Six weeks ago, Imperial Japanese military forces conquered and occupied the Hawaiian Islands. A puppet king sits on Hawaii's throne, his strings controlled by the general of the invasion force. American POWs, malnourished and weak, are enslaved as hard laborers until death takes them. Civilians fare little better, struggling to survive on dwindling resources. And families of Japanese origin find their loyalties divided.
The second Opening of the World fantasy novel (after 2007's The Gap) can easily be enjoyed on its own terms. The rise of the Rulers, a powerful group who ride mammoths to war and wield potent magic powers, poses a major threat to the Raumsdalian Empire. Count Hamnet Thyssen, a master warrior, rallies a ragtag mix of magicians, shamans and soldiers against the Rulers, who deal them a crushing defeat.
In 1942, Hitler led the world's most savage military machine. Stalin ruled Russia while America was just beginning to show its strength in World War II. Then, in Harry Turtledove's brilliantly imagined Worldwar saga, an alien assault changed everything. Nuclear destruction engulfed major cities, and the invaders claimed half the planet before an uneasy peace could be achieved.
Turtledove's latest twist on history has the Japanese invading Hawaii in December 1941. The strategic consequences of the U.S. being backed up against its own West Coast, with most of its navy's aircraft carriers sunk, are too extensive to be dealt with in one novel, and one viewpoint character, Joe Crosetti, is training as a naval aviator for the battles to come.
Harry Turtledove's Colonization: Second Contact opens, two decades have passed since the Lizards invaded Earth during World War II and an entire generation has grown up without knowing a world in which the Lizards have a presence. Rather than being the fearsome enemy, they are now hardly stranger than foreigners and have a strong effect on fashion.
