Worldwar: Striking the Balance
| Worldwar: Striking the Balance | |
|---|---|
| author | Harry Turtledove |
| language | English |
| genre | Science fiction / alternate world history |
| Original title | Striking the balance |
| publishing company | Del Rey |
| Release Date | 1996 |
| Media type | Hardcover , paperback |
Striking the Balance is the fourth novel in the Worldwar tetralogy by the author Harry Turtledove . After reptilian aliens appeared over the earth in 1941 and began a religiously motivated campaign of conquest, the course of history has changed drastically and a global nuclear war continues to escalate.
The book is followed by Colonization: Second Contact .
content
In the previous novels, the reptilian members of the race , contrary to their expectations of the rapid conquest of a world populated by primitives, were decimated by the people with atomic weapons and poison gas, while their loyalty to their superiors, otherwise reminiscent of cadaver obedience, was also carried through Substance abuse (ginger has a more intense effect on them than cocaine has on humans) was noticeably eroding.
After Franklin D. Roosevelt dies, Cordell Hull becomes President of the United States and the United States detonates its first atomic bomb on Denver to fight the race, to which the race responds with the atomic bombardment of Florida.
The Third Reich transports its first nuclear warhead to Alexandria in a submarine and destroys a base of the race there. This then destroyed Copenhagen. When the USSR ignites more nuclear weapons near Saratov, the leader of the invasion fleet Atvar agrees to meet again with earthly diplomats.
Vyacheslav Molotov , Joachim von Ribbentrop , Anthony Eden , Shigenori Tōgō and George C. Marshall therefore travel to Cairo.
However, Adolf Hitler uses the ceasefire associated with these negotiations to send Otto Skorzeny to Poland to destroy Lodz with an atomic bomb. Heinrich Jäger succeeds, however, together with Jewish partisans, in defusing the bomb and killing Skorzeny.
At the same time, the representatives of the breed agree to withdraw from the territories of the United States, the Soviet Union, and the Third Reich and only keep Poland occupied as a buffer zone.
This is how the war ends, but the people, especially the Germans, are still full of racial hatred and thirst for revenge.
Dramatis personæ
- Otto Skorzeny
- Heinrich Jäger: German tank commander
- Jens Larssen: Physicist involved in the Manhattan project
- Sam Yeager: Decatur Commodores baseball player
- Fleetlord Atvar: Supreme Commander of the alien invasion fleet
- Ussmak: leader of an uprising among soldiers of the race stationed in Siberia