Rating: 
Summary: Not a bang, but a whimper
Review: Having come to the end of Turtledove's "Worldwar" series, I feel I must admit that I'm curious as to where he'll go in the new "Colonization" entry. Will the Tosevites ultimately prevail? Or will there merely be another book, and another, and another...? I think I'll just stop here.I expected more from this series, my curiosity having been whetted enough with the first book that I was willing to stick with the story, despite its many lulls. Although I'm thankful that Turlteldove didn't cap it all off with an ID4-esque nukefest, I must say that the ending, if you could call it that, is a major disappointment. I realize that no author can please all readers, but couldn't he have had the good sense to separate the wheat from the chaff and recognize the good, strong story threads, as opposed to dwelling on the weak ones? My two personal favorites involved Jens Larssen and Straha, both of them fascinating characters whose personal experiences led them to switch allegiances. Book 4 was an especial chore to read, since Jens was killed off at the end of 3 (a major letdown after all that development, and because I was on his side), and Straha was basically forgotten about after his flight to earth. Turtledove was clever to structure his story in a way that ensured the deaths of some "good" guys and the victories of some "bad" guys. The knowledge that no one was safe kept me on my toes. Mostly, though, the storylines were haphazard and, in the end, unfulfilling. Another gripe--just how many nukes can they detonate before the planet is rendered entirely uninhabitable? A few I could accept, but I found it rote after the nth nuke destroyed its nth city. I would recommend book 1 to any sci-fi fan, but be wary of #4. Leave it on the shelf unless you're sure you can stomach more of the same from a series that thrives on delivering it.
Rating:
Summary: What a disapointment.
Review: Having read the last three books (couldn't find the first) I kept expecting it to get better. It didn't. It was an excelent idea but are all Germans really evil? Are all English and Americans really good? There were so many subplots it was hard to keep track of what was going on. Each subplot was mentioned in each chapter and many had nothing to do with the main plot. Made you wonder why they were written other that to just fill paper. Turtledove missed a good opportunity here to write a classic science fiction novel. He would have been better off to mention his idea to someone else and let them write a 600 page novel than meander through 2400 pages himself. Yup, still read three of the four books and he is spending the royalies he made off me!
Rating: 
Summary: Save yourself!!! Run!!
Review: I did not mean to commit myself to this series. It was a mistake and, like after that first salted peanut, you're hooked. If I were you, I wouldn't have that first peanut. I started the first book and got engrossed before I knew just how LONG this series is. This is number 4 and, let's face it, this one doesn't really wrap it up. Yes, I could have given up the series, but it is interesting and you do feel a commitment to the characters. The repitition is irritating as is the slowness of some of the scenes. Take my advice: stay away, while you can.
Rating: 
Summary: No really final, is it?
Review: I enjoyed this book and waited for it eagerly, although I suspected that it would end with the human race showing, against the odds and all logic, that they could beat a race centuries ahead of them. This book has some obvious loose ends. The finish is set-up to permit a fifth volume - what will happen when the colony fleet arrives? One can guess that Adolf Hitler will not greet them with open arms. Everything seems to be prepared to leave the option of a fifth installment (and perhaps more). What worries me about this book is the basic human-supremesist thesis: we can overcome a gap of several hundred (or thousand) years in technology in a few years because we are the human race. I suspect (and fear) that a true invasion as depicted in the series would only have one winner. We see some inconsistencies in the series. In the first book Lancaster bombers are despatched to bomb the lizards' bases in France. In this book we establish that nothing that the human race has can even approach lizard bases without being shot out of the sky. Okay, so we also hear (later), that bomber command was forced to change tactics because of terrible loses, but the impression is given of our heros going on raid after raid, dropping their bombs and getting away alive. Consistent? We hear that the lizards are going to defeat the human race by bombing petrochemical installations into oblivion and see a first, apparently highly successful raid. Later though we discover that these raids are being highly unsuccessful at closing down oil supplies. If the lizards we really determined in their attacks (which they seem not to be, being singularly half-hearted about it), there would not be a thing that the defenders could do - you may stop one raid, or two, but not one raid after another, day after day. In this book we see the lizards deciding, again and again, not to bomb Denver. What stops them? Presumably the author having a word in Fleetlord Atvar's ear... Let's be honest... if Atvar does happen along, we are like! ly to have lost the war before we even realise that we have a problem. Like some of the reviewers, I find the solution unsatisfying. I don't believe that there would be a final climactic battle, unless it is one where the lizards finally smash through the human defenses. Certainly though, what we have is a highly unsatisfactory situation whereby neither side has won and the lizards certainly don't avoid the danger of an Earth-liberating uprising in a few years time. Anyway, read it, enjoy it and wait to see when the next volume appears, hoping that the series doesn't kill itself by trying to milk the idea for too long.
