Rating: 
Summary: Read This Book!
Review: I derive no greater reading pleasure than when I learn something while being highly entertained. Andrew Nagorski's Last Stop Vienna is an amazing novel that manages to teach as well as engage. The rise and rule of Adolf Hitler is the most notorious tale of the twentieth century, yet how many people truly understand the dire social, economic, and political climate in 1920's and 1930's Germany that enabled the emergence of a man like Hitler? Perhaps better than any novelist in recent history, Nagorski does. Through the eyes of young and idealist Nazi Brownshirt, Karl Naumann, Nagorski tells a story that demonstrates in eerie and vivid detail how readily evil can rise out of desperation. Last Stop Vienna is not only a compelling book but also an important one. We live in an age where the conditions in many countries throughout the world are jarringly parallel to those of pre-World War II Germany. It would behoove us all to gain an understanding of such matters. Andrew Nagorski has provided us a great service by making it easy and enjoyable to edify his readers using his 288-page gem, Last Stop Vienna.
Rating:
Summary: THOROUGHLY ENGROSSING
Review: I read this novel in one sitting, but it stayed with me well beyond that. Nagorski has written a fascinating alterna-history that makes you wonder how our world might have turned out differently if a Karl Naumann-like figure had existed. Nagorski is masterful in evoking the time period, and he's a brilliant, even profound, writer. For anyone interested in a thought-provoking historical novel...this is a must-read.
Rating: 
Summary: INTERESTING, BUT NOT THRILLING
Review: If the author had dropped his idea of writing a "what if this had happened" novel and simply published a work of history, this would have been a better book. The historical information is great and the descriptions of places in 1920s Germany are splendid. Mr. Nagorski is a fine writer. He just isn't a very good novelist. There isn't a lot of dialogue in "Last Stop Vienna" and what is there does not ring true. (Putting words into the mouth of a monster such as Adolph Hitler requires incredible novelistic ability to make those words believable.)
The fights between storm troopers and their opponents have no sting to them. Again, it is as if you are reading a dry work of history. Mr. Nagorski creates some interesting characters, and he has an interesting plot line. He just wasn't able to bring the people or the story to life.
Rating:
Summary: Haunting, atmospheric and impossible to put down
Review: Last Stop Vienna is an odyssey through the psychology of a ruined Germany culminating in the demented mind of the man who would lead the country to total disaster. Through the experiences of Karl Naumann, a young SA man who falls in love with Hitler's star crossed niece, Nagorski shows the hypnotizing effect of Hitler's perversity on his niece, Naumann and the German people as a whole. This book is a brilliant achievement and its message that the triumph of Nazism could have been averted will stay with the reader long after he has put the book down.
Rating:
Summary: Historical Fiction At Its Finest
Review: Last Stop Vienna is historical fiction at its finest. It is so rare to find a journalist/historian who is also a wonderful storyteller with a masterful gift for prose. Andrew Nagorski is such a writer. He crafts a mesmerizing tale that not only entertains but educates. Nagorski's encyclopedic knowledge of a Germany ravaged by the Treaty of Versailles combined with his familiarity of character and place lends an authenticity to the novel that is both captivating and illuminating. Add to that a brilliant imagination and a lyrical ability to compose a compelling and original work of fiction from recent historical events and you have an extraordinary novel. Last Stop Vienna is a very special book by an informed and talented novelist. I recommend it highly.
Rating:
Summary: Disappointing
Review: Nagorski is probably an excellent journalist. He can write, but his characterization and plotting isn't up to snuff here. The protagonist (I hesitate to use the word "hero" in this case.) is a yound man who learns absolutely nothing in the nearly 300 pages of this book. He begins as an angry, irresponsible teenager who deserts his widowed mother in the aftermath of the first World War, and he ends as a prisoner who came to hate the man (Hitler) he once worshipped, but still shares Hitler's values and beliefs. Perhaps this would have worked in a book about private people, but once you involve a public figure like Hitler, the story you're telling will grow to fit the myth that surrounds that figure.I think referring to this novel as an alternate history is perhaps misleading. The event which makes it so occurs at the very end of the novel, and we're never really given any indication of how the event changes history as we know it. And that too, is a disappointment.
Rating:
Summary: Disappointing
Review: Nagorski is probably an excellent journalist. He can write, but his characterization and plotting isn't up to snuff here. The protagonist (I hesitate to use the word "hero" in this case.) is a yound man who learns absolutely nothing in the nearly 300 pages of this book. He begins as an angry, irresponsible teenager who deserts his widowed mother in the aftermath of the first World War, and he ends as a prisoner who came to hate the man (Hitler) he once worshipped, but still shares Hitler's values and beliefs. Perhaps this would have worked in a book about private people, but once you involve a public figure like Hitler, the story you're telling will grow to fit the myth that surrounds that figure. I think referring to this novel as an alternate history is perhaps misleading. The event which makes it so occurs at the very end of the novel, and we're never really given any indication of how the event changes history as we know it. And that too, is a disappointment.
Rating:
Summary: Should be #1 on your top ten reading list!!
Review: Nagorski's creation of the character Karl Naumann is amazing. I felt like I was seeing what was going on in Berlin and Munich during that time right through Karl's eyes, as though I were living there myself. Nagorski's imaginative plot really made it clear how someone could have gotten caught up in the whole Nazi movement-something I could never quite comprehend before. And Nagorski's powerfully descriptive romances definitely heated up things and only made me read faster and faster...and wow, what an ending! An incredible read. Whether it's for pleasure or studying, this book should be on everyone's top ten list!
Rating:
Summary: Highly recommended!
Review: Nagorski's story is equally engaging as a novel and as a history lesson. I had some general knowledge about the rise of Hitler prior to reading this book, but Nagorski's characters show a more chaotic and complex history than I had imagined. As a work of fiction, the book succeeds in creating believable characters that you sympathize with - even though the protagonist, a young Nazi, is hardly a traditional "good guy." A good read for the history buff and casual reader alike.
Rating:
Summary: Nagorski's a born novelist!
Review: One of the most interesting, fascinating and brilliant historical novels I've ever read. Creating a fictional character who acts as the reader's lens into a past world is extremely tricky and difficult--and Nagorski wrote it all so smoothly and seemingly effortlessly. It was more than a pleasure to read. It also made me reflect on the situations today: what if things had been slightly different in the past, what if things were taken care of today in a slightly altered manner...What would this world be like now? It's a shame Karl Naumann didn't exist-and that such a perverse monster named Hitler was even allowed to live as long as he did. Absolutely brilliant. I can't wait for what Nagorski's next subject will be...he's truly gifted.
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