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With Iron and Fire

Yeah, for some strange reason, there appears to be two separate links for the ebook and paperbook.

Maybe @Lord Roem knows why?
That would be @Meadow not @Lord Roem if it's to do with how they're on Amazon - it's probably a limitation due to the paperbacks being introduced after the ebooks.
 
That would be @Meadow not @Lord Roem if it's to do with how they're on Amazon - it's probably a limitation due to the paperbacks being introduced after the ebooks.

I haven't seen that before - are the paperbacks not kindle? They're normally treated as two editions of the same book.

(Though I did have a mix-up where it decided that 'Christopher Nuttall' was not the same as 'Christopher G. Nuttall' so there could be just a problem with the name and it thinks there are two different 'David Wostyn' people.)

Chris
 
I haven't seen that before - are the paperbacks not kindle? They're normally treated as two editions of the same book.

(Though I did have a mix-up where it decided that 'Christopher Nuttall' was not the same as 'Christopher G. Nuttall' so there could be just a problem with the name and it thinks there are two different 'David Wostyn' people.)

Chris
That is also a possibility, I think I saw that happen with someone else.

Me, I just have to make sure all my books aren't misattributed to a windsurfer with my name on Goodreads.
 
I am reading the book, and I was quite surprised when the author skipped over to Japan to tell the story of the weakness of the Taisho democratic era. I read the second Sino-Japanese War from the perspective of one of the Iron Phoenixes and Afanasy Khristoforov.

I already knew a bit of the reactionary militarist and ultranationalist secret societies in the shadows of Taisho Era Japan plotting and waiting to strike thanks to a Kraut and Tea kino on the topic.

Gosh, ten years fighting Japan to defeat virtually alone, or did the U.S.A. and other countries contribute?

I'm glad the Soviet Union was established in the Civil War, though it is a shame they couldn't break the Whites at the Yenisei River.

Did War break out in Europe? Afanasy did infer something like that.

Did the Soviet Union manage to defeat the Third R---- even with a portion of Russia missing? I was hoping the Chinese, as being imperialists, would not ally with the R----. But if fascist Japan invaded China, then it seems the alliances of the war remained the same.
 
I am reading the book, and I was quite surprised when the author skipped over to Japan to tell the story of the weakness of the Taisho democratic era.
That part is by Pablo Portillo, and I feel it provides useful perspective on the underlying reasons for the deteriorating Sino-Japanese relations.

I read the second Sino-Japanese War from the perspective of one of the Iron Phoenixes and Afanasy Khristoforov.
Hope you enjoyed it, especially the latter, which is by Jason "@Talwar" Sharp. I don't think anyone had ever written an AH story from the point of view of a diamond prospector. I'm also interested in what you think about the story by @Bruno Lombardi and how a foreign visitor experiences the war.

Gosh, ten years fighting Japan to defeat virtually alone, or did the U.S.A. and other countries contribute?
Not at first. China remains pretty much on its own until 1941, and the fact that both belligerents are more or less evenly matched makes the war a long, bloody, indecisive slog until the Western powers get dragged kicking and screaming into it.

I'm glad the Soviet Union was established in the Civil War, though it is a shame they couldn't break the Whites at the Yenisei River.
Yes, the situation in Russia is mostly unaffected by the POD until later, so the Bolsheviks take over on schedule (there are a few minor butterflies but nothing that causes serious changes). I must say setting up the White regime in Eastern Siberia was one of the most fun parts of the project, and I have developed quite the soft spot for Dmitry Horvath.

Did War break out in Europe? Afanasy did infer something like that.
I and the other contributors seriously debated to what extent the TL should diverge from OTL when it comes to the war in Europe and in the Pacific, but after weighing the pros and cons we thought it best to have things play out in a roughly similar way, notwithstanding a number of butterflies.

Did the Soviet Union manage to defeat the Third R---- even with a portion of Russia missing? I was hoping the Chinese, as being imperialists, would not ally with the R----. But if fascist Japan invaded China, then it seems the alliances of the war remained the same.
WW2-era USSR is missing a few points of GDP and a few million citizens compared with OTL, but isn't weakened to the point of being unable to roll back the Nazi invasion. And yes, the wartime alliances are more or less the same.
 
It’s been a while since I read the book, but I did have two minor quibbles.

First, a more assertive China in 1912 - one capable of evicting the Germans from their Chinese holdings in 1914, as detailed in the text - is not likely to tolerate foreign encroachment any further. Issues like extraterritoriality and missionaries (who were granted special rights within China, at gunpoint) would be far harder to handle than the text suggests. The Chinese people might wonder why they couldn’t kick out all the foreigners; the Chinese government, with no immediate need to fear a German victory in Europe, might demand the termination of such issues as its price for sending Chinese troops to fight in the trenches in France. It would certainly be much harder to avoid taking China seriously, at the end of the war. The Chinese would be too powerful to ignore.

In fact, it’s possible - under the circumstances - that the Chinese might consider allying with Germany instead, on the grounds the Germans were less unpleasant (to them) than the UK, France, Japan, etc.

Second, linked to this, it is unlikely Imperial Japan will be so dangerous in this timeline. The Japanese might have the troops and resources of OTL, but the Chinese would have a great deal more, leaving the Japanese relatively weak compared to China. The string of events that led to Pearl Harbour and the Pacific War would be unlikely to take place; the Japanese wouldn’t be fighting their way into a quagmire in China and the US wouldn’t be trying to find a way to stop them. It is possible, as the timeline suggests, that the Japanese will concentrate on snatching Far Eastern Russia instead, but that would be storing up trouble for the future. Japan might not fall into the ‘dark valley’ in this timeline.

A more powerful China in 1919 really does set off a series of changes. The Chinese might support the White Russians and/or bite off Siberia while the Russians are dealing with the revolution. Or they might start pressing against the borders of Indochina and pushing their influence into Malaysia and Indonesia, both with large Chinese minorities.
 
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