Harry Turtledove

Harry Turtledove
Turtledove at Worldcon 2005 in Glasgow, United Kingdom
Born	(1949-06-14) June 14, 1949 Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Pen name	Dan Chernenko, Eric G. Iverson, Mark Gordian, H.N. Turteltaub
Occupation	Novelist, short story author, essayist, historian
Nationality	American
Ethnicity	Jewish
Genre	Science fiction, fantasy, alternate history, historical fiction, history
Notable works	Southern Victory series, Worldwar series, Crosstime Traffic, The Guns of the South, and The Two Georges
Website
www.sfsite.com/~silverag/turtledove.html

Harry Norman Turtledove (born June 14, 1949) is a Jewish-American novelist who is best known for his works in several genres, including that of alternate history, historical fiction, fantasy, and science fiction. He is probably the best-known and most popular author of the genre of alternate history.

Turtledove is a student of history and completed his Ph.D. in Byzantine history. His dissertation was on the period AD 565–582. He lives in Southern California. In addition to his birth name, Turtledove writes under a number of pen names: Eric Iverson, H. N. Turteltaub, Dan Chernenko, and Mark Gordian. He began publishing novels in the realm of fantasy starting in 1979 and continues to publish to the current day; his latest being Or Even Eagle Flew about Amelia Earhart and WWII.

Early life and education

Turtledove was born in Los Angeles, California on June 14, 1949, and grew up in the nearby city of Gardena, California. His paternal grandparents, who were Jewish Romanian immigrants, had first settled in Winnipeg, Canada, before moving to California. He was educated in local public schools in early life.

After dropping out during his freshman year at Caltech, Turtledove attended UCLA, completing his undergraduate degree and receiving a Ph.D. in Byzantine history in 1977. His dissertation was titled The Immediate Successors of Justinian: A Study of the Persian Problem and of Continuity and Change in Internal Secular Affairs in the Later Roman Empire During the Reigns of Justin II and Tiberius II Constantine (AD 565–582).

Career

In 1979, Turtledove published his first two novels, Wereblood and Werenight, under the pseudonym "Eric G. Iverson." Turtledove later explained that his editor at Belmont Tower did not think people would believe the author's real name was "Turtledove" and came up with something more Nordic. He continued to use the "Iverson" name until 1985. Another early pseudonym was "Mark Gordian."

That year he published Herbig-Haro and And So to Bed under his real name. Turtledove has recently begun publishing historical novels under the pseudonym "H.N. Turteltaub" (Turteltaube means turtle dove in Yiddish). He published three books as Dan Chernenko (the Scepter of Mercy series).

He has written several works in collaboration, including The Two Georges with Richard Dreyfuss, "Death in Vesunna" with his first wife, Betty Turtledove (pen-name, Elaine O'Byrne); Household Gods with Judith Tarr; and others with Susan Shwartz, S.M. Stirling, and Kevin R. Sandes.

Turtledove won the Homer Award for Short Story in 1990 for "Designated Hitter," the John Esten Cooke Award for Southern Fiction in 1993 for The Guns of the South, and the Hugo Award for Novella in 1994 for "Down in the Bottomlands." Must and Shall was nominated for the 1996 Hugo Award and Nebula Award for Best Novelette; it received an honorable mention for the 1995 Sidewise Award for Alternate History. The Two Georges also received an honorable mention for the 1995 Sidewise Award for Alternate History.

His Worldwar series received a Sidewise Award for Alternate History Honorable Mention in 1996. In 1998, his novel, How Few Remain, won the Sidewise Award for Alternate History. He won his second Sidewise Award in 2003 for his novel Ruled Britannia.

On August 1, 1998, Turtledove was named honorary Kentucky Colonel while Guest of Honor at Rivercon XXIII in Louisville, Kentucky. His The Gladiator was the co-winner of the 2008 Prometheus Award.

Turtledove served as the toastmaster for Chicon 2000, the 58th World Science Fiction Convention.

He is married to mystery and science fiction writer Laura Frankos. His brother-in-law is fantasy author Steven Frankos. He and Laura have three daughters: Alison, Rachel, and Rebecca.

