Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Worldwar: In the Balance
    Worldwar: In the Balance
    Worldwar: In the Balance
    Audiobook26 hours

    Worldwar: In the Balance

    Written by Harry Turtledove

    Narrated by Todd McLaren

    4.5/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    War seethed across the planet. Machines soared through the air, churned through the seas, crawled across the surface, pushing ever forward, carrying death. Earth was engaged in titanic struggle. Germany, Russia, France, China, Japan: the maps were changing day by day. The hostilities spread in ever-widening ripples of destruction: Britain, Italy, Africa...the fate of the world hung in the balance.

    Then the real enemy came.

    Out of the dark of night, out of the soft glow of dawn, out of the clear blue sky came an invasion force the likes of which Earth had never known-and worldwar was truly joined. The invaders were inhuman and they were unstoppable. Their technology was far beyond our reach, and their goal was simple: Fleetlord Atvar had arrived to claim Earth for the Empire. Never before had Earth's people been more divided. Never had the need for unity been greater. And grudgingly, inexpertly, humanity took up the challenge.

    In this epic novel of alternate history, Harry Turtledove takes us around the globe. We roll with German panzers, watch the coast of Britain with the RAF, and welcome alien-liberators to the Warsaw ghetto. In tiny planes we skim the vast Russian steppe, and we push the envelope of technology in secret labs at the University of Chicago. Turtledove's saga covers all the Earth, and beyond, as mankind-in all its folly and glory-faces the ultimate threat; and a turning point in history shows us a past that never was and a future that could yet come to be.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherTantor Media, Inc
    Release dateMar 8, 2010
    ISBN9781400183944
    Worldwar: In the Balance
    Author

    Harry Turtledove

    Harry Turtledove is an American novelist of science fiction, historical fiction, and fantasy. Publishers Weekly has called him the “master of alternate history,” and he is best known for his work in that genre. Some of his most popular titles include The Guns of the South, the novels of the Worldwar series, and the books in the Great War trilogy. In addition to many other honors and nominations, Turtledove has received the Hugo Award, the Sidewise Award for Alternate History, and the Prometheus Award. He attended the University of California, Los Angeles, earning a PhD in Byzantine history. Turtledove is married to mystery writer Laura Frankos, and together they have three daughters. The family lives in Southern California.

    More audiobooks from Harry Turtledove

    Related to Worldwar

    Titles in the series (4)

    View More
    View More

    Related audiobooks

    War & Military Fiction For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Letters

      May 18, 2023

      CONTACT US BY POST: PO BOX 1200, WHITSTABLE CT1 9RH, OR E-MAIL SIEVEKING@FORTEANTIMES.COM PLEASE PROVIDE US WITH YOUR POSTAL ADDRESS With reference to his article on Nazi UFOs [FT430:44-49], I would be curious to know what evidence SDTucker has for s

      12 min read

    • Article

      Letters

      Sep 8, 2022

      An account of the Angels of Mons appears in Great British Ghosts by Aidan Chambers in the chapter “Ghosts at war”, along with the following account by a (unnamed) British lieutenant-colonel: “On the night of 27 August 1914, I was riding along in the

      7 min read

    • Article

      Mike Golding

      Aug 8, 2019

      Ocean phosphorescence is the naturally occurring (green) light created by certain algae blooms when they are jostled or excited. The effect causes everything passing through the water to be outlined in a glowing light. Millions upon millions of algae

      3 min read

    • Article

      Town & Country Notebook

      Mar 3, 2021

      1) On what musical instrument would a nocturne typically be played? 2) Who was the last monarch before The Queen to have a Diamond Jubilee? 3) Complete the title of the 1990 British film starring Alan Rickman and Juliet Stevenson: Truly, Madly… wha

      1 min read

    • Article

      If Sheep COULD FLY…

      Aug 3, 2022

      If Sheep COULD FLY…
      6 min read

    • Article

      The Waste Land turns 100

      Oct 19, 2022

      The Waste Land turns 100
      5 min read

    • Article

      A Dragon’s Perspective

      Jun 10, 2022

      There once lived a dragon named Deathwing. Well, at least that’s what they called him. Deathwing was growing old, far too old for his liking. The joints of his claws ached and groaned under his ever-growing weight and his scales were beginning to los

      18 min read

    • Article

      What Killed Tutankhamun?

      Mar 2, 2020

      What Killed Tutankhamun?
      9 min read

    • Article

      Fairies, Folklore And Forteana

      Mar 23, 2023

      I wrote last month about the way that rooks are supposed to abandon rookeries before the death of the human owner (FT429:29). Another chapter in corvid forteana is the notion of the ‘court’. A human witness watches as a group of corvids (usually rook

      2 min read

    • Article

      Letters

      Mar 24, 2022

      CONTACT US BY POST: PO BOX 1200, WHITSTABLE CT1 9RH, OR E-MAIL SIEVEKING@FORTEANTIMES.COM PLEASE PROVIDE US WITH YOUR POSTAL ADDRESS The very interesting report on ‘Man Of Russia’ and his outlandish claims about giant trees [FT415:9] got me thinking

