Rating: 
Summary: Into the Darkness
Review: I couldn't put this book down. I read it in two days! It was a little hard to keep the characters straight, but if you can read any of the Wheel of Time series or Terry Goodkind you should like this book! I can't wait to read the next book.
Rating: 
Summary: Surprisingly disappointing.
Review: I am a huge fan of alternate history and nobody does it better than Harry Turtledove. The World War series was great, the Colonization series quite good, and his Civil War series is outstanding. Unfortunately, Into the Darkness stands as one of his lesser works. The premise is ok--a world war fought in an alternate universe in which magic works. But the execution is faulty. Indeed, if one did not know better, one might take DARKNESS as a parody of Turtledove's style. Dozens of plot lines, hundreds of characters--too many to keep track of and far too many to care about. Worse yet, the plot line is totally derivative of the Second World War. Only the names have been changed (to unpronouncable ones). The sex scenes are even more embarassing than usual. As a result, this was the first Turtledove book I decided not to finish--quit at about the 2/3 point, skipped ahead, realized it was a series, and punted. In sum, not recommended. Harry ought to wrap this series up quick and spend the resulting free time on the Civil War series.
Rating:
Summary: Has Turtledove Finally Run Out Of Ideas?
Review: I wanted to like this book, I really did. Ever since reading the Misplaced Legion books, I've been a big Turtledove fan. Unfortunately, it seems like he's finally hit a wall. Into the Darkness is mediocre, at best. The problem may be that Turtledove is currently in the middle of three different trilogies. It may be that after 20 or so books, he's running out of original things to say. Whatever the reason, this book is a paint-by-numbers work. The characters, story-lines and politics are a re-hashing of his better efforts. Unfortunate, really. I had high hopes for this book. The setting is certainly novel. Maybe Turledove should focus less on volume and more on quality. However, Into the Darkness is one of his weaker works.
Rating:
Summary: A failed attempt at epic fantasy
Review: Harry Turtledove has attempted to create a fantasy world roughly equalling our own. A world in which a world-spanning war creates incredible devastation, and magic begins to spin out of control.Unfortunately, he should have read "Lord of the Rings" or "Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn" at least one more time. His technique is so flawed that what could be a promising idea descends into tedium. The first problems arise as the war begins in full force by page 18. Rather than develop his world so that the reader understands what is going on, he dashes right into the war, leaving the reader wondering why these events are occurring. He states that Algarve is a hated nation, but it isn't until the book is half over that one can even begin to understand why. Had he taken a couple of hundred pages and developed the world and characters, it would have worked. More difficulties arise with his construction of magic in warfare. He has not actually come up with anything new; absolutely every piece of magic has a World War II equivilant (magic staffs for rifles, dragons for bombers, etc.). Turtledove hasn't done anything here that Tom Clancy hasn't done at least twice. Had he actually researched Medieval warfare, or at least invented something without a WW2 equal, the combat would have been much more interesting. Then, finally, he has so many point-of-view characters that the narrative is hopelessly scattered. Sixty or seventy pages can go by before a character appears again, and absolutely none of them arise as a major character. Although the characters are well constructed, they simply do not have enough room to shine. Unfortunately, the scattered narrative sends the book into a tedium that it cannot recover from, and the reader quickly stops caring about the characters or the plot. The only redeeming aspect of the book is its skill. Turtledove is a skillful author, and he is able to write intense and beautiful prose. If only that skill had been applied to the overall structure, the book would have been worthwhile.
Rating: 
Summary: Utterly Unreadable
Review: This was the first and last Turtledove book I ever picked up. I came into it not knowing what to expect, but hoping to discover something new and exciting. I was very dissapointed. I couldn't get past the first 100 pages, and I'm not one to leave books unfinished. I read books for characters, to get into their heads and go through their adventures and their agonies with them, and when I'm 100 pages into a book and still don't know who the main characters are, or even who these people with all these unpronouncable names are, then I just can't take it.
Rating: 
Summary: Promising concept but pointless retelling of WW2.
