| Worldwar | |
| Italic Title: | no |
| Author: | Harry Turtledove |
| Country: | United States |
| Language: | English |
| Genre: | Science fiction Alternate history |
| Media Type: | Print (hardback & paperback) |
The Worldwar series is the fan name given to a series of eight alternate history science fiction novels by Harry Turtledove.[1] Its premise is an alien invasion of Earth during World War II, and includes Turtledove's Worldwar tetralogy, as well as the Colonization trilogy, and the novel Homeward Bound. The series' time span ranges from 1942 to 2031. The early series was nominated for a Sidewise Award for Alternate History in 1996.[2]
Worldwar deals with a military invasion that begins on or around May 30, 1942 by a force of aliens that calls itself The Race, a reptilian species. It had reached Earth orbit in December 1941 but delayed the attack for various reasons.
Although the Race has the advantage of superior technology, its information on humanity had been collected by a robotic probe during the 12th century AD. The invaders are surprised to find that humanity progressed far more rapidly than any other species that they had previously studied and conquered. Contrary to its expectations, at the time of invasion, the Race's technology is only marginally more advanced than 20th-century Earth technology. The commander hesitates, and considers turning back without revealing The Race's presence to the humans but finally decides to avoid the disgrace of that course of action.
The narrative follows the intersecting fortunes of a large number of human and alien characters. Notably, the series depicts how the Axis and Allied powers must cooperate to fight the alien menace.
As is gradually revealed, the Race unified its home planet into a single state with a military technology at a level similar to our history's late 20th century. It then had tens of thousands of years of further history, but for most of the time, it fought no wars and so had no incentive or need to develop more advanced weapons. Indeed, for most of the time, it maintained no army at all. Only the discovery of other planets with intelligent beings made the Emperor proclaim a "Soldier's Time" and build up an army, and the weapons developed at the last wars when the home planet was unified were quite enough to conquer the other planets. With Earth, it turned out differently since the various human nations were faced with arms some decades ahead of theirs but were soon able to close the gap.
Turtledove approaches the novels' science fiction scenario by focusing less on the technological and fantasy elements that are typically associated with the genre. Instead, he shows more concern for the role of more mundane affairs, such as the political repercussions of an alliance between the Allied and the Axis powers, the impact the presence of alien creatures has on human society, and the ways in which warfare is paradoxically a hindrance to civilization and simultaneously a catalyst for the progress of civilization.[3] [4]
Particular attention is given to the deep dilemma facing the Jews in both Poland and Palestine. The invaders, by landing in 1942, stop the ongoing Holocaust and close down Auschwitz for which the Jews are understandably grateful, but collaborating with the reptile invaders would brand the Jews as traitors to humanity.
The first series is made up of four volumes:
It ends with neither humanity nor the aliens triumphing. Instead, each side fights to the point that facing mutually-assured destruction, they settle into an uneasy ceasefire. The aliens want to colonize Earth and have nuclear weapons but want to use them only sparingly. They cannot colonize a radioactive wasteland after a full-scale nuclear exchange.
The invasion ultimately ends with all of the major Allied and Axis powers managing to develop their own nuclear weapons, which results in a stalemate. The Race is left in control of roughly half the planet, primarily colonial possessions in the Southern Hemisphere: Africa, South and Central America, Australia, and most of Asia aside from the Soviet Union and a few Japanese coastal holdings.
The second series of novels, set in the 1960s, deals with the interaction between surviving humans and the Race. Opening with the arrival of the colonization fleet, the series ends with the defeat of Nazi Germany and the establishment of a permanently-occupied US space station in the asteroid belt. Part of the series focuses on the Reich-Race War of the mid-1960s, when the Greater German Reich and the Race fight a nuclear war.
The Germans lose and are forced to allow France to become an independent nation again under a new Fourth Republic. Nonetheless, it is a costly victory for the Race since fighting Germany on its own after 20 years of human technological advancement proved to be much more difficult than fighting all free human nations earlier. It is left obvious to both sides that the long-term trends are in humanity's favor.
