost single-handedly campaigns to have women – of all racial backgrounds – to become astronauts.  It's not easy for her. In the beginning, women are kept firmly planted on the ground, working as “computers” grinding out the equations and formulae that will enable the success of the space missions. Perhaps because of the damage the east coast took in this timeline, or perhaps because manned space flight was jump-started in earnest almost a decade before it was in our time, digital computing which depended on integrated circuits and later, microchips technology was never developed and computers remained those big bulky analog things with vacuum tubes. 

In many ways, the books parallel the struggle of both women and minorities to enter the space program in our own history.  As far back as Project Mercury, accomplished pilots such as Jerrie Cobb were unsuccessfully petitioning to fly into space.  The delicate orbital calculations to put those first astronauts into space were done behind the scenes by women - both black and white.

The Calculating Stars tells the story of the initial meteorite impact and the decision to go to the moon, while The Fated Sky traces the follow-on Mars mission. I won’t go much further for fear of dropping some major spoilers, but I will just mention that in order to make those all-important calculations for the trans-lunar and later trans-Martian injections, someone must be along for the ride. 

I love these books. Both its protagonists and antagonists are not presented as absolutes; they are not perfect but are fleshed-out human beings with their own sets of failings with routes to redemption. In addition, Kowal has done her science right and presents a very plausible and enjoyable alternate history. 

I heartily recommend The Lady Astronaut series. I hope there is more to come.

What’s Next?
I have a couple of projects on the go: I am currently reading the last book written by James Conroy, The Day After Gettysburg, which was published after his death. I hope to have a review on this for you soon.  As well, I will be looking at what I remember as the worst alternate history novel I’ve ever read, 1945, by Newt Gingrich and William R. Forstchen. Does it still earn this label? Have I been too harsh? I will let you know with a review after I’ve read it again.

Finally, as this post will be appearing on New Years’ Eve, 2018, I would like to take some to reflect and express my gratitude to you my readers.  I don’t make any money from ads on this blog – I’ve purposely kept it that way. This is something I do from the heart and for those who I am able to share it with, thank you. For the most part, I also buy my own books for review – if you have a genre book you’d like me to review, please reach out. I’d be happy to hear from you. And finally, I would also like to add my best wishes to each and every one of you for a safe and prosperous 2019.  Good luck to us all.

In the meantime, you can help out a poor unemployed writer by purchasing Elvis Saves JFK! for just 99 cents and War Plan Crimson, A Novel of Alternate History, for $2.99 and now The Key to My Heart, also $2.99 (all are free to preview). All books -- which are already on Smashword's premium distribution list -- are also available through such fine on-line retailers such as Sony, Chapters Indigo, Barnes & Noble and Apple's iTunes Store.  Thanks.

Book Review: Black Chamber, by S.M. Stirling

I’ll start off by saying I liked this book.  It combines a couple of my favourite genres into one-well-crafted punch: a strongly plausible alternate history where former President Teddy Roosevelt won election in 1912 on his independent Progressive platform, with a Great War spy thriller with some decidedly Bondian overtones.

After a quick prologue in 1912 which establishes the setting with Roosevelt’s come-from-behind election victory, the novel flashes forward to 1916, and a world already in the throes of war, but with America still neutral but leaning heavily towards intervention.  It’s against this setting that the Black Chamber, Roosevelt’s super-secret spy agency, dispatches its top agent, Luz O’Malley Arostegui, to track a German agent returning to Europe aboard a trans-Atlantic Zeppelin flight.

In Europe, with but with a few changes the Great War grinds on into a bloody stalemate on the western front. In the East, the Russians have all but collapsed.  Meanwhile, the Germans are desperate to break the western stalemate before the Americans inevitably enter on the side of the entente.

That’s all I’ll say here without dropping some major spoilers. Black Chamber abounds with bronzepunk high-tech and secret weapons, which no thriller would be without. Stirling carefully delivers a believable and inviting alternate history where Teddy Roosevelt was able to quickly remake America in his own progressive image.  Stirling gives us carefully crafted characters – both protagonists and antagonists- who are well rounded and equally sympathetic in their own points of view. This latter has been one of the author’s prime strengths all the back from his Draka series of novels.

From what I understand, this is but the first of a series of novels relating the adventures of Luz O’Malley Arostegui and her fellow Black Chamber operatives, with the next one entitled Theatre of Spies.  I for one, look forward to seeing more of her.

Definitely recommended. 

What’s Next? 
I have a few things planned, including a review of Robert Conroy’s last novel, published posthumously, The Day After Gettysburg.

In the meantime, you can help out a poor unemployed writer by purchasing Elvis Saves JFK! for just 99 cents and War Plan Crimson, A Novel of Alternate History, for $2.99 and now The Key to My Heart, also $2.99 (all are free to preview). All books -- which are already on Smashword's premium distribution list -- are also available through such fine on-line retailers such as Sony, Chapters Indigo, Barnes & Noble and Apple's iTunes Store.  Thanks.

Book Review: Armistice, by Harry Turtledove

It’s 1953 and Third World War has shuddered to a halt.

Armistice is the final volume in Harry Turtledove’s The Hot War trilogy. And as the title suggests (no spoilers here!) it is about the end of World War Three, which began in the first book of the trilogy, Bombs Away!, when U.S. President Harry Truman acceded to General Douglas MacArthur’s request to use atomic weapons during the Korean War. Truman’s decision proves catastrophic, as the war quickly escalates as bomb is traded for bomb and city for city.

