Review: THREE MILES DOWN by Harry Turtledove

Release July 26 2022 Tor Books

Without a doubt, one of my Best Books of 2022, and not just of this year! Harry Turtledove is an exceptionally talented author, thinker, imaginer, science-oriented, and historian. What he does with the concept of First Contact in THREE MILES DOWN is beyond belief and "out of this world." Couched in the rampant political paranoia of the mid-1970's, as Nixon and Watergate polarized the Vietnam War-divided American populace even further, Mr. Turtledove also manages to peel his characters like onions and riff on Academia, father-son conflicts, friendship, marriage, World War II, Stalin...and the CIA. Jerry Stieglitz immediately rose to the small pantheon of my favorite fictional characters--he is at all times a delight--and the Ending! Mind-boggling and so thought-provokingly unforgettable. I am now racing off to read the entire Turtledove Oeuvre as soon as possible.