Comment on WorldWar World by QuantumBranching
This is what you do best. Take fairly good sci-fi/alternate worlds, and make them realistic and actually function in a believable way with a brilliant explanation. Awesome.
Thanks!
Hey, I thought of something. I haven't read the books, but from wikipedia,
"The effect of the war on the psyche of the Conquest fleet soldiers is steep. Although they rapidly conquer and hold about half of Earth, they regard it as a dismal failure because the whole of Earth did not fall in days, and because there is still a war being fought at all. The Race view the war much as Americans in the real-world timeline later viewed the Vietnam War: although the Race usually have the upper hand, they are taking staggering (to them) losses due to attrition. Further, the Race have an extremely hierarchical society where authority is never questioned. However, the Race's mounting losses and inability to conquer Earth gradually lead to splits within the ranks of the Fleet officers; disgruntled frontline soldiers in Siberia mutiny against their officers (an unthinkable act in their culture), much as French army units mutinied during World War I, demanding new army leadership that would stop the high attrition they were suffering."
It would be interesting to see how you extrapolate that to huge changes in the Race's culture 70 years on.
"The effect of the war on the psyche of the Conquest fleet soldiers is steep. Although they rapidly conquer and hold about half of Earth, they regard it as a dismal failure because the whole of Earth did not fall in days, and because there is still a war being fought at all. The Race view the war much as Americans in the real-world timeline later viewed the Vietnam War: although the Race usually have the upper hand, they are taking staggering (to them) losses due to attrition. Further, the Race have an extremely hierarchical society where authority is never questioned. However, the Race's mounting losses and inability to conquer Earth gradually lead to splits within the ranks of the Fleet officers; disgruntled frontline soldiers in Siberia mutiny against their officers (an unthinkable act in their culture), much as French army units mutinied during World War I, demanding new army leadership that would stop the high attrition they were suffering."
It would be interesting to see how you extrapolate that to huge changes in the Race's culture 70 years on.