History has always fascinated me. The what if’s are my favorite. What if Hitler won? What if the South won the Civil War or the British the Revolutionary War. Harry Turtledove is my favorite author in this genre. I will also include books that were written as future speculation but time has made them more alternate history.
It is 1953 and in this alternate reality the Chimera alien invaders have successfully conquered the United States. It is now reduced to about 10 million survivors eking out a living in hiding. Joseph Capelli was a former soldier who killed the famous Nathan Hale. He now serves as a guide and agrees to take a man to Oklahoma to join his sister in a community. The man he was taking dies, but Capelli hooks up with Hale’s sister who also survived. They find the community and get married. Later they have to fight a neighboring community lead by Judge Ramsey who wants to form an American Empire.
This is the second and last book in the Resistance series. It is an official prequel to Resistance 3 a game that was coming out. Apparently, the Chimera have taken over America. Nathan Hale the hero from the last book is dead. Killed by a fellow soldier who claims the alien virus was taking him over. There is a new Federal government that has developed a vaccine against the virus.
I really thought this was a much better book that the first in the series. It was mostly about people and their struggles in this post-apocalyptic world. The Chimera aliens were mostly side concerns. It was about the struggle for power in this world and Dietz did an excellent job of writing that story. Sadly, I guess the computer game didn’t do well and we never got a conclusion to the story. We are left to wonder if Earth and the human race won the war.
In 1948 Russia goes dark and the world thinks it is due to some internal political struggle. Only the Chimera a deadly alien invasion comes bursting out to conqueror. Europe and Asia fall, and the aliens cross the Atlantic. They capture Canada and the upper Midwest. It is now 1951 and Lt. Nathan Hale is part of a special forces group that fights the invaders. Only he soon gets involved with a conspiracy by the President of the United States to negotiate a peace deal to keep him in power.
This is a book based on a video game. It is an alternate history where an alien virus was on the meteor of the Tunguska strike. It takes over humans and mutates them into various alien creatures that have a hive mind. The book doesn’t get into much background as I guess you are supposed to get it from playing the video game. Still Dietz does a good job of giving you enough to know what is going on.
It was a good read with interesting characters and plot. You can see the video game influence as there are many different alien types which I suppose would be to fight and kill. Dietz gives a good story and one I found interesting, but it seems to not really go anywhere. It alternates between Hale looking for his family and fighting the aliens. There is also a main plot of a Secretary of War going off to contact a resistance group in occupied Chicago to broadcast the President’s plan to negotiate a peace. The President’s plan doesn’t really make much sense as the aliens seem to be winning and what would you offer a hive mind that is winning. It is an interesting but flawed book.
In the near future the Soviet Union comes to the conclusion they are losing the cold war and drastic measure must be implemented. They detonate nuclear explosions over America and the EMP knocks out America’s communications and nuclear defenses. America has no choice but to surrender. They are to disarm the military, destroy the dollar and in effect become a client state of the Soviet Union. Ten years later America is divided into regions and the puppet government controlled by the People’s Progressive Party(PPP) maintains a Communist style economy and political structure. The nation is also occupied by the UNSSU(United Nations Special Service Unit) comprised of Warsaw Pact and other Communist forces.
Now that the Soviets control the world things are not doing well. Rebellions all over threaten to unravel the victory. The Politburo wants to detonate nuclear explosions over select American cities to demonstrate their power to the world. The general in charge of the occupation comes up with a less extreme plan. The congress will be destroyed in a staged terrorist attack and the regions will declare their independence. In effect the country will be several smaller client states.
The story follows three men in the Central Administrative Region in the Mid-West. Devin Milford a former Presidential candidate who tried to oppose the takeover and ends up in a prison camp in Texas. He gets released and returns to Milford, Nebraska. The other is his best friend Peter Bradford who is the town administrator and one who believes in cooperation with the new order. He is the first to be chosen to lead the new country of Heartland. The third is Colonel Andrei Denisov the KGB agent in charge of the region. Through these three we see the various viewpoints of the resistance and pragmatism to the new regime. All comes to a head when the Heartland secedes and a big fight with the UNSSU.
This miniseries from 1987 came about when Ben Stein suggested this as a counterpoint to the movie The Day After. Well four years later they succeeded in getting it made. By 1987 thought the evil empire was looked on more favorably with Gorbachev and his policies of glasnost and perestroika. There was the usual shrill condemnation from the various media. The Soviets of course condemned it as the UN who were portrayed as tools of the Soviets. Yet its worst enemy was the script. A series that was 14 1/2 hours long broadcast over seven days was a flop. The ratings were big in the beginning but quickly dropped and they never delivered to the advertisers as promised.
