The House of Daniel

by Harry Turtledove

Since the Big Bubble popped in 1929, life in the United States hasn’t been the same. Hotshot wizards will tell you nothing’s really changed, but then again, hotshot wizards aren’t looking for honest work in Enid, Oklahoma. No paying jobs at the mill, because zombies will work for nothing. The diner on Main Street is seeing hard times as well, because a lot fewer folks can afford to fly carpets in from miles away.

Jack Spivey’s just another down-and-out trying to stay alive, doing a little of this and a little of that. Sometimes that means making a few bucks playing ball with the Enid Eagles, against teams from as many as two counties away. And sometimes it means roughing up rival thugs for Big Stu, the guy who calls the shots in Enid.

But one day Jack knocks on the door of the person he’s supposed to “deal with”—and realizes that he’s not going to do any such thing to the young lady who answers. This means he needs to get out of the reach of Big Stu, who didn’t get to where he is by letting defiance go unpunished.

Then the House of Daniel comes to town—a brash band of barnstormers who’ll take on any team, and whose antics never fail to entertain. Against the odds Jack secures a berth with them. Now they’re off to tour an America that’s as shot through with magic as it is dead broke. Jack will never be the same—nor will baseball.

Genres: Fantasy, Fiction, Alternate History, Baseball, Sports, Historical Fiction, Magic

332 pages, Hardcover

First published April 19, 2016

About the author

Dr Harry Norman Turtledove is an American novelist, who has produced a sizeable number of works in several genres including alternate history, historical fiction, fantasy and science fiction.

Harry Turtledove attended UCLA, where he received a Ph.D. in Byzantine history in 1977.

Turtledove has been dubbed "The Master of Alternate History". Within this genre he is known both for creating original scenarios: such as survival of the Byzantine Empire; an alien invasion in the middle of the World War II; and for giving a fresh and original treatment to themes previously dealt with by other authors, such as the victory of the South in the American Civil War; and of Nazi Germany in the Second World War.

His novels have been credited with bringing alternate history into the mainstream. His style of alternate history has a strong military theme.

Reviews

[Bookwraiths · Rating 3 out of 5]

Originally reviewed at Bookwraiths.

Harry Turtledove has been one of my favorite authors since I purchased The Misplaced Legion in 1987. Since then, he has led me through his Videssos Cycle (Byzantium history played out in a fantasy world), Gerin the Fox (good, old-fashioned sword and sorcery), Tosev (World War II and its aftermath IF aliens had invaded), Darkness (WW II fought in a fantasy world), American Civil War (What If the South had won the Civil War), The Hot War (What If the Korean War turned atomic), and now introduces me to The House of Daniel, where he takes a look at semi-pro baseball in a the Depression Era of an alternate world United States.

This alternate America is a place of magic. Zombies, werewolves, conjuring men, vampires and earth elementals all call it home. And before the “Big Bubble” burst in 1929, the world was filled with a lot more magic — and its wonderful benefits. Not so much now though, because the magic isn’t quite so plentiful, and when it dried up, most of the jobs and most of the prosperity dried up with it. I mean, who’s going to pay a guy to do a job when “Zombies work for nothing, and you can’t get cheaper than that.”

At least in Enid, Oklahoma (where our main character, Jack Spivey, lives) that’s how things are, turning every day life into one big struggle. A guy has to be willing to do a little of this and a little of that to pay the bills. Anything that will put a few coins in your pockets. So along with his other activities, Jack is center fielder for the Enid (Oklahoma) Eagles: a semi-pro team. They travel around the area, play a little ball every week; no real career in it, mind you, but on a good night with a great gate, Jack can make ten bucks or so. More than enough to help catch up on his back due rent and feed him a few times.

But baseball alone isn’t enough for Jack to get by, so he also does a few jobs here and there for a local underworld boss called Big Stu. (Jack doesn’t like it, but the money is too good to pass up.) One job he agrees to do for a hundred bucks (A Year’s wages!) is to rough up the kid brother of a guy who hasn’t paid back Big Stu what he owes him. The boss wants a message sent. No one has to be put in the ground, but they do have to bleed — a lot actually.

So when the Enid Eagles arrive in a neighboring town for their baseball game, Jack goes to make a visit before opening pitch, determined to get this messy business behind him before he plays ball. Only problem being when the guy Big Stu wants rough up opens the apartment door he isn’t a guy at all, but the cute younger sister of the guy who won’t pay back Big Stu!

Not able to make himself hurt this innocent girl who is about his own age, Jack advises her to run away. Far away. Realizing he is now on the wrong side of Big Stu, Jack decides he can’t go back to Enid and needs to also run away. Fate then lends a hand as he gets an opportunity to play for the House of Daniel (a barnstorming baseball team). These guys have long hair and bushy beards; most of them come from a religious community of some sort; and, damn, they can play some ball. It is the perfect getaway for Jack, as he is soon swept away from danger and thrown into the wild, wonderful world of semi-pro baseball.

