Rating: 
Summary: somewhat problematic but, still, a worthwhile attempt.
Review: Stephen Fry's novelized attempt to rewrite history is both gobsmackingly hilarious and wrist-slicingly depraved. This being my first try of Fry, I cannot comment on his sustained efforts as a novelist. I am however, ripe for the making of a few observations. Hitler and Humor are two bland tastes that taste bland together. As more and more of it appears- the best example is Woody Allen's repeated use- Nazi-comedy progressively deadens people's memory of the past. Hitler is rendered funny and his deeds obscured. While, certainly, that this wasn't Fry's intent, I worry that his comic tones may have left the impression that there is something funny about Auschwitz or Dachau, the Warsaw Ghetto or the 'Night of Broken Glass'. I am particularly bothered by my own insensitivity as I clutched my sides in laughter, trying to hold my guts in. In all fairness, 'Making History' is a wonderful book. But it works best when the reader is aware of his/her own intellectual reactions to the text.
Rating: 
Summary: Yet another inventive, hilarious, and intelligent Fry novel.
Review: Describing Stephen Fry's work in under 1000 words is impossible. If you are at all familiar with his previous novels, newspaper articles, or telly performances, you will most likely enjoy this book immensely. Fry's mastery of comedy and writing blend perfectly to create a novel which, like his previous tomes, will delight and astound you. The man is brilliant. Simply brilliant.
Rating:
Summary: A must for everyone who believes in different timelines
Review: Although I've read it only once it's a candidate for one of the ten books I would take with me to the lonely island. Send someone to Austria prox. 9 months before Adolf Hitler is born, poison the well from which his (then not) former mother drinks, and: voila, no Hitler. This novel shows that history just can't be that easy. Its plausibility is attracting yet shocking. I couldn't stop reading before I was through with it (actually it took me two ways on the train to read it). If you are looking for intelligent and thrilling entertainment this is the book for it. And it doesn't go from your thoughts much longer than it took you to read it.
Rating:
Summary: 1000 % brittish
Review: Everybody who loves English humor should read this book. Its funny, cleverly put together, a complete new angle to timetravelogues.
Rating:
Summary: Very nearly a winner, but lacks speed in the finish
Review: Having read all of Stephen Fry's earlier works, it came as no surpise to experience Fry's usual laser-guided wit and aplomb. While the book certainly earns its place in the top 5% of popular novels for 97/98 [Why oh why did it take so long to release this book in the USA? I had to get my mates in Britain to send me a copy], it lacks some of the style, pace and out-and-out cleverness of his earlier novels.In short, I enjoyed "The Liar" and "The Hippopotamus" more, and I would encourage anyone who hasn't read Stephen Fry to buy this one first and then work backwards. The main problem with the book is that Fry seems to lose his way once the main character wakes up in his alternate reality. The pace drags and it seems that the main character mirrors Fry's own fumblings to find a way out of the situation. The solution, when it comes, is rather too trite and the ending sugar coated. That said, Stephen Fry remains one of the most talented authors around: fighteningly intelligent, excoriatingly funny and endowed with an unfashionable generosity (in literary circles, it seems) that ensures his readers have a good time.
Rating: 
Summary: Which dog knows the way?
