Rating: 
Summary: Fantasy World War II Continues....
Review: Alternative History master Harry Turtledove is back with the fifth installment of his "World at War" series. Turtledove's fantasy world is one that parallels our own - both the people and nations as well as the events of the war in which they find themselves. This book roughly parallels the events of late 1943 in 1944. The tide has turned against the "Germans," they are being forced out of "Russia" and the mainland has been invaded by the "British" and "Americans." The little people and how they are effected by the war continue to be Turtledove's main focus - individual soliders, relatives on the homefront, the persecuted "Jews", etc. All of the characters that you have grown attached to over the last four books are back in this one. Since this is the fifth book in the series we finally get to see some of Turtledove's long arcing plot lines begin to come to an end. Ealston finally learns, accidently, the truth about Vanai before he met her; the "Manhattan" project is beginning to be used in battle and some of the other characters are beginning to meet other characters. The end of the war is in sight and Turtledove looks like he will probably be concluding this series in another book, maybe two. Turtledove's portrayal of the life of soldiers of combat remains vivid and realistic. The same problems are back for this book as well. I have been waiting five books for Turtledove to change something about this war - something that would make it different than World War Two. I have finally given up on that idea. The events of Turtldove's world are only meant to parrallel our own, the author is not out to offer any insights or explain how things could have been different. If Turtledove had taken that route, I think the series could have been so much better. Turtledove's characters remain somewhat wooden and one-dimensional - if I hear about how naive Krasta is one more time or about her going shopping I may scream. If you have stuck it out this long with this series, you obviously reading these books because you enjoy them. If you didn't like the books you would have stopped reading after the first one. The fifth book will not disappoint, it lives up to its partners in the series. Just make sure you read the first four before you read this one.
Rating: 
Summary: Darkness: the madness, the magic, the motion picture!
Review: Fifth book in the series is a winner! Harry Turtledove's Derlavai series is one of his best. While he is known for alternate history, historically accurate novels where certain events are tweaked and the story played out, this is a fantasy retelling of World War II. To keep matters confusing, he's plunked the Eurasian landmass in the Southern hemisphere, turned it upside down, and removed about 80% of Russia (which explains why there is no China equivalent). Then he gave each country different names, borders, national characteristics, and mixed up the languages. Thus the Algarvians (Germans) all have Italian names, the Kuusamans (Americans) have Finnish names, etc. Oh, one more important twist. All the technology is sorcery. So this series could be called "Fantasy history" or even "fantasy alternative history." Once you figure out which country lines up with our own history, you know what ought to happen, but it's still a great read even when 90% of the events line up with our own timeline. Sometimes he conflates one country into another; Valmiera was clearly France, but Jelgava served the role as both Spain and Belgium. (Another reviewer suggested it was the Netherlands, but that was Sibiu, one of the few countries covered previously that has no role in this book.) The Kaunians are both the Polish Jews and the descendents of the Roman empire (somehow the citizens of France and Spain, but not Italy, hmmmm?) New developments in Book V include the sorcerous equivalent of an aircraft carrier: a magical floating iceberg carrying dragons. The Manhattan (Naantali) Project finally shows practical applications in the war, even as the enemy tries to destroy it (which did not happen in our timeline!) French (Valmieran) resistance fighters include what little sorcery they can get, in one case a young teenaged girl who works with Skarnu. All the viewpoint characters are back from Book IV, too. With room to develop them over five novels, there is room for character growth. Some show it, most don't; they just go on being themselves. What shines in Jaws of Darkness is the turn of the tide that occurred in our 1944 and how Turtledove shows the changing fortunes of his world and its people. With the Russians (Unkerlanters) retaking their territory from the Germans (Algarvians), who are also on the run in the West (East), not to mention the entry of the US (Kuusamo) into the fray, things are happening. We know what's coming, but the great writing and the interesting characters keep us reading. Some typos were in the first edition, but my biggest complaint was the slapdash job on the map. Lots of new cities were written in badly, and one country has its name written incorrectly! With action in so many places, the map is crucial; too bad the publisher did it on the cheap.
Rating:
Summary: Darkness: the madness, the magic, the motion picture!
