I hadn’t picked up a Turtledove book before. He’s made a name for himself telling tales of alternate histories, picking a historical event and letting it play out differently. I was never too worried about those things, though I do like a good alternate timeline. This time, however, I was intrigued as it set a first contact story against the backdrop of the mid-70s as Nixon deals with the fallout of Watergate and his resignation.

Jerry is an oceanography student, teacher’s assistant and aspiring SF writer who is approached by members of the CIA to join an expedition in the pacific. His story is that he’s working on recording whalesong while working on a mining vessel. But that’s only a cover story for the recovery of a downed Russian sub, which in turn is a cover story for what is really going on, the recovery of an alien spacecraft from the bottle of the ocean, three miles down.

Using a giant claw thrown together by engineers and scientists, the ship struggles to bring the craft to the surface while keeping it all hush-hush and top secret. No easy task with Russian satellites overhead, and Russian seacraft all around.

And when it’s brought to the surface, all eyes turn to Jerry and his ability to think outside the box, and his SF leanings to figure out a way inside the ship to discover what possibilities await.

But when they discover life aboard Jerry is shipped back state-side, has to keep up the lie of the mining research, and sell that to his new wife, friends, and himself.

When the conspiracy begins to unfurl, however, and people begin to show up dead, Jerry has to come up with a plan to even the playing field, insure world peace, and stay alive long enough to let the world realize that the truth is out there.

I really enjoyed this book, there’s a playful wit running throughout the text that made this one a very easy and fun read. It may have piqued my interest to read more of Turtledove’s work, but I couldn’t imagine anything better as an introduction to his writing style.

He makes references to events, locations, people and things that were all in play during the time frame that the story is set and spins his tale easily around them, making us wonder about the possibilities and how it takes one good person to get the ball rolling on change, but others have to pick it up as well.

Honestly, I devoured this book voraciously, and I couldn’t believe how caught up I was in it, how quickly I barreled through it soaking up all the wonderful details, and loving that ending. If you’ve never read anything by Turtledove and enjoy a bit of SF mixed with your stories, definitely check this one out.