      14 min read

    • Article

      The Bullroarer In 19th Century England

      Jan 5, 2022

      Andrew Lang, in his influential 1884 book Custom and Myth, wrote: “The instrument which produces the sounds that warn women to remain afar is a toy familiar to English country lads. They call it the bull-roarer. The common bull-roarer is an inexpensi

      2 min read

    • Article

      Excerpt

      Oct 17, 2023

      “I’m going to throw a few names at you: Vortigern, Hengist and Horsa, Wehha, Aescwine, Aelle, Aella, Ida, Icel and finally Cerdic (whom I’ve already mentioned). You will be thrilled to hear that no one totally knows if any of these people existed. Bu

      2 min read

    • Article

      The Philosopher King of the Hoverflies: A roving meditation on nature, literature, and the joy of collecting flies.

      Mar 12, 2015

      As I now live on an island in the sea and am not an expert on anything but hoverflies, we will simply have to start there. In short, my artistic sense remained relatively undeveloped, and my past, as always, caught up with me. When anyone asked, ther

      26 min read

    • Article

      Why Leaves Have Many Colors in Autumn

      Sep 1, 2023

      Why Leaves Have Many Colors in Autumn
      3 min read

    • Article

      6 Things You (probably) Didn’t Know About... Tutankhamun

      May 12, 2022

      Tutankhamun was born in c1344 BC, possibly at Amarna, the city of his father, Akhenaten (though Tutankhamun’s parentage is hotly disputed). His mummy shows that he died when he was around 18 years old, but the exact cause of his demise is not known.

      6 min read

    • Article

      Is The Search For Dark Matter An Act Of Faith?

      Oct 10, 2019

      The young physicist sits at his computer, watching for signals from Cygnus. His name is Christopher Toth, and his white lab coat is too big for him. Christopher speaks with calm clarity. His manner is modest, gracefully gentle, and I wonder if this c

      8 min read

    • Article

      Martians Attack!

      Oct 1, 2022

      Martians Attack!
      3 min read

    • Article

      Good Things Come To Those Who Wait

      May 20, 2020

      Good Things Come To Those Who Wait
      5 min read

    • Article

      A Hopeless Place

      May 14, 2019

      A Hopeless Place
      11 min read

    • Article

      Young American's First-hand Account Of Second Opium War: Bloody Battles And 'Hospitable' Chinese

      Apr 26, 2018

      The second opium war, 1856-60. When in 1856, the 1844 US-China Treaty of Wangxia expired, American envoy to China William Reed set about negotiating new terms of trade, permission for diplomatic residence in Beijing and the extension of religious fre

