Now I actually haven't read any TL-191 books in person, so I'm curious: Is anything after How Few Remain itself even worth it?
I quite liked the Great War ones at the time. After that it starts to get more fill-in-madlibs analogous.Now I actually haven't read any TL-191 books in person, so I'm curious: Is anything after How Few Remain itself even worth it?
I read through the entire series at the time of publication, though by the time of the Second Great War books I was mostly reading them out of sheer boneheaded reluctance to stop a series once started.Now I actually haven't read any TL-191 books in person, so I'm curious: Is anything after How Few Remain itself even worth it?
I have also pointed out this scene (does it count as irony if two people point out the two scene thing?), and I had the same thought about the tanks but I don't think I've ever vocalised it.The Second Great War books were expensive toilet paper where Turtledove was just phoning it in. The most memorable examples of that were when he had two separate scenes where the same characters met for the first time (presumably written twice from the same notes without even realising he'd written the scene before) and how he couldn't be bothered to make up a name for the new tanks and just kept calling them new models.
So I think the problem arose from Turtledove having put enough thought into one book's worth of stuff and spreading it out over, er, seven.
Well, that was the rumoured reason for it, yes.I thought what happened was that he needed to pay his daughter's university tuition and the books were still selling well so...
I liked the Great War books when I was fourteen or so, but even then I could tell they weren't as good as How Few Remain.
They're not bad. They have some fun stuff. They're just not particularly good, either.
To be completely honest the whole "TL 191 had to be rewritten and expanded" theory has never popped up for me anywhere but from posts by you saying it was a thing, Tom.Probably the best way to sum it up is that when the series was originally announced, it was going to be How Few Remain, the Great War trilogy, and then one follow-up book called The Great War: Settling Accounts, which I think would have basically summed up the whole analogous Depression/Nazis/WW2 thing.
So I think the problem arose from Turtledove having put enough thought into one book's worth of stuff and spreading it out over, er, seven.
I'm not sure if it was ever explicitly mentioned in the blurbs in the backs of the books (or the intro at the front), but it was covered I think on his website (the amazingly John Hemming one run by Steven Silver) back in the day. Next time I have access to my books I'll see if I can find reference to it.To be completely honest the whole "TL 191 had to be rewritten and expanded" theory has never popped up for me anywhere but from posts by you saying it was a thing, Tom.
considering the entire series stretches to, like, 15 books or so?
...
Edit: 10 books
Also, wasn't the original plan that the USA would be the one becoming Fascist but then Turtledove realized that wouldn't play well? In particular that would explain why Flora Hamburger seems so clearly based off of Rosa Luxemburg in the Great War series.Probably the best way to sum it up is that when the series was originally announced, it was going to be How Few Remain, the Great War trilogy, and then one follow-up book called The Great War: Settling Accounts, which I think would have basically summed up the whole analogous Depression/Nazis/WW2 thing.
So I think the problem arose from Turtledove having put enough thought into one book's worth of stuff and spreading it out over, er, seven.
That doesn't make any sense tbh. It's an alternate history, there's no meaningful issue with it having a second order counterfaftual in it.Also, wasn't the original plan that the USA would be the one becoming Fascist but then Turtledove realized that wouldn't play well? In particular that would explain why Flora Hamburger seems so clearly based off of Rosa Luxemburg in the Great War series.