It probably goes without saying that this is a baseball book. Harry Turtledove has consistently said The House of Daniel was inspired by his love of baseball, and that deep respect certainly shows in Jack Spivey’s story. The narrative following him from small towns to big metropolises, as he plays the Grand Old Game; each city, its team, and its stadium drawn in loving detail; the individual games broken down into emotional, nail-biting play-by-plays for all sports lovers, highlighting why so many people (even in this fantasy America) view baseball as America’s Pastime.

Interspersed between each game, there are certainly other events transpiring. Interludes in this barnstorming tour, if you will. Times when Jack interacts with his teammates, learns about other beliefs and views besides his own. There are fights, arguments, even a Great Zombie Uprising to live through. The team worries about earth elementals ruining an away game. But baseball is intertwined in every one of these things in some shape, form, or fashion, keeping the focus on the game and the men who play it here in this novel.

What I enjoyed most about this story was Mr. Turtledove’s writing style. To tell this tale, he chose a first person narrative; Jack Spivey basically recounting his time barnstorming with The House of Daniel, recalling all that he went through, all that he learned. This approach giving the tale an almost Andy Griffith Show quality; Jack’s good, ol’ boy attitude turning the entire adventure into a genuine, feel-good sports story.

My only criticism of The House of Daniel is that it had A LOT of baseball and not much magic. Honestly, there are detailed accounts of the important parts of most baseball games; Mr. Turtledove bringing a realistic look at how these old time games would have gone; and Jack’s daily life is filled with traveling to a game and playing a game, making baseball the focus of his life. What readers do not see much of is magic. Sure, this is an alternate earth where magic is said to exist, definitely magical creatures wander around, but magic isn’t present very much in ordinary life, isn’t mentioned nearly at all, and remains largely an afterthought much of the time. In fact, for most of the novel, I completely forgot this was a fantasy world, which did bother me a little.

The House of Daniel is novel which all lovers of baseball and sports stories in general will adore. It has heart, passion, exciting games, and a character who truly loves what he is doing. To say Mr. Turtledove captured the spirit and essence of Depression Era semi-pro baseball in this book is an understatement, because he didn’t catch it at all he slammed it over the fences and is still trotting around the bases taking a bow to the crowd for this home-run. While I would have liked magic to be more of a focus in this story, Jack Spivey and his barnstorming baseball team still won me over, turning me into a cheering fan much of the time, but I must warn you that if you’re not a big fan of baseball, this novel might not be for you.

Tor Books provided this book to me for free in return for an honest review. The review above was not paid for or influenced in any way by any person, entity or organization, but is my own personal opinions.

[Chris · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don't know how to review this book.

Maybe I do. Okay.

Do you like baseball? I mean, really REALLY like baseball? If you do, stop reading this and maybe give the book a chance. I'm going to spoiler a bit from here on out and I'd rather not ruin it for you if you're interested.

Well, if I could actually spoiler it. I mean, what can I reveal about a book in which not much really happens? Thumbnail synopsis - better-than-average semipro baseball player living in an alt-Depression-era America that features supernatural creatures such as vampires, zombies, and werewolves. A decision put him on the run and spot of luck lands him on the House of Daniel, a barnstorming semipro team. The book follows them as they travel around the US southwest, playing in towns large and small.

Aaaaaaand that's pretty much it. 200 pages in there's a crisis that gets handled, and the book ends with a forced, improbable bit of wonder. Along the way there are dozens - DOZENS - of descriptions of the dimensions of various semipro parks, details about games played, different types of food eaten.

Is it well-written? Yes. I mean, it's very readable. The secondary characters are paper-thin - we learn nothing about them and they don't really change much at all. Is the whole thing an allegory? Are the monsters communists, is the main character's tolerance towards other races supposed to be a barometer for the times? Maybe.

Look, if you like baseball you'll love it. Turtledove knows his stuff. Just be ready for a long, slow ride.

[Megan · Rating 2 out of 5]

I love baseball, but this was TOO MUCH BASEBALL.

[Allen Adams · Rating 4 out of 5]

http://www.themaineedge.com/sports/st...

Sports fiction is a tricky business. Recreating the visceral, visual splendor of sport in the context of a compelling narrative presents a number of potential pitfalls, all of which could effectively result in a swing and a miss.

Baseball is perhaps the most literary of American sports. It has a rich and checkered history, filled with character and controversy – plenty of material from which a writer might pull. There’s room for broad satire (Philip Roth’s “The Great American Novel”) and intimate drama (“The Art of Fielding” by Chad Harbach) alike, but there’s not a lot of margin for error – the line separating good baseball fiction and bad baseball fiction is extremely thin.

Introducing elements of the fantastic only serves to further complicate things, though when it works (think W.P. Kinsella, or Bernard Malamud’s “The Natural”) it REALLY works.

Now alternative history icon Harry Turtledove has taken the field with a baseball book of his own. “The House of Daniel” takes a look at a 1930s America that looks familiar in many ways as it suffers though a Great Depression. However, there’s one big difference between this America and ours.

In this America, magic works.

That’s the America where Jack Spivey lives. He’s scuffling along in the town of Enid in Oklahoma. Just about everyone is scuffling along in the aftermath of the popping of the “Big Bubble” back in 1929. Thousands of people are out of work – not least because employers have realized just how cost-effective zombies are.