Review: Fifth book in the series is a winner! Harry Turtledove's Derlavai series is one of his best. While he is known for alternate history, historically accurate novels where certain events are tweaked and the story played out, this is a fantasy retelling of World War II. To keep matters confusing, he's plunked the Eurasian landmass in the Southern hemisphere, turned it upside down, and removed about 80% of Russia (which explains why there is no China equivalent). Then he gave each country different names, borders, national characteristics, and mixed up the languages. Thus the Algarvians (Germans) all have Italian names, the Kuusamans (Americans) have Finnish names, etc. Oh, one more important twist. All the technology is sorcery. So this series could be called "Fantasy history" or even "fantasy alternative history." Once you figure out which country lines up with our own history, you know what ought to happen, but it's still a great read even when 90% of the events line up with our own timeline. Sometimes he conflates one country into another; Valmiera was clearly France, but Jelgava served the role as both Spain and Belgium. (Another reviewer suggested it was the Netherlands, but that was Sibiu, one of the few countries covered previously that has no role in this book.) The Kaunians are both the Polish Jews and the descendents of the Roman empire (somehow the citizens of France and Spain, but not Italy, hmmmm?) New developments in Book V include the sorcerous equivalent of an aircraft carrier: a magical floating iceberg carrying dragons. The Manhattan (Naantali) Project finally shows practical applications in the war, even as the enemy tries to destroy it (which did not happen in our timeline!) French (Valmieran) resistance fighters include what little sorcery they can get, in one case a young teenaged girl who works with Skarnu. All the viewpoint characters are back from Book IV, too. With room to develop them over five novels, there is room for character growth. Some show it, most don't; they just go on being themselves. What shines in Jaws of Darkness is the turn of the tide that occurred in our 1944 and how Turtledove shows the changing fortunes of his world and its people. With the Russians (Unkerlanters) retaking their territory from the Germans (Algarvians), who are also on the run in the West (East), not to mention the entry of the US (Kuusamo) into the fray, things are happening. We know what's coming, but the great writing and the interesting characters keep us reading. Some typos were in the first edition, but my biggest complaint was the slapdash job on the map. Lots of new cities were written in badly, and one country has its name written incorrectly! With action in so many places, the map is crucial; too bad the publisher did it on the cheap.
Rating: 
Summary: YES IT?S GOOD BUT PLEASE LET IT END!
Review: First let's get the platitudes out of the way. It is a good story. It has plenty of action. It is fun for a history buff to figure out which kingdom is which when related to WWII. Realistic detail to the extent that the use of magic seems almost normal. Good stuff eh? Yes BUT... IT SHOULDN'T TAKE LONGER TO READ ABOUT THE WAR THEN IT TOOK TO FIGHT IT!!! Too long! My god it won't be finished until book six! And these ain't no little prissy poetry volumes either, we're talking several thousand pages here! But wait that's not all folks, the length of this tome is only exceeded by the number of principal characters he has. I know it's an exaggeration but it seems like hundreds! Just the process of slipping from one viewpoint to another makes you dizzy! Not only that but it becomes extremely difficult to keep all the names and storylines straight without the proverbial program right by your side. This whole darkness series is a perfect example of where less is more. Three volumes with about half the characters would have turned a Good series into a Great series. I RECOMMEND it but damn it could have been so much better!
Rating:
Summary: YES IT¿S GOOD BUT PLEASE LET IT END!
Review: First let's get the platitudes out of the way. It is a good story. It has plenty of action. It is fun for a history buff to figure out which kingdom is which when related to WWII. Realistic detail to the extent that the use of magic seems almost normal. Good stuff eh? Yes BUT... IT SHOULDN'T TAKE LONGER TO READ ABOUT THE WAR THEN IT TOOK TO FIGHT IT!!! Too long! My god it won't be finished until book six! And these ain't no little prissy poetry volumes either, we're talking several thousand pages here! But wait that's not all folks, the length of this tome is only exceeded by the number of principal characters he has. I know it's an exaggeration but it seems like hundreds! Just the process of slipping from one viewpoint to another makes you dizzy! Not only that but it becomes extremely difficult to keep all the names and storylines straight without the proverbial program right by your side. This whole darkness series is a perfect example of where less is more. Three volumes with about half the characters would have turned a Good series into a Great series. I RECOMMEND it but damn it could have been so much better!
Rating:
Summary: On Into "1944"...
