Order from a Major Online Bookstore
Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine
Save Your Time And Money
| AnyBook4Less.com | Order from a Major Online Bookstore |
|
| Home | Store List | FAQ | Contact Us | | ||
| Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine Save Your Time And Money |
||
 |
Title: Rising Sun Victorious: The Alternate History of How the Japanese Won the Pacific War by Peter G. Tsouras ISBN: 1-85367-446-X Publisher: Greenhill Books Pub. Date: 01 April, 2001 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $34.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4 (17 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: Plausible counterfactuals believably presented
Comment: It's hard to know what to make of 'counterfactuals' like the ones in this collection. The best alternative histories are the ones that run closest to what actually happened -- until the point where the author chooses the path untaken. From that standpoint, the ten stories in 'Rising Sun Victorious' are quite well done. Written by skilled military historians, none of these counterfactuals presume anything outside the realm of possibility (no aliens or time travel here).
Like scientists testing different theories, historians can use counterfactuals to shine new light on personalities and events. But not all historians start from the same premises. For example, Wade G. Dudley, one of the authors in this collection, notes 'it is difficult to imagine any simple set of circumstances that would have allowed Japan to win any form of victory in World War II' -- America's population and industrial strength inevitably would prevail eventually. On the other hand, James R. Arnold, another contributor, points out that if the bomb that struck USS Yorktown at Coral Sea had hit just twenty feet closer to her centerline, her flight deck would have been out of action for Midway -- with dire consequences for the US Navy. Counterfactuals are interesting; not just for the light they bring to history, but also for the way they illuminate the workings of historians' minds.
As in any collection, the quality of the chapters in 'Rising Sun Victorious' vary from author to author. I didn't find any of the submissions to be outright bad, but some were better written than others, some more plausible than others. As another reviewer notes, a few of the writers base their counterfactuals on obscure points in history. A general reader unfamiliar with the war in the Pacific may well not be able to tell where history and fiction part company. The specialist, however, can find between these covers much food for thought.
One of the games authors of counterfactuals play is inventing alternate biographies for real individuals. Attentive readers will note references to President Elmo Zumwalt, obscure naval memoirist 'G. Bush,' and a biography of Admiral Halsey by Dr John P. Ryan of the US Naval Academy, among others.
Rating: 4
Summary: An interesting set of alternate military scenarios
Comment: In this book, part of an alternate history series from Greenhill books, ten military historians describe how Japanese campaigns in World War Two might have had different outcomes. Scenarios addressed range from the Russo-Japanese front to attacks on California and the Japanese conquest of India. Each chapter ends with a section entitled The Reality for contrast. The editor deserves congratulations for maintaining a high level of consistency among papers by different authors, generally avoiding overlap or duplication. The only exception is the last chapter (on the invasion of Japan's home islands), which is awkwardly and unconvincingly cast as as a lecture with questions and answers. The book includes maps of varying quality and a section of photographs from the Pacific war. Rising Sun Victorious, which includes detailed descriptions of military campaigns and battles, is for readers with a serious interest in military history.
Rating: 4
Summary: 10 Battles the Japanese might have won
Comment: Alternative history is all the rage these days, largely fueled by Harry Turtledove's books supposing a Confederate victory in the Civil War. The present book is a more scholarly collection of essays on the premise of the Japanese winning parts of the Second World War that they actually lost.
The format of the book is interesting. Each chapter (there are ten altogether) is a look at a different part of the War in the Pacific, and supposes that the Japanese somehow did better in that portion of the war than they actually did. The first interesting part of this is that just because the authors of the various scenarios in the book have the Japanese win another battle doesn't mean that they're allowed to win the whole conflict. Instead, the authors seem more interested in what effect the Japanese victory would have on the course of the war. The individual scenarios examine everything from possible Japanese attacks on Siberia, California, India, and Australia, all around to the revelation that their codes were broken, and defeats in the battles of Leyte Gulf or even the invasion of Japan itself.
While the idea for each scenario is similar, the format of the articles differs somewhat from one to the next. The last one, for instance, purports to be a recounting of a conference at the Naval War College where various admirals and generals discuss what went wrong with the invasion of Japan. Amusingly, each of the authors provides footnotes to his essay, and some of them are concocted for the essay itself. Japanese authors who actually wrote books about their participation in the Japanese defeat instead write about their victory. It's rather amusing.
I enjoyed this book a great deal. I will agree to an extent with the reviewers who complained about the technical nature of the narrative. I will also point out however that the book doesn't pretend to be anything other than an alternative *history*. It's not Turtledove, and no one said it was. Great fun if you're into military history.
 |
Title: Third Reich Victorious: The Alternate History of How the Germans Won the War by Peter G. Tsouras ISBN: 1853674923 Publisher: Greenhill Books Pub. Date: 01 April, 2002 List Price(USD): $34.95 |
 |
Title: Disaster at D-Day: The Germans Defeat the Allies, June 1944 by Peter Tsouras ISBN: 1853674117 Publisher: Greenhill Books Pub. Date: 01 June, 2000 List Price(USD): $18.95 |
 |
Title: The Moscow Option: An Alternative Second World War by David Downing ISBN: 185367463X Publisher: Greenhill Books Pub. Date: 01 October, 2001 List Price(USD): $29.95 |
 |
Title: The Hitler Options: Alternate Decisions of World War II by Kenneth MacKsey ISBN: 1853673129 Publisher: Stackpole Books Pub. Date: 01 May, 1998 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
 |
Title: Invasion: The Alternate History of the German Invasion of England, July 1940 by Kenneth MacKsey ISBN: 1853673617 Publisher: Greenhill Books Pub. Date: 01 March, 1999 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
Thank you for visiting www.AnyBook4Less.com and enjoy your savings!
Copyright� 2001-2021 Send your comments
