Rating: 
Summary: Boring with one dimensional characters
Review: I read the first of this series and was bored to tears with Harry's long-windedness. For some reason, a few months later, I decided to buy this book to see how the lizards made out.What a mistake. This book is so boring that I just skipped entire chapters to avoid having to read one more narrative about some arrested-development adolescent shooting his gun and thinking with his crotch. The one exception to this is the Jens Larsen character who gets utterly reamed by the author. (Note to Mr. Turtledove: you are not Charles Dickens. When you try things like this, you come across as crass and manipulative. Stick to your standard simplistic and silly descriptions of combat.) The villains in these books have to be the biggest morons in the universe and they have so many vulnerabilities (they can't handle the cold? Geeze!) that defeating them is a challenge only for the twits populating the pages of this book. Stay away. This book is a waste of money.
Rating: 
Summary: Sorry, this reader stops here
Review: I've read, and reviewed, Worldwar: In The Balance. The first book was interesting and a good read, if also flawed. Alas, the second is a huge disappointment. Pretty much all that was wrong with the first book is wrong with the second one as well. Very important is that NOTHING happends. Except for one 'big' event, that is supposed to be shocking even though it was refered to a million times, the situation remains pretty much the same as it was in the first book. Everything is very repetitive. We have millions of battle scenes, which get old quickliy. We get needless descriptions of sex, we get a really bad soap Opera sub plot( more on that later), and we get endless alien bitching about hwo "Chaotic" humans are. It was OK the first book, but now it's terrible. The worst thing, are the characters. now we have no less then three ex baseball players as heroes. Compare that to soldiers(2), scientists(1), resistance fighters(1-2), pilots(2) politicians(1)... way too much baseball. But the worst thing, and the very reason I stop reading this series despite all the good things I said about it in my review of the first book, is Sam Yeager. I just can't stand him. He's simply the worst, most annoying charicature of a character, the brainless brawn that saves the day and gets the girl. I hate his character so much it alone would have been enough to make me desert almost anybook, no matter how good. Fortunately or unfortunately, this isn't a great book in the first place.
Rating: 
Summary: Wow! You have to read this book.
Review: It dosen't matter if your not intrested in war you will get caught up and you'll never be able to put it down. You must get the whole series and you'll read it and you'll like it.
Rating: 
Summary: It was a fun read, but not what I've come to expect...
Review: It was a fun read, a pretty decent continuation of the story line from the first book - almost like picking up the same book and it'd grown. However I really have come to expect something more from Turtledove, after Guns of the South. This series really doesn't compare well. It was fun but it left me unsatisfied.
Rating:
Summary: The story begins to even out here.
Review: It wasn't until I got into this book that I began to realize that the first volume ("In The Balance") was a package of preludes rather than a story in itself. This one has some delicious concepts. Such as a woman who remarries when her husband is missing and presumed dead. Only to have her ex show up alive and well. The lizard invaders have a weakness--ginger is a drug which gets them high and is addictive ("don't bogart those ginger snaps, my friend...pass 'em over to me"). Winston Churchill makes a tour of inspection of military readiness on a bicycle. A minor-league baseball manager utilizes his civilian skills when he becomes a sergeant. One of his ballplayers, along with a Chinese woman, becomes an experimental animal so that the invaders can study human mating. The couple end up proving that not speaking each other's language and not having chosen each other in the first place are not necessarily obstacles to love. FDR has to deliver his "fireside chats" from "somewhere in America", because the country is as much a battleground as anywhere overseas. I still think "Guns Of the South" is Turtledove's masterpiece, but this 4 volume set is still worth the read.
Rating: 
Summary: too lost in the scandals
Review: Lots of people love turtldove's work. I must say that I don't get it. His novel's plots are like poor versions of 40's serial stories. This book is no exception. On the advice of a friend I made my way through the whole series. Take my advice. Don't waste your time. The plot is thin and hacknied. The historical characters are flat. The characters he creates are little more than props to move the predictable plot along. Where to begin? Does anyone ever believe that the Alien's have a chance? Are the german's really this dumb? Are the people who fought world war II really this simple minded? Please. Turtledove, I am sure, has made a lot of money churning out these books. Good for him. Just pity those who read them. If you want good speculative fiction, I suggest K. Dick or Harry Harrison. Both have done better and more intersting work.
Rating:
Summary: B movie drek
Review: Lots of people love turtldove's work. I must say that I don't get it. His novel's plots are like poor versions of 40's serial stories. This book is no exception. On the advice of a friend I made my way through the whole series. Take my advice. Don't waste your time. The plot is thin and hacknied. The historical characters are flat. The characters he creates are little more than props to move the predictable plot along. Where to begin? Does anyone ever believe that the Alien's have a chance? Are the german's really this dumb? Are the people who fought world war II really this simple minded? Please. Turtledove, I am sure, has made a lot of money churning out these books. Good for him. Just pity those who read them. If you want good speculative fiction, I suggest K. Dick or Harry Harrison. Both have done better and more intersting work.
Rating:
Summary: Continuing Chaos Packs a Punch
Review: Often in a series of novels, the first is the strongest while the others offer a less satisfying read. Not the case with this second entry into the World War series. The power of the initial invasion has faded and the long struggle is engaged in earnest in this volume. The invaders are faced with unexpected opposition in the most unlikely places. Among the humans, unlikely heroes emerge. Strongest among the heroes is Heinrich Jaeger, a colonel in the Wehrmacht. Jaeger finds it difficult to accept the unthinking compliance required of him by his Nazi masters, but he is a man of honor who will fight for the survival of the human race against impossible odds, no matter what the personal cost. He is capable of great physical heroism and has a depth of character that questions blind obedience. He grows beyond the nationalistic self interest still evidenced among the fighters of Earth. As the struggle continues, a strange phenomenon occurs among the fighting forces. Each side finds itself drawn closer to the other, not in ideology, but in the details of day to day survival. Both sides are changing as the conflict continues. Neither remains as it was in the beginning. Turtledove's insightful prose strips away the mask of "heroism" to examine the soul beneath the warrior's mask. What he reveals there is a startling examination of the individual spirit. This is not to say that the book lacks action. Far from it. The battles are drawn with stark clarity and heroes die easily at the hands of an enemy. He has also managed to create a credible foe for the human forces, despite their "alien" nature, with a complexity of character that makes the prolonged struggle believable. Some of the "bad guys" grow to be admirable in their own fashion. The skillful blending and bending of history with a strong narrative is sure to capture interest. Add to that characters you really grow to like and respect. The result is a strong second part of the series that demands to be followed to its conclusion.
Rating:
Summary: Enjoyable, but subtly flawed
Review: The book was mostly enjoyable, though did seem to sometimes skip about and dwell on unimportant characters. My main problem with this book was the subplot dealing with Jens/Barbara/Sam. This seems forced and unrealistic. My impression is that Sam would have been in serious trouble for shacking up with someone elses wife. Instead the author wants us to feel that the husband is the bad guy. It just doesn't play out. Sam, you cheating scoundral, I hope you get nuked in the third book. (and don't beg off that you thought the husband was dead. Missing for a couple of months does not a death make.)
Rating:
Summary: Couldn't be worse
Review: The first book in the series was passable, but weak. This was the worst book I have read. For good story telling and better character development read David Weber, C.S. Forester, and David O'brian. I have not stopped reading in the middle of a series, until now.
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