Never on These Shores by Stephen R. Pastore

Never on These Shores by Stephen R. Pastore. This is an alternate history of an axis invasion of the United States. The Japanese attack the West Coast while Italy takes a foothold in Florida and the Germans through Texas. The storyline follows several groups of people trying to resist the invaders.

Pastore is very good at describing the various ethical choices that have to be made along the way. His characters although slightly unconvincing for the 1940s seem to react in logical ways. One difficulty is that besides the subplot with the Manhattan Project there isn't much about just where the axis units are in the US. This has more to do with character selection than anything else. I suspect that future books will get us closer to the battle lines. There's quite a bit of action which is also done quite well.

I'm not sure whether it's a bug or a feature but there are some contradictions. Rommel initiates the Nazi salute and a Jewish family in New York in 1942 knows about the crematoria. Naturally criticisms like this can be argued away by pointing to the alternate part of alternate history. It's a credit to the writing that these issues do not take away from the enjoyment of the peace. I'm a knit picker at heart so it's an achievement to write a story that shuts off that part of my brain. This looks like it's the first in an ongoing series I'll pick up the sequel.

Recommended!

Is available through Abebooks.



Note: this copy was provided by the publisher for review purposes.