The Race is also faced with ongoing guerilla wars in much of the territory that they conquered, especially by insurgents, both Kuomintang and Communist in China and by militants in the Middle East influenced by Khomeini. The Race, confirmed conservative monarchists and chauvinists who take the superiority of the Empire as axiomatic, find it difficult to understand why the Big Uglies continually and constantly attempt to rebel against them, and why some of their policies (like introducing a tax on religious worship) do not work. Nonetheless, they recognise the recklessness of, and danger posed, by the Tosevites.
Another major issue turns out to be ginger, an innocent flavoring in human cuisine but a powerful narcotic for the Race's metabolism. It creates problems of addiction and helps create new criminal networks involving both humans and rogue members of the Race. Moreover, inhaling ginger causes females of the Race to become sexually active outside of their normal mating season. That creates new problems, as the Race has no concept whatsoever of sexual activity being private, and when sexually aroused, it tends to engage in indiscriminate orgies to the scandal of the humans who happen to watch. For their part, members of the Race find it difficult to understand humans' insistence on sex being a private act, and the humans' great annoyance when reptiles walk in on them while engaged in it.
The cultural gap between the males of the Conquest Fleet of the race and the males and females of the Colonization fleet who did not know of the state of affairs at Tosev before reaching there is also explored, with the latter appalled at the former for not having conquered the planet in its entirely and at having to share it with native "Big Uglies", and the former disgusted by the dogmatism, naivety, and rigidity of the Colonization Fleet, whom they judge to have no idea of the people around them and the effort taken to secure the Race's position as the overlord of half the planet.
The final novel in the saga deals with humanity reaching the Race's homeworld, "Home" (Tau Ceti II).[5]
See main article: article. The following is a list of some of the major characters from the series.
Numerous historical characters also appear, some having brief cameos and others having significant parts in the plot:
General in the Polish Home Army. In reality, he became commander of the Home Army in the second half of 1943, after the previous commander, Stefan Grot-Rowecki, was arrested by the Gestapo.
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
German Führer
US Army Major General
German foreign minister
Nuclear physicist, University of Chicago Metallurgical Laboratory
German ambassador to the United States
Japanese foreign minister
Nuclear physicist, University of Chicago Metallurgical Laboratory
Italian nuclear physicist, University of Chicago Metallurgical Laboratory
BBC talks producer, Indian Section, London. Better known by his pen name, George Orwell.
Wehrmacht general and interpreter in Pskov
Nuclear physicist with the Metallurgical Laboratory
Nuclear physicist, Hechingen, Germany
Nuclear physicist with the Metallurgical Laboratory
Enrico Fermi's wife
Soviet nuclear physicist
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
Nuclear physicist, Hechingen, Germany
US secretary of state
Red Army general
Soviet nuclear physicist
Radio news broadcaster
Japanese nuclear physicist
German foreign minister
President of the United States
Eldest of the Jews in the Łódź ghetto
General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union
Nuclear physicist with the Metallurgical Laboratory
Japanese foreign minister
Marshal of the Soviet Union
British Minister of Supply
Wehrmacht Lieutenant General
Nuclear physicist, Tübingen, Germany
Physicist, Couch, Missouri
U.S. Army general, Couch, Missouri
Nuclear physicist, Denver, Colorado
Rocket expert, Couch, Missouri
British ambassador to the United States
Il Duce (Italian Dictator)
German foreign minister
General Secretary, Communist Party of the Soviet Union
Nuclear physicist, Denver, Colorado
Jewish guerrilla, Haifa, Palestine
US Army lieutenant general, outside Denver
Wehrmacht lieutenant general, Riga, Latvia
Wehrmacht lieutenant general, Pskov, Soviet Union
US Army major general, Hot Springs, Arkansas
British foreign secretary
Rocket scientist, Hot Springs, Arkansas
President of the United States following the death of Franklin D. Roosevelt
Nuclear physicist, north of Moscow
Communist Party leader, Peking
US Secretary of State
German foreign minister
General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union
Japanese foreign minister