Rating: 
Summary: A wretched, mechanical effort
Review: Again an "alternate history" imitating ours instead of enunciating real different possibilities. Having undertaken to expand a poignant short story into a novel, Turtledove ran short of filling. So, as in "The Great War" he has U.S. Socialists copying HTL German Socialists, here he puts Gorbachev and Yeltsin into brown shirts instead of biznes suits. Dr. Snappdove, you should be ashamed of yourself.
Rating: 
Summary: Along for the ride.
Review: Another alternate history from Harry Turtledove. In this one, the US never entered WWII. Result: Germany wins in Europe, then takes out the US in the 70's. Story takes place in 2010, when the Reich is the lone world-dominant superpower. Main characters are some Berliners who are secretly Jews.
The verdict on this one is "meh." The book's characters are engaging, and the story moves along (albeit slowly for the first 2/3).
I have two main problems with this book.
The first is that it gets repetitive. Time after time after time after time, some event happens that causes our Jewish protagonist to think to himself something along the lines of "...but if he knew what I was, it would be a trip to the showers for me." This sort of thing is presumably included to maintain the tension, the sense of living your entire life with a sword of Damocles under your head. And hey, I don't have anything against dramatic tension. But after the fifty-seventh repetition of this shtick, I just want to grab Mr. Turtledove by the throat and yell okay, okay, all right already, I get it, he's a cat on hot bricks, can we get on with things now?
The second is that events in the book just sort of sweep along with historical force and all the characters are merely observers, swept along in the tide. They have virtually no influence or real interaction with the "action" events of the book's story arc; they're just sort of along for the ride. And yes, in that situation, it makes sense that they *would* be just along for the ride... but that doesn't exactly make the book grab you by the throat. The characters are engagingly enough depicted that it's a mildly interesting ride, but the passivity becomes a drag after a while.
Rating: 
Summary: Very Interesting
Review: I'm suprised at the lukewarm reviews this book has been getting. I personally enjoyed it very much.
One complaint that pops up a lot is how the characters perceverate on their existance as Jews and how it's all over if their caught. Have you lived on Earth, recently? Human beings are very petty, and despite the fact that were are all complex individuals, have you noticed that you can usually sum up any individual with one defining characteristic? I personally thought the characters were very well realized.
Granted, not much happens for the first third or so, but I thought the payoff at the end was worth it. I've allways enjoyed the "setting up" parts more than the climax (case in point: my favourite chapter in the whole Lord of the Rings trilogy was the council of Elrond), so I didn't mind the interplay between characters. I didn't mind the bridge scenes, although I'm not a bridge player. I saw some parrallels between it and the Ferengi card game Tongo.
I did find the character of Erika Dorsh a bit silly, but that was the only real sore point. And yes, it's constantly hammered in that the characters are Jews and have to be careful, but have you noticed that most of us live in America? Judging by the amount of people who seem to have had trouble with the names/places/characters in the World at War series, most Americans must either:
A) Read with the telly on.
B) Skim
C) Are used to Harry Potter-style drival
*Sigh* More children left behind.
Rating:
Summary: Good Ideas, not a great novel
Review: I've read the majority of Harry Turtledove's novels, and I've noticed on his more recent efforts that he is either getting worse as a writer or my tastes are becoming more refined. Turtledove has good ideas in all of his books, and this is no exception. He just isn't a very good writer. For some reason, he feels like he has to beat everything to death. About once every three pages he reminds the reader that these people are Jews and if they get caught, they're done for. He repeats things like this ad nauseum. I wish he would try to be a little more subtle and let the reader read between the lines. He has the same problem in his American Empire series. Also, as someone else said, there really isn't a lot that happens in this book. I was hoping for some more action. There are way too many bridge scenes, and if you don't know how to play bridge, you won't understand these. I always find myself buying Turtledove's books even though I can't stand his style because his ideas are interesting. So this book has some things going for it, but be prepared to sift through a lot of filler.