Review: I have long appreciated those authors who are willing to write fantasy works in worlds that are not stuck at a medeival level of development. There aren't many of them, unfortunately. Brust's Jhereg series comes to mind as well as Turtledove's own "The Case of the Toxic Spell Dump". When I picked up "Into the Darkness", I was intrigued by the notion of a world where the magical "technology" was roughly at a level of development equivilent to our own world in World War II. Indeed, the first portions of the book had wonderful examples of this. Instead of planes, one has dragon riders; instead of submarines, one has leviathans; instead of tanks, behemoths; instead of bombs, magically destructive "eggs"; instead of guns, there are magically charged "sticks"; and so forth. I eagerly devoured the first third of the book. Even when there were direct echoes of WW2, such as research into the deep structure of magic theory that would allow the construction of devices of immense destructive power, I wasn't overly bothered. Alas, it became painfully clear that, rather than narrating a world that was going through a similar conflict as our world had in WW2, Turtledove was simply describing WW2, right down to specific campaigns and political events, in fantasy terms. I confess that I really don't see the point. It's rather like that horrible sub-genre of science fiction where a hack writer, who only knows how to (for instance) tell westerns writes a book where horses are called "Blurgs", indians are "Rubnars" and six shooters are transformed into laser zappers. The shame is that Turtledove *isn't* a hack writer. He's written some very good alternative history and some very good fantasy. I suspect that his passion as an historian got the better of him. The thing of it is, WW2 is interesting in and of itself. If I want to read about the actual events of WW2, there are plenty of books out there that talk about it. Turning tanks into behemoths and so forth, just to get people to read about WW2, seems to be a pointless exercise in sugar-coating that which does not need artifical sweetening. At the best, it seems misguided; at the worst is comes across as an insult to the intelligence of his readers. As it stands, if you are an absolute fan of Turtledove and don't mind reading a, more or less, direct account of WW2 cast in fantasy terms, there's no reason not to pick up this book. For what it is, it's a fun telling in the classical tradition of the epic novel. If, however, you don't see the point (as, I confess, I don't), I'd suggest giving it a miss.
Rating: 
Summary: "The more things change, the more they stay the same"
Review: Not bad at all. However, it seems a bit redundant with all Turtledove's other works. The quality of writing per se is very good. And for someone, unfamiliar with WW2 it's more than great reading. Nevertheless, it follows WW2 too closely to be perfect :). Still, I bought and enjoyed it and I also got the sequel, which I loved too. Bottom line: If you like Turtledove get it. If you are unsure of Turtledove and are not too familiar with WW2, get it. If you do not like Turtledove and know your WW2, don't get it, go for Worldwar instead.
Rating:
Summary: weak premise saved with good writing
Review: Mr. Turtledove (HT) has a gift for storytelling - his characters are interesting and believable, his descriptions are compelling and his plots are solid. I love reading his stories. That being said, there is a fundamental flaw in his attempt to retell World War II as a fantasy story. Other reviewers here have already provided the mapping between HT's countries and the WWII protagonists. These parallels are interesting but the whole concept falls apart because these fantasy countries do not/would not have the population, infrastructure, and industrial capacity to wage war in a way similar to what happened in World War II. Even with magic, HT's socities would lack the capability to field armies with tens of thousands of men, with hundreds of tanks (behemoths), and planes (dragons). The logistics are inconceivably bad. Just one example: in these societies there is next to no mechanized agriculture and apparently no chemical fertilizers. That means that people and hungry animals have to provide the labor to plant and harvest every year. Those people can't go off and serve in a large standing army. And without mechanized, *fast* large-scale transport of material, how are these armies getting fed and resupplied? Magic, in this case, does not seem to serve because, unlike engineering, very very few people in HT's world can perform magic at all and apparently it cannot be used to provide large-scale quantities of goods - at least he didn't talk about that much - where are all those laser sticks coming from? Thousands of them are enchanted by whom and delivered to the field how? The questions can go on and on - what is the replacement time for a behemoth or a dragon? Do they not have to be fed while they are growing up, unlike tanks and planes? How can these society grow huge crop surpluses to support the war effort? Without similar capabilities and capacities, war would be waged in a far different way than it was in WWII. That being said, reading fantasy requires suspension of belief. HT has shown he is a master of minimizing the amount of belief you have to suspend in his alternative history stories. Once you buy into magic, the rules change a bit but he is still just as good. In this book though, I had these questions come up from the start and didn't get truly satisfactory answers. I enjoyed the many story lines and overall sense of the story, but I can't rate this as one of his best works.
