Rating: 
Summary: Good story but getting long in the tooth
Review: Colonization: Aftershocks continues the story started with Turtledove's World War alternative history series. A race of aliens has invaded Earth and are trying to bring the belligerent human beings under the thumb of their Empire. Humanity does not take too kindly to the alien race's presumption of superiority or that their view of the Universe is the only one that matters. Each of the many plot lines that Turtledove explores deals with some aspect of how Humanity and the Race have come to deal with each other.The stories within <u>Aftershocks</u> take place 20 years after the original alien invasion during World War 2. The fighting between alien and human has stopped in most places, but there are still any number of hot spots where humans under the rule of aliens erupt in rebellion against their conquerors. Some of the larger countries of man have successfully maintained their freedom and also make problems for the Race in whatever fashion becomes available. Each plot line deals with one particular human or alien. The social gamut runs from the Fleetlord of the alien race to a professor of Roman history in Marseilles. This provides for an excellent picture of just how the interaction between alien and human affects both races' lives and cultures. Nobody knows what the interaction will bring, and in a number of cases, the results disturb one or both sides. Despite the large number of stories being told, Turtledove does a wonderful job of weaving them together into a coherent plot. At any one point, the reader knows what is going on at any particular point. In addition, the drive of these stories compel the reader to turn the page so that they might find out what is going on with a character that had just been left in some difficult situation. The only downfall to this book and the previous members in the series is just that; they exist in series. If the combined novels are not read in order, from start to finish, it is quite easy to lose track of who's who in Turtledove's world. Many times, it is impossible to tell a story within one or two books. Still, some effort should be given to tie up story lines, introduce new characters, and remove older characters. Overall, Turtledove's writing delivers a wonderful punch and brings the reader back for more. It would be nice to see some new faces within the story lines and, perhaps, some dramatic conclusions to the stories of other characters. Read this series of books if you have access to them, but if the entire set cannot be found try for something else.
Rating: 
Summary: An excellent read
Review: In this excelent book, Turteldove continues his altenate history where aliens invaded the Earth during WW II. In this volume not only some questions are answered (who attacked the colonization fleet? What's the real purpos of the "Lewis and Clark"?) but has an ending that promises more to come.
Rating: 
Summary: I just don't care anymore
Review: After investing the time to read the first five books in this series, you can imagine how bad the sixth one must be for me to put it down after 50 pages. I brought the first three and have used the library since then as each volume has gotten progressively worse. As in the other books, the story just repeats endlessly, repeats endlessly, repeats endlessly. Nothing happens, except through poorly written and hopelessly out-of-place dialogue. Here is one sample, among many: " How much for your haircots verts? ( editorial: why the partial French for green beans? ) she asked a peasant.... "Fifty Reichmarks a kilo" (editorial, we have no idea how much a reichmark is worth ) he answered, and paused to look her up and down. He grinned, not very pleasantly, " Or a blow job, if you'd rather." What pathos, what subtle irony. Too many incomplete, boring characters and too many repititious scenes. I give up, let me know who blew up the alien ship, the cliffhanger from book five which has not even been mentioned by page 50 in book 6. Let me know if the aliens ever get it straight that humans respond quicker to change than they do. Let me know how many times it is mentioned that aliens dont smile. Let me know if anything even remotely interesting happens to any character. Sorry to be so negative, but this is truly the new Battlefield Earth.
Rating:
Summary: To state the obvious
Review: Yet another in the trend of pushing out product in quantity rather than quality. The characters in this book are exactly the same as those in the Civil War series, well actually the same as any Turtledove series. And I do mean the SAME. Same characterizations, same figures of speech, etc. If you need something light to blow through on the beach or when your mind is concentrating on something else, this might do. However, get it from a library.
Rating:
Summary: Aftershocks glorifies treason?
Review: I've been a fan of Harry Turtledove since the Worldwar cycle of books began and have read that cycle and the subsequent Colonization cycle including the latest, Aftershocks. In general, I like Turtledove's presentation. His characters seem human to me (yes, even the aliens) and the situations, while taking place in an alternate history, are at least believable. I was appalled, however, when I read Aftershocks. I won't give the whole plot away, but Turtledove has one of the entire cycle's main characters giving certain information to the Race which ultimately costs tens to hundreds of thousands of humans their lives when the Race retaliates. Supposedly, the character commits the act because the Race too are intelligent beings; however, this begs the question. The Race, however lovable and understandable they may be, are alien invaders. In earlier episodes, they completely exterminated the people of Australia as well as erasing major cities in other countries in their attempted conquest of Earth. I may be old-fashioned, but I think Turtledove has done a real disservice here. For a major (and hitherto respected and respectable) character to do what occurs in Aftershocks with the author's symbolic arm around him as if he were some kind of hero is to carry tolerance way past the crazy point. After the Race's invasion of Earth, and the immense death and destruction they have caused, they deserve anything they get and as far as I'm concerned, any human passing them information, whatever their intention may be, is not only a traitor to their country, but to the entire human race. I hope that Turtledove does something in the next book to redeem my previously good opinion of him.
