Colonization: Down To Earth - Harry Turtledove Book Review

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TOP SCHOLAR: Wayne S. Urben

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Review Summaries

"This is the second book of the complete Colonization series, set in the 1960's, in the same time line as the preceding Worldwar Tetrology ( 4 book cycle ). It opens in early 1964, one year after the United States launched an advanced spaceship, called the Lewis And Clark, deep into the solar system. Built with technology traded, borrowed, or outright stolen from the aliens that invaded Earth during World War II, changing our history permanently, it may or may not be intended for peaceful exploration. As humans and aliens all over the globe puzzle over the Lewis and Clark's mysterious purpose, tensions between the Greater German Reich and the beings that call themselves the Race escalate into a startling and devastating nuclear war at the climax of the novel. In the meantime the Race continues to battle the growing underground demand for ginger, a habit-forming vice that changes the alien's sexual behavior in a totally unexpected, ironic way. From Nazi occupied France, to Race-held Poland, the Soviet Union, and 1960's Los Angeles, the book is told from many viewpoints, alien, human, male, and female."
Wayne S. Urben, Resident Harry Turtledove Scholar

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Overall Review

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Ratings are on a 1-10 scale (Low to High)
Plot

Composition of Book
Descript. of chases or violence - 30%
planning/preparing, gather info, debate puzzles/motives - 30%
Feelings, relationships, character bio/development - 20%
Descript. of society, phenomena (tech), places - 20%

Tone of book - suspenseful (sophisticated fear)
FANTASY or SCIENCE FICTION? - alternate history
If an invasion, from Earth/human POV: - fighting overt invasion (attacking aliens)
War or Invasion Yes
Major kinds of combat: - guns
Is this an adult or child's book? - Adult or Young Adult Book
Cultural problems, alien culture Yes
Culture clash- - one culture tries to impose its culture on another group
Intense exploration of society's culture? Yes

Main Character
Identity: - Male
Profession/status: - scholar
Age: - 20's-30's
Is this an ordinary person caught up in events? Yes
How sensitive is this character? - sensitive to others' feelings
Sense of humor - Mostly serious with occasional humor
Intelligence - Very much smarter than other characters
Physique - average physique

Main Adversary
Identity: - an entire race
Age: - long-lived adults
Profession/status: - infantry soldier
How much of work is main antagonist actually present in: - throughout most of the book.
How sensitive is this character? - mean, arrogant
Sense of humor - Cynical sense of humor
Intelligence - Very much smarter than other characters
Physique - healthy but a geeky weakling

Setting
Terrain - Jungle - Desert - Mountains - Forests - Space, need spacesuit - Domed/Underground City - Asteroid
Which planet? - Asteroids
Earth setting: - 20th century
Spaceship setting: - futuristic human warship - alien spaceship
Takes place on Earth? Yes
Takes place in spaceship? Yes
Not Earth, in Solar System? Yes

Style
Person? - mostly 3rd
Accounts of torture and death? - moderately detailed references to deaths
Sex in book? Yes
What kind of sex: - descript of kissing - descript of touching personal anatomy - weird alien sex - actual description of sex - description of breasts - descript. of private male anat. - descript. of non-breast female anat.
How much dialogue? - roughly even amounts of descript and dialog

Most similar books by Gordonator ranking
Tilting the Balance - Worldwar 2 by Harry Turtledove
Colonization: Second Contact by Harry Turtledove
Roma Eterna by Robert Silverberg
Apacheria: An Epic of Alternate History by Jake Page
The Nameless Day by Sara Douglass

Note: the views expressed here are only those of the reviewer(s).

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