"Master of Alternate History"

Publisher's Weekly dubbed Turtledove "The Master of Alternate History". Within that genre, he is known for creating original alternate history scenarios, such as survival of the Byzantine Empire or an alien invasion in the middle of the Second World War. In addition, he has been credited with giving original treatment to alternate themes previously dealt with by many others, such as the victory of the South in the American Civil War or the victory of National Socialist Germany in the Second World War. His novels have been credited with bringing alternate history into the mainstream. He bases his alternate history in scenes of military combat and warfare.

Bibliography

Writing as Eric Iverson

Elabon

• Wereblood (1979)
• Werenight (1979, revised in 1994)
• Prince of the North (1994)
• King of the North (1996)
• Fox and Empire (1998)
  • Wisdom of the Fox (1999, collects the revised Werenight and Prince of the North)
  • Tale of the Fox (2000, collects King of the North and Fox and Empire)

Writing as H.N. Turteltaub

• Justinian (1998)

Hellenic Traders

Historical fiction about two cousins, traveling merchants in the 4th-century BC Mediterranean.

• Over the Wine Dark Sea (2001)
• The Gryphon's Skull (2002)
• The Sacred Land (2003)
• Owls to Athens (2004)

Writing as Harry Turtledove

Videssos

Set in a world analogous to the Byzantine Empire.

• The Videssos cycle: One of Julius Caesar's legions is transported to a world with magic.
  • The Misplaced Legion (1987)
  • An Emperor for the Legion (1987)
  • The Legion of Videssos (1987)
  • Swords of the Legion (1987)
• The Tale of Krispos series
  • Krispos Rising (1991)
  • Krispos of Videssos (1991)
  • Krispos the Emperor (1994)
• The Time of Troubles series
  • The Stolen Throne (1995)
  • Hammer and Anvil (1996)
  • The Thousand Cities (1997)
  • Videssos Besieged (1998)
• The Bridge of the Separator (2005)

Worldwar/Colonization

Incorporates elements of both science fiction and alternate history. In Worldwar, aliens invade in the middle of the World War II in 1942. The Colonization trilogy deals with the course of history a generation after the initial series, as the humans and aliens work to share Earth. Homeward Bound follows a human spaceship that travels to the aliens' home world.

• Worldwar tetralogy
  • In the Balance (1994)
  • Tilting the Balance (1995)
  • Upsetting the Balance (1996)
  • Striking the Balance (1996)
• Colonization trilogy
  • Second Contact (1999)
  • Down to Earth (2000)
  • Aftershocks (2001)
• Homeward Bound (2004)

Southern Victory

The Confederacy wins the American Civil War in 1862 with the help of the United Kingdom and France. It still operates as an independent nation in the 20th century. (The title 'Southern Victory' is used by fans; the overall series has no official title. Another popular moniker is Timeline-191.)

• How Few Remain (1997)
• The Great War trilogy
  • American Front (1998)
  • Walk in Hell (1999)
  • Breakthroughs (2000)
• The American Empire trilogy
  • Blood and Iron (2001)
  • The Center Cannot Hold (2002)
  • The Victorious Opposition (2003)
• The Settling Accounts tetralogy
  • Return Engagement (2004)
  • Drive to the East (2005)
  • The Grapple (2006)
  • In at the Death (2007)

Darkness / Derlavai

A fantasy series about global war in a world related to medieval Europe, where magic exists. Many plot elements are analogous to elements of World War II, with kingdoms and sorceries that are comparable to the historical nations and technologies.

• Into the Darkness (1999)
• Darkness Descending (2000)
• Through the Darkness (2001)
• Rulers of the Darkness (2002)
• Jaws of Darkness (2003)
• Out of the Darkness (2004)

War Between the Provinces

This fantasy series is based heavily on the American Civil War, except magic exists, the roles of the North and South have been reversed, and blond-haired serfs are featured rather than slaves.

