Harry Turtledove at Cybling!

The
FEBRUARY 2001 Q&A

[lemont_cranston] Question Will there be another series that will continue the "colonization" series, aftershocks left so much unanswered.

From the Mini-Message Board Mike: After blasting my way through "Aftershocks", I realized that by the end of the novel, there wasn't quite the "winding down" or sense of ending for the series as there was at the end of the Worldwar series. although there are some answers, I get the feeling that there is much still left up in the air. I realize that it wasn't quite the "hot" war that existed in the first series, but could this mean that you've decided to continue writing about this world, or does the ending reflect the ambiguity of this world and the Race's acceptance of such?

Additional Questions

From Canucker: In your short story, Islands in the Stream, I believe was the name, you say that Jesus said there would be no prophets after John, and yet the only Scripture passage I can find relating to this is Luke 1616, and it must be taken out of context to mean anything like that. Where does this Christian belief in prophesy come from?

Turtledove: It's not a Christian belief; it's a Muslim belief.

From ussmak: am i right in thinking the US bombed the invasion fleet?

Turtledove: Read AFTERSHOCKS and find out.

From Logan: I have a question that has been around the message boards for some time now. What made you decide to make nice-guy, on the way of becoming a hero Jens Larssen, into such an SOB?? Ok, so he wasn´t (apparently) a "saint" like Sam Yeager, but did he really deserve such a destiny? Oh well, perhaps he did...-)

Turtledove: I don't think Yeager's a saint; he's just a guy for whom things worked out well. And Jens Larssen isn't an enormous sinner, either. He's a guy for whom everything went wrong. Engineers call it "testing to destruction," and he broke. What makes guys who go postal scary is that they are just like anybody else, not that they're not.

From Felless: Colonization questions. Could a Lizard pregnancy induced under the influence of ginger result in birth defects in the hatchlings? (You know what I mean, but the terms don't translate to English too well, Exalted Author!) Also, what might ginger do to imported pets or food animals?

Turtledove: It might. There's no evidence submitted in the books, but it might. As for pets and food animals, well, who knows? Again, no evidence.

From Bryan: Is it assumed that in the GW series that Germany got all of the territory in the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk. A line running from Leningrad to Smolensk and the whole Ukraine and lower Caucusus region. Also British and French territory the Germans coveted in Africa & the Middle East as outlined in their war aims that they would annex if they won the War, which they did in your Alternate History?

Turtledove: No, Germany has less than Brest-Litovsk gives them, because the Russians got out of the war before they were in such quite desperate straits as in our history. There's a puppet kingdom of Poland under the German thumb, and Austria gains a little, but that's all. Colonial stuff is undefined here, but the Germans, due to bad geographical logistics and having their enemies sitting over their sea routes, wouldn't have been happy colonial masters anyhow.

From FatAlbert" looks like there is a probability of the worldwar series continuing after the 60s. Assuming it will, when would u like to start up again?

Turtledove: Don't know yet if there will be such a thing, which makes where to start undefined at present.

From Demetrios: Do the Race's starships use a Bussard drive? If yes (as implied by their speed) wouldn't this create technical problems in their ability to land on planetary surfaces?

Turtledove: They could use another drive in a solar system and a ramjet outside. I haven't said what they do, though, except they don't seem to use light-sails, even laser-pushed.

From Bryan: Will Otto Skorzeny reappear if you carry the GW series into WWII? I thought he was by far your most interesting character in Worldwar and I enjoyed his exploits with Jaeger in that series a lot.

Turtledove: That's a fascinating question. I have no idea at the moment. The problem, of course, is repeating onself, which is a no-no.

From Bryan" In the GW series won't the Germans be theoretically impossible to stop in a future WWII if Hitler is a non-entity and the Jews do not become persecuted by his stupid policies. Meaning no reason for leading nuclear(Jewish) scientists to emigrate to the U.S. i.e. Einstein to name just one of many.(Atomic Bomb Implications)

Turtledove: Well, it will make life more interesting for the other side, certainly.

From Mac_Daddyxz: What made you decide to start a new series instead of finishing the Great War one? do you plan to keep this one close to original like worldwar, or seperate, as im given to understand the vidossos series were?

Turtledove: The GREAT WAR books are done. The first of the new series takes up directly where they left off. It's as much a publishing decision as anything else. They dealt with the war; the new series looks at the postwar years.

From Yella: Since Tojo isn't dead yet, whats his life expectancy in Worldwar-Colonization? What about Hirohito?

Turtledove: Tojo's no spring chicken by the 1960s, having been born in 1884. Hirohito's life expectancy, barring nuclear accidents, is the same as in our time line. Why not?

From TR" Will the flu epidemic of OTL be take place in American Empire? And can we expect the death of Theodore Roosevelt in 1919 as in OTL? Finally, would you please, please list who exactly the presidents were for both the USA and CSA in post-1862 for us anal types?

Turtledove:(1) Yes; that's too big to stop. (2) Not necessarily, as his background experience has change significantly between OTL and the a-h world. (3) No, because I haven't named them all in the books. Why pin myself down?

From Neil Alexander Marshall: Any plans for an alternate civil war set during the War of 1812 in which the federalist states seperate from the South in objection to the War?

Turtledove: Not at present, no.

From David" I think there are allot of fans who might in enjoy a prequel to HOW FEW REMAIN, what exactly happened durring the "camp hill" campaign?

Turtledove: I have my doubts about that, and have refought the Civil War in enough perverse ways, thank you kindly.

From Chris: what were the policies of the second reich during world war 1

Turtledove: Not a great deal different from OTL. They faced fewer resources against them, and so succeeded where they failed here.

