1945

Rating:
Summary: Don't read it
Review: A book by Newt Gingrich? I'm sure you're thinking that it must really stink right now just from those words. You're wrong. This is an imaginative story about a different history where Hitler was involved in an aircraft accident, and as a result was in a coma and did not declare war on the United States after Pearl Harbor. The premise was interesting, but the characters were shallow and one-sided. There were also too many coincidences to help the good guys to make it really interesting for me. Even still, it's worth picking up, especially on a Saturday when you have nothing else to do but sit in the shade and relax.

Rating:
Summary: simply awsome
Review: Among the best historical science fiction novels that I have ever read. I desperately hope that the sequal promised at the end of this exciting work will actualy one day be writen and published!

Rating:
Summary: Amateur start - terrific ending
Review: Being English, and also an avid reader of history, I was very interested to get an American's viewpoint on a European war. I found the style of writing at first a bit amateurish but by the middle I was enthralled. At the end I couldn't put it down( this usually happens with Robert Ludlum books) due to the increased pace of the story, the familiarity of the characters and the interesting details that were emerging based on historical fact. I've only given it 4 stars as the disappointment in not being able to read a sequel was very hard to bear. So come on Newt, you said the book was to be continued, don't behave like a politician and start breaking promises..

Rating:
Summary: Where is the sequel ?!?
Review: Great story , no end in site.

Rating:
Summary: Newt's Notion, William's War: '70's tech in 1946
Review: I don't remember when or where I first heard about *1945*, the counterfactual (alternate history) World War II novel. I heard former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich teamed up with historian William Forstchen to produce a trilogy of life-or-death battle between souped-up Nazis and under strength Americans. And that's it: until my brother borrowed a copy and inspired me to buy my own at a used bookshop the other night.

That morning I read it. I found *1945* to be a silly but perfectly passable piece of entertainment. Though the trilogy seems to have stalled after the first book, readers could do worse than pass time at a dentist's office reading this effort.

*History, Shmistory*

Now no-one should exert the wrong effort with this tome. Anybody looking for a serious, scholarly account of alternate history won't find it here. If anything, *1945* is a guide to counterfactual cheating. The authors plow through without a glance back at the plot potholes and twisted logic burning in their wake. Without giving up too much suspense, I can safely point out the debris.

For readers learn immediately that 1946 Germany has inexplicably acquired 1970's era weapons. Our authors breezily mention that avoiding war with the United States somehow lead Germany into developing intercontinental ballistic missiles, SAMs, stealth fighters, optically guided missiles, high-altitude spy planes, and satellite delivery rockets--all in the four years following Pearl Harbor. Meanwhile, the United States has fully demobilized.

None of this meshes with reality. Considering that the German high command, including Air Marshal Goering, simply did not appreciate the importance of jet airpower until 1944 (when it was too late), it is unlikely that Germany would be motivated to develop an armada of Me262 when they were soundly whipping the Soviets, much less motivated to stockpile air weapons fit for the Vietnam War. While Nazis did build a number of futuristic craft and missiles, many of these were engineering abortions too slow in development and too taxing to mass-produce.

At the opposite end of the spectrum, our poor German paratroopers still use Erma MP40s-incorrectly called "Schmeissers"-instead of the StG44 "storm rifle" that was coveted by paratroopers and revolutionized military small arms design here in the real world.

The real world doesn't stop these fellows for a second. Not even from taking liberties with strategy as well as technology. Germany just sort of conquers Western Russia and establishes an armistice with Britain and the Soviets without a consideration as to how out of character this would be. Nor does the book adequately explain why the US demobilizes in the face of a Nazi Superpower when we didn't do so in the face of Soviets. It doesn't account for the Soviet's "scorched earth" and factory relocation policies, the likelihood that a Nazi tactical withdrawal followed by a counterstrike in the Spring of 1942 would help the Soviets as much as the Germans, and the implausibility this would encourage Himmler to hold back his Einsatzgruppen and spare the Ukrainians from holocaust.

Speaking of masses and murder, Nazism is considered by many to have been a cult of personality built around Adolf Hitler. Incapacitating him as the authors do would have more likely lead to a power upheaval and possibly an assassination and coup, not to mention breaking the spell Hitler had over Germany. Gobbels and Himmler might have done most of the actual propaganda and dissent suppression, but Hitler was the fulcrum `round which Nazism and its accoutrements balanced.

*Hope You Enjoyed the Ride*

However, none of this technical babble detracts from the fun. For the book ultimately gives emphasis not to technology but to character. Not character development, mind you. These are cardboard cutouts-but the stock is good. And our authors concern themselves specifically with the role personalities play in war. Much of the historical and logical holes in this alternative universe are covered up by two men. One, famed commando Otto Skorzeny, is almost single-handledly responsible for Germany's success with his daring surgical strikes. The other, naval aviator Jim Martel, almost single-handedly saves the United States from being knocked right of the strategic arms race and doomed to obliteration. Meanwhile, leaders in both the White House and Pentagon are portrayed as so weak and deluded that they actually help the Germans. German leaders are conversely portrayed as audacious and decisive strategists who waste no time implementing a plan to conquer the entire world. It is upon these characterizations and their consequences that the entire story hangs.

