Rating: 
Summary: Great book
Review: I am 80% finished with the book, and so far I believe it is the best of the series. I would recommend starting with the first in the series, however. Great characters.
Rating: 
Summary: show me the money
Review: I enjoyed the first two Worldwar books but Turtledove just doesn't know when to stop flogging a dead horse. Colonization has no plot, no ending, no tension and no new ideas. His alien charcters rehash the plot so often that it seems the author is just "cutting and pasting" to fill space. Furthermore, his research is poor - Northern Irish people do not speak that way (if we get to hear them at all) Apparently they are all bigots who hate Jews only slightly less than eachother! These aliens are so stupid they would not be able to build starships. And why, if they have starships, do they not have more advanced weapons? The aliens also bear striking similarities to Harry Harrison's Yilane from the West of Eden series. Which is strange since Harrison also wrote Rebel in Time before Turtledove's Guns of the South.... Anyway, this is not alternate history as stated by many fans. It is pure Space Opera.
Rating: 
Summary: good adventure, some interesting twists
Review: In general I would recommend beginning with the first in this series, called _Worldwar: In The Balance_. While this book does move the timeframe forward a generation, it is substantially a continuation of the _Worldwar_ series.What Turtledove does really well here is to surprise the reader with some interesting events (which I won't spoil). The criticism that his Lizards's military technology is so coincidentally similar to 2000-era US military tech is a valid one, and I'd like to see Turtledove account for it at some point. Not as strong as the earlier books in the series, but still quite good.
Rating:
Summary: not a masterpiece, but still good work
Review: _Second Contact_ marks the continuation of (and a time shift from) the _Balance_ series of novels about a hypothetical alien invasion in 1943. Turtledove always shows linguistic cleverness, perhaps a little too much so--his non-Anglophone characters' speech usually betrays their native tongues with subtle clues. (I love the concept. Only problem is that the sort of errors his characters are making are errors people in the real world don't make.) He has built on the fine character development work he has already done--in other words, if you haven't read the earlier books, best go do so before buying this one. (Search on '_the Balance_'.) The interesting twists we have come to anticipate from Turtledove are present. Who might have been Fuehrer in the early 1960s? Premier of the USSR? How would human youth react as the first generation was born under alien occupation? I will spoil none of the above for you--they're too intriguing. An ongoing and valid criticism of Turtledove's aliens is that their military technology seems to have frozen at roughly USA 1999 levels, which to put it mildly would seem to be one heck of a coincidence. He has never explained why this is the case, which costs him a point or two for imagination--an area where Turtledove normally doesn't get marked down. I can agree that the ending doesn't make the book stand alone all that well, but I don't think that ruins the book by a long shot. Recommended.
Rating:
Summary: Another great book in the series
Review: Another book I couldn't wait to finish, but didn't want to put down. The colonization fleet is here and things aren't what they expected. But what *do* you expect from big uglies that keep on innovating and fighting? Many of the same characters as the first group of books, I was sad to see some not there and glad to meet some new ones. I can't wait for the next book to come out.
Rating:
Summary: Great Book!
Review: I enjoyed reading this book. It has continued the saga very successfully, something very few authors can do over a period of time and keep the reader interested.
Rating:
Summary: This is a good book in a great series.
Review: I really enjoyed this book. I read the WorldWar quartet voraciously, and I thought they were some excellent books. I love the grand scope, and the historical references of these books. However, if you haven't read the WorldWar books, pick them up before you read the Colonization books, because many of the characters from the first series carry over into the second.
Rating: 
Summary: not a lot of action
Review: Ok, for starters, yes I am hooked. I read the Worldwar series voraciously, especially the 2nd and 3rd were actually exciting and hard to put down. I couldn't wait a year for the next. The last Worldwar though was a bit disappointing, and so was "How Few Remain" because they dragged and dragged and were generally listless. As if a trend, so did this. The story lines were slow, and really not till the end did they amount to anything , and even the Muslim revolt was little more than table setting to hook you into the next book. I sincerely hoped for better because I loved the WorldWar books so much and thought this to be a very intriguing situation - the colonization fleet lands, upsetting the status quo since the peace declaration. There are always interesting tidbits in every book, such as the way that the lizard females react to ginger, but as I saw the pages to yet to be read dwindle, I was happy rather than disappointed that it was almost done. Best I can say is, I hope the future volumes will pick the pace up, get more interesting sub-stories and have more action.
Rating:
Summary: EXCELLENT
Review: After almost twenty years of uneasy coexistence with the Lizards, humanity now faces the arrival of the colonization fleet. Once again Turtledove constructs an enticing plot, focusing on the human drama behind this momentous occasion. Most of the characters from the Worldwar series are back, all of them striving to cope with their new surroundings. Overall, I would say this is a very fine piece of work.
Rating:
Summary: Read it TWICE
Review: The second time was the charm for me. I liked it after the first read, but in the second trip, I picked up all the little things -- ". . .I don't like the TANG of their orange drink. . ."?!!! Spike Jones' "The Fleetlord's Face"?!!! Turtledove is a great punster (who else could appreciate the reason I wanted 'The Two Georges' and 'Greatwar: American Front' so I could have two Turtledoves for Christmas???). I am looking forward to the next entry in this series -- meantime, I'll enjoy Walk in Hell.
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