It’s not just zombies, either; wizards and werewolves, vampires and demons – this America is a magical one.

Jack makes a few bucks playing center field for the Enid Eagles, one of the scores of semipro teams that dotted the country in the days before big league baseball was bi-coastal. He also supplements his income by performing “favors” for Big Stu, one of Enid’s less savory characters. But when Jack can’t follow through with one such favor – allowing a person of great interest to Big Stu to get away – he’s in a conundrum. If he goes back to Enid, there’s no telling what might happen to him.

Serendipity leads Jack to a local ballgame featuring the House of Daniel, a noted barnstorming team rendered unique by two things – their affiliation with a Wisconsin religious sect and their long hair and beards. An unfortunate on-field incident leaves the House of Daniel short an outfielder; while Jack isn’t the greatest to ever swing the bat, he’s deemed good enough to join up.

What follows is a meandering journey through the American West as Jack and the rest of the team move from town to town, playing exhibition games against local semipro teams and splitting the gate. Through Texas and New Mexico, the team makes their way toward Colorado for the legendary Denver Post semipro tournament before continuing through to Oregon, Idaho and ultimately California.

Turtledove has always had a remarkable knack for tweaking the familiar and extrapolating his way forward into a world that is compellingly close to, yet markedly different from our own. This magically-infused America is just one more example.

However, what makes “The House of Daniel” such an interesting read is how that world is portrayed. Jack Spivey has always lived in a world of magic; it is so familiar that it almost seems mundane at times. And that’s fantastic – magic is just another part of life, and far from the most important one. Occasional references are made to things like vampires (mostly pests) and elementals (in constant negotiation with wizards and engineers regarding resource usage and development) – as well as the odd conjure man trying to help the home team beat the House of Daniel – but for the most part, magic and its impact remain largely in the background.

(There’s one pretty significant exception; you’ll probably see it coming thanks to Turtledove’s dropped hints, but still – no spoilers.)

Again, the Kinsella comparison seems fairly apt, though his work leans more toward magical realism, while Turtledove falls more into fantasy. Still, the two are in line on one thing – baseball is the centerpiece.

And there’s no disputing that “The House of Daniel” is definitely a baseball book with fantasy themes, as opposed to the other way around. The games are lovingly and meticulously detailed, all from the perspective of a guy who knows that he’s never going to be more than a pretty good ballplayer. The on-field action and the off-field camaraderie – that’s the focus of this story. It’s a look at the baseball world in the days when St. Louis was the furthest west MLB outpost and radio and television had not yet achieved prevalence. The days when every town had a team of its own, one that played for a few dollars, yes, but mostly for bragging rights.

[Elizabeth · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm not sure why I even stuck with this book - I didn't hate it, I didn't love it, I wasn't that curious to see how it ended but I was ... in it, so I stayed there. Perhaps it was the baseball that kept me? Or the travelogue elements? Or the occasional reminder that our story - set in Depression Era Oklahoma and points west - isn't taking place in our world but a parallel one with zombies, vampires, and werewolves? Whatever it was, I kept reading to the end - I don't feel I wasted my time but I'm glad to be done with it.

[Dale · Rating 5 out of 5]

Published in 2016 by Tom Doherty Associates (A Tor Book)

Harry Turtledove specializes in alternate histories. Usually, he has a big twist - what if the South won the Civil War? What if Atlantis were a real continent? What if the Colonies lost the Revolutionary War? What if MacArthur actually dropped atomic bombs during the Korean War?

The House of Daniel is a different kind of story, with a twist.

To be perfectly honest, I read the description of this book, with its references to The Great Depression, baseball, "hotshot wizards" and zombies and missed the fact that it was actually referring to actual wizards and zombies, not metaphorical wizards (the whiz kid experts that FDR hired) and zombies (the unemployed masses who are desperate for work). I really thought that Turtledove had just written a straight book about semipro baseball in the Great Depression.

And, basically he has. 85% of this story is about baseball.

Jack Spivey does odd jobs, plays semipro baseball for a few bucks a game and a little muscle work for a local mobster-type named Big Stu in Enid, Oklahoma. He is contracted to go to a neighboring town to give a beating to the sibling of a client that is behind on his payments. When the sibling turns out to be a beautiful young woman, Jack can't do it. Instead, he takes a position with a traveling semipro baseball team called "The House of Daniel" and hits the road.

If you don't like baseball, this book will bore you to tears. Jack tells about his life on the road and about dozens of baseball games - sometimes in great detail, with play by play and even pitch by pitch descriptions.

But, the world that they live in is a little off from our world. Major League Baseball exists, but none of the names are recognizable. Magic exists - regular magic, dark magic and even religious magic. So do vampires. And zombies. And magic carpets. And mystery creatures like chupacabras.

I really enjoyed this book, despite my original confusion.

I rate this book 5 stars out of 5.

https://dwdsreviews.blogspot.com/2020...

[John Purvis · Rating 4 out of 5]

“The House of Daniel” eBook was published in 2016 (April) and was written by Harry Turtledove (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_T...). Mr. Turtledove has authored more than 100 novels.

