Colonization: Second Contact
Curl up with some old friends--and old enemies--as the war begins again
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Colonization: Second Contact
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By Harry Turtledove
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Del Rey/Ballantine Books
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$25.95/$36.00 Canada
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Hardcover, March 1999
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ISBN 0-345-43019-0
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Review by A.M. Dellamonica
 olonization: Second Contact is both a sequel and a beginning. It is set in the universe of Harry Turtledove's Worldwar novels, in which invading alien lizards interrupted WWII. In Colonization, the master of alternate history picks up the tale in the 1960s, 20 years after the end of the lizard/human conflict that took place in the first four Worldwar novels.
During that war, the lizards and humanity fought to the point of mutually assured destruction before agreeing to divide Earth between them. But the lizard's military armada was merely a precursor to the real invasion, and now a colonization fleet with millions of alien civilians has arrived. The surviving Earth powers--the U.S., the Soviet Union and the Greater German Reich--are understandably troubled when the colonists show up. The invaders may have settled for a draw in the war, but it is obvious that they still expect, in time, to assimilate Earth into their Empire.
The trouble begins with riots by Islamic forces under the control of the Ayatollah Khomeini, who attack lizard soldiers with suicidal ferocity. Then a mysterious nuclear assault destroys several colonization ships. Death threats unsettle the lizards in Poland, and human pilots play not-quite-Cold War games in nuclear-armed spaceships built from stolen lizard technology.
Second Contact is filled with many of the beloved characters from the earlier series, among them Sam Yeager, Liu Chen and the Russie family. Atvar, the long-suffering Fleetlord of the invasion force, is back, as is Straha, his mutinous underling. For readers of the first series, Colonization is much like a high-school reunion. Readers will greet and catch up with old friends while mourning characters not lucky enough to survive into Turtledove's drastically altered '60s.
The war is over. Now comes the hard part.
In Colonization: Second Contact, Harry Turtledove shows an alternative to the simplistic thinking of alien invasion stories that usually play out in terms of all or nothing, win or lose. Instead of seeing a total lizard victory, or having the invaders utterly repelled from Earth, both sides are required to make compromises. This half-victory has painful ramifications for both sides. Humans struggle to close the technology gap with the aliens while watching their children emulate the lizards' lifestyle. Meanwhile, the lizard leaders are locked in a losing battle with their people's ginger addiction, and the soldiers are forced to deal with the ingratitude of the civilians who see their partial invasion as an unforgivable failure.
This moral complexity is pervasive, but never preachy. Turtledove does not paint the lizards in universally evil terms, and he deftly deals with a German Reich that, having survived the middle of the century, is continuing its persecution of Jews and other outsiders. That he is able to pull this off without lapsing into bad taste is astounding; that he is also able to use this Nazi survival to examine humanity's dark side is even more so. Differences between the lizards' home and Earth are complicated as well by the fact that the all-male invasion fleet has now been joined by females, whose reaction to ginger creates never-before-imagined problems and gender differences.
The book is somewhat prey to the usual vulnerabilities of a series novel. Colonization plants a lot of seeds, but few of the storylines come to fruition by its end. The suspense is jaw-clenchingly hard to bear. Like the poor lizards, who become instantly addicted after their first taste of ginger, readers exposed to Turtledove's new round of human/lizards hostilities will find themselves craving their next dose.
Returning to this universe was incredibly satisfying. Harry Turtledove's grip on both human nature and history is unparalleled.
-- A.M.
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The Apocalypse Troll
This troll wants to control more than a bridge
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The Apocalypse Troll
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By David Weber
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Baen Books
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$22.00/$32.50 Canada
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Hardcover, Jan. 1999
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ISBN 0-671-57782-4
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Review by Mark. H. Walker
 his is the story of a lovely lady and the Troll who wished to incinerate her home. Ludmilla Leonovna is a colonel in the Terran Marines. They are not, however, the marines of today. Nor are they even marines from this universe. They hail from the distant future in an alternate reality, a reality where humanity has been battling the alien Kangas for hundred of years.
The good news is that the war is nearly over. The Kangas are all but defeated, and Earth is about to sound the Miller Time bell. The bad news is that the Kangas have a plan. They intend to throw a battle group into Earth's past and take out the pesky humans before they become a problem.
Leonovna's task force has the job of wasting the Kanga force before it reaches Earth. And they do...almost. The colonel's final missile downs the last Kanga capital ship, but an alien fighter destroys her own vessel and she narrowly escapes in her craft's ejection pod.
The chestnut-haired colonel falls into the ocean, only to be rescued by Captain Richard Aston--an almost retired Navy intelligence officer sailing his 50-foot ketch across the Atlantic. Dick likes Leonovna, and Leonovna likes Dick. There's only one problem. The pilot of the last alien fighter--a cyborg known as a "Troll" to Leonovna's people--is alive, and he wants to slap an unhappy ending on the story.
Action, action, action
This one is a sheaf-turner. Whether it's action, the promise of action, or the interaction between its characters, Weber keeps readers buried in the binding for the duration.
Make no mistake, Weber is not a David Drake or Peter Hamilton. There is none of the gritty ground-combat realism of the former or the gee-whiz high-techedness of the latter, but neither is he a neophyte in the ways of military science fiction. His depiction of a U.S. naval task force under attack from unknown aliens not only rings techno-authentic, it's tinged with a humanness that only comes from someone who has either been there or studied hard to seem as if they have. Similarly, his ground combat is fast-moving and wholly believable. He knows his weapons, he knows his military and he knows how to suck readers into a firefight.
Weber's adroit painting of conflict is not surprising. After all, he is known primarily as a writer of military science fiction. What does impress, however, is the love between Leonovna and Aston. The aging captain and the beautiful, razor-witted colonel are the early story. Thrown together by chance, each wakens long-dormant feelings as they sail to port. Their relationship is exciting, it's intriguing and it's well written.
Of course, well written sums up the entire novel. Weber writes a tight story, and he knows how to move a book along without sacrificing any ambiance. The plot is intricate, but not cumbersome, the characters are real yet not tediously developed, and the action is at once realistic yet furious.
What a pleasant surprise. I was smitten with Ludmilla and truly distraught when I felt humanity's existence was on the line. What more can you ask from a book?
-- Mark
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