Review: Harry Turtledove's "Darkness" series - originally supposed to be a four-book series - is now in its fifth book. However, given that there's less than a year's worth of World-War-II-as-Fantasy left to tell, he probably will not suffer much further from Robert Jordan's Syndrome... This book takes us through most of 1944, from the aftermath of the massive tank battle at Kursk (Durrwangen in the series) and the retaking of the Ukraine (Grelz) by the Soviets (Unkerlanters), through a possible late version of Guadalcanal or an early version of Iwo Jima (on Becehsely), the Warsaw (Eoforwic) Uprising, Omaha Beach and the liberation of Paris (Balvi), the crumbling of [German] forces in Belgium and the Netherlands (the withdrawal from Valmiera) to the Soviet armistice with Finland (Zuwayzi) and the flip-flop of Romania & Bulgaria (Yanina - which to this point in the series had been playing the role of Italy). As before, the majority of Turtledove's attention goes to the Soviet-[German] (Unkerlanter-Algarvian) conflict with Western Europe playing a smaller role and the Pacific War (save the Manhattan Project) being given only casual attention. While Turtledove certainly deserves credit for bringing the half of the European War attention that we in America so often fail to give it, it would have been nice to see him give the Pacific War its due as well. As always, he highlights the evils of war in general and how it affects the footsoldier and the villager every bit as much as the general and the minister. His characters are reasonably three-dimensional in terms of their perspectives even if he never lets you forget the "funny hats" - identifying characteristics - of the characters (possibly a necessity given the size of the cast of characters he has to work with here). As with his other "Darkness" novels, I enjoyed this one. I do hope he wraps up the story in the next book, though (which has been tentatively titled "Out of the Darkness" for some time now and will probably see the light of day in 2004). Harry Turtledove's series are always interesting and I'm glad to have read them, but it would be nice to actually see him find an ending for at least one of his series at some point.
Rating:
Summary: On Into "1944"...
Review: Harry Turtledove's "Darkness" series - originally supposed to be a four-book series - is now in its fifth book. However, given that there's less than a year's worth of World-War-II-as-Fantasy left to tell, he probably will not suffer much further from Robert Jordan's Syndrome... This book takes us through most of 1944, from the aftermath of the massive tank battle at Kursk (Durrwangen in the series) and the retaking of the Ukraine (Grelz) by the Soviets (Unkerlanters), through a possible late version of Guadalcanal or an early version of Iwo Jima (on Becehsely), the Warsaw (Eoforwic) Uprising, Omaha Beach and the liberation of Paris (Balvi), the crumbling of [German] forces in Belgium and the Netherlands (the withdrawal from Valmiera) to the Soviet armistice with Finland (Zuwayzi) and the flip-flop of Romania & Bulgaria (Yanina - which to this point in the series had been playing the role of Italy). As before, the majority of Turtledove's attention goes to the Soviet-[German] (Unkerlanter-Algarvian) conflict with Western Europe playing a smaller role and the Pacific War (save the Manhattan Project) being given only casual attention. While Turtledove certainly deserves credit for bringing the half of the European War attention that we in America so often fail to give it, it would have been nice to see him give the Pacific War its due as well. As always, he highlights the evils of war in general and how it affects the footsoldier and the villager every bit as much as the general and the minister. His characters are reasonably three-dimensional in terms of their perspectives even if he never lets you forget the "funny hats" - identifying characteristics - of the characters (possibly a necessity given the size of the cast of characters he has to work with here). As with his other "Darkness" novels, I enjoyed this one. I do hope he wraps up the story in the next book, though (which has been tentatively titled "Out of the Darkness" for some time now and will probably see the light of day in 2004). Harry Turtledove's series are always interesting and I'm glad to have read them, but it would be nice to actually see him find an ending for at least one of his series at some point.
Rating:
Summary: The tide has turned
Review: Harry Turtledove's major rewrite of World War Two fought in a world of magic moves to a conclusion, but the story is far from over.
The aggressor superpower Algarve (Germany) now finds itself on the defensive, having being driven from Unkerlant (Russia) into Forthweg (Poland.) In the east, Algarve is on the run from Valmeria (France) and Jelgava (Greece). Under pressure from Unkerlant, Yanina (Italy) breaks its alliance with Algarve and declares war on its former partner. In the north, Zuwayza surrenders to Unkerlant, and in the south, the Lagoans and Kuusanans begin to use their new magical weapons.
With all of Turtledove's stories, the individual characters are as appealing as the whole story. Ealstan manages to secret away his Vanai from the Kaunian quarter where she was captured at the end of the last story. Istvan and his comrades are captured by the Kuusanans. Pekka and Fearno are engaged in an affair during their research, and Pekka's husband Leino, who now comes out as a viewpoint character, has martial troubles as his own. Bembo is still fat and taking bribes. Krasta gets knocked up, but by who?
The series is slowing down, but you still want to read the conclusion.
