Preview
  • The Big Switch

  • The War That Came Early Series #3
  • By: Harry Turtledove
  • Narrated by: Todd McLaren
  • Length: 17 hrs and 31 mins
  • 4.3 out of 5 stars (168 ratings)

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The Big Switch

By: Harry Turtledove
Narrated by: Todd McLaren
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Publisher's summary

In this extraordinary World War II alternate history, master storyteller Harry Turtledove begins with a big switch: what if Neville Chamberlain, instead of appeasing Hitler, had stood up to him in 1938? Enraged, Hitler reacts by lashing out at the West, promising his soldiers that they will reach Paris by the new year. They don't. Three years later, his genocidal apparatus not fully in place, Hitler has barely survived a coup, while Jews cling to survival. But England and France wonder whether the war is still worthwhile.

Weaving together a cast of characters that ranges from a brawling American fighter in the Abraham Lincoln Brigade in Spain to a woman who has seen Hitler's evil face-to-face, Harry Turtledove takes us into a world shaping up very differently in 1941. The Germans and their Polish allies have slammed into the gut of the Soviet Union in the west, while Japan pummels away in the east. In trench warfare in France, French and Czech fighters are outmanned but not outfought by their Nazi enemy. Then the stalemate is shattered. In England, Winston Churchill dies in an apparent accident, and the gray men who walk behind his funeral cortege wonder who their real enemy is. The USSR, fighting for its life, makes peace with Japan---and Japan's war with America is about to begin.

A sweeping saga of human passions, foolishness, and courage, of families and lovers and soldiers by choice and by chance, The Big Switch is a provocative, gripping, and utterly convincing work of alternate history at its best. For history buffs and fans of big, blood-and-guts fiction, Harry Turtledove delivers a panoramic clash of ideals as powerful as armies themselves.

©2011 Harry Turtledove (P)2011 Tantor
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Critic reviews

"The third volume of Turtledove's latest alternate-historical reworking of WWII, the War That Came Early, is definitely the strongest yet. . . . It is for lovers of high-quality alternate history." ( Booklist)

What listeners say about The Big Switch

Average customer ratings
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

love the va but the story needs less Goldman

no offense to H.T but we came for war and the soldiers perspective reading basically ann frank but worse isn't what I'm here for.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

-2 stars for winston churchill

great alt history. the stone age my return on gleaming wings of science. I despise the worlds Chamberlain more than ours.

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Classic Turtledove

If you are a fan of the way Turtledove does his series, and I know many are, you will enjoy this series. The way characters casually continue the story through their telling of their daily lives is masterful. The performance is outstanding as per usual. This is for me a event series. When a new book comes out I devour them. Can’t wait to start the next one.

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