• Sentry Peak (2000)
• Marching Through Peachtree (2001)
• Advance and Retreat (2002)

Crosstime Traffic

Travel between parallel timelines has become possible in the late 21st century. This is a young-adult fiction series; it includes no racial slurs, profanity or sex.

• Gunpowder Empire (2003)
• Curious Notions (2004)
• In High Places (2006)
• The Disunited States of America (2006)
• The Gladiator (2007)
• The Valley-Westside War (2008)

Days of Infamy

The Japanese gain the initiative in the Pacific War by invading and occupying Hawaii immediately following the attack on Pearl Harbor.

• Days of Infamy (2004)
• End of the Beginning (2005)

Atlantis

A trilogy which describes a world where the American eastern coast from the tip of Florida to Nova Scotia breaks away from the mainland around 85 million years ago and has an island biota similar to New Zealand's. It was discovered in 1452 by a French fisherman named Francois Kersauzon and named Atlantis. This eighth continent becomes a focal point in a gradually diverging timeline. Two short stories, "Audubon in Atlantis" and "The Scarlet Band", have been set in this milieu.

• Opening Atlantis (2007)
• The United States of Atlantis (2008)
• Liberating Atlantis (2009)
• Atlantis and Other Places (2010) — contains "Audubon in Atlantis" and "The Scarlet Band" (a Sherlock Holmes pastiche of A Study in Scarlet and The Adventure of the Speckled Band in which the Watsonesque character repeatedly voices racial concepts common to that time) among ten other, unrelated stories.

Opening Atlantis was nominated for the 2009 Prometheus Award.

Opening of the World

A trilogy describing a fantasy world in which inhabitants of an Iron Age empire explore a land uncovered by a receding glacier.

• Beyond the Gap (2007)
• Breath of God (2008)
• The Golden Shrine (2009)

The War That Came Early

An hexalogy describing an alternate World War II which begins in 1938 over Czechoslovakia. The first volume, Hitler's War, was released in hardcover in 2009 without a series title.

• Hitler's War (2009); published in paperback as The War That Came Early: Hitler's War (2010).
• West and East (2010)
• The Big Switch (2011)
• Coup d'Etat (2012)
• Two Fronts (2013)
• Last Orders (2014)

Supervolcano

A trilogy where the Yellowstone supervolcano erupts at some unspecified point in the future, and covers the decade following the Eruption.

• Supervolcano: Eruption (2011)
• Supervolcano: All Fall Down (2012)
• Supervolcano: Things Fall Apart (2013)

The Hot War

The series begins with the point of divergence in early 1951, with US President Harry S. Truman accepting General MacArthur's request to employ tactical nuclear strikes against Northeast China in response to China's intervention in the Korean War. In response, Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin initiates nuclear strikes against several cites in Germany, France and England. Invoking the NATO Treaty, the United States responds by launching a nuclear strike against a Soviet military base in Finland, to which the Soviets respond by destroying a US military base in Alaska. The exchange escalates further, and World War III begins with the Soviet Union launching a ground invasion of Western Europe and using Tupolev Tu-4 long-range bombers to attack cities on the American West Coast. The United States responds by rushing troops to Europe to try and halt the Soviet invasion while launching a full-scale nuclear counter-attack against the Soviet Union. With neither side showing any intention of backing down, and with the looming development of far more powerful Thermonuclear weapons, many individuals on both sides of the conflict begin to wonder how much of the world will be left by the time the war ends.

• Bombs Away (2015)
• Fallout (2016)

Standalone Books

• The Chronicle of Theophanes, Harry Turtledove editor and translator, University of Pennsylvania Press, 1982. A translation of an important Byzantine historical text, completed soon after Harry Turtledove's PhD studies.

• Agent of Byzantium (1987) — Imperial Byzantine special agent Basil Argyros is sent on various missions in an alternate universe where Muhammad became a Christian saint and consequently Islam never existed and the Byzantine Empire never fell.