      16 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Worldwar

    4.5/5

    41 ratings16 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 5/5
      As always Harry Turtledove is the finest alternative history writer to ever set pen to paper.
    • 5/5
      WW 2 History for those with short attention spans. Accurate References back to WW1. Target audience is adolescent male science fiction buffs. Good research, good scenes with both action amd contemplation. Controversy is dissected and something to righteously offend everyone. Thanks, looking forward to sequels.
    • 3/5
      It starts slow but builds up nicely
    • 5/5
      Love it did very much enjoy did feel really invested in the story
    • 4/5
      I was hoping for more, but this book is the first book of Turtledove's that I read, and I enjoyed it. I wasn't sure how I would like an alternate history book, but add in an alien invasion during world war II and it was a very interesting read. A classic example is how would a less technical race (Human kind) fare in a battle against a more technologically advanced race that is bent on taking over their planet and subjugating them.
    • 3/5
      A fascinating scenario where aliens invade during World War II, leading to a fragile alliance between all the major combatants to resist the new common enemy. Although it does feature Russians, Germans, Japanese and British, I find it rather US-oriented. But still a great read.
    • 4/5
      I was looking for a new series to start and I had read reviews of the books in LT. The Martha Canfield Library had the first book of this series in the stacks so I check it out. I found the book to be well written and the premise of the story interesting. In many science fiction books only one or two characters are not two dimensional, this tale has many and I find this fascinating. Can't wait to read the nex book in the series.
    • 3/5
      A pretty fun premise - WWII hangs in the balance, when from out of the skies comes a far superior enemy - the lizards! The lizards have more technology - tanks and helicopters that run on hydrogen, nuclear weapons, and radar - just at the point where mankind hasn't discovered any of these handy things. However, the reconaissance mission was done many years earlier, so they are expecting an enemy for whom the broadsword is still high tech, so have a rude awakening when the encounter people that have got airplanes, tanks and guns of their own. Also in mankind's favour is the fact that lizardkind's civilisation has been stable for thousands of years, and they are not used to adapting to rapidly changing circumstances in a way that humans are. So although humans have the inferior technology, their use of cunning tactics soon means they have, if not the upper hand, at least a fighting chance against these invaders from the skies. The story is told from multiple narrative viewpoints, ranging from a German tank commander, a female pilot from Russia, a Polish Jew trapped in the Warsaw ghetto, a Chinese peasant, and for some reason, several members of an American minor league baseball team that have widely diverging fates after their train is bombed by the lizards. One of the strengths of the book is that we also see things from the lizard's point of view - both common ground troops and the high command. They are not evil monsters, simply soldiers that have been sent to subjugate the Earth and bring it into their Empire. And they are not here to slaughter all the humans, just pacify them. Also, they don't seem to have invented torture, and treat captured enemy combatants with respect if not kindness, something they are not alway afforded from their human counterparts. On the downside, this is a LONG book, that jumps from each narrative point fairly regularly, breaking up the flow and momentum, making it a struggle at times. Also, what it doesn't say anywhere on the cover of the book, is that this is only the first of a series of four, so having slogged through the whole thing, I wasn't given any resolution, which was rather annoying. I'm not sure if I care enough the track down and read another three volumes, but taken on it's own, this was quite a fun, and at times unexpectedly thoughtful book.
    • 4/5
      A neat series outlining a what if of aliens with approximately todays technology invading WW2 earth.
    • 4/5
      A doorstop-sized novel - the first of a series - wherein World War II is rudely interrupted by an alien invasion. Former enemies have to join forces to combat the greater foe. The history is fairly well done, though it's not entirely clear from the internal narrative exactly what year it is, and the passage of time tends to go a little by the board; about three-quarters of the way through the book, the Luftwaffe turns up with jet aircraft, which is a little bit of a surprise because we've been down and dirty with the action most of the time and haven't had time to relate the story back to "our" history. But this is a minor criticism.The human characters take a little time to get into their stride, but they are well enough drawn. Turtledove's historical background shows, and apart from a couple of minor slips (British characters referring to the season as 'Fall' instead of 'Autumn', and an RAF crewman with the surname Whyte who, for some unknowable reason, has not been nicknamed "Chalkie" by his colleagues) the technical and historical details are reasonably solid. Some of the major viewpoint characters have their preconceptions well and truly challenged; and one plot strand deals with the experience of the Jews in the Warsaw ghetto and their reaction to the aliens' attack on the Germans; the main Jewish character, a rabbi, only realises almost too late that "the enemy of my enemy is my friend" is only ever a temporary situation.The aliens are quite sympathetically written. They are reptilian, and come from a long-established race that has held control over their world for many tens of thousands of years. They have done this by careful forward planning and maintaining strict adherance to protocol and precedence; they have already conquered two other worlds and so consider themselves masters of the universe. Unfortunately for them, their only reconnaissance of Earth was carried out in medieval times, and the shock of finding out that some races progress far more rapidly than they expected is well put over, to the extent that the reader can easily find themselves having some sympathy with the invaders. By the end of this first novel, they have been fighting - and slowly losing - an asymmetrical war and beginning to reach the end of their resources as they never anticipated needing to actually fight to hold the world - and a colonisation fleet is only a few years behind...I found this novel far less of a slog than its length of some 650 pages suggested, though I do wonder how the story will be sustained over the next three volumes.
    • 3/5
      Odd. Usually I really like Harry Turtledove's books, but this one didn't impress me so much. Rather than read the other three books in the series, I contented myself with reading the synopses on Wikipedia. Anyhoo, this is an alternate history/science fiction hybrid speculating on what would happen if aliens invaded Earth in the middle of World War II. Mr. Turtledove tells the tale from a variety of perspectives--a technique I fell in love with when I read the first book of his The Great War series. My biggest complaint is that this "global" perspective is actually limited to the northern hemisphere. Logically, there would be a lot of invasion activity in Africa and South America, but that all takes place behind the scenes.--J.
    • 3/5
      A fascinating scenario where aliens invade during World War II, leading to a fragile alliance between all the major combatants to resist the new common enemy. Although it does feature Russians, Germans, Japanese and British, I find it rather US-oriented. But still a great read.
    • 4/5
      Turtledove has created a niche market all to himself through his alternate-history novels. In The Balance sees the start of a grand war on Earth between humans and an invasion force from the stars. What makes this so original is the setting: World War II. Subsequently, In The Balance is a thought-provoking, well crafted and fresh approach to sci-fi. At times it gets bogged down with too much detail and the sheer number of characters, all with central plot lines, which make it hard work to keep up at times. Turtledove skillfully ensures we keep track, without too much redundant narrative though. In conclusion, In The Balance is a heavy read at times and underneath is an interesting and certainly epic read.
    • 5/5
      Another splendid novel from this author, the third I have read in less than two months. Aside from the intrinsic fascination of the alternate timeline, one of the author's great strengths is the conviction and thoroughness with which he depicts alien patterns of thinking and attitude - they are not just humans who happen to look like lizards.
    • 3/5
      Pretty good start of an alternative history trilogy. Aliens attack earth during WW II forcing everyone to stop fighting to defend earth. Many characters to follow in the story.
    • 3/5
      This is an interesting book that explores one of the major themes in Science fiction: can the human race co-operate when faced with an alien threat. Turtledove's choice of WWII as a setting is good, and he does seem to have done his research. He does a good job setting out a fine choice of human divisions to be sealed before we can all get the nasty aliens and the books are a fine sustained effort. His constant exposure of the pre-WWII level of anti-Semitism may be jarring to some readers, but it was that bad, honest! So this major series starts well.