Rating:
Summary: Hell Begins To Steam
Review: Jaws of Darkness is the fifth novel in the World At War fantasy series, following Rulers of the Darkness. In the previous volume, Leudast and his men have captured the so-called King Raniero trying to escape from Herborn. Vanai's pregnancy makes her disguise cantrip wear off too soon and she is captured by Algarvian constables. Gyongyos comes up with their own variant of the life force magic. Garivald and Obilot escape from the Unkerlant inspectors. In this novel, the Algarvians are hard pressed in the south within the Duchy of Grelz and in the north near the Forthwegian border. The Kuusamans and Logoans are pushing back the Gyongyosians in the islands and harassing the Algarvians in Valmiera with dragons from their iceships. The Kuusaman theoretical sorcerers, together with the Logoan Fernao, are beginning to teach other sorcerers how to use the new forms of magic. Garivald gets impressed into the Unkerlantian army and learns to read and write. Personal relationships become even more complicated, with Vanai having her baby and Krasta becoming pregnant by either Colonel Lurcanio or Viscount Valnu. Leino and Pekka both yield to temptation and let the future take care of itself. Foreign Minister Hajjaj of Zuwayza acquires an unexpected romantic interest in his own household. Leudast finds himself becoming romantically involved with a peasant girl and learns to use his connections to his advantage. This series is an allegory of the World Wars. Most reviewers assume that it mirrors World War II, but certain aspects are more like World War I. However, the geopolitical environment in this series does not mirror the govermental status of nation states within the 20th century. Where are the representive democracies or the authoritarian states? Absolute monarchies in the analogs of Russia and Germany suggests WWI. However, none of the other monarchies, with the possible exception of Kuusamo, appear to be constitutional governments (either written or unwritten). Such conditions have have not occurred in the real world since the Magna Carta and most surely not since the Declaration of Independence. Again, this series has a simplified background, avoiding the complex interplay of politics within councils, parliaments, or legislatures and leaving the real decision making in the hands of the monarchs. This allows the author to present his lessons with minimal distractions. Although the author does not preach these lessons, he does have the characters expression some very good points. In other words, he makes the reader think without being intrusive or boring. An editorial reviewer mentioned Habukkak as a test of WWII knowledge. It is a trick question, for Habakkuk is not an alias. Search the web under ice+ships. Recommended for Turtledove fans and anyone else who enjoys speculative fiction with a strong historical and moral component.
Rating:
Summary: Hell Begins To Steam
Review: Jaws of Darkness is the fifth novel in the World At War fantasy series, following Rulers of the Darkness. In the previous volume, Leudast and his men have captured the so-called King Raniero trying to escape from Herborn. Vanai's pregnancy makes her disguise cantrip wear off too soon and she is captured by Algarvian constables. Gyongyos comes up with their own variant of the life force magic. Garivald and Obilot escape from the Unkerlant inspectors. In this novel, the Algarvians are hard pressed in the south within the Duchy of Grelz and in the north near the Forthwegian border. The Kuusamans and Logoans are pushing back the Gyongyosians in the islands and harassing the Algarvians in Valmiera with dragons from their iceships. The Kuusaman theoretical sorcerers, together with the Logoan Fernao, are beginning to teach other sorcerers how to use the new forms of magic. Garivald gets impressed into the Unkerlantian army and learns to read and write. Personal relationships become even more complicated, with Vanai having her baby and Krasta becoming pregnant by either Colonel Lurcanio or Viscount Valnu. Leino and Pekka both yield to temptation and let the future take care of itself. Foreign Minister Hajjaj of Zuwayza acquires an unexpected romantic interest in his own household. Leudast finds himself becoming romantically involved with a peasant girl and learns to use his connections to his advantage. This series is an allegory of the World Wars. Most reviewers assume that it mirrors World War II, but certain aspects are more like World War I. However, the geopolitical environment in this series does not mirror the govermental status of nation states within the 20th century. Where are the representive democracies or the authoritarian states? Absolute monarchies in the analogs of Russia and Germany suggests WWI. However, none of the other monarchies, with the possible exception of Kuusamo, appear to be constitutional governments (either written or unwritten). Such conditions have have not occurred in the real world since the Magna Carta and most surely not since the Declaration of Independence. Again, this series has a simplified background, avoiding the complex interplay of politics within councils, parliaments, or legislatures and leaving the real decision making in the hands of the monarchs. This allows the author to present his lessons with minimal distractions. Although the author does not preach these lessons, he does have the characters expression some very good points. In other words, he makes the reader think without being intrusive or boring. An editorial reviewer mentioned Habukkak as a test of WWII knowledge. It is a trick question, for Habakkuk is not an alias. Search the web under ice+ships. Recommended for Turtledove fans and anyone else who enjoys speculative fiction with a strong historical and moral component.
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