I received a galley of this novel for review through https://www.netgalley.com. I categorize this novel as ‘PG’ as there are a few scenes of violence. This novel is set in the mid 30s at the height of the depression in a world similar to ours, but different in that it contains magic, vampires and zombies. The main character is Jack Spivey a semi-pro baseball player from Enid, OK.

Spivey mostly relies on his baseball for enough cash to get by on. He reluctantly takes a job for the local crime boss. When he shows up at the door of someone he is to rough up, he is surprised to find that it is a young woman. Unable to hurt her, he tells her to get out of town.

Knowing that the boss will take out his displeasure on him, Spivey is able to find a position on the traveling House of Daniel semi-pro baseball team and leave Enid. He isn’t the best ball player, but is able to hold his own with the team. They travel across the southwest playing many games and winning most.

Along the way Spivey sees first hand a lot of people worse off than he had been in Enid. He is confronted with racism when he plays against, then with black and hispanic ball players. Along the way the team competes in an important baseball tournament in Denver and is caught up in a zombie uprising.

I spent about 11.5 hours with this 333 page novel. Certainly this book talks a lot about baseball, particularly as it existed in the 1930s. I enjoyed the fact that I have been to many of the small towns that are mentioned in the story. I guess it could be considered a Fantasy because of the magical characters, but they really only played a small part in the story. Likewise, it could be an Alternate History, which is much of what Turtledove writes now. I am not much of a baseball fan, but I did find this book interesting. There was a bit of excitement, but mostly it was just an interesting story of life in the 30s. I give this novel a 4.4 (rounded down to a 4) out of 5.

Further book reviews I have written can be accessed at http://johnpurvis.wordpress.com/blog/.

[Dan Pepper · Rating 3 out of 5]

I picked this book up because the description was weird, but Turtledove really is more interested in semi pro barnstorming baseball from the 30s than he is in vampires, werewolves, water elementals or conjure men that he populated the world with. I ended up enjoying all the weird stuff mainly being background, though the Great Zombie Riots were pretty great.

If you squint and don't notice the magic stuff on the margins, you could probably just read it as a straight baseball novel about a guy who gets to show he's a bit better ballplayer than he thought by playing with a barnstorming team, but he's still not major league or anything. And learn to be a bit less racist than he starts out with in 1930s Oklahoma. Historically inaccurate attitudes are probably less believeable in things like this than the manager having to be a bit of magician to foil other teams hiring one to mess with the balls and strikes.

[Janice · Rating 5 out of 5]

Do you like baseball? Read this book. Yeah, there are a few zombies, vampires and other assorted beasties scattered here and there. But really it's a book about baseball. Specifically about a traveling semi-pro team during the Depression. About playing baseball and the love of baseball, and just baseball. The beasties just make it amusingly quirky. The author's note indicates that Turtledove is a baseball fan (and Peter Beagle too), and it shows. He gets baseball. Loved it, highly recommend it for baseball fans.

[C.J. Bunce · Rating 5 out of 5]

Originally published at BORG.com.

As professional baseball takes us into the playoffs this week, we could have a repeat of last year’s World Series, with the Chicago Cubs and Cleveland Indians again vying for the championship. Just in time, a new Harry Turtledove novel is now in bookstores that will take baseball fans backward in time with a bird’s-eye view of life as a farm team ball player during the Great Depression. The House of Daniel follows a down on his luck “Okie” as he plays a season of semipro baseball on a team based on the real church-sponsored team called The House of David, known for its religious flavor and long-haired players–an early take on the Harlem Globetrotters but without the theatrics. During the Great Depression the team barnstormed the country along with dozens of other teams that sprouted out in every corner of small town America, providing a source of income for players and providing the average American a few hours of respite from a bleak reality, all for a few cents per ticket. Hugo Award winner Turtledove’s account of player Jack Spivey is a fictionalized one, but his knowledge of farm teams and forgotten byways reflects a historic realism that will make you forget this is also a supernatural tale. Turtledove is known for his alternate histories, and this time he throws in a past with a Kim Newman style change-up, with vampires, wizards, werewolves, voodoo, UFOs, and zombies interspersed in what would otherwise be a typical work of historical fiction.

Baseball fanatics will be impressed, but fantasy readers may not find enough here to satisfy. In fact, about 100 pages into the novel only the slightest mention of a fantastical element will remind the reader this isn’t entirely straight fiction. The fantasy elements could easily be excised leaving behind the kind of account that will have you thinking you’ve picked up a lost John Steinbeck novel. Spivey is a semipro baseball player. Everyone everywhere is poor, except for the few with power and influence to control the rest. Spivey is asked to work over a guy by the man who controls him–the price for a bit of protection and relief money, but when Spivey arrives and finds the target of his thuggery is a woman, he tells her to get out of town and he looks for a way out. Fortunately for him, two ball players for the well-known barnstorming team called The House of Daniel literally collide while fielding a pop fly into the outfield, leaving an opening for Spivey to join up. Thus begins a long, really-small-town by really-small-town-travelogue, told first person by Spivey, as the team bus takes him and his team across every bump of every gravel highway, into every diner, into every small field, and bunked at every boarding room between Enid, Oklahoma, and Denver, between Salt Lake City and Idaho Falls, and between Seattle and San Diego. But first Spivey needs to wear a wig and glue on a fake beard until he can grow his own.

