One
of the things about alternate history is that there are no “right”
or “wrong” alternate histories, merely different levels of
plausibility. This means
that an author can revisit the same time period as often as he likes and
explore various possibilities. Robert
Conroy has previously explored the Pacific theatre of World War II in
his novel 1942 and has returned to that general time and area with Rising
Sun, which posits a very different point of divergence in history.
Lieutenant
Tim Dane finds himself on the U.S.S. Enterprise during the battle of
Midway in June of 1942. However,
rather than staunch the Japanese onslaught, the American fleet is sunk
by the Japanese and it is only through luck that Dane manages to be
rescued and taken to convalesce at a Honolulu hospital before being
evacuated to San Diego, where he joins the Intelligence staff.
Without the fleet of aircraft carriers, for the attack left the
US with only the Saratoga in
the Pacific, Hawaii and the West Coast become ripe for Japanese attacks.
In
addition to following the progress of the Pacific War as it ranges from
Hawaii to Panama to Alaska, Conroy also follows more personal stories.
While in hospital in Honolulu, Dane met nurse Amanda Mallard,
with whom he strikes up a relationship.
Although the two only know each other for a couple of days before
Dane ships out, they agree to try to find each other if they both wind
up on the West Coast. Their
pledge and subsequent efforts seem out of proportion to the way their
initial relationship is depicted by Conroy, which leads to an off-note
that carries throughout the novel. Conroy
also follows, Steve Ferris, an army lieutenant who happens to be
Dane’s nephew, in his own career as he tries to protect the coast from
Japanese invasion.
Dane’s
position in military intelligence and his association with Admiral
Spruance, who he saved at Midway, as well as a pre-war association with
Japan, makes Dane a perfect entry character for Conroy, allowing him to
follow the course of the war as Japan makes its attacks and feints and
the United States attempts to defend itself against the Japanese war
machine. Even with this
knowledge of the war, or perhaps because of it, Conroy’s depiction of
the conduct of the war suffers from being a little too focused.
With all of his characters and the action taking place in a small
area of the West Coast, the reader gets a feeling of importance for that
area, as well as an understanding for how that part of the war is going.
Information about the war in Europe and its effect on the
resources available in the Pacific comes across as incongruous with what
the reader has been told.
Conroy
takes an interesting, and under-utilized, premise and follows it up with
a Japan which seems to have a Pacific victory within its grasp.
Although the path of the war doesn’t go as expected, it also
doesn’t achieve a level of plausibility based on the decisions and
descriptions Conroy offers. His
characters, while mostly likable and more than two-dimensional, only
begin to act in a reasonable manner after a false start, which tends to
overshadow their subsequent relationships even as they become more
realistic.