This book is an adaptation of the screenplay by Donald Wrye who also directed the series. Now it has been over thirty years since I saw this but remember I liked it. I can see though why it might have not been a success. The book can be a bit drawn out at times and a bit preachy. The book goes into detail how the Soviets gained control where the TV series was bit vague. I think the vagueness was better as the reason explained. The military is well aware of EMP and all our systems are shielded. Plus the launching of nukes over the country would have been detected and probably lead to a nuclear war. The series was spot on that the Soviet Union was losing as a few years later became very obvious. I think my biggest surprise is that a series like this was ever green lighted by the entertainment industry. They are notoriously left leaning even back then.
Anyway this was a fun nostalgic look back to my teenage years. The series is available on youtube if you are interested in checking it out.
In this near future the Soviet Union invades Scandinavia. Using chemical weapons they conquer it in six days. Then they give an ultimatum to Great Britain. Surrender or else. The weak Labour government decides to surrender and without a shot fired, Great Britain becomes the Soviet British Protectorate. Their military is disbanded, and they are under the occupation of the Soviets to help them reorganize their economy.
Yet there is a nascent resistance forming. The Defense Intelligence Agency hear that the man behind this takeover will be staying at a resort in Cornwall. John Sulley a former member of MI6 was trapped in Los Angeles when the takeover occurred. He is recruited by the DIA to go in and assassinate Marshal Gorontsyev because he lived in the area and knows the people and the resort. The incentive is he can rescue the woman he loves who was trapped in Soviet occupied Britain. Thus begins his training and infiltration into Britain. Only this mission is cancelled because the President will meet with the Premier in London and the government doesn’t want any controversy during this meeting. Needless to say Sulley and friends ignore this and go ahead with the plan.
This book shows that America wasn’t the only country with an inferiority complex when it came to the Soviets. This one has them just give up in spite of being a nuclear power and having the second largest military in NATO at the time. They meekly submit to being a protectorate which is just a level above a full colony. Now I could point out that Norway was a NATO member so America and the alliance would have been obligated to come to their aid. Needless ignoring their brutal invasion and losing Britain I couldn’t see NATO surviving this.
Now in spite of this kooky scenario, the book is an enjoyable thriller. Its cover invokes a more WWII feel, and this story could have worked set in WWII or any other country. It is basically a love story set in an occupied country. It has evil occupiers and a resistance fighting them. Some espionage intrigue on both the Soviet and American side. Plus, a good old action sequence at the end. I highly recommend it for this reason.
In the near future the Soviet Union has organized a successful oil embargo of America. The economy comes grinding to a halt and the Navy is running out of fuel for its ships. The Soviets realize that this will soon end and decide to take advantage with their plan Cassandra. They detonate a nuclear bomb in the capital of a small Carribean nation. They threaten to detonate ones hidden in Washington and New York if America doesn’t surrender. So they take over America and start assassinating all the people that will cause trouble. Only Admiral Conyers refuses to give in. He leads a fleet of trident submarines that can still threaten Russia.
This book is a very confusing one. I was confused when I first read it and thirty some years later I am still confused. I never really understood how the Soviets took over. They have their twin ambassadors who have been exposed to radiation in an accident and are dying do the blackmailing. The leaders of the government decide to just give in and presto the Soviets are in control. Then the main story is about the son in law of Admiral Conyers. He owns a machine shop in Los Angeles and gets involved with the government in exile because his wife could be used as a hostage. First though he has to rescue the wife of one of his employees and young son who were deported to Mexico. They get involved with a KGB Mexican agent who wants to set up a separate state of Baja from Communist Mexico. There is a subplot of a Japanese American who is captain of an oil tanker smuggling oil through the embargo. His tanker gets destroyed by a Soviet destroyer when they shoot a missile into the tanker. The Soviets then go after him because they think there might be some super-secret weapon instead of an incompetent captain shooting a missile into an oil tanker. They pursue him all the way to Israel where he takes over the intelligence position with the embassy.
This book really just goes off on some wild and unexplained tangents. Although everything ends happily where the Soviets withdraw to face all the revolts and threats closer to home. A very strange book.
It is an alternate future where Reagan and Bush were assassinated, and President Carmody assumed the office. Under his administration the nation’s nuclear defense was reduced to practically nothing. The Soviets launch a preemptive strike and destroy the countries nuclear silos in the west. Defenseless the U.S. must unconditionally surrender. The Soviets waste no time in setting up a Communist state. One where people are drafted into work projects. Mass arrests and executions of potential troublemakers. Martha Adams a U.N. employee finds out her husband worked on a secret project during the Reagan administration. A nuclear weapon so powerful it could destroy all of Russia. She and an Israeli agent make the dangerous trip across an occupied America to find this weapon in Utah so they can force the Soviets to withdraw.