Rating:
Summary: Interesting, but flawed, alternate history
Review: In a world in which Nazi Germany won World War II, defeated America later on, and with its allies occupies the world, the few Jews remaining in Berlin have no option but to be more German than the Germans to avoid detection and state-sanctioned murder. They eat pork, they are uncircumcised, and they can pass on only what is not written--paper being too risky in the event of an SS search. It's 2009. The last of the WWII generation to become Fuhrer, Austrian-born Kurt Haldweim (guess who that is) has died, and a new, reform-minded Fuhrer has taken control. The six Jews who are the point of view characters in this stand-alone novel look on with hope which has been extinguished almost as thoroughly as their co-religionists as they look towards a new day when they might, just might, be able to live open lives. In the meantime, they must continue to face, and seemingly agree with, the unending anti-Jewish propaganda which lives on even though (as most Germans think) the Jews do not. An interesting novel. Unfortunately, Turtledove quickly finds himself trapped behind the fact that characters in such a situation do NOT want exciting things happening to them, but to live quiet lives, and therefore the first two-thirds of the book are very slow-moving. Perhaps the worst moments are the repeated bridge games (a hommage to Heinlein's "Farnham's Freehold"?) which go on for pages and pages, during which nothing much happens, and which are completely lost on the reader if you don't know much about bridge. Much of the rest is very reminiscent of certain events in Russia in recent years, together with a Yeltsin-like character. Turtledove never ceases to amuse with interesting parallels from our own reality (a play is mentioned like "The Producers" but focusing on Churchill and Stalin, the Czech delegation at one point is led by "a playwright" (Havel), and, of course, the Haldweim-Waldheim parallel). In case you're interested, the title is taken from Psalm 23. But ultimately, Turtledove is too much trapped by his own conception to make much of this alternate history. Recommended to those who have already read Turtledove. If you are new to alternate history, go read Turtledove's "The Guns of the South." It's much, much better.
Rating:
Summary: Book of secrets and political change...all wrapped in one!
Review: In the Presence of Mine Enemies allows Turtledove to take a break from his other series and do a self-contained novel set in the normally cliched world where the Germans won World War II and are dominating everything. I say "normally cliched" because Turtledove actually does a good job of making it seem fresh and interesting. It is the early 21st Century. The Germans and the Japanese won the war, cities in the USA were nuked in a second conflict after the European one ended, making the United States agree to be subjugated, paying tribute money every year to Berlin. Everybody figures that the next war will be against Japan for final control of the world, but for now an uneasy peace settles between the two empires. Jews have been eliminated from most of Europe, but like the cockroaches the Germans in this novel think they are, hidden infestations are everywhere, including right under there noses. This provides most of the story, as we are told of a society of hidden Jews who are working amidst every-day Germans in Berlin and elsewhere. The main character, Heinrich Gimpel, works for the Wehrmacht (the German army) as the man in charge of keeping tabs on the American money that gets sent to Berlin every year. At the beginning of the book, the ritualistic revealing of the family Jewish secrets to 10-year-old Alicia Gimpel occurs. When the parents think they are ready, their ancestry is revealed and they are absorbed into the conspiracy of silence. The children have to adjust to the raging anti-Semitism around them as well as changing their own feelings, because they have been indoctrinated with all of the anti-Jewish hate and must learn that they are the people who most other Germans consider the devil. Turtledove does an excellent job of telling the intensely personal story of this family along with the story of massive political change in Germany. Momentous events around the world sit beside the normal affairs and other personal problems that we all have, not to mention the secrets that the Gimpels and their friends are hiding. While sometimes kept to the background of the story, the specter of their ancestry is always hanging over them, even as events move to perhaps eventually allow them to admit in public what they've hidden for generations. Even when Turtledove seems to forget that aspect of the story as he tells of the politics (especially toward the end of the book), something often comes to the forefront as a harsh reminder of just what's at stake. Heinrich is caught up in the political changes but has to guard himself, lest he reveal their secrets in a rushed reaction to the world changing around him. He knows that with one misstep, extermination awaits him and his family. I was really impressed with the economy of viewpoint characters Turtledove uses. He uses the three Gimpels who are aware of the secret (two younger children don't know, which provides a lot of the conflict for Alicia, as she can't tell them but has to put up with, in silence, the anti-Semitic statements made by them) along with three other Jews who are in their circle of friends. With these characters, he is able to tell their story, a story of political change, as well as the deeply personal story of a troubled marriage and the effects it has on the Gimpels as Heinrich becomes the object of affection for a frustrated wife. Usually, Turtledove has so many characters that it's hard to keep them straight. I have always felt that this is probably why Turtledove insists on introducing them constantly almost every time they appear in the book. However, that reasoning must be faulty, because there