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Days of Infamy Pearl Harbor Harry Turtledove Books

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Days of Infamy Pearl Harbor Harry Turtledove Books

It is traditional Turtledove, but it is better than usual Turtledove. I am familiar with the history of the early Pacific war and Turtledove hits all of the main themes in a rational and believable way. I have read Turtledove and been put off because I just couldn't accept the basic premises. But not here.

Characters are not Turtledove's strong point, but the characters here are among his strongest.

It was a good, solid read that kept me picking it up and staying up past my bed time.


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Days of Infamy Pearl Harbor Harry Turtledove Books Reviews

I like Harry Turtledove Alternate Histories they always are believable. Being a trained historian he can take trends and find realistic interpretations of events.
Obviously the situation about the Japanese Invasion of Hawaii is based on the other invasions that happened at the same time- more than likely the Battle for Singapore. I enjoyed the realistic assumptions made and that people acted like people and not stereotypes.
I would say that this and the sequel were certainly good books on the subject I would say. Another good Turtledove book.
Harry Turtledove posits another alternate history, this one, if Pearl Harbor had been more carefully planned and followed up with an invasion of Hawaii. The Japanese take advantage of the surprise to land troops and, with the help of air superiority (since most US planes were knocked out on December 7), take control of the islands. The US is not going to take this lying down, and gears up to fight back . . .

As usual, carefully researched, and with the expected variety of viewpoints, from Japanese commanders to US soldiers to civilians caught in the middle. These characters are often very solid, though sometimes less so (the Japanese fisherman seems like something out of a Japanese version of "Flower Drum Song"!)

Things progress through months of occupation and food shortages on the island, and conclude with a climactic sea battle, the equivalent of Midway (the first real carrier-to-carrier battle). It's Turtledove's look at how the war would have progressed if the Japanese had had Hawaii as an advance base, rather than the US.

Although this book is marked as a "novel" on the front cover, and two of Turtledove's stand-alone books are reviewed on the back cover, this is clearly part 1 of at least a three (most likely four) part series. Several of the US characters (flyboy trainees, for example) never see combat. At least three Japanese characters mull over the question of how they can defeat a country so wealthy that even their trivial leavings make things easier for the occupiers. If one believes Turtledove's foreshadowings (and when he's so blatant, I'm inclined to believe him) the answer will be--they can't. To say nothing of how he dwells on Japanese habits of suicide, execution, and disgrace for those who through little or no fault of their own, are defeated or captured, as well as Japanese military infighting. While he nowhere actually says so (and therefore, I don't think I'm giving anything away) expect a Japanese implosion in future books.

It's good, but it's a limited idea, and the primary purpose seems to be to refight World War II--again--with a little more brains on the Japanese side, but with a safe American victory at the end of the day. If I'm wrong, I'm wrong. But I don't think I'm going to be.
Being a huge fan of Harry Turtledove's Alternate History books, I eagerly anticipated reading this latest work.

Sadly, I was not as impressed with "Infamy" as I am with his "American Front" series. Although this might well be the first in a new series of novels, I felt that, at least to this point, Turtledove had not warmed to this subject matter nearly to the extent that he did his "American Front" series.

I felt that he did a very good job of portraying individual characters as he usually does, but I found that many of the events and their sequence, which do have to happen in the order he envisions for the story to advance as it does, highly implausible, based on what we know factually of US and Japanese capabilities at the time. I felt that lack of plausibility made my suspension of disbelief- a necessity in stories such as this- virtually impossible.

Conversely, if you are not well versed in Pearl Harbor lore, the story can captivate you. The Japanese are portrayed fairly, neither Supermen nor thoughtless butchers. Americans are not portrayed universally as heroes but are more realistically depicted as being at first confident and then resigned to their fate, but seldom cowardly. In fact, his non-military event story is perhaps the strongest portion of the entire novel.

While "Infamy" is, in my opinion, not up to his best books, it is an entertaining read and sets the table for additional books to follow that may more closely match the depth of detail that makes his "American Front" series one of the genre's Must Reads.
This was my first Turtledove book and I found it to be an enjoyable read. It isn't a first class read like some of Tom Clancy's work is, but it's a pleasant way to pass an evening or two. The premise is believable as many people have wondered why Japan didn't try to invada Hawai'i in 1941 and Turtledove presents a decent invasion scenario. Where he falls short is on the subject of Japanese brutality. The Japanese of 1941 were, if anything, brutal and then they were excessive in their brutality. It is likely that Turtledove's editor or publisher would not like the politically incorrect depictions of Japanese soldiers raping and marauding and predating on the civilian population, but such a thing would have been representative of Japanese behavior in lands they really did conquer. Also, the prisoners of war who were held by the Japanese suffered a 30% mortality rate and the depictions of death in the Hawai'ian prison camp didn't quite come up to the measure of camps typical of Japan. Other than this 'hole' in reality, this is a good book about people dealing with an impossibly challenging circumstance and it is not just a mere flight of fancy. I recommend it.
It is traditional Turtledove, but it is better than usual Turtledove. I am familiar with the history of the early Pacific war and Turtledove hits all of the main themes in a rational and believable way. I have read Turtledove and been put off because I just couldn't accept the basic premises. But not here.

Characters are not Turtledove's strong point, but the characters here are among his strongest.

It was a good, solid read that kept me picking it up and staying up past my bed time.