This is my favorite standalone novel of a Soviet conquest book. The premise of a weak government and the sudden attack was done very realistically. What I found most disturbing was the way people just meekly accepted the surrender and actively participated in the Soviet’s plans. We get a very brutal occupation of forced labor, resettlement of populations and the eventual dismemberment of the United States.
This book did remind me of the novel Not This August. It has the same basic premise of America totally defeated and occupied. One person finds a secret weapon and uses it to free the country. This book is of course updated for the eighties. China is not an ally and in fact the only country actively opposing the Soviets. They get in a limited nuclear war and hold their own against them. This book also doesn’t just limit the point of view to the main character. We get to see the occupation from the Soviets side. There are three individuals put in charge. Marshal Borunokov the military planner behind the attack and presumed future premier. Virinsky the KGB head of North America and Ramon Perez the Castro like ruler of Cuba. Each of these men constantly jockey for power with delusions of grandeur. They even argue about remaining Washington after themselves. The name eventually becomes Hall City after the American Communist leader. The book holds your interest from beginning to end and never lets up in the middle. I highly recommend this book for it’s story is very relevant even though the Soviet Union is no more.
It is the near future of 1983. The United States has a grain embargo on the Soviet Union for their invasion of Afghanistan and Poland. The embargo is effective as the Soviets had crop failures and have daily food riots. The US though is in a severe recession and the embargo is hard on the farmers. The President was the Vice President who was elevated to the position on the sudden death of a popular President. He faces an uphill reelection battle where he might not even get his party’s nomination.
Thus on Christmas a Soviet brigade parachutes into Alaska under the cover of a massive storm. The objective is to hold the oil pipeline hostage in exchange for the lifting of the embargo. A rogue KGB has initiated this without the knowledge of the Soviet premier. Now there is brinkmanship to see who backs down first. Into this a Lt. Colonel and a company of Alaska National Guard try to hold off the superior Soviet force.
This is an adaptation of a TV miniseries. I didn’t originally see it when it came out but caught it a few years later when it was rebroadcast. I was captivated about a series that actually dealt with a Soviet-American conflict. It had some good actors and fun action sequences. Back when it was filmed in 1981 the US was in a recession and the Soviets had recently invaded Afghanistan and the military declared martial law in Poland. There was also a grain embargo that Carter initiated for the invasion. Only it was a failure as the Soviets bought from other countries and never effected the farmers in America. The writers envisioned that the US was able to persuade other countries to join the embargo. Now looking back you can see that the whole strategy was a bit goofy. How you can invade Alaska and get what you want seems a bit unrealistic. Still it made for a fun story if you don’t think about it too much.
The novelization was written by Harold King under the pseudonym Brian Harris. It adapted the screenplay by Robert L. Joseph. The original director Boris Segal was killed in a helicopter crash early in filming and was replaced by David Greene. Segal was a Ukrainian Jew who emigrated to America. His plans were to end the series open ended to leave room for a possible future miniseries or even a TV show. Wow how cool would that have been to have a TV series about WWIII back in the eighties. Needless to say, it wasn’t a ratings hit and the new director decided to end on both countries launching a nuclear war.
The book itself is good. It manages to include stuff that the series due to budget constraints couldn’t. The battle scenes are much more epic in scope. There is actually 800 Soviets with multiple tracked vehicles. They battle ambushes by a 100-man company using their helicopters. At the end when they reach the pumping station, the American commander opens the pipeline and burns up the Soviets. This contrasts with the series small scale battle with men using pipes for cover. Also, the Soviet premier never died in a car bomb but was shown to be basically powerless as the KGB seized control of the country. There is also more characterization for the characters including the Soviet political officer being portrayed as a much bigger jerk.
It is the week before Easter 1976 and the United States has been under the occupation of the Chinussians for a year. This Russian and Chinese alliance used some type of nerve gas to blanket the country and make people docile. They were able to conquer the country without a shot being fired. Now a year later and the gas is starting to wear off. In the small farming community of San Felipe in California someone has decided to fight back. In retaliation for destroying the churches someone sets off a car bomb at the hotel the occupation troops are at. The Chinussian commander Durov decides to publicly execute him. He also randomly picks a woman to torture and kill because he thinks there are more involved.
The woman happened to be the wife of the high school football coach and he decides to start a guerilla operation. He recruits a bunch of people, and they plan to destroy the dam and flood the town. What will this accomplish? Well, he hopes to kill Durov or at the least ruin Durov’s career. In the week until Easter there is a lot of people sleeping around with each other. The high school English teacher tries to convince him not to blow the dam because they should work with the occupation forces. Eventually they do blow the dam and flood the town, but it changes nothing. The Chinussians cover it up and the country is still under occupation.