are only six of them and he still insists on doing that. It became very aggravating. One thing I did find amazing is that Turtledove does manage to avoid most of the pitfalls his books usually fall in to. Sure, there is the introduction of characters mentioned above, but at least Turtledove makes every one of them interesting. It's almost heart-breaking watching Alicia struggle with the new knowledge she has gained, having to silently accept all of the statements made against her new-found people by her younger sisters as well as everybody in school. She finds it incredibly hard to absorb this new information and not reveal it to others through actions or, worse, inaction. Your nerves actually clench a little bit when the fighting between Heinrich's friend Willi and his wife Elena almost results in an affair that could jeopardize not only Heinrich's marriage but also accidentally reveal their secret. There are no useless characters in this one, and even the minor characters attract the reader's interest just enough to not be annoying. Turtledove also avoids the gratuitous, badly-written love scene. He effectively fades to black a couple of times and even the one that he does include doesn't concentrate on the details. I applaud him for this, as it really has been a weakness of his in the books that I've read. His prose is still wooden enough to give a woodpecker a woody, but it's not too bad this time around, probably because he's avoided most of his other problems. The climax of the book, while pulse-pounding as change sweeps through Germany, is so obviously a copy of the fall of another Evil Empire that it becomes very predictable. It's to Turtledove's credit that he makes the book interesting despite this, though by this time you have enough invested in the characters that you want to keep reading despite knowing what's going to happen. Inertia perhaps? In the Presence of Mine Enemies is an excellent book of alternate history, and probably the best book I've read by him. Give it a shot, even if you've found his other series to be a waste of time. This one isn't. David Roy
Rating:
Summary: Pretty slow, last 100 pages were the best part
Review: It seemed as though Mr. Turtledove spent about the first 2/3's of the this novel setting up the scene, which really made for an uninteresting, and slow novel. Now I'm not one of those people that can read any kind of alternate history and enjoy it, I just can't. The writing has to be good, and frankly I just didn't think Turtledove did a very good job on this one. I finished because just when I was about to give up, it picked up and became interesting, leaving the first 200 pages behind in a hurry.
Rating: 
Summary: I couldn't put it down...
Review: Mr. Turtledove's novels tend to be hit or miss with me, and this one was a definite hit.
The story was believable and (I thought) a pretty decent projection of what might have happened if the Third Reich won WWII...and what might have happened to the Jews in their midst.
The interplay of personalities certainly held my interest. I thought the main characters were well drawn and sympathetic. Some of the minor characters could have been more well-rounded but this did not detract from the plot.
And yes. I stayed up ALL NIGHT to read it.
Rating: 
Summary: Not Turtledove's Best Effort
Review: Normally I anxiously await my new Turtledove book, especially anything to do with WW2 or Byzantium. This story however was not worth the wait. It feels like a too-long short story, with the revealing scene at dinner jogging my memory of a paperback collection I have. Reading this book gave me a strong sense of deja vu, and I believe that is the real problem I have with it. At its best, alternate history should move us away from our "normal" timeline, leading the reader to believe that common history can produce extraordinarily different outcomes. "In the Presence of Mine Enemies" does not achieve this goal. There is little more than a scene change from pre-Communist coup Moscow to Deutschland uber alles Berlin after a Nazi victory. I was disappointed by the same type of characters that seem to be a recurring theme, the earnest worker bee and his devoted wife/girlfriend, the jealous/nosy neighbor, and the guy who follows the party line whatever it may be. The bureaucratic excess of a National Socialist state ring the truest for me. Racial purity forms and doctors who will report any taint of "untermensch" blood gave me the feeling of all service to the Reich that a Nazi state engenders in its populace. The framework of the story has merit but the familiar characters need redrawing. I hoped for a crisp, exciting read but was disappointed in the execution.
Rating:
Summary: Great book
Review: This is a great book about a future that fortunately did not happen. It is also, in many ways about pasts that did happen in several places and throughout history. I know the "if the Nazis had won the second world war" theme has been beaten to death. I would however like to point out that this is NOT the theme of this book -- the theme of this book is hidden identity, public identity and the scary point at which the two merge. (It is also an interesting study in how dictatorships exploit what ANYONE has to hide. Any careful reader will notice that even the non-Jewish characters are afraid and have things they would like to hide.) As such, the fact that the fall of the Reich is much like the fall of the USSR (and really, we don't have any other models for the fall of a dictatorship in the modern age) didn't disturb me. The second half of the book is a tale of how the characters bring both their public and their secret identities into actualization and achieve some sort of coherent whole. It is a story of the characters -- Jewish and not -- finding their humanity with their freedom. As such, I don't know a more relevant story for our time. A book worth buying, reading, re-reading and reading to your children.
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