Rating:
Summary: Same old same old.
Review: I wish I could say that my opinion of "Aftershocks" is substantially improved over my opinion of "Down To Earth" but it isn't. Furthermore, I see that many of the reviewers of the current book have come around to my point of view. I said much the same things about "Down to Earth" as many of the reviewers are saying now about "Aftershocks". Namely that it (they) are repetitive and tedious, have very little in the way of plot advancement and generally reflect either a distracted or uninterested author. This is really a shame since the idea for the series is so compelling and it got off to such a good start in the "Worldwar" series. However, if Turtledove has really abandoned this universe I will not spend too much time lamenting the loss given the hash he has made of it over the last two books. At least I had sense enough to check a copy out of the library this time instead of wasting my money buying a copy of it.
Rating:
Summary: Boring, Repetitive and Predictable
Review: Well, where do I start? First I never write reviews. I've read every book by Turtledove, and in the beginning it was a given that the latest book would hold my interest; I love alternate history and he was my introduction to the genre. But lately-and by lately I mean from the beginning of the Colonization series, I realize I'm buying the Turtledove title based on old accomplishments-and worse, since the tetralogy seems to be his favorite marketing tool, I feel obligated to buy, hoping it will be different. I mean, can we assume by the 4th book in this series-and the 8th overall since the Lizards came to Earth-that the reader understands those little details about the Race and the individual characters, and doesn't need to be reminded of them for the 237,000 time? Maybe this is the danger of taking alternate history so far (even with aliens around!)-it becomes so inane and boring, much like 'real life' can be and much like the Colonization series has become. I know character development is good and Harry does it well, but some of the continuing plot lines lead no where, or where they do lead I just don't care about. And all those major questions between the Race and humanity in the book are either totally predictable or 'so-what' issues. Yes the continuing ginger mess. Yes the continuing rebellion in China. Yes the 'Deutsche' problem. For crying out loud I hope this is the end for good, but the ending is so damn ambiguous that you can't even tell if there is another 'cliffhanger' story worth pursuing (At least in the first series, Worldwar, we had the cliffhanger of the Colonization fleet 20 years down the line.). But alas, I smell another tetralogy, 20 years further down the line, re-telling the same old stories and saddling us with all-American boring boy Jonathan Yeager. God help me it could have been a lot worse. How? Well since I work at a publisher I picked this book up for FIFTY CENTS off the damaged shelf. You heard right. At least its a start to getting back all my money I spent on the first 3 books. Unfortunately, I also see these same trouble signs in the Great War series. Lets hope he can give me a reason to come back with some changes there.
Rating: 
Summary: feh!
Review: This is an extremely silly book. I was riveted by the brilliant Woldwar series, and as such I have been compelled to suffer through the Colonization series. I think he should have quit while he was ahead. The ideas remain strong, but the execution is so weak- most of the characters whose lives Turtledove decided to chronicle are the least interesting, and, as other reviewers have mentioned, he says the same things repeatedly, drilling them into our heads with the fervor of a 3rd grader who has just discovered how to write. Plus the rate at which these characters coincidentally run into each other during the course of their travels is truly laughable. Yes, the ending begs another series of sequels set in the present. I only hope that mr. Turtledove cleans the slate and starts with a new, more interesting set of characters that truly embody the times. I'm also dying to find out what the emperor, after getting Atvar's report, has to say about everything that has happened. That, in my opinion, was a major missed opportunity in this book.
Rating:
Summary: Colonization: Tedium
Review: "Aftershocks" was supposed to be the final book of a series, and although it's unrealistic to expect each and every individual story in the series to come to an end (absent mass death), the reader does have a right to some type of closure. Instead, "Aftershocks" simply sets up another trilogy, perhaps set in the '70s or '90s. I won't be there. Harry Turtledove is no hack, but the viewpoint characters in the WorldWar/Colonization series all talk like they have IQs of about 80, or stepped out of some '40s movie script. Although I was gratified to several of the stories converge, the book was driven almost entirely by dialogue instead of action. I was also waiting (and still waiting) to see when the traitorous character would get strung up; that was a major disappointment, too. The passage of time was never clear, and by concentrating every story into a five-page snippet, the book is way too repetitive. I could tell about half-way through it wasn't really going to conclude, and little gems like the invention of caller ID, Furbies (why Furbies?) and the presidential commission were few and far between. Harry Turtledove currently is writing at least three major "series" books, each with an annual installment, and that's just too much. Quantity does not equal quality.
Rating:
Summary: A little disappinting...need one more book!!
Review: I have read almost everything that Turtledove has written with my favorites being the World War series. This last book seems to lose focus and ends without a satisfactory conclusion. We need another book that will tie up the lose ends. Come on Harry...you can do better than this!!
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