• A Different Flesh (1988) — A related set of short stories spanning the 17th to 20th centuries set in a universe where the ancestors of the Native Americans never crossed into the New World, only Homo erectus, who become known as "sims" to the colonists of English descent. Suggested by Turtledove's reading of Steven Jay Gould, the novel's main theme is what effect the proximity of a closely related but significantly different species would have on how humans view themselves, each other, and the great chain of life.

• Noninterference (1988) — A human interstellar survey team violates a directive to avoid interference with alien civilizations, with disastrous long-term consequences.

• Kaleidoscope (1990) — A short story collection, including "The Road Not Taken"

• A World Of Difference (1990) — In this alternative history story, the 4th planet of our solar system is larger and named Minerva instead of Mars. The Viking space probe of the 1970s sends back one picture — that of an alien creature swinging a stick — before losing contact. A U.S. mission and a Soviet mission are sent to explore the planet; these two missions start separately but later have to cooperate.

• Earthgrip (1991) — A woman whose desire is to teach a university course in Middle English Science Fiction joins a trader ship's crew, just to get something different on her curriculum vitae.

• The Guns of the South (1992) science fiction/alternate history — The Confederate army is supplied with AK-47s by time travelling members of the Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging from the year 2014 and win the Civil War in 1864.

• The Case of the Toxic Spell Dump (1993) — EPA agent David Fisher battles displaced magical powers in a very creative sorcerous equivalent to late-20th century Los Angeles. He follows the evidence to a toxic spell dump, where dangerous remnants of industrial sorcery are stored.

• Departures (1993) — A short story collection

• Down in the Bottomlands (1993) — At the end of the Miocene period, the Mediterranean Sea stays dry to the present day. The dry sea basin is a large canyon containing a national park, and a strongbrow who works as a park ranger must race to stop terrorists from letting in the Atlantic and flooding the area.

• The Two Georges (1995) alternate history/mystery, co-authored with Richard Dreyfuss — Set in the year 1996 of an alternate timeline where the American Revolution was peacefully avoided. The painting that symbolizes the union between North America and the United Kingdom is stolen by the terrorist group known as the Sons of Liberty, who want independence from the British Empire. Officers of the Royal North American Mounted Police must find it before it is destroyed.

• Thessalonica (1997) — Early Christians in the Greek city of Thessalonica deal with barbarian invaders on both physical and metaphysical levels (the book was inspired by the Medieval Miracles of Saint Demetrius).

• Between the Rivers (1998) — Taking place in an equivalent to ancient Mesopotamia, city-states ruled by different gods fight for dominance.

• Justinian (1998) — Fictionalized account (with some speculation involved) of the life of the Byzantine Emperor Justinian II—using H.N. Turteltaub pseudonym.

• Household Gods (1999) — co-written with Judith Tarr Science Fiction/Alternate History — A modern lawyer finds herself in the Roman Empire of Marcus Aurelius.

• Counting Up, Counting Down (2002) — A short story collection.

• The Daimon (2002) — A novella included in the alternate history collections Worlds That Weren't and Atlantis and other places. It describes a world where the philosopher Socrates aids the Athenian general Alcibiades in defeating the Sicilians and Spartans, allowing him to unite the city-states of ancient Greece and contemplate war on the Persian Empire about 80 or 90 years before it happened in our history.

• Uncle Alf (2012) - A novella included in the collections Alternate Generals volume 2 and Atlantis and other places. The German Empire has won World War I when Alfred von Schlieffen lived to see his plan executed successfully and Germany occupies France and Belgium. In 1929, Sergeant Adolf Hitler is sent to occupied France to hunt down Jacques Doriot, an agitator against the German occupation of France.

• Ruled Britannia (2002) alternate history — The Spanish Armada conquers England and forces Shakespeare to write a play about Philip II. At the same time, he is secretly writing a play for the English underground resistance about Boudica's rebellion, with Boudica meant to be analogous to the imprisoned Elizabeth I.

• In the Presence of Mine Enemies (2003) alternate history — Follows the struggles of a family of secret Jews in Berlin two or three generations after a Nazi victory in World War II. The events in the story follow a common theme of Turtledove's work, transplanting one set of historical events into another setting (the most prominent example being Southern Victory Series moving European history onto the American continent). In this case, the decline of the Soviet Union in the 1990s is translated to the Third Reich in the 21st century (and the secret Jews' way of life is reminiscent of Marranos in Spain).