Rating:
Summary: Left In The Lurch
Review: I have enjoyed this particular series very much, especially as it is very difficult to obtain copies in SA. However, I think Mr Turtledove has left his readers in the lurch with this episode. A truce is hardly a conclusion. All a long the human race was fighting a superior technology but were catching up fast. A draw was a possibility but unthinkable, expecially given the speed of human technology development compared with that of the Lizards. But, please oh please Mr Turtledove -- you cannot just write off the impending arrival of the Lizard colonisation fleet. At that point, no matter how or what, sparks have just gotta fly. And giving them the Sahara Desert is just not a solution.
Rating:
Summary: A decent book in an amazing series
Review: I like the World War series. The characters were interesting. The best part is the relationship Sam Yeager develops with two of the lizards. The repetiveness gets old real quick. Besides the repetiveness the books were good.
Rating:
Summary: So, what happened to the colonization fleet in the 60's?
Review: I liked the series. The lizards are a little too Earthlike - what's the probability of such similar lifeforms on such widely separated planets - but he saved a lot of boring description by making them reptiles. Given that alternative history requires something a sleepy reader will catch, the alien landing is a satisfactory device to force an alliance between enemies. I liked the way Turtledove depicted a consistently manaical and duplicious Hitler. What I didn't like was Turtledove's lack of coverage of the return of the aliens. So, How about a fifth volume?
Rating:
Summary: Great Attempt to Please All
Review: I must first say that on the whole, the series was enjoyable to read. The biggest problem lies in that he had way to many stories in the plot. This attempt to please a wide range of fans by emphasizing so many different aspects of the story slowed down the plot to much. It forced me to read through parts of the book that where boring to me to get at the parts that I liked. This could have been handled a little better by making different books for the different characters versus sticking them all in the same books. The problem lies in that the various charcters are too different maitain a steady flow in the story. After reading his lattest "How Few Remain," it appears that he has learned from his mistakes in this series. Dispite this flaw, the series was a fun read. The ending makes sence when one knows that one more series is being written to end it by advancing into the future and bringing the colony fleet into the picture.
Rating: 
Summary: Great Ending, Great Beginning
Review: I selected my title because, of course, this is the book which not only concludes the Worldwar tetralogy, but also sets up the Colonization tetralogy. It does both very, very well, politically, culturally and militarily. As I said in my review of "In the Balance", I picked the first book up in April, and have read not only it but all FOUR of its sequals (something like 3,000 pages) in the past two months. That's really saying something too, because I work about 12-16 hours a day. One earlier reviewer complained that the Race wouldn't have developed the technology it brought to Earth because (a) it supposedly never fought such a war on Home (having unified more than 50,000 Earth-years ago) and (b) it had easy walk-overs in both of its prior conquests. This is bunk. As to (b), just as with Earth, the Race is the epitome of caution, and millennia of planning and overkill-weaponry are their hallmark. But as to (a), the books themselves make clear that the Race DID develop such weaponry in warfare on Home, that Home was then unified, and that thereafter all weapons research was halted. In fact, we learn later (in the first book of the second tetralogy) that the Race only has soldiers when it's about to go conquer somebody, that Home is otherwise undefended (except by police), and that the weapons brought to Earth were made by searching through to archives to discover the schematics for the most advanced stuff the Race had ever invented (thousands of years before). That some of this information comes from a later book is no slap at Turtledove, either: the author is by no means required to tell the reader everything up front (duh!), any more than the characters in the book knew all these things at the times in question. This whole series is a Turtledove home run, and it's sequal-tetralogy is shaping up to be even better. Buy it now.
Rating:
Summary: Great ending -- and a perfect set-up for the next series
Review: I tend to disagree with most of the other reviewers here. I thought that the ending -- while a bit slow and a tad anti-climatic -- suited the series quite well. An uneasy peace at best, with the Lizards perhaps learning a bit about adapting. AND the next series (set 50 years in the future when the colonizing fleet shows up) promises to tie up a number of loose ends that were left in this book.
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