Review: Making History is one of those books that takes a fascinating idea--What Hitler had not been born?--and wanders around wondering just what to do with it. Certainly the inital premise is compling, graduate student Mark Young and his *Jewish* teacher Zuckerman send sterilization tablets back to the water in Hitlers hometown, thus preventing his parents from conceiving him. With this act, the world changes--yet not all that much. Fry upsets the Great Man Idea of history by giving Hitler an understudy--another despot, Rudi Glober, who not only becomes a more effective Fuhrer but also embraces the *Jewish science* of physics Hitler rejected. The resulting Reich now dominates all Europe with its nuclear warheads--yet how is it different from a world in which Hitler won? The concept has been done elsewhere--most notably Fatherland--with stronger results. Fry is considering removing the most provocative man of the 20th century, yet he only replaces a wolf with a tiger. The time-travel concept, first pills, then a dead rat, are shot backward a hundred years, is mentioned, then dropped. The homosexual angle is almost silly: In the alternate world Mark Young finally meets his One True Love,--Stephen, a fellow student. This idea is not new, in other hands Stephen would simply be Stephanie. While it is good to see homo-love mentioned without the mandatory agonizing, in this case it almost distracts from the initial idea of Hitler. True, gays died in the death camps, but Gay Guy Steve is no different from a Jewish girl in this setting. Mark, his lover, and Dr.Zuckerman shift from world to world with little real upheaval; the alternate world is grim, yet I have seen far worse ones, and far better. While Fry pens an enjoyable read, he plays with marvelous ideas he then abandons in favor of his own playful agenda. A dog sled goes faster if one dog is allowed to lead, not let each one get a sniff along the way.
Rating:
Summary: One of the most intelligent and witty books ever published
Review: Stephen Fry's books are always extraordinary! Making History beats everything. It is very intelligent, amusing, witty and I promise, it is impossible to get bored. You never know what happens next. Amazing!
Rating:
Summary: Terrific!
Review: Laughed and laughed...this is a wonderful, well-written, free-wheeling intelligent book. One of the few gay authors who can write wittily about gay sex (gay love, actually) without being in-your-face all the time about it. Does not let his sexuality overwhelm the story line. Buy it and read it today.
Rating:
Summary: Stephen still refuses to disappoint with his third.
Review: Perhaps the plot is a little tired after half a century's exploitation by literature: time-travel was once exciting (to Messrs Verne and Wells), and Adolf Hitler, though still nasty, is by now no longer the 'Evil Emperor'. But still, the reader who chances this book will uncover a yarn so masterfully spun that he won't care - he'll be too busy creasing himself to notice. The storyline is in itself above average fare: a Cambridge undergraduate historian shacks up with a girlfriend (leading scientist) and a German temporal theorist with an anti-Nazi chip on his shoulder. Things seem to take a turn for the better when the three combine talents (and more than a few prototype technologies) to send a small sterilizant back in time which will prevent the birth of Adolf Hitler. Of course, the plan goes all wrong, and our young historian wakes up to find himself in America, having fled the persecution of the Nazi State, this time led by a new and even more ruthless Fuhrer. What Fry's time-travel theories may lack in Hawking-esque accuracy, he makes up for with his ready stream of wordplay, wit, and oftentimes unrepeatable jokes. The characters are lively and vibrant, believable no matter which side of the Atlantic their origins, and the many flashbacks of Hitler's youth (though admittedly fictional) are suitably epic without lapsing into sentimentality. "Back to the Future" it isn't, and hardcore sci-fi fans will undoubtedly come away disappointed, but those well-acquainted with the ins and out-eries of the British sense of humor will enjoy what is undoubtedly a rattling good first, second, and third read.
Rating:
Summary: A Teeny Bit Disappointing... But Still Top Notch
Review: Fry's protagonist, in this, his third novel, is a young student of history. Largely gone are the curmudgeons who populated his first and second novels and the liveliness that such characters inevitably bring to the action at hand. Many characters are even downright nice (in the TV sense of being ultimately good-hearted). So get used to a different Fry: more circumspect, more innocent. Throw in some minor time travel and consequent alternate history, all very "Back to the Future," with relatively predictable insights about the human condition. (Was it Oppenheimer who said something like, "The world is going to hell, but the worst thing we could do is try to do something about it"?) For the first time, too, Fry is guilty of producing a quantity of filler, hence my lowered rating. But, you know, a bad day playing golf is still better than a good day at work, and a marginally disappointing Fry novel still stands head and shoulders over most of his peers' efforts. Read "The Liar" and "The Hippopotamus" first, if you haven't already. They're exhilarating, without qualification. Then ingest this book. You'll still count it a first-class pleasure.
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