• Conan of Venarium (2003) — A tale set in the youth of Robert E. Howard's Conan the Barbarian.

• Every Inch a King (ISFiC Press) (2005) — An acrobat becomes king of a small country. Although set in a fantasy world, it is analogous to the real world, this time in the Balkans, between the first and second Balkan War. Shqiperi is modeled on Albania, and the story itself is modeled on the story of Otto Witte.

• Fort Pillow (2006) — Historical retelling of the Battle of Fort Pillow.

• Under Saint Peter's (2007) — Short story found in The Secret History of Vampires (Edited by Darrell Schweitzer) and We Install and Other Stories. This is Turtledove's rare concession to the secret history genre, which he professes to have little interest in writing. In 2005, viewpoint character Pope Benedict XVI (unnamed but recognizable) is led by an eccentric priest to a secret bunker under the Vatican for a little-known initiation undertaken by each new Pontiff since the days of Saint Peter.

• The Man with the Iron Heart (2008) — Reinhard Heydrich survives an assassination attempt in Czechoslovakia by partisans and later goes on to lead an insurgent movement against the Allied occupation of Germany. Turtledove mixes information gleaned from authentic German documents and intentions with another historical transplant, in this case the Iraqi insurgency of 2003 transplanted to mid-1940s Germany.

• After the Downfall (2008) — A Wehrmacht officer is transported into a fantasy world during the Soviet invasion of Germany at the end of World War II.

• Reincarnations (2009) — A limited edition hardcover containing eight stories, including six never before reprinted and one original story.

• Give Me Back My Legions! (2009) — A historical novel detailing the events leading up to the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest, as well as the battle itself.

• Joe Steele (2015) — Expanded from the short story of the same name, this alternative history deals with Joseph Stalin (whose Americanized name is the title character) having been born and raised in America. When the life of NY Governor Franklin D. Roosevelt is ended by a fire, the Democratic Party has little choice but to nominate the upcoming Steele as their candidate for the 1932 Presidential election. The novel mirrors Stalin's real world acts with actions taken by Steele through the depression, the lead up to World War II, and the ensuing Cold War through the eyes of President with the soul of a tyrant.

• The House of Daniel (2016).

Web publishing

• Winter of Our Discontent: The Impeachment and Trial of John F. Kennedy (2007), co-written with T.V. series creator Bryce Zabel. After John Kennedy survives the attack at Dealey Plaza unharmed, the resulting investigation sets events in motion that tear apart his administration. Zabel eventually published the final work as a solo project in 2013.

• Babe Ruth remains a minor league player for most of his career, until he retires and opens a Baltimore pub. In 1941, Ruth reminisces about what could have been with a skeptical H. L. Mencken.

• After an alien race known as the Krolp subjugates most of the world in the 22nd Century, a rump United States and Canada that runs along the Rocky Mountains and the Wasatch Range must decide how to respond for to the aliens' plans to violate the treaty that guarantees the country's sovereignty. The story is told from the perspective of U.S. President and Canadian Prime Minister Harris Moffatt III.

• When Texas secedes from the Union in 1861, Lt. Colonel Robert E. Lee, acting commander of the Department of Texas, decides to defend U.S. munitions at the Alamo, launching the first battle of a slightly different American Civil War.

• . Anne Frank and her companions in the Secret Annexe remained hidden until the liberation of the Netherlands. In 2013, an elderly Anne shares her experiences with a group of eighth-graders.

External links

• Official website, a complete bibliography of Turtledove's work, including a list of his various series.
• Fantastic Fiction Author Page
• Harry Turtledove's page at Tor Books
• Official Turtledove YahooGroup
• Harry Turtledove page on the Internet Book List
• Harry Turtledove at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
• National Review Online audio interview with Harry Turtledove
• An audio interview with Harry Turtledove (MP3 format) from Hour 25