Spivey infrequently looks over his shoulder for the mobster’s hitman who could show up any day to claim his pound of flesh. Meanwhile we follow Spivey and get to know him and his Southern Oklahoman accent thanks to Turtledove’s believable dialect forged from the Tom Sawyer school of talkin’. After a few chapters the reader gets the hang of his colloquialisms and from then on it’s hard not to get sucked in. The road and player’s life on it becomes “old hat” for Spivey, and whenever the meandering, wandering from town to town (with the ultimate destination a tournament in Denver) becomes a bit stale, Turtledove inserts his fantasy bits. Like a couple of encounters with Depression era vampires trying to con their way into an invitation to the current boarding house. Or strange lights in the night sky over a small town in New Mexico. Or zombies, who have replaced slave laborers in some parts of the country.

Despite a thriving Negro Baseball League and the odd “colored” player, Spivey’s inner-monologue and conversation exhibit the racism of the day and the all white teams of the league. Spivey’s own character arc in this regard ticks but one notch toward progressive over the course of the book, as his manager brings in a ringer from the deep South, a black player named Carpetbag Booker. Carpetbag Booker is idolized by the players because he’s good enough to play professional baseball. The manager sees to it that he gets to stay with the team in boarding houses and otherwise get equal treatment despite racial prejudices, but Booker would just as soon stay with friends in the black neighborhoods where he is an even bigger hero. The overall impression is that of Jackie Robinson, and the story here has the same feel as Robinson’s early days as told in the film 42, reviewed previously at borg.com.

Turtledove’s writing is rich and intriguing. His subordinate characters are colorful and engaging. Turtledove plants some serious themes worth thinking about within the veil of a fantasy baseball novel.

A treat for lovers of baseball and Americana, and of mild interest for fantasy readers, The House of Daniel, previously only available in hardcover, is now available from Tor in a paperback edition.

[Eric Bauman · Rating 3 out of 5]

Awfully repetitive and kind of boring.

[Jasen · Rating 4 out of 5]

“The House of Daniel” by Harry Turtledove

“Baseball. It’s the same game, semi pros are the bigs. Oh, they play it better – they play it real well a lot more often – up there. But it’s the same game. Only in the bigs everything everybody does between the white lines gets written down for all time, almost as if they carve it in stone. Side said it: play the game there and you’re part of history.
Play in Enid or Armarillo or Tulia and everything you do is written on the wind. The dust devils will grab hold of it and rub it out or blow it away, so it might as well’ve never happened. Same thing for the house of Daniel, or near enough. Being the best semipro team around – what’s that? It’s like being the best cook in Enid. Even if you are, who’s gonna remember you fifteen minutes after you’ve gone unless you knew beforehand.” P.72

“If I hadn’t started working for him, and then stopped the way I stopped, I wouldn’t’ve been there in Lubbock right then, part of a better ballclub than the one I’d jumped. You try and track all those things and how they fit, life starts looking like a plate of spaghetti with the strands squiggled together.” P.79

“What’s the world coming to?” I went on. “Zombies stealing jobs that just take a strong back, and now you’re talking about vampires in the outfield? Isn’t there anything left for a poor, ordinary human being?”
“Doesn’t look that way,” Eddie answered. “If a zombie or a vampire can’t do your work, chances are some kind of machine can. People are obsolete.”
“About the only thing machines can’t do is make more people,” I said. “and they’ll probably figure that one out Wednesday after next.” P.161

“Makes you wonder how anybody ever finds out anything about what happened a long time ago, or even day before yesterday. How can you tell? Even if you’re sure your memory is perfect, when somebody else call you a lion fool and be just assure about something completely different? you’d have to put together dozens of peoples stories, wouldn’t you, to have any idea what really went on? Even then, it wouldn’t be a neat jigsaw puzzle. Some of the pieces wouldn’t quite fit no matter how you push them around. Others would stick out over the edges.
What is history, then? Whatever enough people say history is, that’s what. If they make you believe their story, then it’s true for you.” P.231

“But you know what? Everything’s different in California. Pa was wrong about an awful lot of things, starting with the bottle, but he got that one right. Go out to California and it’s like starting over. Everybody comes to the plate with no out, no balls, no strikes. What you were, who your people were, back wherever you came from, that doesn’t matter. Almost everybody in California comes from somewhere else, and most folks go out there to get away from whatever it was wrong with where they came from.” P.321

[Blind Mapmaker · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.75 If you read Turtledove you probably think you're used to slow books. Think again! There's slow and there's The House of Daniel. If you're interested in reading this, think of it as a travellogue in the Depression-Era (slightly) magic-using western US. Some spoilers follow:

The magic is interesting and low-fantasy, but it is way back in the background. The creatures all fit in sensibly, but only one main character has a tiny bit of defensive Bible-based magic. Everything else just goes on quite a bit removed from the PoV character - unless you count the relatively tame creature attacks.

