Harry Turtledove: books, biography

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

Harry Turtledove is a famous American science fiction writer. Turtledove has been awarded the Sidewise Awards, Prometheus Awards, and even the Hugo Award for his writing. Want to learn more about the life path and work of this writer? Then this article is for you.

Birth and education

The future writer was born in 1949. Harry grew up in a Jewish family with Romanian roots. As Turtledove grew older, he entered the California Institute of Technology as an electrical engineer. However, humanitarian inclinations soon took their toll. As a result, Harry Turtledove graduated from the University of California (Los Angeles) in 1977 and became a specialist in ancient history. Later, the science fiction writer defended his dissertation on the history of Byzantium and received a Ph. D. The personal life of our hero also developed: together with his wife, writer Laura Frankos, they raised three children.

The beginning of literary activity

Being an accomplished historian, Harry Turtledove turned to literature at an older age. The writer published his first novel only in 1979. Bookwas published under the pseudonym Eric G. Iverson. After all, the publishing house believed that the author with the surname Turtledove (translated from English as "turtledove", which means a type of bird) would simply not be taken seriously. Since 1985, Harry has been published under his real name. At this time, the science fiction writer writes works of small form, which will later be included in the collection "Kaleidoscope".

Features of creativity

One of the most popular science fiction writers of our time is Harry Turtledove. It is very interesting to read his works. Want to learn more about the creative features of this writer?

Turtledove's works are very easy to distinguish from the works of other authors. After all, the author has an incredibly expressive style. Because of this, his books are highly regarded by both general readers and professional critics. The theme of creativity is also quite diverse. In his works, Harry Turtledove does not touch on light and hackneyed topics.

As for the genre orientation, at the beginning of his career, Harry wrote short stories. The most popular of them0 are "Invasion Fleet", "After the Storm" and "Road Home". However, Turtledove's novels in the genre of alternative history brought wide popularity among readers. Due to the fact that the author is a professional historian, the books depict in great detail the life of various eras and their alternative variations. Because of this, you actually believe everything that is written. For this I receivedNickname "Master of Alternate History" Harry Turtledove.

Books that brought fame

Magnum opus Turtledove is a series of historical fantasy novels called "The Lost Legion". It includes three books. All events take place in an alternate universe in the Videsian Empire.

The first book in the cycle created by Harry Turtledove is Time of Troubles. In it, the reader is told about the Mukuran kingdom, which actively opposes the Videssa empire. All the events of the book take place 150 years before the birth of Crispus, who is the main character of the cycle.

The second book in the series - "Tales of Crispus". The book tells about the son of an ordinary peasant and a former slave Crisp. Despite the origin, the main character managed to make a successful career and become an Autocrator. Crispus rose from rags to riches and gained power. But can he save her? The answer to this question can be found by reading the Tales of Crispus.

The last book in Harry Turtledove's series, The Lost Legion, completes the story started in Time of Troubles. The story takes place 500 years after the events of The Tale of Crispus. The world drawn by the author has changed a lot during this time. However, the struggle for power is not even going to subside. Wars, intrigues and coups… Who will rule the Empire?

Other works

Among other things, Harry Turtledove is responsible for the appearance of a cycle called "The Military Alternative". In it is a writer for all to seepresents his alternative scenarios for the development of the events of the Second World War. All this is seasoned with fantasy. For example, a series of books called "World War II: A New Balance" tells about the landing of intelligent lizard-like aliens from the planet Tau Whale to Earth. Alien guests visited the blue planet in the midst of World War II and decided to take over humanity.

The second part of the series called "Colonization" tells about the arrival of the Alien Colonization Fleet. The land is already nearly overrun by the Tau-Khitans. However, humanity continues to fight. Humans start a liberation war against the invaders and end up destroying Lizard Planet in 1991.

An interesting story also happened with the publication of this military cycle in Russia. The publishing rights for the books "World War II: A New Balance" and "Colonization" were acquired by "Eksmo" in the late 90s. However, only the first part of the cycle was translated and published. Why? It is not known for certain why Eksmo refused to publish Colonization. However, there are rumors that the book was never published for ideological reasons. Indeed, in "Colonization" the Soviet Union is not shown in the most favorable light. For example, the author compares the collapse of the USSR with the fall of the Nazi regime in Germany.