Harry Turtledove


Harry Norman Turtledove is an American novelist, best known for his work in the genres of alternate history, historical fiction, fantasy, and science fiction and mystery.

Early life

Turtledove was born in Los Angeles, California on June 14, 1949, and grew up in Gardena, California. His paternal grandparents, who were Romanian Jews, had first emigrated to Winnipeg, Manitoba, before moving to the U.S. and California. He was educated in local public schools in early life.
After dropping out during his freshman year at Caltech, Turtledove attended UCLA, completing his undergraduate degree and receiving a Ph.D. in Byzantine history in 1977. His dissertation was titled The Immediate Successors of Justinian: A Study of the Persian Problem and of Continuity and Change in Internal Secular Affairs in the Later Roman Empire During the Reigns of Justin II and Tiberius II Constantine .

Career

Turtledove published his first two novels Wereblood and Werenight in 1979, under the pseudonym 'Eric G. Iverson'. He later explained that his editor at Belmont Tower did not think people would believe the author's real name was 'Turtledove' and came up with something more Nordic. He continued to use the 'Iverson' name until 1985. Another early pseudonym was 'Mark Gordian'.
That year he published Herbig-Haro and And So to Bed under his real name. Turtledove has recently begun publishing historical novels under the pseudonym "H. N. Turteltaub". He published three books as Dan Chernenko.
He has written several works in collaboration, including The Two Georges with Richard Dreyfuss, "Death in Vesunna" with his first wife, Betty Turtledove ; Household Gods with Judith Tarr; and others with Susan Shwartz, S.M. Stirling, and Kevin R. Sandes.
Turtledove won the Homer Award for Short Story in 1990 for "Designated Hitter", the John Esten Cooke Award for Southern Fiction in 1993 for The Guns of the South, and the Hugo Award for Novella in 1994 for "Down in the Bottomlands." Must and Shall was nominated for the 1996 Hugo Award and Nebula Award for Best Novelette; it received an honorable mention for the 1995 Sidewise Award for Alternate History. The Two Georges also received an honorable mention for the 1995 Sidewise Award for Alternate History.
His Worldwar series received a Sidewise Award for Alternate History Honorable Mention in 1996. In 1998, his novel, How Few Remain, won the Sidewise Award for Alternate History. He won his second Sidewise Award in 2003 for his novel Ruled Britannia. He won his third Sidewise Award for his short story "Zigeuner".
On August 1, 1998, Turtledove was named honorary Kentucky Colonel while Guest of Honor at Rivercon XXIII in Louisville, Kentucky. His The Gladiator was the co-winner of the 2008 Prometheus Award.
Turtledove served as the toastmaster for Chicon 2000, the 58th World Science Fiction Convention.
He is married to mystery and science fiction writer Laura Frankos. His brother-in-law is fantasy author Steven Frankos.
Publishers Weekly dubbed Turtledove "The Master of Alternate History". Within that genre, he is known for creating original alternate history scenarios, such as survival of the Byzantine Empire or an alien invasion in the middle of the Second World War. In addition, he has been credited with giving original treatment to alternate themes previously dealt with by many others, such as the victory of the South in the American Civil War or the victory of Nazi Germany in the Second World War. His novels have been credited with bringing alternate history into the mainstream.

Writing as Eric Iverson

''Elabon''

Historical fiction about two cousins, traveling merchants in the 4th-century BC Mediterranean.

''[Videssos]''

Set in a world analogous to the Byzantine Empire.
Incorporates elements of both science fiction and alternate history. In Worldwar, aliens invade during World War II in 1941. The Colonization trilogy deals with the course of history a generation after the initial series, as the humans and aliens work to share Earth. Homeward Bound follows a human spaceship which brings a delegation to the alien homeworld.
is never found by Union troops during the Maryland Campaign and therefore Antietam never occurs, instead the Army of Northern Virginia under Robert E. Lee march into Pennsylvania and crush George B. McClellan's Army of the Potomac at Camp Hill before proceeding to capture the city of Philadelphia. As a result, the Confederacy wins the War of Secession in 1862 with official recognition as an independent nation from Britain and France. Another popular moniker for this series is Timeline-191.
A fantasy series about global war in a world related to medieval Europe, where magic exists. Many plot elements are analogous to elements of World War II, with kingdoms and sorceries that are comparable to the historical nations and technologies.
This fantasy series is based heavily on the American Civil War, except magic exists, the geography of the North and South have been reversed, and blond-haired serfs are featured rather than black slaves.
Travel between parallel timelines, for the purpose of harvesting resources, has become possible in the late 21st century. This is a young adult fiction series, so the racial slurs, profanity and sex are considerably muted compared to Turtledove's other work.
The Japanese gain the initiative in the Pacific War by invading and occupying Hawaii immediately following the attack on Pearl Harbor.
A trilogy which describes a world where the American eastern coast from the tip of Florida to Nova Scotia breaks away from the mainland around 85 million years ago and has an island biota similar to New Zealand's. It was discovered in 1452 by a Breton fisherman named François Kersauzon and named Atlantis. This seventh continent becomes a focal point in a gradually diverging timeline. Two short stories, "Audubon in Atlantis" and "The Scarlet Band", have been set in this milieu.
Opening Atlantis was nominated for the 2009 Prometheus Award.

''[Opening of the World]''

A trilogy describing a fantasy world in which inhabitants of an Iron Age empire explore a land uncovered by a receding glacier and discover a threat to their national security.
A hexalogy describing an alternate World War II which begins in 1938 over Czechoslovakia. The first volume, Hitler's War, was released in hardcover in 2009 without a series title.
A trilogy where the Yellowstone Caldera erupts at some unspecified point in the future, and covers the decade following the Eruption.
Point of divergence: 1950. The Korean War escalates into World War III after Harry Truman allows Douglas MacArthur to use atomic bombs as he had wanted to, leading to a chain reaction of nuclear bomb attacks throughout Asia, Europe, and North America.
First published in May 2016, the stories are set in a world where Sasquatch, Yeti, Indonesian Hobbits, merfolk, and other cryptids are real or not extinct. Unlike common popular depictions of such creatures as less evolved primates, they are integrated into a world designed for ordinary humans. Like other ethnic minorities cryptids experience cultural assimilation and racial stereotyping, become less familiar with ancestral customs and languages, and interbreed with the majority.
In 1919 several counties in northern California and southern Oregon seceded, forming the State of Jefferson. Neither the new state nor the earlier discovery of cryptids greatly affected United States or world history, with events such as the Chinese invasion of Tibet, 1973 oil crisis, and Iranian hostage crisis still occurring. Most American Sasquatch live in the state; although they are still a small minority, size is a protected class in Jefferson, with anti-discrimination law guaranteeing reasonable accommodation.
Most stories depict Governor Bill Williamson, Jefferson's second Sasquatch leader, who during the late 1970s and early 1980s meets Charles Kuralt, Jerry Turner, Nobuo Fujita and a Yeti Dalai Lama. From the state capital of Yreka he promotes his small, rural, and obscure state to the nation and world as an example of how different species can peacefully cooperate.