Harry Turtledove’s first two books were fantasy
novels written as Eric Iverson. Although he
dropped the pseudonym after they appeared, most
of his work during the 1980s continued to be fantasy, drawn from his extensive background training
in history. Several early short stories were assembled as Agent of Byzantium (1987), all set in an alternate world in which the Byzantine Empire never
fell. Alternate history would prove to be a fertile
resource for him and most of his future novels
would make use of that device. Noninterference
(1988) was more traditional science fiction, the
story of human explorers who break the rules
about interfering with primitive alien cultures,
with consequences far more radical than they expected. A Different Flesh (1988) is set in an alternate world where protohumans survived in North
America to be discovered by Columbus, and A
World of Difference (1990) is an adventure story on
an alternate, inhabited Mars. Turtledove had by
now produced a considerable body of short stories,
of which he would write significantly fewer in the
years that followed. Many of these are collected
in Kaleidoscope (1990) and Departures (1993).
The best of his shorter work is “The Pugnacious
Peacemaker” (1990), a sequel to The Wheels of If
(1940) by L. Sprague De CAMP.
Turtledove’s science fiction from 1990 forward
consists of alternate history stories almost to the
exclusion of everything else, other than the occasional fantasy adventure. One of the first and best
of these was Guns of the South (1992), essentially a
change war story in which a group of time travelers
provides advanced weaponry to the Confederacy.
That was followed by the World War series, consisting of In the Balance (1994), Tilting the Balance
(1995), Upsetting the Balance (1996), and Striking
the Balance (1996). During the midst of World War
II, malevolent aliens invade the Earth, landing in
various places and forcing communists, fascists,
and the free world to unite against their common
enemy. The outcome seems in doubt until the defenders successfully develop atomic weapons and
use them against the enemy. Although the premise
was an interesting one, the series is uneven and betrays a failing that would recur frequently in the
author’s work: The text becomes so involved with
speculation about the changing relationships
among nations and political leaders that other
story values are subordinated. At times these works
read like extended lectures rather than fiction, despite a very large cast of characters and many shifts
of viewpoint. By contrast, The Two Georges (1996),
an alternate history written with the actor Richard
Dreyfuss in which the American colonies never revolted, is both an interesting speculative work and
an absorbing novel.
How Few Remain (1997) returns to the Civil
War—or more precisely, the war’s aftermath in a
history where the Confederacy prevailed. The
Confederacy’s subsequent effort to annex a portion
of Mexico leads to renewed hostilities. This led
logically to Turtledove’s Great War sequence, in
which an independent Confederacy complicates
matters during World War I. American Front
(1998) places what remains of the United States
on the side of Germany. Walk in Hell (1999) and
Breakthroughs (2000) continue the story, with communist agents disrupting the situation in North
America, eventually leading to a renewed war
against the South. The Colonization trilogy is
largely a recapitulation of the World War series.
Earth unites against alien invaders in Second Contact (1999), Down to Earth (2000), and Aftershocks
(2001), ultimately prevailing against them.
Turtledove added to the saga of the Confederacy with yet another sequence consisting of Blood
and Iron (2001), The Center Cannot Hold (2002),
and The Victorious Opposition (2003). The Confederacy was on the losing side during the Great War
series. The United States is subverted and becomes
a socialist state, while its ravaged southern neighbor becomes a fascist dictatorship, setting the stage
for renewed conflict. Another series has recently
begun with Gunpowder Empire (2003), set in an alternate history in which the Roman Empire never
fell. Turtledove’s remaining two alternate history
novels appear to be singletons, although Turtledove may well decide to add to them in the future.
Ruled Britannia (2002), one of his best novels, is set
in an England that became a Spanish colony after
the Armada successfully invaded. The poet
William Shakespeare is called upon to inspire the
populace to revolt. In the Presence of Mine Enemies
(2003) takes place in a world in which the Nazis
successfully conquered Europe. Turtledove’s more
recent short fiction has been collected in Counting
Up, Counting Down (2002). “Down in the Bottomlands” (1994) won a Hugo Award.