Rating: 
Summary: Thank goodness it's over!
Review: I usually start a series with misgivings. This series reminded me why. Like many or indeed most multi-book series, it has enough content for a single novel but either due to a crumbling editor, a greedy publisher and or author it was published as is. There are very few multi volume novels that deserved to be delivered as such. This one should have been delivered in one book. The premise is original and promishing. The delivery is very very repetitive repetitive. Did I say it was repetitive? If you like the central core (alien culture battles earth) read Footfall by Larry Niven. It's only around 650 pages long. And MUCH better.
David M. Rya
Rating:
Summary: Good story - bad editing
Review: I'm a glutton for punishment I guess - once I start something I can't finish. This is a great story idea with interesting, and well thoughtout characters and plotlines. The writing style though leaves a lot to be desired. I highly doubt I'll be picking up any more of this authors books.
There's a huge problem with the whole series - it's written as though each chapter was published in a monthly magazine. There's extensive review and repitition at the beginning of every character's section of a chapter. I first noticed this in the second book, and by the fourth, it's really become bothersome. A competent editor could have trimmed this repition out, and possibly delivered a much tighter story in 3 books.
Rating: 
Summary: Pretty good ending for the series...
Review: I've enjoyed the Worldwar series for about two months now. The books were rather long, but the stories were fun. Striking the Balance was a decent ending for the series, nothing over the top or anything, but just slowly dying down. It was refreshing to see the superpowers coming to terms with the invaders instead of blowing each other to Kingdom Come. Turtledove did a good job of transforming certain characters: ie. Heinrich Jager (from Wermacht panzer colonel to turncoat helping the Jews of Lodz, Poland against SS super-commando Otto Skorzeny) and Liu Han (from Chinese peasent women to a Communist guerilla under Mao Tse-Tung and Nieh Ho-T'ing). I also liked how many of the humans were worse than the aliens, which was a nice change of pace from your run-of-the-mill vicious invaders from space. Turtledove also gave me the feeling that the world is to change drastically in the years to come, which makes me look forward to the Colonization series.
Rating: 
Summary: Best of the series
Review: If you haven't read the rest of the series, don't bother reading any farther For those of you that have, this book is the best in the series by far. I waited months for it to come out in paperback, and it was worth the wait. An excellent end!
Rating: 
Summary: Hey, I liked it.
Review: In the middle of World War II, the earth is invaded byaliens. Poor guys. These aliens supposedly think that all races woulddevelop very slowly over the course of millenia and their information on earth is 800 years out of date. Therefore they thought they'd be fighting knights in armor. (Which makes me wonder why they even bothered having tanks equiped with anti-armor rounds). If you're expecting a wizz-bang story where the aliens are defeated in climatic battles, you're not going to enjoy this book. However if you are more interested in a slow story centering on how people might react if their world is turned up-side down, it is an almost necessary read.Personally, i keep feeling sorry for the aliens. EVERYTHING goes wrong for them. This is not a book for the impatient or the hollywood fan, but it is a good read.
Rating:
Summary: "An exiting, surprising finish to a top notch series"
Review: It may not be the typical ending of an alien invasion of Earth story, but that's why it worked for me. It was a nice finish to one of the most brilliant sagas I have ever read. Turtledove did an outstanding job capturing the global scope of the conflict through the eyes of some very unique individuals. His portrayal of The Race was one of the best I have ever seen of an alien species. If I do have complaints about the series, it's that General Patton and "Wild Bill" Donovan should have been used for more than cameo roles. I also would have loved to have seen Field Marshall Rommel and General MacArthur play roles in the series. But I guess you can't have everything. With the ending Turtledove had, there is the possiblity for a sequel. I hope that becomes a reality . . . and soon.
Rating:
Summary: TURTLEDOVE RULES. PERIOD.
Review: Listen, all four books of the Worldwar Series are fantastic. The ending is great. It's the ending of "Independence Day" that was bad. Let's be real here people. Humans may have alot of heart but those Lizards aren't push-overs themselves. The new series that this ending has spawned should be even beter than the first. I CAN'T WAIT!
Rating:
Summary: Yet again, it's us versus THEM
Review: Not a bad book, although it's starting to get a little far-fetched as the series leaves us on a cliffhanger waiting for the fifth book. The aliens' psych is the weakest link in believability. If they're really as slow to adapt to new situations and ideals as Turtledove portrays them to be, then they wouldn't be able to make any sort of a match for humans in combat. Despite some of the logical shortcomings in the series, it is pretty good pulp. If it doesn't end by the fifth book, though, I'm gonna give up hope of finishing the series.
Rating:
Summary: Could have been worse for humankind
Review: So, Striking The Balance finally sums up all the lines Turtledove had started in his first book of the Worldwar series.
For those who have already read first three books, the further development is quite predictable. After over two years of fighting all around the world, with its fronts spread too wide, and its lines becoming yet thinner from day to day, with too many cities levelled down to eatrh, and several of them lying in radioactive ruins, the Race stands now before two unpleasant options: either they will have to turn all this world together with all its inhabitants into a radioactive desert unsuitable for colonization, or make peace with Major Forces of this world (USA, Third Reich and USSR) and those who were able to prevent their occupation by Race's forces (Great Britain and Japan) on conditions of status quo. And this means that all these nations with all their Tosenite's ability to pick up and introduce innovations into technologies they develop on basis of what they've stolen from Race, and with all thier aggression, will have time to prepare themselves for a new round of fighting. This very idea alone should make Atvar feel uneasy...
Historisn by profession, Turtledove has a brilliant insight to predict what would have happened if...
What will happen with the main characters of the novel? Will Ludmila Gorbunova and Heinrich Jaeger meet at last? Will Liu Han become a promimemt leader of of Chinese Red Force? Will Reich's terrorist No.1 Otto Scorzeni become "Osama BenLaden" of this alternate world, or will he fail, and only one thing can make him fail - his death? Read the book, it's worth reading.
And finally, a remark from the reader from the other side of "iron curtain", which has finally (and fortunately) fallen. The specialist on Byzantium, Turtledove came close to understanding of Russian character and mentality in the parts of the novels, which consern the events in USSR, but sometimes not close enough. His attitude reflects general attitude of an American historian to the events of WW II. Despite all the horrors of Bolshevism, despite all the insuffeciensy of Soviet system, and its neglect of a person, despite the Red Army's inflexible doctrine it really had in 1941 and in early 1942, the Russians could learn and managed to learn. But for this, they would have never finished war in Berlin. Germans were tough teachers, but Lisarzs would have become yet tougher teachers.
For all who are interested in history of Soviet preparations for WW II I advise that they read Ice-breaker by Victor Suvorov (translated to English). This book had created quite a stir in ex-USSR having divided it into two camps of those who supported it completely, and those who who rejected the very idea put in its basis.
Rating:
Summary: A great novel!!!
Review: Striking the Balance is an excellent novel, a welcome change from the usual alien invasion novel where the aliens get literally blasted off the face of the Earth. The peace treaty between mankind and the alien Race, and both sides' plans to backstab the other (at the end, last few pages) are entirely plausible. Also, someone said that Turtledove portrays "all Germans as evil". This is wrong- the character Heinrich Jager is a great example of a good man under a bad system. Political intrigue and action are combined a la Tom Clancy, and even without the intrigue and double-dealing the book would still be great! The entire series is great and I can't wait to start on the next one.
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