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In his acclaimed novels of alternate history, Harry Turtledove has scrutinized the twisted soul of the twentieth century, from the forces that set World War I in motion to the rise of fascism in the decades that followed. Now, this masterly storyteller turns his eyes to the aftermath of World War II and asks: In an era of nuclear posturing, what if the Cold War had suddenly turned hot?
Bombs Away begins with President Harry Truman in desperate consultation with General Douglas MacArthur, whose control of the ground war in Korea has slipped disastrously away. MacArthur recognizes a stark reality: The U.S. military has been cut to the bone after victory over the Nazis - while China and the USSR have built up their forces. The only way to stop the Communist surge into the Korean Peninsula and save thousands of American lives is through a nuclear attack. MacArthur advocates a strike on Chinese targets in Manchuria. In actual history, Truman rejected his general's advice; here, he does not. The miscalculation turns into a disaster when Truman fails to foresee Russia's reaction.
Almost instantly, Stalin strikes U.S. allies in Europe and Great Britain. As the shock waves settle, the two superpowers are caught in a horrifying face-off. Will they attack each other directly with nuclear weapons? What countries will be caught in between?
The fateful global drama plays out through the experiences of ordinary people - from a British barmaid to a Ukrainian war veteran to a desperate American soldier alone behind enemy lines in Korea. For them, as well as Truman, Mao, and Stalin, the whole world has become a battleground. Strategic strikes lead to massive movements of ground troops. Cities are destroyed, economies ravaged. And on a planet under siege, the sounds and sights of nuclear bombs become a grim harbinger of a new reality: the struggle to survive man's greatest madness.
"[The] chaotic, seemingly plotless narrative is less than satisfying to any reader who wants a dramatic payoff to all this old-school shock and awe." - Publishers Weekly
"The somewhat daunting multitude of characters and their discrete stories can warble in quality among the collection, but the vicarious sense of eschatological dread is always powerful and personal." - Booklist
"Readers who savor the patient accumulation of detail around each one will find it easy to become thoroughly addicted. Definitely worth a try for Turtledove fans and armchair warriors in general." - Kirkus
This information about Bombs Away was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Harry Norman Turtledove was born in Los Angeles, CA on 14 June 1949. After
failing out of his freshman year at Caltech, he attended UCLA, where he received
a Ph.D. in Byzantine history in 1977. His dissertation was on The Immediate
Successors of Justinian: A Study of the Persian Problem and of Continuity and
Change in Internal Secular Affairs in the Later Roman Empire During the Reigns
of Justin II and Tiberius II Constantine (A.D. 565-582).
In 1979, Turtledove published his first two novels, Wereblood and
Werenight, under the pseudonym "Eric G. Iverson". Turtledove later explained
that his editor at Belmont Towers did not think people would believe the
author's real name was "Turtledove" and suggested that he come up with something
more Nordic. He ...
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