Turtledove paints a picture of what is probably the most realistic and likely scenario of an atomic war being waged between the Soviet Union and the United States during the early ‘50s. 

The war is primarily being waged with slow-moving propeller-driven bombers delivering for the most part, comparatively low-yield fission-type nuclear weapons.  While capable of taking out a city, the damage is limited (if you can call it that). By now, both sides resemble prizefighters who have gone a full count with each other but are somehow still standing. They are just too tired, too worn out to keep going. And so, they sue for peace.

As usual, Turtledove’s cast of characters is drawn from every walk of life in a world on the edge is on full display here. Historical characters such as Harry Truman and Vyacheslav Molotov are mixed with the fictional. For the most part, these are all handled very well. 

This is based on an event, given MacArthur’s demands for the use of nuclear weapons, that very nearly happened. It is difficult to imagine, for example, that Stalin wouldn’t have retaliated and that events would’ve unfolded in a manner similar to that Turtledove suggests. I do have a little difficulty, however, in the way Turtledove has broadly shoehorned his plot into the timeline of the Korean War.  Would an actual war have gone on this long or would it have lasted longer? Thankfully, this is something we will never know. Perhaps Turtledove in his own way is suggesting there is a certain inevitability to history – in whichever universe you live in.

Armistice is a satisfying conclusion to The Hot War trilogy. Definitely worth reading.

What’s Next?
It has been a rough-and-tumble month around the old blog, unfortunately. Now it’s time to pick up the pieces and start again. Upcoming, I am now reading S.M. Stirling’s latest book, Black Chamber.  I also have a few other things on the go…

In the meantime, you can help out a poor unemployed writer by purchasing Elvis Saves JFK! for just 99 cents and War Plan Crimson, A Novel of Alternate History, for $2.99 and now The Key to My Heart, also $2.99 (all are free to preview). All books -- which are already on Smashword's premium distribution list -- are also available through such fine on-line retailers such as Sony, Chapters Indigo, Barnes & Noble and Apple's iTunes Store.  Thanks.

A Look at Philip K. Dick’s Radio Free Albemuth: A Book for Our Times

Long regarded as simply a first draft to the author’s later VALIS (1978), Radio Free Albemuth is perhaps one of Philip K. Dick’s more under appreciated works.  And it’s too bad,  given the current world we live in, it’s also one of his most eerily prophetic.

Dick wrote the book in 1976 and then set it aside and it used as a subplot in his later and more extensive VALIS. Radio Free Albemuth was rediscovered after Dick died in 1982 and published posthumously under its current title in 1985. At a little over 200 pages in my Avon paperback (1987) edition, it is a comparatively sparse work, but it is still charged with the same sense of urgency, anger, and wonder that Dick carried throughout all of his work and in my opinion, should not be given short shrift.

The book takes place in an alternate 1960s-70s America where an authoritarian president based on Richard M. Nixon (whom Dick detested), Ferris F. Freemont, rose to power and with the help of his secret police, the Friends of the American People (FAP), has all but destroyed civil rights in the name of saving them. In a turn that might be well out of our own history, this authoritarian president is discovered be a sleeper agent of Moscow. He is in single-minded pursuit of Aramchek, an organization he correctly believes is out to expose him.

One senses that the book is a very personal one for Dick, with the author assuming the role of a major character and partial narrator, but not the key antagonist, who is his friend, Nick Brady, an executive with a small record company in southern California. Brady is also the recipient of signals from a god-like orbiting alien satellite, VALIS (Vast Active Living Intelligent System), which also reflects the author’s own recent conversion to Gnosticism. Through VALIS, Brady, Dick, and others are drawn into the Aramchek conspiracy.

There’s a lot to unpack with Radio Free Albemuth, far too much in this limited space. I do, however, heartily recommend it was an example of Philip K. Dick at the peak of his powers. Find a copy in your local used bookshop or online. It is a book for our times.

Since I’m talking about all things Philip K. Dick, I could not pass the chance to discuss the trailer for the third season for Amazon Prime’s The Man in the High Castle, which is already upon us. I’m only reflecting on what I’ve seen, but it seems that the Nazis will develop a technology to cross the universes - which looks like it came out straight out of the old Time Tunnel TV series. It also looks like that Juliana Crain and perhaps Tagomi will lead some kind of organized resistance to the Nazis. Perhaps most interesting, what will Obergruppenführer Smith’s role be all of this? As the second season closed, he seemed to to be having second thoughts about the party line despite being thrust into the very centre of things thanks to his work in exposing the plotters in last season's closing episode. I think we're being set up for some very exciting developments. I'm very much anticipating this. 

What’s Next?

Forthcoming, I have a review of the latest book by S.M. Stirling, Black Chamber; a review of the last book in Harry Turtledove’s The Hot War trilogy, Armistice.

In the meantime, as always, Elvis Saves JFK! for just 99 cents and War Plan Crimson, A Novel of Alternate History, for $2.99 and The Key to My Heart, also $2.99 (all are free to preview) are available for purchase. All books -- which are already on Smashword's premium distribution list -- are also available through such fine on-line retailers such as Sony, Chapters Indigo, Barnes & Noble and Apple's iTunes Store.  Thanks.