The Big Switch
In this extraordinary World War II alternate history, master storyteller Harry Turtledove begins with a big switch: what if Neville Chamberlain, instead of appeasing Hitler, had stood up to him in 1938? Enraged,
Hitler reacts by lashing out at the West, promising his soldiers that
they will reach Paris by the new year. They don’t. Three years later,
his genocidal apparatus not fully in place, Hitler has barely survived a coup, while Jews cling to survival. But England and France wonder
whether the war is still worthwhile.
Weaving together a cast of
characters that ranges from a brawling American fighter in the Abraham
Lincoln Brigade in Spain to a woman who has seen Hitler’s evil
face-to-face, Harry Turtledove takes us into a world shaping up very
differently in 1941. The Germans and their Polish allies have slammed
into the gut of the Soviet Union in the west, while Japan pummels away
in the east. In trench warfare in France, French and Czech fighters are
outmanned but not outfought by their Nazi enemy. Then the stalemate is
shattered. In England, Winston Churchill dies in an apparent accident,
and the gray men who walk behind his funeral cortege wonder who their
real enemy is. The USSR, fighting for its life, makes peace with
Japan — and Japan’s war with America is about to begin.
A sweeping saga of human passions, foolishness, and courage, of families and lovers and soldiers by choice and by chance, The Big Switch is a provocative, gripping, and utterly convincing work of alternate
history at its best. For history buffs and fans of big, blood-and-guts
fiction, Harry Turtledove delivers a panoramic clash of ideals as
powerful as armies themselves.
Harry Turtledove
Harry Norman Turtledove (born 1949) is an American historian and novelist. He writes historical fiction, alternate history, science fiction and fantasy novels.
Harry Turtledove has written books under three pseudonyms: Eric Iverson, Dan Chernenko and H. N. Turteltaub.
Photo source: Wikimedia Commons.
The War That Came Early
The War That Came Early consists of six books. The current recommended reading order for the series is provided below.