Ending to Harry Turtledoves Last War(CONTAINS SPOILERS)

Mike999

I have had a few people ask me to send them the PM with the ending to the Harry Turtledove book Last Orders which is hopefully the final book in the Hitlers war series.I decided that in order to save myself time i would just post the pm here and that if people want to see it they can come and read it here.If you do not want to know how it ends stop reading now as this post does contain spoilers.


(Warning Spoilers Below-Do not read if you don't want to know how the book Last Orders ends)











I added a few extra details to this post that i did not include in the pm




The first three quarters of Last Orders really drags on with endless skirmishes on the different fronts.Anti-tank guy in Spain kills a few more people with his anti-tank rifle.Another guy gets his hand badly hurt and you hear about that a lot.The Americans and the Japanese go backwards and forwards on bombing raids between Midway and Hawaii.Then all of a sudden after a uprising in the German town of Munster happens. Hitler suddenly declares war on America for absolutely no reason.In the book it is treated as an after thought.Peggy Druce is listening to the radio and the radio announcer out of the blue suddenly says that Germany has declared war on the United States.

From there a lot of the book involves fighting around Munster.Then Hitler goes to speak there and is killed by a bomb planted by a group called the salvation Committee led by Heinz Guderian.From there a brief little civil war happens.On a good note Saul Goldman makes it home and is able to see his family again.On a side note it looks like Sauls crewmate Theo ends up very interested in Sauls sister.After that the war just ends.Germany ends up being able to keep Czechoslovakia and gets off Scott free for starting or fighting the war.Russia ends up getting the baltic states and one polish city on the boarder of Lithuania.

The war in the pacific is still going on.When the book ends the Americans have recaptured Midway from the japanese although everyone involved in the operation(including pete mcgill who became a paratrooper) is not allowed to leave the island as they were exposed to the Japanese Biological weapons that were on Midway.He spends the rest of the book complaining about not been allowed to leave Midway and that the government won't send them some women.With the war in Germany over it looks like the Americans are scrapping the atomic bomb program.

You find this out when Albert Einstein shows up at Peggy Druces house looking for her ex-husband and proceeds to babble onto her about the atomic bomb program and how he is hoping to convince him to change his mind about recommending the program be scrapped.The book ends with Einstein leaving and Peggy phoning her ex and saying "you'll never guess who i just sent over to your place".
 
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Dragun

I have to say, it is loaded cop out for HT. I can guess that HT is becoming tired out over the series, and wanted to end it as soon as possible. I can reiterate from my opinions on Supervolcano that HT was doing it for money based on a contract that he is forced to comply.

Plus he is also getting old - not to be bias - but he is aging and not to mean that he is becoming senile that his stories are getting sloppy; like I said he is seemingly worn out.
 

Connfire

A few random thoughts from a first-time poster:

Based on the cover I kept waiting for Paris to get nuked, or at least the Eifel Tower destroyed, up till about the last 30 pages. Especially with several top Nazis unaccounted for, for a short time I was wondering if they were plotting a revenge strike.

After the German Civil War ended, the book sort of became a "long goodbye" for the characters. I don't necessarily mind that when a long series comes to a conclusion. But in the end, it seemed like more characters were left hanging then anything else. The closest thing to a satisfying ending to me was the Saul/Adi-Theo-Sarah arc. And Peggy kind of became useless several books ago, the most important thing she did was turn on the radio. Ending with a contrived visit from Albert Einstein to her home was a bit of a letdown.

It would almost appear that nearly every country, and most especially the Jews, fared somewhat better in this timeline then ours. The exceptions of course are Czechoslovakia, the Baltics, Nationalist Spain, probably China, and (presumably after the series ends) Japan. I don't mind that concept per se, this is an alternate history series after all and the idea of things actually turning out a bit better isn't explored as often as how things could have been worse.

That said, on the other hand I can't help feeling that this idea would have been better served as a single or two-book series, or even as a thread on alternatehistory.com, rather than a long, drawn out, six-year, six volume series.
 

Tanrage

Drgyen said:
I have to say, it is loaded cop out for HT. I can guess that HT is becoming tired out over the series, and wanted to end it as soon as possible. I can reiterate from my opinions on Supervolcano that HT was doing it for money based on a contract that he is forced to comply.

