Rating: 
Summary: Marvelous Work of Alternate Reality
Review: I've always been a fan of Turtledove's more "realistic" fiction (The Two Georges, How Few Remain, Great War, even Guns of the South) as opposed to fantasy. This book won me over, though. Turtledove replays World War Two (sort of) in an alternate universe, where magic holds the place of technology but human nature remains very much the same. He is not bound by the original analogy; his Kaunians are more akin to Romans than Jews, for example, and actually run two of the warring states. Most exotic names, however difficult to pronounce, are actually real - lifted from maps of Portugal, Jordan, Finland, Rumania. Neither is this exotic and elaborate stage wasted on sub-standard characters. Quite to the contrary, Turtledove's Derlavaians are a splendid cast of warriors, farmers, nobles, mages, refugees and statesmen, who help bring war and its horrors to life. As always, Turtledove's work is highly addictive. Even if you're not a history buff, Into the Darkness (and its sequels) are definitely worth a read.
Rating: 
Summary: WW2 in an alternate world with magic!
Review: I thought "Into the Darkness" was a very well thought out and executed story. This book roughly parallels WW2 where magic holds sway instead of technology. Many different characters take center stage as the story is told from their point of view; this added a lot to the plot and helped move the story line along. No longer is each side in the war just the good guys or bad guys; now each side is populated with real people that the reader can identify or empathize with. Harry Turtledove wove a masterful tale in "Into the Darkness", and I definitely recommend this book to any and everyone.
Rating:
Summary: A fantasy novel ha!
Review: No Into the Darkness is not a fanstasy novel. Rather its historical fiction, WWII deftly put onto another stage. It has engaging characters, the suitably epic background and best of all 2 more far superior sequals now availible. Don't pick this up expecting fantasy, for it isn't. Of course Harry's goal is to help understand our world and what war means, not envelop us in his own, but he did it all the same. Think of this as Great War: American Front, but with better pacing (6 year war, 6 year series).
Rating:
Summary: Don't Take Names Literally
Review: As said in the above review, Setabul is a real city in Portugal. So what? A little known fact is that the names Sibiu and Tirgoviste are names of towns in the Romanian provence of Transylvania. I doubt this was what the the author wanted Sibiu to represent. I belive that Lagoas does represent Britain. Think about it. A battle against Algarve (Germany) in the Land of the Ice People (North Africa). It makes a lot more sense than Lagoas being Portugal, for Lagoas does not stay neutral through the entire war, but declares war when Sibiu is attacked. Also, the Duchy of Bari, I think, is the Sudentenland (forgive the spelling) region of then Chzechoslovakia, which was annexed by Germany before conquering the rest of the country, which almost got the war going. This makes a little more sense, I think. This leaves Kuusamo as America (Manhattan Project?), Unkerlant as Russia (crazy dictator ruler, impressors, Suligen or Stalingrad), Ortah as Switzerland (neutral and mountainous), Sibiu as Greece, Valmieria as France, Forthweg as Poland (split by Russians and Germans in WWII), Zuwayza as Sweden (hot, not cold like Land of the Ice people is cold, but N. Africa hot), and Gyongyos as Japan (warrior race, island war with Kuusamo). If anybody sees any faults with this, please e-mail me.
Rating: 
Summary: Much Mangled History
Review: Is this a fantasy book? I had trouble deciding. It looks suspiciously like Mr Turtledove took a pretty poor WWII history book and simply changed all the names, and then added a bit of repetitive chat between the many minor characters. How many times did I read 'We've beaten them' and then in the next section someone on the other side say 'They've beaten us'? I found myself laughing out loud at some of it, not just at the intentionally funny bits. Epic fantasy? Dont think so. More a rehash of Harry Turtledove's favourite subjects: the various conflicts of the twentieth century. What next, Vietnam with rabbits ala Watership Down? No, forget I mentioned that. Please, Mr Turtledove, you can do much better than this. Your USA/CSA series is intriguing.
Rating:
Summary: Fantastic setting and WWII equivalent
Review: I think Harry Turtledove studied WWII very carefully and has put in is book several insights in obscure and less know aspects of it.For instance, Lagoas is not Britain, as one reviewer said, but is Portugal (Setubal is a city in Portugal and the names of the Lagoans are derived from portuguese ones). Portugal as Lagoas stayed neutral in WWII and negotiated with both Britain and Germany. Also, Algarve is a region in Portugal and is said, in the book, that Algarve, Sibiu and Lagoas have common ancestors. Since portuguese derived from latin and has many words with greek origin (because I think Sibiu is Grece)and Algarve would be Germany but also Spain and Italy, the three major fascists countries at the time of WWII. I think Turtledove used several aspects from each country directly or indirectly involved in WWII and mixed it around. The invasion of the Duchy of Bari is simultanesly Poland (because it's invasion started the war) and Austria because it was like it's anexation.