This is one of those so bad it’s good books. So apparently in the near future the Chinese and Russians get together and take over the country. Back in 1970 this was probably not something that would happen since they were some open hostilities between the two nations. I suppose this makes more sense nowadays since the two countries have more friendly relations and view the US as the main enemy. They can use Tik Tok to sap our will.
Anyway, the country seems to be going on as normal for the most part. Only someone like Durov a bisexual rapist who likes to kill people to show off his power life continues as normal. This is like a soap opera in everybody sleeping around with one another. The guy who starts his guerilla band just has no problem recruiting and they also have no problem of destroying the town to spite Durov. Although he has a problem of recruiting the attractive women because they could cause problems. Not the unattractive ones. The Chinussians really aren’t running a tight ship to let him openly recruit and get dynamite the blow the dam.
Like any seventies story it ends very pessimistically. I don’t know what it is was about the decade. The abundance of polyester or disco seemed to have stories always end in a dark and pessimistic way. A very strange book that I didn’t expect to be this way.
In this future alternate reality, the United States is waging WWIII against a Soviet and Chinese alliance. Billy Justin works as a dairy farmer in Upstate New York when he hears the news. America is totally defeated. There navy is destroyed and the army fighting the invaders along the Mexican border has been overrun. America is forced to unconditionally surrender. The first act of the conquerors is to execute the President and Vice President. Then a new North American People’s Democratic Republic is formed. At first the Soviets who control everything east of the Mississippi seem lenient. Yet as time goes on, they start to ruthlessly squeeze the population. Justin gets a helper for his farm. This helper is a bit mad because he gassed all the people working on a secret project. He shows him the secret base that has an almost finished satellite. A satellite armed with nuclear weapons that may be the last hope for a defeated America.
I have decided to review the stand-alone books that deal with a Soviet invasion. My first book is this one written in 1955. A time were Stalin just died and a Korean war was stalemated. From that time, it seemed that Russia and China were forming a unified alliance to crush the west. Kornbluth envisioned that in the future the anti-air defenses were so effective that you couldn’t effectively use airplanes or missiles to deliver nuclear weapons. The overwhelming might of the Communist world’s conventional armies would overwhelm America.
Now obviously this did not happen. In fact, China and Russia would have a falling out in the sixties and the technology never developed such an efficient anti-air/missile defense. Still as Fredrick Pohl who was a friend of Kornbluth states in his foreword that while his future never materialized, it was meant as a warning and not a prediction. This is really true of any dystopian story. The writer doesn’t really want it to happen. The story is dated but still has so much to say on human nature. The characters in this book are richly detailed and believable. The secret Communist operatives that Justin’s neighbors turn out to be. Instead of a reward they get a bullet in the head as a reward by the victorious Soviets. They want no experienced troublemakers in their new order. The local storeowner Crowley, who is basically a Capitalist, gets the job of representative. An opportunist that changes sides as the wind blows.
The title comes from an essay by Hemingway. Kornbluth sadly died at a young age and didn’t write much. This is a shame for I think he was a very talented writer. This book was compared to 1984 with it being more superior by contemporary critics. Yet it does have a happy and optimistic ending. I highly recommend this book of Communist conquest from the fifties.
Liz Mendoza is an 18-year-old who accompanied her parents to an alternate that destroyed itself in a nuclear war in 1967. Her parents got a grant from UCLA to study why this war started. They live in the Westside which is its own little country. The Westside gets into a war with its neighbor the Valley over blocking the Sepulveda Pass. The Valley wins because they were able to find a working .50 cal. machine gun. Now Liz has to deal with one of the Valley soldiers who has taken an interest in her. The family has to deal with spies from the Westside government in exile and the occupation soldiers of the Westside.
The final book in the Crosstime series is my favorite. For one thing it deals with a post-nuclear apocalypse which is my favorite type of books. This one has plenty of action that the others lacked. I love that everyone still talks like hippies such as “far out” and “groovy”. The society is a realistic portrayal of a post-nuclear world. It is on a level of the medieval times with its various petty little kingdoms. Technology is lacking as everyone scrounges for leftovers in the ruins.
I enjoyed this series. It had some weird stuff like Turtledove’s thing for portraying that everyone in the future has a serious aversion to fur. Granted fur is a dead industry nowadays but I don’t think the young even today give fur any thought. Just one of the things he decided was something hip. I also wonder if it appealed to the target teen audience or just older alternate history buffs like me. The series was solid with some plausible alternate histories that were portrayed realistically. If you like Turtledove or alternate history this is a good series for you.
THE BOOKS THAT TIME FORGOT. 