And hang, and twist, and turn does the plot, by George. Even as I nitpicked *1945* to death, I enjoyed chasing our characters across no less than five interconnected threads. As the threads wind down into the climactic string tying everything up, I confess I just kept turning the pages. That's the book's strength: in formulaic but oh-so effective suspense. Will the Germans do this? Will America do that? Or will our heroes find themselves thus? Find out tomorrow, same Gingrich-time, same Gingrich-channel!

To put it another way, I cracked open the book at 0030 in the morning. I finished the last page at 0630 the same morning. It's literary popcorn. The sort of thing you read on planes, trains, and buses. I hated the prose-it explained too much and showed too little, editorialized, and wasn't particularly inspiring-but the sheer dearth of earnest dialogue, hair-pulling coincidences, and larger-than-life characters carried it for me.

*Heil to the Hubris*

While this novel should never be mistaken for a plausible alternative history, it should be taken as it is-a novel. Its fun enough, reads well enough, and deserves a chance by anybody who wants to pass time with World War II or psuedo-techno thriller fiction.


Rating:
Summary: Where is the sequel ?!?
Review: I first read 1945 six years ago, and recently picked it back up after hearing about Gettysburg, another forthcoming collaberation by the authors. Gingrich and Forstchen do any amiable job in fabricating this world, but I can't help but feel as though the authors wanted to give it something more, but settled for a romance novel. World War II scenarios have been almost as popular in this sub-genre as the Civil War, but I don't believe anyone has come close to matching Fatherland or The Man in the High Castle, unless you count an alien invasion by Turtledove (which I enjoyed despite the romance aspect). Personally, I'm still waiting for the follow-up.
Also recommended for WWII fans: Rutman's A Clash of Eagles and with a slightly different twist, Under the Yoke by S.M. Stirling.

Rating:
Summary: Technically accurate
Review: Looking for something to read, I found thisbook, and from front to back, enjoyed the technical aspects immensely. I've spent many years studying some of the german weapons from the close of the war. Their systems and theories resulted in a significant number of our jet designs and rocket programs of the 50's and 60's. I'm really not concerned about who writes a book it if is well written. Being ex-military myself, and having done work on German capabilities in WWII, the raid on Oak Ridge is quite plausable, and in fact, would have had a high chance of success, had such a thing happened. Some of the intelligence reports I've read and other documents I've researched are more fantastic than what is in this book. I was hoping that this would be a 2 or 3 book serial novel, however, I am saddened by the fact that there isn't a sequel to it and we're left hanging with anticipation. We rebuked the NAZI's for burning books and suppressing free press/speech. I don't like Gingrich much, but I am not so closed minded to not read anything of fiction by him or anyone else. Perhaps maybe in reality, we are not much different from the NAZI's when we do this???

Rating:
Summary: An alternative history that needed a better writer
Review: The book, on a whole, is something you would want to read. I did wish to read page after page. But the style was amateurish. There are far more accomplished authors who could have written this. The wording is repetitive. The author(s) felt that smiling was a consistent trait to be used to reflect every emotion in their characters head, particularly Germans.

The premise is that we never entered the war to fight Germany. This is a realistic enough thought. But the book has too many flaws to earn better than three stars.

For starters, in a spy vs. spy world of WWII and before, regardless of any weapon one side built, the other side would have been able to copy it within months. And no nation as powerful as the U.S. would ignore the fact that Germany was building jets of such quality as to surpass the real ones we built ten years later. The idea that we would ignore obvious signs of war is also too weak. Not a likely reality. Even in a fully occupied Europe, we would have had better intel than is presented in this book.

The clincher, however, is the fact that book ends on a cliffhanger. It does not look like there will ever be a sequel. In that case, I recomment reading a series in which there is at least an ending. Want a better book? Read Fatherland.

Rating:
Summary: Here is a thought.........Just read the book and enjoy it.
Review: This is not a Tom Clancy knock off because he doesn't do alternative history and this is historically a reach because this isn't an historically correct book. It's alternative history. One should also forget who wrote/co-wrote the book if they have issues with either one of them.
People who read this and didn't like it because of the afore mentioned reasons must have smashed thier heads thru the wall after watching NBC's version of Noah's Ark or burned any one of J.R.R. Tolkien's books because of improper use of the English language.
Read the book and enjoy it. This is a great and fun book to read. If you are into the Luftwaffe '46 genre craze and/or into any ALTERNATIVE HISTORY and know the difference between reality and FICTION then you will enjoy this book and hope that the sequel is eventually published. I don't know the story as to why a publisher hasn't picked up the sequel yet, and it's not because someone thinks the book is bad, but we can only hope it does get picked up.
I just hope a sequel to 'Down to the Sea' from the Lost Regiment series eventually comes out.

Rating:
Summary: Surprising story..........
Review: Well, what do we have to say about this one ?
Anybody who have studied Otto.Scorzeny knows that he had a much better reputation than reflected in this book.
The story in itself is interesting, but unimaginitative.
It is the sort of what-if we poses ourselves sometimes in the discussion of what might have been.
Most, if not all, historians will agree that IF Hitler had crushed the Soviet-machine, he would not have the manpower enough to invade the Uk, or the US.
The US were at that time building up enough war-material to have countered ANY attack, what-so-ever.
The Germans could have stationed 2-3 million men in Mexico, and they would have been unable to conquer the US.
Please study some history, guys - this stunk !!!