Harry Turtledove

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Harry Turtledove at the 63rd World Science Fiction Congress ( Worldcon ) in Glasgow in August 2005

Harry Norman Turtledove (* 14. June 1949 in Los Angeles ) is an American historian and novelist writer , which refers to the genre Alternate History and Fantasy specializes. He is one of the most important authors of alternative history novels (see also virtual history ).

Life

In 1977 Turtledove received his doctorate in Byzantine history on the successors of Justinian and in 1982 translated part of the Chronicle of Theophanes into English. Since 1979 he has published numerous novels and short stories, until 1979 under the pseudonym Eric G. Iverson . He is married to the writer Laura Frankos and has three daughters.

Southern Victory

Turtledove's best-known series is Southern Victory (or Timeline 191 , starting with How Few Remain , for which Turtledove received the Sidewise Award in 1997 ), an alternate world in which the Confederate States won the Civil War in 1862 and the United States of America , after a further defeat against the Confederation in 1881/82, enter into an alliance with Wilhelmine Germany .

Germany and the USA win the First World War ( Great War series). The US annexes large parts of Canada and parts of the Confederation, whereupon the Confederation, which was allied with England and France, comes to a time of crisis ( American Empire Series). Finally, a politician reminiscent of Adolf Hitler by the name of Jake Featherston came to power there in 1934 with the help of his Freedom Party . Featherston established a de facto dictatorship in the Confederation and plans a new war against the United States. Meanwhile, right-wing governments come to power in England and France, and the tsarists win the Russian civil war in Russia. These states also want to take revenge for their defeat in the Great War , in this case on the German Empire.

The latest volumes in this series ( Settling Accounts ) deal with an alternative Second World War : After the death of the German Emperor Wilhelm II , France and England invade the Benelux countries and invade Germany, while Russia invades Ukraine, which has been lost to the German Empire. Featherston attacks the United States on June 22, 1941 (like Hitler attacks the Soviet Union), while Japan , which has been pursuing an aggressive expansion policy since the Great War in East Asia, is also active in the Pacific . After initial successes, primarily due to superior armor technology and the combined use of air and ground forces, the Confederates were pushed back. The troops of the United States can penetrate south - and must discover there that the Confederate government is perpetrating a genocide against the black population (Vol. The Grapple , 2006).

Numerous historical personalities also play an important role in Turtledove's world, which differs from the real world in several striking ways. So were James Longstreet and Woodrow Wilson president of the Southern States, while Theodore Roosevelt was not a Republican (which after the defeat of 1881 do not matter more in the United States), but as a Democrat president of the United States. George S. Patton commands the Kentucky Confederate Army in the "Second Great War," which he wages north, and Winston Churchill is the head of a right-wing coalition government in Great Britain. Turtledove devotes himself quite extensively to the private life of his protagonists and also offers insights into the life of "the little man". At the same time, the military actions are described in great detail.

Further series

Other Turtledove cycles deal with a fantasy Byzantium ( Time of Troubles ; Videssos series) called Videssos , which has to defend itself in military conflicts against its neighboring states (including a fictional Sassanid empire ).

Another series ( World War / Colonization ) deals with World War II: A reptilian race of aliens is attacking the earth, and the previously hostile states now have to cooperate with one another. In addition, Turtledove has also written some short stories that have appeared in anthologies.

In the Presence of Mine Enemies , in turn, takes place in a present when the Axis powers won World War II (a common theme in literature). In this thoroughly racist world, which is technologically at the same level as we are and shows similar social tendencies, it is about a large family of German Jews who were able to escape the Holocaust and who are now keeping their origins a secret. This is taking place against the background of political détente that shows clear parallels to the collapse of the Soviet Union . The novel received special attention due to the very human portrayal of the Nazis , largely unknown from previous novels on a similar subject.

The series "Hellenic Traders", which Turteldove wrote under the pseudonym "HN Turteltaub", does not take place in an alternative timeline, but in the historical time of the Diadoch fights in the years after the death of Alexander the Great . Two sea traders from Rhodes sail in the eastern Mediterranean and are involuntarily entangled in the intellectual and political disputes of their time. The series has been lauded for its detailed and historically very accurate portrayal of this period between the decline of Classical Greece and the rise of Rome.

For several of his numerous novels Harry Turtledove won awards in the relevant literary genres, including the Hugo Award 1994 for the best story ( Down in the Bottomlands ). In 2018 he received the Sidewise Award for Gypsies (published in Asimov's Science Fiction , September / October 2017) in the Short Form category.

Works

Videssos series

  • The Misplaced Legion, 1987
  • To Emperor for the Legion, 1987
  • The Legion of Videssos, 1987
  • Swords of the Legion, 1987
  • Krispos Rising, 1991
  • Krispos of Videssos, 1991
  • Krispos the Emperor, 1994
  • The Stolen Throne, 1995
  • Hammer and Anvil, 1996
  • The Thousand Cities, 1997
  • Videssos Besieged, 1998
  • The Bridge of the Separator, 2005

Worldwar / Colonization

Southern Victory

  • How Few Remain, 1997
  • American Front, 1998
  • Walk in Hell, 1999
  • Breakthroughs, 2000
  • Blood and Iron, 2001
  • The Center Cannot Hold, 2002
  • The Victorious Opposition, 2003
  • Return Engagement, 2004
  • Drive to the East, 2005
  • The Grapple, 2006
  • In at the Death, 2007

Days of Infamy

  • Days of Infamy, 2004
  • End of the Beginning, 2005

The War That Came Early

  • Hitler's War, 2009
  • West and East, 2010
  • The Big Switch, 2011
  • Coup d'Etat, 2012
  • Two Fronts, 2013
  • Last Orders, 2014

Supervolcano

  • Supervolcano: Eruption, 2011
  • Supervolcano: All Fall Down, 2012
  • Supervolcano: Things Fall Apart, 2013

The hot war

  • Bombs Away, 2015
  • Fallout, 2016

More books:

  • A Different Flesh, 1988
  • A World of Difference, 1990
  • The Guns of the South, 1992
  • Down in the Bottomlands, 1993
  • Household Gods, 1999
  • Ruled Britannia, 2002
  • In the Presence of Mine Enemies, 2003
  • The Man with the Iron Heart , 2008
  • Joe Steele, 2015
  • Through Darkest Europe, 2018

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ http://www.sfadb.com/Sidewise_Awards_2018
personal data
SURNAME Turtledove, Harry
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Turtledove, Harry Norman
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American historian and novelist
DATE OF BIRTH June 14, 1949
PLACE OF BIRTH los Angeles