Rating:
Summary: Poor Names
Review: I only read the first chapter in this book, so I can't comment on the story. But the names that Turtledove came up with are horrible. Its like he picked letters out of the alphabet at random and slaped them togetther. I could not tell if what the characters where talking about was a person, town, or country. He has over 100 major characters in just the first book, and about10 - 15 viewpoint characters. WAY too much for my tast, especially when you can't tell them apart. Another thing that turned me off was that this is a planned 6 book series, and if he is like everyone else out in fantast land, it will be more like 8 or 10. Save your money and go out and get something by Robin Hobb or George R.R. Martin.
Rating:
Summary: 50 percent fantasy, 50 percent history.
Review: It's hard to imagine history and fantasy working together, but Harry Turtledove pulls it off. Fantasy provides the setting, history provides the action. At first, this book did not excite me as much as Turtledove's other works. It sounded a little to weird. But once I started reading, I knew I had nothing to fear. I have come to recognise Turtledove as one of the most reliably entertaining novelists out there, and this one is no exception. As you might have picked up from the earlier reviews, this novel is a very faithful retelling of World War II with a "spells and dragons" fantasy world for a setting. Although the plot, by definition, isn't very original, the world is quite fascinating. It's interesting to see all the creative ways in which the presence of magic makes up for the absence of technology. Many previous reviewers have speculated on who represents who. Here are my guesses, along with the reasoning behind them: Algarve is Germany. This is fairly obvious. It is the large, powerful country which everyone is afraid of. The Behemoth Blitzkrieg is another big tip-off. Unkerlant is the USSR. Again, fairly obvious. It is another large, frightening empire. Even Algarve tries to avoid them (at first), just as Hitler avoided Stalin until he had the rest of continental Europe pacified. There is also a cruel Stalin analogue in charge. Forthweg is Poland. It is the first country to fall, and ends up being divided between Algarve and Unkerlant. The Duchy of Bari is Austria. The Algarvians march in to a hero's welcome. Yanina might be Italy, but is more likely one of the Balkan countries. It is a much smaller but still potentially significant ally to Algarve. They also serve as a buffer against Unkerlant (which suggests the Balkans). I can't be sure, but I think Sibiu is the Netherlands. Just as the Dutch were caught off-guard by paratroopers, the Sibians are caught off-guard by a carefully-organized sea attack. Jelgava and Valmiera are France and Belgium. They fight bravely against Algarve, but are defeated fairly easily. I am not sure which is which, but am inclined to say that Valmiera is France, due to Krasta's aristocratic snobbery. Zuwayza is Finland. It puts up effective resistance against Unkerlant, but is overwhelmed by sheer weight of numbers. They also negotiate a revenge alliance with Algarve, just as finland did with Hitler. Lagoas is Britain. As an island nation, it is the only anti-Algarvian country able to escape invasion. Kuusamo is the United States. They have remained out of the war with Algarve so far, and seem to be on the brink of discovering a magical A-bomb (M-bomb?). Gyongyos is Japan. They are fighting an island war against Kuusamo, and are constantly referred to as "Gongs". The Land of the Ice People is Africa. The rest of the world considers it very unpleasant, but builds colonies there for economic reasons (sure to offend the heck out of Afrocentrists). Siaulia hasn't really been introduced to the story yet, but I'll bet it's Australia. The map makes it out to be a large but sparsely populated (no major cities) land mass. Ortah has likewise not been introduced, but would appear to be Switzeland. It's small, mountainous, neutral, and in the middle of the continent.
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