Upsetting the Balance - Worldwar 3 - Harry Turtledove Book Review

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Review Summaries

"No one could stop The Race, the alien invaders from a distant star who interrupted World War II. China, the Soviet Union, Japan, Nazi Germany, Britain and the United States worked together to tilt the balance in humanity's favor. Our very freedom was at stake. Finally in 1943, the Soviet Union detonated a nuclear bomb using plutonium stolen from the Race. But these invaders are reluctant to retaliate, wanting to preserve as much of the Earth's surface as possible for the arrival of the colonization fleet 20 years after the arrival of the invasion fleet. As lack of fuel forced people back to horses and carriages, caches of chemical and biological weapons, forbidden after World War I, are unearthed in a desperate attempt to preserve humanity's freedom. Meanwhile, a power struggle erupts among the Race when one shiplord, feeling that the fleetlord mishandled the invasion, attempts to relieve him of command. When the vote fails, the renegade shiplord defects to the United States, a move nearly unprecedented in the Race's long history. Then Americans sacrifice Chicago to a nuclear bomb built partially of plutonium stolen from the Race and some of our manufacture, forcing the war into a new phase. "
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 - 40%
planning/preparing, gather info, debate puzzles/motives - 20%
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

Main Character
Identity: - Male
Profession/status: - infantry soldier
Age: - 20's-30's
Is this an ordinary person caught up in events? Yes
How sensitive is this character? - middling sensitive to others' feelings
Sense of humor - Mostly serious with occasional humor
Intelligence - Smarter than most other characters
Physique - very athletic

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 - Water - Mountains - Forests
Earth setting: - 20th century
Spaceship setting: - alien spaceship
Takes place on Earth? Yes
Takes place in spaceship? Yes

Style
Person? - mostly 3rd
Accounts of torture and death? - very explicit references to deaths and torture
scientific jargon? (SF only) - a significant amount of technical jargon
Sex in book? Yes
How much dialogue? - roughly even amounts of descript and dialog

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

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