What's a bit more of a problem is that basically all the action happens in the first twenty-five pages of the book. The one twist is utterly, utterly predictable and the even the promised big events take up maybe ten pages in the middle if you're feeling generous. The rest are descriptions of places, ordinary conversations and a whole lot of baseball.

As a European I'm still kind of hazy of the rules of baseball, even after reading this, though I haqve to say I learned a lot from Turtledove here. It sounds relatively interesting for a sportsball thing, but reading about it was not the most interesting thing ever. I liked the countryside descriptions better than the hundred or so ballpark descriptions.

Having said that, I enjoyed the book, because it accurately captures the feeling of life during Depression - even if it's set in an alternate universe and the main character is not at all typical - him being a travelling "baseball bum" by his own admission. It might just be because I have enough excitement during the Pandemic, but I really liked the fact that mostly nothing much happened.

Be advised not to read this with the expectation that the other shoe is going to drop very soon. It won't. And it probably helps a lot if you really like semi-pro baseball. Also this is the first Turtledove I read with only a single PoV character. That was a novelty right there. Oh, and this is what results when Peter S. Beagle and Harry Turtledove get together for dinner and talk about sports, which is also cute.

[Judah Kosterman · Rating 2 out of 5]

“A novel of wild magic, the Great Depression, and semipro ball” sounded like a mash-up of Kai Meyer’s Dark Reflections trilogy and Jamie Moyer’s memoir, played against a backdrop by Dorothea Lange. Part of the book is that, or at least a foot-deep dive into that – specifically the first five chapters, chapters 13-16, and the last 60 pages. The rest is a whole lot of fictional semipro ballgames and bus rides between them and not a lot of character or plot development besides an improvement in the main character’s batting average.

On the plus side, the author chose to have his fictional baseball team barnstorm from Oklahoma to California via Texas, the Southwest, the Intermountain West, and the Pacific Northwest. This lets the reader experience race and shades of racism most books wouldn’t attempt. We get the locals’ views on African-Americans, Mexican-Americans, Chinese and Japanese immigrants, and Native Americans – both in the stands and on the field – as well as having the fictional team face off against teams from the Negro League. There are history lessons in there, for those who want them.

This hopscotch setting has two other functions. First, it allows an “escape” narrative for our main character, Jack. He is getting away not only from the Dust Bowl prairie to lands of more opportunity, but from his enforcer role for his small town’s bully boss. Second, the shifting setting allows local supernatural characters to show up, Chupacabra to Sasquatch.

There is so, so much wasted potential here. Worse, there is never a feeling of peril. The supernatural characters are easily escaped from, concepts like magic carpet transport are introduced but never used, the bully boss’ retribution is half-hearted, the team bus logs thousands of miles with no major breakdowns, and so on. Add to that, the foreshadowing in this novel is subtle as a baseball bat. So, as you knew they would, after 300 pages the team reaches California and Jack is reunited with characters from early chapters for a happy (but unsatisfying) ending.

[Leigh Kimmel · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a fun read, but it's much lighter than the author's major works. Not that it's badly written or cheapened, so much as the stakes being much smaller and more personal. This is not a story of great social upheaval -- that's already come and gone when the Bubble burst and plunged America into the Great Depression, in a world full of magic and vampires and zombies.

It's the story of a man who's down on his luck, who in desperation takes on a job for the local boss-man -- and discovers he can't do it. Like the protagonist of John C. Wright's Metachronopolis stories "Murder in Metachronopolis" and "The Plural of Helen of Troy," his principles may not be great ones, but they're the ones he has. And one of them is that a man doesn't beat up a dame -- so when he's supposed to beat up "Mitch" and discovers that the big guy's spell got it wrong and this person is actually "Mich," as in "Michelle," Jack instead gives her a heads-up to get the heck out of town.

Now he needs to get out of town too -- and it's not like he's got a whole lot of resources to do it. Just a little skill as a center-fielder with the local semi-pro ball team -- and then the House of Daniel comes to town. They're a "barnstormer" team, traveling the country and playing the local teams -- and when an accident incapacitates two of their players, they take Jack on.

Thus begins a travelogue across one after another western state, to cities big and small, playing teams and ballfields now long forgotten, which may or may not have historical equivalents here in the Primary World. It ultimately ends in Los Angeles, in a happy reunion and a hopeful future (and a little historical in-joke in the revelation of the surname of the villain whose machinations started the whole journey).

It's an enjoyable read about an ordinary man with an ordinary talent who gets a once-in-a-lifetime chance to move beyond his circumstances and briefly be extraordinary.

