Rating: 
Summary: Another great entry in the series...
Review: Well, it's time to see how the world is doing in the aftermath of the first interstellar war. It turns out that things aren't going so well. Political tensions are high between the Greater German Reich, the USSR, the USA, England (teetering towards fascism), Canada, South Africa, and Israel. Add a new nuclear power into the mix as well and you have what leads into the final book in the Worldwar series. Unfortunately, I don't think things are going to end well. Many returning characters wind up learning things they shouldn't and betrayal is a constant threat from every side. I hope that things get better in the last book, but that's probably too optimistic of me. One star off for putting JFK and Kruschev on the cover of the book but not in the text.
Rating: 
Summary: Colonization : down to earth
Review: Turtledove continues his marvelously intriguing alternate history saga. This latest installment essentially picks up where the last volume left off. Populated by a cast of characters we Turtledove fans have come to know from past volumes, this is a worthy addition to the Worldwar series. I suppose my only criticism is that I wish the series could have been done in fewer volumes. All-in-all a very worthy addition to the growing body of quality alternate history novels.
Rating: 
Summary: Outstanding! Another Great Book!
Review: He has done it again! Down To Earth continues the Post World War Saga better than ever. The author's continued development of charcters makes you realize how mankind can adapt and prosper in any situation. I tend to "back read" DON'T! Let the events unfold as designed! In the past some have challenged the author to include maps with his books. In a way it is good that maps are not included - makes us draw back on our own history and knowledge... and appreciate the lure of the alternate history that Turtledove does so well.
Rating:
Summary: Turtledove does it again!
Review: Well, it's another Turtledove book... which is to say a big cast of interesting, well-realized characters (some with scales and eye-turrets, here), well-developed background, and a dry sense of humor.Check out the alien pets, for instance! And the grazing animals, whose motto is: "We make a desert and call it Home!" A generation after the Lizards land in 1942, expecting to fight the Crusaders, we find out that there's more to American policy than meets the eye; that a sane tyrant like Molotov has some disadvantages compared to a mad one like Stalin; and that some humans can make imperialist invaders from the stars look like good guys. Speaking of which, Turtledove keeps firmly in mind a fact that a writer should never forget -- everyone is the hero in their own story. His characters have _reasons_ for what they do, reasons that make sense from the character's own p.o.v. They're never cardboard cutouts, manipulated for plot purposes. They breathe, and many of them become like old friends. Buy the book!
Rating:
Summary: Well Done.
Review: I waited with baited breath to see what would next turn up. And I was not disappointed- there are enough twists at the end of the book to satisfy any fan of O'Henry. Some are predictable, some are not. It is enjoyable reading.
Turtledove can be long-winded at times, and deserves occasional skimming, but he keeps that to a minimum in this book. Every book seems to have repeated information that gets kind of old, such as the original probe's vision of the inhabitants of Earth 800 years ago- but perhaps that is necessary for the reader who picks Book 6 off the bookstore shelf at random.
He manages to continue to follow the characters, and keep the myriad of characters clear. Some of the stories are more boring than others. There are times when the sex scenes are gratuitous and too detailed to be helpful. It is unfortunate to see how Rance and Penny have been reduced to drug dealers, when they had such a wonderful relationship 20 years ago. Perhaps that disappointment and lack of character continuity from the original integrity of those characters makes their story rather dull- it would be nice for Turtledove to drop them off the storyboard.
Perhaps the greatest part of the story is how well Turtledove shows the cultures interacting. We gain great depths of knowledge into the beliefs and practices of the mythical lizard culture, as well as a greater understanding of human culture, from the helpful outside-observer, godlike position of the lizards. Turtledove goes further to show changes in cultures, as humans and lizards impact each other. And as always, he uses his extensive knowledge of history to accurately predict the "what-if" impact on various societies.
Rating: 
Summary: A Disappointment
Review: Harry Turtledove is spitting out books at the rate of five or six a year. And they aren't short, either --- he seems to have a contractual minimum of 600 pages per novel. Anyone pumping out fiction at this pace can be expected to run hot or cold, and Turtledove is no exception. The original World War quartet (this one is the second in a "sequel" trilogy) was fresh and consistently exciting. Unfortunately, this follow up spends too much time rehashing the plot of the original and padding the pages with endlessly repetitive prose. Turtledove, at his best, is one heckuva skilled storyteller, but he's never an elegant writer. In this book he is just plain sloppy and long-winded. He never lets an opportunity go by to belabor the obvious: i.e., "He didn't like it. Not even a little bit he didn't." and "He thought he saw movement. But then again, maybe he didn't, too." If the plot was lively enough it might be possible to ignore this turgid, clotted prose, but since the story moves at a glacial pace, and the characters are cardboard cutouts, it gets pretty wearying. Even though this one ends on a cliffhanger, I've let six months go by and haven't looked at volume 3. I just can't face any more sentences like "After what seemed like forever --- but really wasn't...." I'd recommend the World War series, or the books beginning with "How Few Remain" and the "Great War" novels. But this one... well, let's put it this way: Harry needs to hire an editor. Someone who can pull out the weeds and dig the rocks out of the ground and do some verbal landscaping. A sleeker, shorter novel without endless repetition would do much better. Hey, Harry it's OK to write a 200 page book!
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Summary: The humans are catching up...or are they?
Review: Turtledove again puts us in the 60's in a world filled with lizards. Some have suggested not htat much happens here but sometimes suspense makes up for it. The descriptions of the space race are excellent. You might guess as to which ship fired the missles from the previous volume in this one. (I'll give a hint, there's a direct quote from one of the characters that makes it obvious) The only sad thing about the books (I've asked Turtledove this several times). Is that there's no movies or games planed for the series.An RPG would seriously rock on any platform. I still wonder however if this series will now go into the 1980's or after that the 2000's perhaps with a liberation of the lizard planets.
Rating:
Summary: I guess you have to read it
Review: If you love the universe created by Harry Turtledove in this series and you have gotten this far, you have to read this book. However, it's not a great book. The action is VERY slow. Some characters do almost nothing, and nothing really exciting develops until about three fourths of the way through the book. Because of that, I finally paid attention to Turtledove's prose, which I discovered I did not much like. I sort of knew that before, but filling so many pages with nothing happening really brought his repetitive phrasing to the fore. It was not the most annoying thing I had ever run across, but it would do until a more annoying example came along. (Those familiar with his writing know what I'm talking about.) And quit telling me that so-and-so's wife is loyal or that the lizards keep their ships warm because it was more like their planet, or that Mrs. Yeager is a stickler for grammar. Reminders of this in the first 100 pages or so is forgiveable to get us caught up if we haven't read the series in a while, but we've all been reading the series for some time now. If you want to mention the heat on the ship, fine, but don't remind us that the Lizard's home planet is really warm on page 400 just to fill a word quota. (The grammar nit picking by Mrs. Yeager is a particularly boring detail that I wish he would drop altogether - it's usually not even her doing it, just asides saying that she would object to something had she heard it. Who cares?) I absolutely love the universe Turtledove has created with this series and I feel compelled to discover how the world develops and the series progresses. Unfortunately, the journey to that discovery has become less and less enjoyable as the series progresses. I'm not sure that I'll finish.
Rating:
Summary: A good story continued but it does drag at points
Review: Turtledove is the master of alternative history. His command of the range of facets to a working culture is evident and his chacter development is solid. The problem is that there are SO many sub-plots, many of which I just can't get excited about, that the book has a real tendency to drag at points. On the positive side, the characters of interest to me and the main plot are interesting enough to make me force myself to wade through many of the dead-dull passages.
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