Plus he is also getting old - not to be bias - but he is aging and not to mean that he is becoming senile that his stories are getting sloppy; like I said he is seemingly worn out.
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I'm hoping that the last of his daughters are done with college by now and he can cut back a bit on his output so he can concentrate more on quality than quantity.
 

titulus regius

Much ado about ...very little, IMHO.

Pity there's nothing like Monty Python's "Summarising Proust (in 15 seconds) Competition" for this series.
 

Mike999

Tanrage said:
I'm hoping that the last of his daughters are done with college by now and he can cut back a bit on his output so he can concentrate more on quality than quantity.
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I hope so too.I remember when Harry Turtledove books were must read for me.The first book of his that i ever read was Guns of The South.
 
FickleCrossroad

FickleCrossroad

Vexacus said:
OK, thanks for letting me know. I will now NOT be getting the series based on how it ends. Thanx
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The ending was a bit open to one more novel, though, considering how HT spent half of In at the Death on a series-denoument. I'd expect one more to conclude the PTO, along with more from all surviving viewpoints.

I've only kept purchasing the series in hardcover because, like TL-191, it comes out right around my birthday, and it's a good way to kill a lazy day, nearly as well as a lobotomy and some reality tv... :p
 

Richter von Manthofen

I am almost tempted to think if that whole 6 book exercise was done here as a TL it would have been better ;)

But in the end what remains?

A Europe thats completely different from ours

I tend to say that Germany came out much better that it went in.

But I also assume that the end is NOT THE END. I assume we will need a follow up story (and if we have to make it ourselves ;))
 

CT23

Is this like the other previous books in terms of characterization?

I.e., are all the POV characters regular people or grunts and there aren't any "important" people to give us a strategic perspective as to what's happening?

Having only ordinary people as POVs made it hard to follow sometimes IMO.
 

Richter von Manthofen

Thes same as the last book?

No the same as EVRY book.

We don't ge a strategic insight, only POV characters and some which don't have any connection to the big picture (like that US housewife).
 
Donald Reaver

Donald Reaver

Donor
Every one of these were available in my local library, what percentage of my taxes goes to it, pays for far better books than his later books. As a heavy reader of books, the only way to go to read these ones if your library has them. Not need for these but always keeps in mind inter library loans are always for books you are looking for.
 

DaemonAngel

When it comes to the WWII starting earlier plot-line, I like the idea alright, but I quit the series. I can't really put into the words what a let down it was considering HT. It almost felt like I was reading Harry Harrison again.......(shutters)

I guess after the World War, Darkness and TL-191 series, HT has just run out of steam (sorry, tired cliche').

Would like to see someone (probably not HT) take a crack at a WWII starts latter plot-line, ie Mid-1943 or Late 1944. But I digress.
 

Zheng He

Donald Reaver said:
Every one of these were available in my local library, what percentage of my taxes goes to it, pays for far better books than his later books. As a heavy reader of books, the only way to go to read these ones if your library has them. Not need for these but always keeps in mind inter library loans are always for books you are looking for.
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I got them all out of the library. I am assuming that most of these books were probably written by his assistants with HT providing overarching guidance.

A lot of the basic ideas were good but things just didn't seem to fit together very well.
 

Dave Howery

Drgyen said:
I can reiterate from my opinions on Supervolcano that HT was doing it for money based on a contract that he is forced to comply.
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while it's not great literature by any means, I've kinda liked the three SV books I've read so far... the nation (and probably the world) is slowing falling apart, resources are getting scarcer, and I always found it amusing to read about the main POV characters and how they've changed. The cop's two sons started out as rather worthless layabouts, and got better. His ex-wife was really kind of dippy at first, and got better. His daughter started out as a real bitch and stubbornly stays just that. :) I'm interested to see just how far everything will collapse in the next books...
 

BostonJoe

Once upon a time HT was one author who's book I eagerly awaited. I pressed through the entirety of the Worldwar/Colonization series all the way to the very disappointing "ending". I gave up on him after making it most of the way through Great War/American Empire/Settling Accounts. I simply couldn't take the snails pace of the story, hanging on to useless characters and the endless repetition any longer.

He lost me and from reading here and in reviews of his recent material, many others who had invested time in his books. It's sad to say but I agree that he's phoning it in and laughing on his way to the bank.
 
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