Worldwar: Tilting the Balance (Harry Turtledove, 1995)

It seems appropriate that this should be a proud part of my "2015 backlog" project, now entering the second month of 2016. This is the second book in Turtledove's Worldwar series. Believe it or not, I read the first book on my honeymoon, almost eight years ago! At this rate, I will finish the final book in the overall Worldwar/Colonization series around 2050.

This isn't the greatest series ever, but you could do a lot worse. My interest in Turtledove goes back to a mind-blowing reading of the epic Guns of the South followed by an eleven-book workout of what is informally called "Timeline-191". I knew Worldwar was lurking around, but it the whole "World War II and aliens!" concept didn't strongly appeal to me. I had a lot of time to kill on the beach in Maui, so in addition to starting a Michael Connelly regimen I tried out the first book of the series.

In true Turtledove fashion, the books are a rotating series of perspectives, usually around five per chapter with twenty chapters total. Most of the viewpoints are those of fictional low-level characters, but there is some inclusion of real-life characters in wildly different situations just to keep things interesting. Since we're only at book number two, I'm not sure if any character will become famous or notorious as the series progresses (thinking of a Jake Featherstone becoming a Confederate Hitler in Timeline-191). I wouldn't trust this Jens guy, but his hard-luck story is more a victim of circumstances at this point than any kind of evil schemer plotting.

So will I move on to the third book? Probably. Will I read it this year? Probably not. Will I read it this decade? Let's just say I'm trying to be a better person.