From John: I noticed in the Darkness books "The Map" only shows a Southern Hemisphere. What happened to the Northern Hemisphere? Should it be assumed that it is all water North of the Equator or will the Northern Hemisphere play a part in subsequent books?

Turtledove: It's not all water, but the islands there are of relatively little consequence. No big continents. The map is crowded enough as is.

From Dave: Is the darkness series a fantasy world metophor for WWII?

Turtledove: Well, it's certainly derived from WW2, with variations.

From Lars Rasmussen: As a writer you must have had numerous ideas that never made it into publishing. Some ideas must have been too wild, some maybe too boring as the storyline developed etc. Can you give us a glimpse of some of these ideas, the lost worlds of Harry Turtledove?

Turtledove: I'd rather not, because some of them--and who knows which?--still may turn into pay copy one day.

From John: Do you ever read any of the HT fan websites that wildly speculate on what your next books will consist of and just have a good laugh,like the GW Series?

Turtledove: I rarely look at them; not enough hours in the day.

From BrokenSpirit: Dr. Turtledove, I just picked up a copy of Lest Darkness Fall and I am psyched to read it (as soon as I finish Aftershocks) because I know how much of an influence it had and has on your career and life. You wrote an introduction in the copy that I have and I was wondering if you had written any other introductions to novels that you liked.

Turtledove: I've just finished the intro for a reprint of MacKinlay Kantor's IF THE SOUTH HAD WON THE CIVIL WAR, which Tor will be rereleasing later this year.

I first read it when I was in junior high, mumbledy-mump years ago. Fun to see it out again. And go read his ANDERSONVILLE, if you never have. _The_ Civil War novel, imho.

From BrokenSpirit: With American Empire being so long (over 15 years) will there be a lot of years between books in the series?

Turtledove: Not as planned, no. People will get older; we'll lose some and gain others.

From Abraxus: What is the liklihood that the uS turns, instead of Socialist, even more imperial and draconian?

Turtledove: Read the books and see. :)

From lemont_cranston: Approximately how many years is the Lizard race ahead of Modern-day (2001) America? (not the America in Aftershocks) Or are they behind us?

Turtledove: Except for star travel and some advances in biotech, they're not far from where we are now. They're a bit ahead of where we were in the early 1990s, when I conceived the series.

From Aztec: What is the state of Arabia in american empire, since it appears the British have been defeated there?

Turtledove: Still nominally Ottoman, with restive Arabs.

From Prospector: I also note that the Race doesn't mass drivers. Since they could have defeated us without radioactive consequences in WWII, it seems odd that they didn't think of ithrowing rocks. Dr. Turtledove rocks? This is truth. He just can't let it go with the L&C in the Asteroid Belt

Turtledove: It didn't occur to them to throw rocks. Their solar systems are assumed to be tidier places than ours, with no handy asteroid belt, so they didn't think of it here. Who's to know whether Tau Ceti, Epsilon Eridani, and Epsilon indi have asteroid belts?

From JLazara: Didn't you feel a little guilty for killing Jens Larsen, after all the stuff you put him through?

Turtledove: No. He's a fictional character, that's all.

From JLazara: Was Blaine the last Republican president in the USA?

Turtledove: Yes.

From BrokenSpirit: Thank you so much for your time Dr. Turtledove. I really love all of your books that I have read. I only wish I had the money to get all of the ones I don't have!

Turtledove: Thank you very much. Hurry up and make more money. ;)

From BuffaloWinger: At the end of "Aftershocks", the American spacemen talk about building a starship. Would such a ship be for peaceful purposes? It would seem awfully hard to take Home by surprise. Or will it perhaps do something sneaky, like get the emperor hooked on ginger?

Turtledove: At the moment, I have no idea if it will do anything, or ever get built. That series is done, for now.

From Dave Bartholomew: I read all the WW books and then the 1st Colonization book. I compiled this list of possible objectives for the Lewis & Clark, BEFORE I started reading Down to Earth. I'm already aware you can't give away what happens in the 3rd book (especially since it's already written) but here's my list Set up human civilization throughout the asteroids as a safety mesaure in case all of Earth falls to the Race; ginger cultivation on large scale to help in a massive simultaneous strike against them somehow; starship construction; send Earth a killer asteroid to trigger an ice age and drive out the Lizards. Plus an issue came to mind regarding the L&C's crew. Recruiters must be sure that the potential crewperson will accept the job of going out in the L&C knowing they don't plan to come back, because if the person turns down the offer they must be hushed lest the secret nature of the mission be revealed. Screening only those with high clearances would seem to be mandatory. (And I still don't know what's going on out there!)

Turtledove: I don't see a question here, but it's a hell of a list!

From Abraxus: I know this may be an un-answerable question due to plot secrecy and all that, but I was wondering what are the chances that the USSR will collapse as in our world. I would think that the arrival of the Race and its technology, as well as the common-enemy factor, should give the Soviets another couple of decades as a stay of excecution, though one never can tell. If they remain a power for longer, then what kind of hardware will they have in space? a Soviet Christopher Columbus? I would definitely like to see the US getting some back-up in that scene, though it is my greatest fear that pushing things will cause the Race to cauterizre the infection and annihilate Earth. I hate having to depend on someone else's arrogance in order to survive.

Turtledove: I'd say this analysis seems reasonable. Whether reasonable has anything to do with what happens in that universe, and whether anything more happens, are different questions, of course.

TheFEBRUARY 2001 Q&A

Additional Questions

The
FEBRUARY 2001 Q&A