I really want to like Harry Turtledove, but it honestly seems like his work is all hype and filler. I've never been able to finish a single one of his books, and I've started seven over the last three years. I absolutely LOVE alternate history; his premises seem so interesting on paper and he has a reputation as one of the best of the best in the genre, but almost all of his characters are flat and unlikeable. I could forgive this in some of the 19th century stories because most of the historical figures he writes about were monsters (that's just what politicians are like), but even his modern stuff leaves a bad taste in my mouth.
How Few Remain (the Confederacy "wins" the Civil War and goes to war again with the US in the 1880s over Mexico), cliche premise with boring execution, baby's first alt-history story
Guns of the South (time traveling South African neonazis give Robert E. Lee's army assualt rifles so the South will win and slavery will continue), painfully slow burn, didn't keep me interested, makes Lee way too sympathetic (especially considering the nazis are unambiguously the narrative's antagonists and want his cause to prosper; why would you root for the bad guy the badder guys want to win?)
Joe Steele (what is Joseph Stalin was born in America?), implausible scenario, doesn't do anything new with the updated setting, it's just Stalin doing what Stalin did but with American politicians replacing the Soviet ones
A World of Difference (What if there was life on Mars and the USA and USSR started a proxy war between its caveman factions?), the dialogue was too boring to get past the first chapter
The Two Georges (the 13 colonies surrendered to Great Britain during the Revolution; 200 years later there's an art heist in British North America), same problem, too boring
Sentry Peak (the Civil War but ctrl+f replace all the names and locations to set it in a fantasy world), like Joe Steele it's just real life with the serial numbers filed off, it relies too much on you having knowledge of the Civil War, doesn't really work as a standalone story
Supervolcano: Eruption (Yellowstone erupts, chaos ensues), really generic and unlikeable cop detective story with the apocalypse treated like an afterthought to all the BS family drama
I've never heard a bad word spoken about Turtledove, and I just don't get it. I don't think any of his books are good, not one! It's baffling, 0 for 7. Any one of these presmises could be good, if only they were good. His execution is terrible across the board!