[Nicholas Wishek · Rating 5 out of 5]

Harry Turtledove was my favorite author for a couple of decades. Now he's number two or three because some of his later works haven't really impressed me as much. House of Daniel reminded me why I enjoyed his writing so much, and why I don't really rank him number one on my list anymore. The House of Daniel's biggest problem for me is that there is no major plot going on. It was just about a common every day guy trying to live his life. I like stories that save the world or try to... not in House of Daniel.
On the other hand Turtledove again demonstrated his ability to tell a story, albeit a mundane one. His knowledge of history, and baseball, both of which I appreciate is amazing. There are so many details that he throws in, like calling Satchel Paige Carpetbagger Booker are so clever and probably slip past the casual reader. His knowledge of the time is amazing. He knows what beer people drank, what they ate, smoked, and how much it cost. It made the people real. And then his throws in things like "I am black but comely." Right out of the Bible.
I also appreciated the honesty of how many whites view minorities back in the 30's. Woke readers might not like it that many whites back then called Mexicans "greasers" or referred to blacks as "tar babies." But that was then and he captured the feeling of the times.
Someone who can keep me reading about an average Joe who doesn't save the world is a very good writer. Turtledove certainly is.

[Patti · Rating 4 out of 5]

Short version: If you’re a fan of science fiction, the “paranormal”, and baseball, you’ll love this book.


I follow author Harry Turtledove on Twitter, and have, for the most part, enjoyed his take on alternate history. That’s a genre where an author selects a point in history and imagines what would happen if something was different, such as “what if the Confederacy won the Civil War?” He made this tweet in January and since I love baseball, I had to read it.

The setting is pretty familiar. Jack Spivey is getting by in Enid, Oklahoma. It’s the Great Depression and there’s not much work to be found, so he occasionally does work for a local gangster, “Big Stu.” He also plays baseball on the town team. Back in the day, many towns had their own teams and would play other nearby towns or barnstorming teams that came around. One of the jobs Big Stu sends him on doesn’t sit right with Jack, and he can’t go back to Enid after not doing what Big Stu wanted him to do. The barnstorming baseball team The House of Daniel is in town, and he manages to land a spot with them when two of their outfielders are seriously injured in a collision. The House of Daniel is renowned for their ability to play baseball, and are in demand to play against local teams. Their manager, Harv, has his eye on the prize of a tournament that’s going to take place in Denver as well.

Oh, and there are vampires. And werewolves. And zombies.

To read my full review, please go to: https://thoughtsfromthemountaintop.co...

[Russ Jarvis · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have read many of Harry Turtledove's books over the years, usually his multi volume sets. The House of Daniel is one of his stand alone titles. I find them enjoyable reads where the narrative doesn't get slowed down like it can in his larger treatments. This one kept me reading for three reasons.
1. The first person POV. This was my first taste of Turtledove writing this way. I'll look for more examples of this.
2. The detailed dynamics of depression-era baseball, both on the field and in the team bus. I suppose some readers could grow weary of repeated dimensions of ballparks from Oklahoma to California, but I'm enough of a baseball junkie to be engaged by his treatment of America's game.
3. The reference to a world gone magical, shared from the view of a character who lived in it in a practical way. The magic did not drive the story, but Turtledove served up just enough of a taste to make it interesting.
I wondered where he was going with the story once the protagonist's initial conflict seemed to be settled. He wrapped up the story in a way that seemed fitting and left you cheering for Jack Spivey off the field as well as on.

[Jo · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really liked this book. I listened to it on CD and will admit that if I had been reading it would probably have been a DNF. This is about baseball which I like and an alternate history which was interesting. Set in the 1930's after the big bubble has bust life is very hard and the main character Jack Spivey is having it harder than most. When he get into trouble with the boss in Enid, OK he lucks out and gets a place on the House of Daniel traveling baseball team. The world is viewed from Jack's eyes and according to Jack the rules for baseball are like the rules for life. Jack is a very likable character. In fact the entire book is filled with likable characters. This is alternate history where there are all of the paranormal creatures like vampires and zombies. These are not the main focus just around in the background. At one point I thought Turtledove had included everything except dragons. Then near the end there is a dragon in the San Diego Zoo. Recommended especially for base ball fans.

[Tom Denker · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm not a baseball fan, but I'm fan of the idea of baseball. Turns out I like the Ken Burns doc more than I like actually following a team.

This book scratches that itch for me as it follows a guy from my corner of Oklahoma across the western US with his traveling ballclub in a world that's almost, but not quite like ours.

Some people critique Turtledove's writing style for being repetitive, with every time returning to a viewpoint character in his big multivolume stories of wars giving you a reminder of their tics and motivations. It can get a little old to read about the navy guy who gets sunburned in the South Pacific, or the German soldier who hates the SS because his wife is part Jewish when you already remember who they are. However, it works for baseball; everytime you hear about a new field and a new opponent it's repetitive, but in the way the baseball season has an ongoing rhythm.

I enjoyed the change of pace from his usual stories, and would be interested in more works set in this world.

[Kevin Luy · Rating 1 out of 5]

This year's annual baseball book was a swing and a miss.

Every chapter: Details about traveling to next town and/or the rooming house and/or what food they are. Lots(!) of deetails about a baseball game. None of these details have plot significance. None of these details have thematic significance.

Every 3-4 chapters: Mention of a paranormal creature (zombie, vampire, chupacabra, conjure man). None of these mentions are a part of the plot. Most aren't even side stories. Literally just mentioning a chupacabra ate a dude, and that's it.

Every 2-3 chapters: Attempt at social/political commentary. This usually amounts to stating again and again that the stock market crashed (Big Bubble burst), and then saying something really deep like "it's hard to get a job" or "lots of people are struggling to get by".

