A Change of Regime [Paperback]

J. N. Stroyar (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 10, 2004

The struggle against evil continues in A Change of Regime, with the characters introduced in J. N. Stroyar's award-winning, critically-acclaimed novel The Children's War. The Third Reich lives on! Having carried out the assassination of his former tormentor Peter Halifax returns to the secret enclave of the anti-Nazi resistance to continue the fight against the regime with his wife Zosia. Emboldened by his success in overcoming his past, Peter returns to Berlin and dices with death to fulfill his dream: providing an escape route for the slave laborers of the Reich. Meanwhile Zosia's brother Ryszard continues his attack from within as he infiltrates, as S. S. Colonel Richard Traugutt, ever deeper into the core of Nazi power, even to within grasp of the ultimate prize: Fhrer of the Third Reich. But there are other forces at work and as Ryszard is forced into betraying Peter, his political enemies plot their own Armageddon. Based on meticulous research and real-life stories, painstaking attention to detail gives the story a brutal reality. The novel addresses the issues of today as the characters wrestle with mad dictators, terrorism, and their own desperate passions. A tale of espionage, of love and betrayal, of courage and collaboration.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

J. N. Stroyar is a theoretical physicist living in Germany and has also worked in America, Belgium, and England.  Her extensive research for her books included visits to Poland, the former East Germany and the USSR, as well as studies of Nazi Germany, resistance movement archives, family accounts of slavery and concentration camps, and personal interviews with torture victims, Holocaust survivors, and former Nazis.

Product Details

• Paperback: 668 pages
• Publisher: AuthorHouse (May 10, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1418445398
• ISBN-13: 978-1418445393
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #977,622 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A powerful work of alternate history, June 14, 2005

By 

J. N. Mohlman (Barrington, RI USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: A Change of Regime (Hardcover)

First off, if you haven't read J. N. Stroyar's prior novel, "The Children's War" don't even attempt to tackle "A Change of Regime". While the author does provide a summary, it is barely enough for someone who read and absolutely loved the book; a newcomer will be hopelessly lost within a dozen pages. That said, "A Change of Regime" is a worthy follow-up to its predecessor. While I don't believe anyone could do justice to such a tremendous debut, Stroyar comes very close.

Picking up more or less where "The Children's War" left off, Stroyar continues her exploration of a resistance centered in occupied Poland that has been fighting, with varying degrees of success, Nazi occupation for sixty years. I don't wan't to risk too much in the way of spoilers for those new to the author, but fans will be pleased to know that much of the story continues to revolve around Zosia and Peter, although Zosia's brother, the infiltrator Richard, makes a welcome move to center stage.

As before, while the alternate history is impeccably researched and utterly believable, it is Stroyar's ability to work in issues relevant to our own world that makes "A Change of Regime" such a gripping read. Even more interestingly, she was able to deftly adjusted her focus to encompass the issues surrounding 9/11 and the subsequent War on Terror. Stroyar quite eloquently explores the desperation that drives people to acts of terror, but ultimately rejects such approaches as degrading and self defeating. Likewise, her consideration of whether a failure to act in the interests of humanity everywhere makes one complicit in acts of brutality echo both the justification for invading Iraq and other forceful democratization on the one hand, and the treatment of prisoners in places like Abu Grahib (or even the U.S.) on the other.

At the same time, new to this novel is a remarkable appreciation for the labyrinthine affairs of state that plague totalitarian regimes. While the slow decay of Nazi Germany and the parallels to the U.S.S.R. were quite effectively conveyed in "The Children's War", in "A Change of Regime" she pulls back the veil and reveals the vicious, corrupt decrepitude that permeates the nation's façade. The result is a book saturated with tension as Richard schemes his way to ever greater heights of power, all while trying to preserve his very soul.

My one complaint with the novel is that the relationship between Zosia and Peter is too strained to be effective early in the novel, and to easily resolved later. While the reasons why they would have a dysfunctional relationship are manifold, within the context of the book it is just too bleak; surrounded by horror, they are needed to offer some hope and while they needn't always triumph over adversity, neither should they be prisoners of the past. A corollary to this problem is that Zosia, and several other female characters drift from calculating to hysterical, and the result is what I am sure was a quite unintended, but nonetheless very real, denigration of their worth within the context of the larger resistance.

Ultimately, this shortfall is easily forgiven as it is understandable given the context and inconsequential when compared to the larger issues in play. Totally effective as an alternate history and yet equally powerful as an exploration of the dehumanization that comes with tyranny, "A Change of Regime" can be appreciated equally by genre and literary readers. Given the remarkable experience I had reading the "The Children's War" I approached the sequel with some trepidation, but happily, Stroyar has proven that she has total command of her world and her characters, and I can only hope there will be another follow-up.

Jake Mohlman

11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Stunning, June 7, 2004

By 

John (Frankfurt, Germany) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Change of Regime (Paperback)

Stroyar has done it again. A Change of Regime revisits the chillingly realistic alternate world that she brought to life so vividly in The Children's War. As we celebrate the 60th anniversary of DDay it is sobering to realise how close we came to living in Stroyar's world and how great a debt we owe to the heroes who saved western civilisation on the beaches of Normandy.

Many of the characters from the Children's War reappear in Stroyar's new work; but the emphasis this time is subtly different with a greater focus on the inner workings of power in the Reich.

The mood this time is lighter and the glimmerings of hope that were evident at the end of the first novel blossom, if not into freedom and democracy, then at least into tangible improvements. The resistance have to wrestle with the dilemna of when to stop fighting; if it is moral to use violence to overthrow totalitarian regimes is it also morally ok to use vioelnce against regimes that fail to live up to the highest standards of western democracy. Where do you draw the line: if it was ok to violently oppose the Third Reich was it also ok to attack Stalin's Soviet Union, and how about China today.

The moral questions Stroyar raises, albeit framed by her imaginary world are starkly relevant for us. If you want to understand why it is important to use force to overthrow totalitarian and why the human rights of all people not just Americans are always worth protecting then please read this book.

12 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Surprising and Important, June 12, 2004

By 

Werner Mueller (London, England) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Change of Regime (Paperback)

I must admit I approached this book with some misgivings after being given a copy by an enthusiatic friend. First, I am not a fan of alternate history and second, I have read more than enough about WWII and the Third Reich. But I was very pleasntly surprised; what Stroyar has done is to produce that rare and beautiful thing an allegory.
By taking us out of our complicated world, Stroyar drops us in an alternate reality where the moral choices, without being less complicated are just that little bit more starkly delineated. Importantly the choices that Stroyar's characters wrestle with are not abstract hypothetical ones but the ones we today face: when is violent opposition to tyranny legitimate; are the human rights of one group of humans less important than another and, vitally important for the USA today, how far can sel-defense go before a country loses the moral high ground and ceases to be worth defending.
Stroyar provides no canned answers to these questions, but after reading this book you may find your own answers subtly (or sometimes not so subtly) shifted,
Sure this book works as alternate history too, but really it is an important contribution to the current political debate.