Rating: 
Summary: WW2 take 2
Review: Basically it WW2 again. Sure different people, different nations, different universe but it was basically the same thing. Turtledove knows Word War 2 and dose an ok job of giving it a make over with magic. I think he could have used Magic more in the story instead of substituting it for technology. This would have put more of a spin on the whole story. Overall it was a good idea but his crazy cast of charecters and his charecter hopping every two pages left you so confused that you really didn't get time to apprietiate any of them. I thought most of his foot soldier charecters were all the same. If he would have put more time into them and not have jumped off as soon as you start to know them. Also there was no definet ending, it drops off after starting maybe 5 new conflicts in his charecters with no sign of a sequal(there is one). Good idea, but it was poorly exicuted.
Rating:
Summary: Sorry, Harry, but you've got to stop for your own good.
Review: You probably know that this opus involves World War II -- with no real variation from the real thing at all except for the use of "magic" instead of technology. (It seems very similar to technology to me.) To this I say, enough already. I'm beginning to think Harry Turtledove has software churing these things out. We've seen this all before from Mr. Turtledove and are seeing it again in Colonization and the Great War. To be fair, this book and Darkness Descending are page turners. Nevertheles, he has a bad habit of endlessly repeating certain catch phrases (E.g., "Old King Cole was merry, so of course everyone had to be merry" -- over and over again throughout the book.) I'd like to see something new, with a fresh approach. Note -- I'm not a professional reviewer and thus don't inconsiderately reveal plot details. I will however cast my "vote" on one "substitute country." (Most real WWII participants have their "Derlavian" equivalents; most of the fun of this book is figuring them out.) I think the "Land of the Ice People" represents Arabia, not Africa as another reviewer has suggested, based upon the conditions and presence of vital mineral wealth and a "British" colony.
Rating:
Summary: WWII with magic
Review: "Into the Darkness" has great potential--what would happen if the known world went to war? What if the Blitz was fought with dragons? What if tanks were replaced by behomoths, and motorcyles with unicorns? Good idea, but very poor execution. The structure of the book is a series of glimpses into the life of various characters, ranging from farmers to generals. Every time I became interested in a character, the vignette was over, and the plot moved on. There were too many characters--over 15 "viewpoint" characters, and a host of supporting characters! This technique might have worked in a story set in the "real" world, but I found it difficult to keep track of so many characters and so many locations. There were at least 10 factions or nations involved in the war, as well as the ancient Kaunian Empire. Enough already! This could have been a much stronger book if Mr. Turtledove had focused on a smaller group of characters. Good examples of a small group of characters against a larger backdrop include Guy Gavriel Kay's "Tigana" or Tolkien's "Lord of the Rings". Mr. Turtledove has a lot of ideas, but if he wants to sell books they must be broken into more manageable pieces!
Rating:
Summary: The political structures in "Into The Darkness"
Review: As a long-time Turtledove fan I liked the book. It is great fun to trace the parallels with the nations of World war II, which are sometimes obvious and sometimes not so much: Algrave=Grmany, Valmiera=France, Unkerlant=Russia, Forthweg=Poland, Zuwayza=Finland, Sibiu=Denmark, Lagoas=Britain, Kuusamo=USA,Gyongyos=Japan, Kaunians=Jews, unifying the laws of magic = Manhatten project etc. What is strange and not entirely convincing is the very backward political structures of all the nations involved, all ruled either by absolute monarchs or by degenerate hereditary aristocracies. None of these nations seems to have a parliament - even one with a limited franchise; there seem to be no political parties of any kind; nobody - not even dissident intellectuals or outlawed radical groups - offers any idea of a different kind of regime; there is nothing more than an incoherent grumbling by commoners at the rule of the aristocracy. This is very implausible in what is described as quite modern nations, with big cities, good communications, thriving press and even an equivalent of TV. Also, in our history modern nationalism started with the French Revolution; where does the very rampant nationalism in the world of "Into The Darkness" come from, with noting of the kind in its history? Nationalism is basically a capitalist ideology rather than a feudal one. It might have been plausible if Turtledove had depicted a world in which most products are produced by magic, so that no urban working class developed. But there is no indication at all that this is what Turtledove has in mind. In fact, it is clear from his description that mages in this world fill roughly the place of scientists and engineers, but that most things are done by mundane workers (the sticks which soldiers use are magiacllay charged, but are probably themselves produced in a factory; caravans and ships move along ley-lines, but seem to be themselves produced much as our means of transport are produced; etc. Given that, this world should have developed such things as revolutions, democracy, mass political parties and trade unions long before the starting point of "Into The darkness" - though, to be sure, the presence of magic may modify them considerably. A possibly related point: the character of Krasta is plainly intended to be negative, a representative of a degenerate aristocracy which deserves to be toppled from power; even so, could she not have been made a bit more believably human? It is a bit tedious to have a character who appears quite often along the whole length of a book and which NEVER ONCE takes any single action which is not despicable, ridiculous or both. Certainly, Turtledove can - and does - create convincing characters, in this and other books. It seems to me there is some obscure connection between creating this aristocracy, in an incompatible historical setting, and having such an unbelievable character represent this social layer.
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