Dad jokes should get a 6 special deal from HBO compared to the humor in this book.

I skimmed most of the second half.

[Chris Brown · Rating 4 out of 5]

I would actually like to give this one 3.5 stars, but I rounded up. I really enjoyed this book! Funnily enough, all of the negative reviews are what piqued my interest. Over and over people seem to complain that there’s too much baseball, which is what convinced me I would like it, and I did.

This is a book about a baseball team that happens to be set in a world where Magic is real, VooDoo can sway the outcome of a game, Zombies riot, and Vampires tap on your window at night. But it’s a book about a traveling baseball team set in some version of The Great Depression.

The only thing I struggled with was the main character’s prejudices. I had to remind myself that it was set in a different time, and Turtledove doesn’t agree, which is why he allows other characters to push back, while our main character, Jack Spivey, learns some things. If you love baseball, though, you’re likely to enjoy this read!

If you don’t want to read about baseball, skip it.

[Bill Plott · Rating 4 out of 5]

Turtledove is noted for writing alternative history novels, a theme that has never interested me. At the urging of a fellow baseball fan friend, I decided to give this a try. I was pleasantly surprised. There is no significant plot, just following a fair-to-middling semipro baseball players on a season with the House of Daniel (an author-acknowledged spin on the House of David teams). Turtledove knows baseball, so his game accounts are believable. He obviously did excellent research on the Great Depression, weaving those difficult times into the narrative with sensitivity. A jolt was to find the story populated by werewolves, vampires and other fantasy entities. They add nothing to the story, but also don't detract from it. I guess, as a science fiction writer, Turtledove felt compelled to bring something for his base to the table. Whatever, it was a fun read.

[Evy]

This book does not really have good reviews. However, a sampling of those reviews reveals a pattern:

"Do you like baseball? I mean, really REALLY like baseball? If you do, stop reading this and maybe give the book a chance." (-Chris)

and

"I love baseball, but this was TOO MUCH BASEBALL." (-Megan)

and

"Do you like baseball? Read this book." (-Janice)

I could go on... Anyway I really like baseball so I guess I will give this book a shot.

[Justin Robinson · Rating 2 out of 5]

So about halfway through this thing, I realized it didn't really have a plot and wasn't going to somehow find one. There's a poetry to the writing that makes it easy to read...at first. But it's basically just detailed descriptions of baseball game and ballparks. No matter how good the writing--and the writing is very good--it starts to get repetitive after a certain point. Weirdly, the book takes place in an alternate history with magic for no real reason that doesn't go anywhere and doesn't effect the...well, there's no plot to do much to. But it doesn't. Really, it suffers from the same thing that hurt the latter Tosev books: apparently Turtledove gets paid by the word. You could cut this book in half at least, lose nothing, and come out with a far more compelling, if slight, novella.

[Chip · Rating 3 out of 5]

When I first started reading this book, I thought it was original and had potential (baseball with alternate reality). But then I quickly realized that it was about a whole baseball season - a very slow repetitive sport. The plot quickly degrades into a series of only barely interesting games and situations. Interspersed are a few tidbits of zombies, vampires and werewolfs. Plus there a slight variation of tales of bigfoot, UFOs, atomic bomb test sites and a couple of others. A different but only average book.

[John Lester · Rating 4 out of 5]

Baseball gypsies, The Great Depression of 1929, more baseball, observations of race, and a occasional dose of really weird stuff mixed in. Lots of semi-pro baseball and what those teams looked like in those day through the eyes of a player.
I really enjoyed the story of the House of Daniel exhibition team. It has the taste of the Natural with a dose of Major League thrown in.
I had no time for the vampires, zombies, weirwolves, or bigfoots, but I really liked the baseball!
Try this book if you want a well written cozy up to story.

[Brian · Rating 3 out of 5]

One of the more unusual "novels" I've ever read. There really isn't any story here at all. Take out the fictional elements and its a travelogue about life as a semi-pro baseball player during the Depression. It has fantasy elements (zombies, vampires, werewolves) that really don't play any part in the novel and if left out, you'd have just as good a book. I'm not sure why Turtledove included tham other than he's an SF writer. That said, I really enjoyed reading it. If you're a baseball fan, I think you'd enjoy this even if you didn't normally read SF/fantasy.

[Dennis · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a wonderful read of a different US, told in almost a noir style, by a semi-pro baseball player. I love everything about this book. The baseball is real and interesting enough, without excruciating (to some) details. There are some crumbs of real players in there that are fun to pull out. The style is engaging, and the fantasy touches are light and, for the most part, amusing.

Since there are a ton of SF fans who are also baseball fans, there is an audience, and The House of Daniel plays to it splendidly. Thanks Harry!

[Jamie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another reviewer said that this was a book was a good story where not much happens. Very true. It is a good story and not much happens. Kind of a good character study. My biggest disappointment was that there isn't much delving into the fact that magic is common in the 1930's. The fantastical element is very much a matter of background and setting. This is a book about barnstorming baseball. I wish I'd known more about that type of baseball so I might've understood more of the references.