RI October 2024

Here we are again, possibly less late than usual with books from October.
As is traditional (and possibly required): The links below are Amazon
affiliate ones which could potentially earn me something should you
choose to buy through one.

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Acts of War: A World War II Alternative History
(The Usurper's War Book 1)
by James Young
https://amzn.to/3UAZsmc

Collisions of the Damned: The Defense of the Dutch East Indies
(The Usurper's War Book 2)
by James Young
https://amzn.to/3AryUx3

Here's the first two books of what I believe is to be an alt-hist
WWII trilogy.

The jumping off point for this universe is that the British take
out Hitler in a bombing raid on Berlin.  They had no idea where he
was -- it was just one of those lucky accidents of war.  Or, in
this case unlucky accidents of war.

Unlucky because taking out Hitler proved a very good thing for the
Germans.  Himmler came in after sidelining Goering (possibly fatally,
I don't quite recall), and said to the Brits basically: Look Hitler
was really a loose cannon and things got out of hand.  What's done
is done, and we're not giving back anything our boys died for, but
is there really any reason we still need to be at war?

Churchill said 'yes', but was eventually turfed out in favor of
Eden who turned out to be what some people have always suspected
and made peace.  When the Brits stood down and Himmler felt secure
enough, he cranked things up again, this time with gas and Eden
essentially went Vichy.  The king was killed in a RN sea battle on
the way to the New World and the Duke of Windsor also proved himself
to be what many suspected and happily re-took the throne, or so
some would say, some most emphatically not to include the young
Queen.

For the US, the situation in Europe headed off the immediate crisis
with the Japanese who had their hands full as a Russia, not currently
facing German armies, sent Zhukov to drive them out of China (which
immediately, if not unexpectedly, fell into warlordry).  However
the Japanese still needed the petroleum of the Dutch East Indies
and were just biding their time for an attack there, and on the US.

So anyway, that's a long winded setup.  The actual action of these
books is mainly centered on a dysfunctional Alabama family whose
sons are all in the military, and whose daughter has escaped an
unsuitable marriage by fleeing to Pearl Harbor.  There are also
story-lines centering on an American ex-pat who has been flying for
a Polish resistance squadron, and who is consequently in bad odor
at home as a mercenary (the US being at peace with both Germany &
Japan as the series starts), a battle cruiser first officer in the
US Asiatic fleet, various Japanese notables and minor characters
who come and go.

It's a very frustrating series in some ways.  In particular, every
conversation seems fraught, even between people who are supposed
to be friends, or even lovers.  It never is about shooting the
breeze, or imparting facts -- every conversation seems to have
winners and losers, and that's among friends.  Conversations between
officers and subordinates seem to be all based on how much each
thinks the other to be an SOB and wants them dead.

I'm not sure how much of the family dysfunction I mentioned we are
supposed to find funny, but some parts don't work at all for me.
For instance, the matriarch knows why her WWI vet husband has to
leave the house whenever she cooks pork chops, but does it anyway,
and the brothers tend to commit actual mayhem to protect their
sister from imaginary dangers.

It's also clearly an indie effort (I believe I picked it up from one
of Hoyt's weekly indie-boost posts), and the second book in particular
is notably much more poorly edited than the first.

That all said, it's an interesting and sometimes compelling series,
especially the bloody and nerve-wracking sea battles, and the second
book ends with a general realization on the US side that we are
losing this thing.  I do want to see how it turns out, so I
believe I will pick up the third book, warts & all.

Task Force Hammer (Expeditionary Force Book 17)
by Craig Alanson
https://amzn.to/3CduhqZ

These should be the salad days.  After making Terra a first class
power in the previously bipolar galactic system, and having seen
off the threat of the return of the Elders, General Joe Gordon and
his charge/friend/burden the renegade Elder AI Skippy should be
resting on their laurels.  Unfortunately, the menace which they
believed to be another Elder AI and thought they had seen off turned
out to be an Outsider -- the threat from beyond the galaxy which
terrified the Elders so much that they 'ascended' out of our realm.
Furthermore, to, apparently, see it off, Joe had unleashed Elder
weapons which threw the galactic MAD doctrine into a cocked hat in
the same way a country using nukes would in our current situation.

Now, as is traditional in these books, the only hope is to get a
mcguffin from one of the most highly defended systems of the Awful
Kitties, something we will need the Spiders help to do but which is
still an apparently impossible task, the only feasible approach to
which will require Joe to betray his oldest friends...

I was a bit worried in these books when Joe & Skippy apparently
took out the Big Bad(s) that there would be nowhere to go, but
Alanson has continued to provide interesting challenges for the
Merry Band of Pirates, and Joe is actually starting to act like a
general.  That said, there is definitely some filler here around
characters from "The Mavericks" whom Alanson is trying to keep
viable in the setting even when they don't quite fit in.  In
particular the hijinks with Jates & Nerf are very forced.  Joe's
wife is also sidelined for this book, and her subplot is is really
off the charts bad as well.

Still on the plus side for me though, and I will definitely pick
up the next book (which will, quickly I hope, resolve a major
cliffhanger).
--
columbiaclosings.com
What's not in Columbia anymore..