Tag: harry turtledove

In The Mail: “Supervolcano: Things Fall Apart.”

Supervolcano: Things Fall Apart is Harry Turtledove’s final book (I think) in the series about what would happen if the Yellowstone caldera exploded the way that it’s apparently supposed to do any time now (spoiler warning: life would really, really, really suck). I’m reading it, as I do all things Turtledove, and I’m enjoying it… but the blurbs for the book (which suggest a looming DOOM) don’t really match the text (which suggests that life is simply going to really, really, really suck for a while). I’m not saying don’t check it out; Harry Turtledove can’t control the people who write ad copy for his books. But apocalypse porn* this is not.
Continue reading In The Mail: “Supervolcano: Things Fall Apart.”

Just finished Supervolcano: All Fall Down.

Supervolcano: All Fall Down by Harry Turtledove was pretty good, if you care for the story of the slow-motion collapse of the United States of America* after the worst geological event in recorded history (the eruption of the Yellowstone caldera); particularly as seen through the eyes of a not-particularly-super-heroic, fairly standard American family.  There are a bunch of folks who don’t like that sort of thing; then again, there are people who didn’t like Cloverfield.  I don’t judge.

Anyway, that was what I was doing this afternoon.

Moe Lane

*Plus, oh, right, the rest of the planet.

Definition of ‘Painfully switching mental gears.’

Finishing Harry Turtledove’s The War That Came Early: The Big Switch (latest in a goood WWII alternate history series, not to mention one that ominous as all hell) and starting Gail Carriger’s Heartless (The Parasol Protectorate) (latest in a good steampunk/Victorian urban fantasy series, and YOU JUST SHUT UP YOU SHUT UP RIGHT NOW)*.  As I noted, both are good, but they have somewhat… different… mindsets to them.

So it goes.

Continue reading Definition of ‘Painfully switching mental gears.’

Book of the Week: Mission of Honor.

Yeah, the title and the author (David Weber) tells you that Mission of Honor is part of the Honor Harrington series, which I stopped struggling against trying to not buy in hardcover years ago.  Because I am weak.  So weak that I know that I’ll buy this – somehow – when it comes out next June.

And so we say farewell to Sentry Peak. It had a longer run than normal, at least.

Moe Lane

Book of the Week: Sentry Peak.

It’s a few years old, but the inside blurb promises that Sentry Peak is going to be the weirdest American Civil War novel that you’ll ever read; and while that may or may not be strictly true, it’s certainly up there. Take a look at the cover for confirmation of that. First of a series.

And so, it being Sunday we say goodbye to Zodiac.

Moe Lane Continue reading Book of the Week: Sentry Peak.

Book of the Week: Liberating Atlantis.

As it is Sunday, we shall now switch out On Stranger Tides for Harry Turtledove’s Liberating Atlantis. It’s the third book of an alternate history series where the eastern half of the North American continent (named Atlantis by the inhabitants) had apparently been detached millions of years previously and more or less parked in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. The previous two books highlighted the alternate’s version of the Age of Discovery and the American Revolution; this one looks to address Atlantis’ version of the American Civil War.

Or you could just buy it because it’s by Harry Turtledove. I find that to be a remarkably successful book-buying strategy.

Moe Lane

I wonder if Turtledove & Zabel will ever finish this?

“This” being the alternate history book WINTER OF OUR DISCONTENT: The Impeachment & Trial of John F. Kennedy, Written by Harry Turtledove & Bryce Zabel, which postulates as its divergence point the failed assassination of JFK. They’ve got three chapters up at the site, and it looks like a pretty good story – but there hasn’t been any action on this for almost two years, which seems a shame. Harry Turtledove‘s a master at the genre, and we’re about due for some serious reexamining of the Kennedy era.