Thoughts on Harry Turtledove

[A.R.Amistad]

I just bought a compilation of alternative history stories that, according to the title page art, seems to have communism vs. fascism themes. The compilation is of stories by various writers, but Harry Turtledove put it together. Any thoughts on Turtledove?

[Lenina Rosenweg]

Harry Turtledove is a prolific writer of alternate history. I've read the "How Few Remain" series. I think this is the most realistic of the "south won the Civil war" genre. There's another war between the US and the CS in the 1870s. There's a communist slave uprising in the south which is bloodily crushed. Abe Lincoln survives and becomes the founder of the US Socialist Party in the late 1870s. Eventually the north has a social democratic government.

Turtledove has another series where aliens intervene in WWII. The cover art has an alien w/a tentacle around Stalin. I decided to give it a pass. Turtledove's a good writer. I don't know his politics but he seems to understand socialist arguments.

Terry Bisson wrote "Fire on The Mountain", an AH in which John Brown's rebellion succeeds. Former slaves in the south form Nova Africa, which eventually becomes socialist. The remaining US has a socialist revolution. Its very well written and very moving.Bisson is good at using the voice of widely different characters from different eras.

A lot of alternate seems to be right wing (if Lenin was killed we could have avoided Soviet tryrrany) or outright fascist-SM Stirling's stuff

[ComradeOm]

Turtledove is a hack. At the most basic level he is simply a poor writer (the surprisingly common sex scenes are particularly bad) but even his alt-history scenarios are getting more and more transparent. Aliens invading in the middle of WWII? Interesting, for the first few books at least. A paper thin Hitler pastiche (hello Jake Featherston) whose rise to power in the CSA almost exactly mirrors that of a certain NSDAP... well now you're just having a laugh. Avoid

[Os Cangaceiros]

Terry Bisson wrote "Fire on The Mountain", an AH in which John Brown's rebellion succeeds. Former slaves in the south form Nova Africa, which eventually becomes socialist. The remaining US has a socialist revolution.

Have you ever read "Back in the USSA"?

[smellincoffee]

He seems somewhat sympathetic toward socialism from what I've read, although I get the impression he doesn't think any governmental system will ever work as intended. The US social democracy in his "How Few Remain"-timeline is rather weak on foreign affairs.

Still, I loved the idea of a US president being inaugurated against a backdrop that included red flags.

His newest series (The War That Came Early) begins during the Spanish Civil War....a few of the characters are leftists of one stripe or another.

[Red Commissar]

He's an alright writer. I don't own any of his books, I usually just read them from the library from time to time.

I just wish he'd cut with the crappy sexual shit that seems to be way too common in the books.

[x359594]

Turtledove is a hack. At the most basic level he is simply a poor writer (the surprisingly common sex scenes are particularly bad) but even his alt-history scenarios are getting more and more transparent. Aliens invading in the middle of WWII? Interesting, for the first few books at least...

I concur. His ideas are interesting but poorly realized and his prose style is pedestrian at best. His plots and characters are on the level of an average TV movie.