Rating: 
Summary: Nothing Happens
Review: Once you are hooked on a series, they seem to assume that you will buy anything, and this is a good example. This is supposed to be alternative history, but it it instead a sci-fi soap opera. There is no plot, just gossip about characters who are not doing anything of interest.
This could have been handled with a 12 page epilogue at the end of the last book.
One good thing about these tiring series -- they usually are available at the library so you don't have to waste your money on them.
Rating: 
Summary: New Problems, New Failings
Review: I agree with almost all of the fan reviewers that this series, and Turtledove's ponderous writing, have gotten old. As has been true in many of Turtledove's series, unnecessary exposition and infuriating repetition comprise the narrative's stock in trade.Unlike many reviewers, I though the pacing was better than usual, with events logically following one another through character vignettes. This improvement is also evident in the Great War series. Having said that, in Aftershocks Turtledove also steps out in a whole new way. A ham-handedly foreshadowed major event is resolved in this book, in the form of a choice made by one of the major characters. Significant consequences result from that choice. Turtledove presents his character's actions as unequivocally moral; there is no sympathetic dissent. In fact, what was done is highly ambiguous at best, and Turtledove seems simply lazy (see: his editing skills) in refusing to engage what could be a very interesting debate. No one put a gun to Turtledove's head here. He picked up a hot potato and, genre fiction or not, was obligated to deal with it honestly. He didn't, and that's too bad.
Rating:
Summary: An obvious runup for another set of books in this series.
Review: This series started strongly seven books ago. What a shame that it has been dragged out to these lengths. This novel promised to be the conclusion of the World War/Colonization story. All we really got was a lot of loose ends that will certainly culminate with another padded series of books. As another reviewer said below, when Turtledove's good - he's very good. It's a shame to see him painfully drawing out what should have been an excellent story just to sell more books.
Rating:
Summary: This has gotten old
Review: There's nothing outright wrong with this novel, but as a conclusion-for-the-time-being to his most well-known franchise, I would have hoped Turtledove could do a bit better. The book reminds me of those moments in Worldwar where Turtledove was just marking time with ultimately meaningless plot developments that would have little to no influence on the future course of the series just so that he could fill his allotted pages before exploding some nuclear weapons at the end. Similarly, this book contains one and only plot development: the discovery of who attacked the Colonization fleet in Down to Earth and what the Lizards do about it. This occupies about 20% of the book and a similar fraction of the characters. For the rest, there's just the predictable, schmaltzy, politically correct process of kids getting married, families getting put back together after the nuclear war at the the end of the previous book, and Lizards getting bribed and blackmailed by ginger dealers. Outside of the book's one Major Development, the rest is near-meaningless wasted text. Almost none of the other subplots in the book are even brought to some semblance of conclusions. The Chinese are still rebelling (and failing). Rance and Penny are still dealing ginger. The Americans are still putzing about in the asteroid belt doing what everyone knows they're doing but which Turtledove feels he's been sufficiently sly about to keep a secret. The general feeling is just that life goes on. Yawn.
Rating:
Summary: THIS NOVEL HAS NO ENDING- FINALE??
Review: This novel had no ending. None of the loose ends were tied up. I find this type of writing to be extremely deceptive. The book was billed as the finale of the series- however, it does not even try to conclude any of the plot threads. At the end, the aliens are still here, there has been no final confrontation between them and the U.S.A., etc
Rating:
Summary: Colonization - Lightest Aftershocks Imaginable
Review: How is it that a book can take 600 pages or thereabouts to take you on a ride that goes nowhere? I scored this book as 2 stars rather than one because I believe it takes considerable stringing-along skill to maintain the deception of progress for such a duration, hence one point for the book and one, with a tip of my hat for such, er, technique. Not only that but the story finishes, if such a word can be used, with more loose ends than a mop. As I was nearing the end of the novel, with maybe 50 pages to go, I was thinking "wow, it's going to be exciting to see how this gets wrapped up - any page now, something big is going to happen!". Then there were 30 pages left, then 20, then... well, I got this sinking feeling. Which proved to be well founded. Will there be yet another trilogy? Frankly I no longer care.
Rating: 
Summary: Why does he always do this??
Review: The serise starts out great and then with each passing installment it falls into decline. We see proud charecters like Sam Yeager reduced to sinziling trators and Great Generals like the fleet lord Alvtar reduced to ginger sniffers. Tuttledove as an author has always suffered from the inability to wrap up what he writes. It happened in The Great War Serise, It happened in Striking The Balance and it happened in this one. Don't know why I expected anything more. SC
Rating:
Summary: An OK book! Could be better, though.
Review: I am glad to finally finish reading the colonization series. It took me several months, because, while not as lousy or boring as some people said, it was still a bit dragging at times. In spite of poor reviews, I still am glad I read the series. In my opinion, it is good but not wonderful. I must mention that I did get the books from a library and would recommend that potential readers do so as well. What's good and bad about the series? I hope this does not spoil it for any would-be readers, but I will try not to let on too much. 1. Good for Turtledove's efforts to develop and follow so many interesting and varied characters. It is too bad that he does not always succeed very well. Of course my view will be biased, but I really did like David Goldfarb, Mordecai Anielewicz, and the Yeagers (in spite of comments to the contrary by others). But I don't really like any of the other humans. Who cares about Auerbach and Dutourd and friends and all of Europe - it's as if the author just included them so that Europe would not feel left out. Molotov talks a lot - big deal. China is a little more exciting, but it's a bit boring, though I didn't mind Liu Han's charcter. But I still read the story to see how my favorite characters came out. 2. Good for his development of an interesting batch of aliens - fearsome looking but quite moralistic and wishy-washy (I don't mind - I find it amusing). Personally, I think Straha steals the show. And I like the way aliens like Ristin and Ulhass adapt to American culture. 3. Good for the happy endings that Turtledove gave almost all the main characters (I like positive endings). He rushed a little with Drucker, and I'm sure Ttolmass and Kassquit would disagree with me about happy endings. 4. Too bad for the minor obsession with ginger and ginger-dealing as well as sex. Too much. 5. Also, enough with the lizards ending every sentence regarding humans with "...and of course we could have beaten them..." No matter how advanced humans get in the story, they never seem able to match the lizards power. Maybe the lizards say this just to convince themselves as well, but was the balance of power that skewed? I suppose humans will nearly catch them in a future series where they visit Home. 6. Lastly, Turtledove had better have another trilogy coming. Though he did try to tie up many loose ends, he completely left the story open to a future series (you would believe that after you read the last page). I really hope he does write a series set maybe in around 1990 where humans visit Home or something like that even if we have to suffer Jonathan Yeager again. And if he does, please include better maps, too. Don't get me wrong - I still liked the series, but I hope the next one is better and more succint. PS - Kassquit is Chinese.
Rating: 
Summary: aftershocks
Review: I like his stories of alternate history,but his writing is too
stereotyped The same type of phrases occur time and time again,and this detracts from the storyline.
I have read many of his books and I can almost predict what an
individual is going to say at a given time.
Rating:
Summary: Get on with it already
Review: This is a great series, no doubt, but Harry Turtledove is dragging his feet. I'm tired of the Machiavellian sneaking around, I'm tired of the pointless subplots (please retire Auerbach and Sommers as quickly as possible), and most of all, I'm tired of The Race abusing the Human Race over and over and over. It's about time to return to open warfare. I want to see M1 battle tanks driving all over the face of Home and I want to see F-14 fighter jets swatting the Lizard air force like flies. I want to see a final, large, and epic battle to, at the very least, end the occupation of Earth and possibly begin the occupation of The Empire. Just my thoughts.
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