The second installment in Harry Turtledove’s “The War that Came Early” series starts off where the inaugural volume, , left off. An British-French offensive succeeds in driving the Germans back from the suburbs of Paris, leaving the Germans with a two-front war. In eastern Europe, the Soviet offensive against Poland prompts the Poles to solicit help form the Germans, while the Soviets find themselves facing a two-front war as well as a Japanese attack attempts to sever the Trans-Siberian Railroad. Amidst the maelstrom, a cast of ordinary people – men and women, soldiers and civilians – struggle to cope with the changes the war brings to their lives, all the while hoping to find a way to survive the conflict taking place all around them.

Turtledove’s latest alternate history novel is a considerable improvement over the first book in the series. Though his characters continue to suffer from the lack of distinct voices, he gives them much more to do in this book, which allows him to develop them in ways that make then far more distinct from another than they were in the preceding volume. The improvement is such that I find myself looking forward to Turtledove’s next installment with far more anticipation than I had for this book, which hopefully will reflect further the qualities that have gained for him the title of “The Master of Alternate History”. ( )

When I read this I didn't realize that it was the second book in the series "The War That Came Early". As a result, I entered a set of stories with characters that I didn't know in a war that had already started in an alternative timeline. You had to infer the alternate timeline from snippets available here and there. The story ended with the war continuing and many of the characters still alive. There was no real start or finish. That said, the many stories were reasonably interesting although the book also jumps around a lot.
Try reading Hitler's War before this one. ( )

I Love Harry Turtledove, but this was one of my least favorite of his books. The characters were just not engaging. It was very hard for me to remember who was who or the really care. Within the set of characters there were no historical figures or high level types to give insight into the developments of the altered war. Nevertheless, I'm going to read the next (third book) of the series. Harry can write a great Alternate History Novel and his ideas can be very interesting. I would not recommend this work to anyone who has not read a Turtledove novel before. Start with "The Guns of The South". ( )

The War That Came Early: West and East
Harry Turtledove
Del Rey (2010), Edition: 1, Hardcover, 448 pages

This volume is a bit slower to engage than the first volume of this trilogy, Hitler's War (and I confess I missed the intermediate book entirely - which may or may not affect the overall review). The book stands on it's own well enough, but does take a while to engage the whole cast of characters as we meet them in short vignettes. Once we know who the players are it's a meandering stroll through their places in this alternate history. It's not a smashing, crashing climax, but an interesting view of a history that might have been. ( )

Like the rest of the series and Turtledove's alternate history books, very consistently well written and engaging with enough known history and twists to keep readers entertained. If you like the other alternate history books, then this is a must read. ( )