War seethed across the planet. Machines soared through the air, churned through the seas, crawled across the surface, pushing ever forward, carrying death. Earth was engaged in a titanic struggle. Germany, Russia, France, China, Japan: the maps were changing day by day. The hostilities spread in ever-widening ripples of destruction: Britain, Italy, Africa… the fate of the world hung in the balance. Then the real enemy came. Out of the dark of night, out of the soft glow of dawn, out of the clear blue sky came an invasion force the likes of which Earth had never known-and worldwar was truly joined. The invaders were inhuman and they were unstoppable. Their technology was far beyond our reach, and their goal was simple. Fleetlord Atvar had arrived to claim Earth for the Empire. Never before had Earth's people been more divided. Never had the need for unity been greater. And grudgingly, inexpertly, humanity took up the challenge. In this epic novel of alternate history, Harry Turtledove takes us around the globe. We roll with German panzers; watch the coast of Britain with the RAF; and welcome alien-liberators to the Warsaw ghetto. In tiny planes we skim the vast Russian steppe, and we push the envelope of technology in secret labs at the University of Chicago. Turtledove's saga covers all the Earth, and beyond, as mankind-in all its folly and glory-faces the ultimate threat; and a turning point in history shows us a past that never was and a future that could yet come to be…
(Characters with names in CAPS are historical, others fictional)
Aloysius
ANIELEWICZ, MORDECHAI
Arenswald, Michael
Bagnall, George
Bauer, Klaus
Becker, Karl
Bell, Douglas
BOR-KOMOROWSKI, TADEUSZ
Brodsky, Nathan
Burkett, Dr.
Chase, Otto
CHURCHILL, WINSTON
Collins, Colonel
COMPTON, ARTHUR
Daniels Pete “Mutt”
Daphne
David
Doi, Colonel
Donlan, Kevin
Embry, Ken
FERMI, ENRICO
Finkelstein, Sam
Fiore, Bobby
Fuchs, Stefan
Goldfarb, David
Gorbunova, Ludmila
Gordon
GROVES, LESLIE
HITLER, ADOLF
Hocker, Maximilian
HULL, CORDELL
Jacobi, Nathan
Jager, Heinrich
Jones, Jerome
Karpov, Feofan
Kasherina, Yevdokia
Kobayashi, Lieutenant-Colonel
Kraniinov, Viktor
Lane, Edward “Ted”
Larssen, Barbara
Larssen, Jens
Leah
Lejb
Lidov, Boris
Liu Han
Marie
MARSHALL, GEORGE
Max
MOLOTOV, VYACHESLAV
Okamoto, Major
Old Sun
PATTON, GEORGE
Pavlyuchenko, Kliment kolkhoz
Popova, Yelena
RIBBENTROP, JOACHIM VON
Riecke, Ernst
Risberg, Buck
Rodney
Russie, Moishe
Russie, Reuven
Russie, Rivka
Sal
Sanders, Charlie
