What if there had been a Nazi resistance movement after the fall of Germany in 1945? That’s the counter-factual premise for yet another Turtledove alternate history. The short summary according to Turtledove’s logic: it would be exactly like the Iraqi insurgence but dressed in 1945 costume. Unfortunately (but unsurprisingly) the long answer is another giant, typically unimaginative and slow-moving Turtledove tome.
Despite the title, this isn’t a pulp novel about commandos killing Rommel or an alternate history. It’s a plausible novel about a fictional attempt by the British Long Range Desert Group to kill Rommel, but its focus is leadership and character. The fact that Pressfield’s characters are on the periphery of the action is a refreshing change from the usual Clancy-style “Jack Ryan saves the world” thriller. Like Anton Myrer’s “Once an Eagle“, “Killing Rommel” would be a good candidate for inclusion on any reading list devoted to military leadership.
“The Day of Battle” is the second volume in Rick Atkinson’s monumental “Liberation Trilogy”. Like the fist book in the series (”An Army At Dawn“) its focus is on the US Army in the European theater of World War II; British and German decisions and actions are related mostly in terms of how they affected the Americans. I don’t mean that as a criticism, it’s just a comment on the story Atkinson chose to tell. The conflicts among US commanders and between them and the British is as much a part of Atkinson’s story as the fight between the Allies and the Axis.
As in the previous volume, Atkinson concentrates on command decisions. He doesn’t ignore the experience of the common soldier, but individual GIs are de-emphasized in favor of majors, colonels, and generals.
This isn’t a Stephen Ambrose style history; it’s a more substantial, less sentimental work than many recent books on World War II. Atkinson avoids the “greatest generation” trope and the book is based on contemporary accounts instead of veterans reminiscences. As a result, not every commander looks selfless and atrocities committed by both sides are not ignored.
I’m looking forward to the next book in the series, which will cover Normandy and the final defeat of Nazi Germany.
(For another excellent, more narrowly focused and more personal book about the campaign, see Lloyd Clark’s “Anzio: Italy and the Battle for Rome - 1944“.)
Stephen L. Carter
In a world of cookie cutter thrillers, this one stands out. I cared about the characters, the plot is interesting, and the setting (Harlem and the African-American high society of the late 50’s through the mid-70’s) is unique. Secret societies, Nixon, Hoover, Vietnam… this one has it all.
In a world without technology, one small American town… No, wait, that’s the voiceover for the the movie version of this novel.
“World Made by Hand” takes place in a petroleum-free near future without an effective central government. The US president is, or might be, living in Minneapolis and several major cities have been destroyed by nuclear terrorism. We don’t learn much about how this world came about. Instead, we read about people in a small New England town coping with shortages, motorhead salvagers, a baronial planter, and a religious cult.
I really enjoyed reading this, both for the characters and as an extended thought experiment. I only wish Kunstler had kept going instead of chopping the story off with a somewhat deus ex machina ending.
William R. Forstchen and Newt Gingrich
“Days of Infamy” continues the alternate history storyline begun in “Pearl Harbor: A Novel of December 8th“. The plot centers around a Midway-like battle immediately following the attack on Pearl Harbor. There’s lots of military action based in intelligent counterfactual speculation and none of the first book’s faults. My only complaint is that it takes Forstchen and Gingrich too long to crank these things out.
