Into the Darkness (World at War, Book 1) [Mass Market Paperback]

Harry Turtledove (Author)

Book Description

Series: Darkness | Publication Date: April 15, 2000

When the Duke of Bari suddenly dies, the neighboring nation of Algarve, long seething over its defeat a generation ago in the Six Years' War, sees its chance to bring Bari into the fold...an action which the other countries surrounding Algarve cannot, by treaty, tolerate. As nation after nation declares war, a chain of treaties are invoked, ultimately bringing almost all the Powers of Derlavai into a war of unprecedented destructiveness.

For modern magic is deadlier than in ears past. Trained flocks of dragons rain explosive fire down on defenseless cities. Massed infantry race from place to place along a network of ley-lines. Rival powers harness sea leviathans to help sabotage one another's ships. The lights are going out all across Derlavai, and will not come back on in this lifetime.

Against this tapestry Harry Turtledove tells the story of an enormous cast of characters: soldiers and generals, washerwomen and scholars, peasants and diplomats. For all the world, highborn and low, is being plunged by world war...into the darkness.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Harry Turtledove is known for his alternate histories; from The Guns of the South to The Great War: American Front, he's practiced at imagining the ways society would have changed if various things had been different in history. Sometimes it's a key figure surviving (or dying); other times it's a strange new variable, like aliens landing during World War II. With Into the Darkness, Turtledove investigates a new wrinkle in this successful field: What if a world war were fought using magic?

Although Into the Darkness doesn't take place on Earth, the characters are humans, and they react in plausible ways. In fact, the uses of magic for political ends are eerily similar to the ways weapons have been used to wage cold wars in our own world. And as the magic grows more powerful, the destructive cost of war to the people of Derlavai grows as well. This is no enchanting fantasy world where kindly old wizards use their magic to kill dragons and save fair maidens. Turtledove has envisioned a place where the humans are decidedly political and greedy, and where magic is just a way of getting what you want. --Adam Fisher --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly

War is hell and its chaos is a precarious foundation for supporting the sprawl of this epic fantasy. Paralleling the approach of his bestselling alternative histories, Turtledove (Guns of the South, the Worldwar series, etc.) imagines a civilization reminiscent of medieval Europe, save that sorcery is an accessible power harnessed for military use. In the land of Derlavai, armies tap the energy of ley lines for firepower, train dragons to drop incendiary eggs and commandeer leviathans for submarine warfare. Troubles begin when the armed forces of Algarve invade the kingdom of Forthweg to reclaim territories partitioned from them a generation before. Neighboring Unkerlant follows suit, occupying the remainder of Forthweg and competing with Algarve for control of the balkanized duchies drawn into the fray. Turtledove builds a panoramic narrative from the experiences of a cast of hundreds intended to represent a cross-section of Derlavian society, including inexperienced student Ealstan, sensible foreign minister Hajjaj, decadent marchioness Krasta, noble officer Rather, and Vanai, a descendant of the fallen Kaunian culture whose pervasive presence throughout Derlavai lends events an aura of fatalism. Cogently rendered scenes in which these and other characters display the extremes of cowardice and heroism induced by life during wartime give the novel a Tolstoyan sweep, yet never gel into anything resembling a cohesive plot. Dizzying shifts of viewpoint capture the convulsive character of combat but make allegiances hard to keep straight. Even the spectacular war scenes, described with frontline immediacy, become repetitive and generic. Like the casualties that crowd its pages, this novel sometimes seems a victim of overly complicated designs. Author tour.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 704 pages
• Publisher: Tor Fantasy; First Edition edition (April 15, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0812574729
• ISBN-13: 978-0812574722
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.1 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (66 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #931,899 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #37 in Books > 4-for-3 Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Authors, A-Z > ( T ) > Turtledove, Harry

More About the Author

Harry Turtledove is the award-winning author of the alternate-history works The Man with the Iron Heart; The Guns of the South; How Few Remain (winner of the Sidewise Award for Best Novel); the Worldwar saga: In the Balance, Tilting the Balance, Upsetting the Balance, and Striking the Balance; the Colonization books: Second Contact, Down to Earth, and Aftershocks; the Great War epics: American Front, Walk in Hell, and Breakthroughs; the American Empire novels: Blood & Iron, The Center Cannot Hold, and Victorious Opposition; and the Settling Accounts series: Return Engagement, Drive to the East, The Grapple, and In at the Death. Turtledove is married to fellow novelist Laura Frankos. They have three daughters: Alison, Rachel, and Rebecca.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

31 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars 50 percent fantasy, 50 percent history., March 14, 2000

By 

Jeph Gord - See all my reviews

This review is from: Into the Darkness (World at War, Book 1) (Hardcover)

It's hard to imagine history and fantasy working together, but Harry Turtledove pulls it off. Fantasy provides the setting, history provides the action. At first, this book did not excite me as much as Turtledove's other works. It sounded a little to weird. But once I started reading, I knew I had nothing to fear. I have come to recognise Turtledove as one of the most reliably entertaining novelists out there, and this one is no exception. As you might have picked up from the earlier reviews, this novel is a very faithful retelling of World War II with a "spells and dragons" fantasy world for a setting. Although the plot, by definition, isn't very original, the world is quite fascinating. It's interesting to see all the creative ways in which the presence of magic makes up for the absence of technology. Many previous reviewers have speculated on who represents who. Here are my guesses, along with the reasoning behind them:

Algarve is Germany. This is fairly obvious. It is the large, powerful country which everyone is afraid of. The Behemoth Blitzkrieg is another big tip-off.

Unkerlant is the USSR. Again, fairly obvious. It is another large, frightening empire. Even Algarve tries to avoid them (at first), just as Hitler avoided Stalin until he had the rest of continental Europe pacified. There is also a cruel Stalin analogue in charge.

Forthweg is Poland. It is the first country to fall, and ends up being divided between Algarve and Unkerlant.

The Duchy of Bari is Austria. The Algarvians march in to a hero's welcome.

Yanina might be Italy, but is more likely one of the Balkan countries. It is a much smaller but still potentially significant ally to Algarve. They also serve as a buffer against Unkerlant (which suggests the Balkans).

I can't be sure, but I think Sibiu is the Netherlands. Just as the Dutch were caught off-guard by paratroopers, the Sibians are caught off-guard by a carefully-organized sea attack.

Jelgava and Valmiera are France and Belgium. They fight bravely against Algarve, but are defeated fairly easily. I am not sure which is which, but am inclined to say that Valmiera is France, due to Krasta's aristocratic snobbery.

Zuwayza is Finland. It puts up effective resistance against Unkerlant, but is overwhelmed by sheer weight of numbers. They also negotiate a revenge alliance with Algarve, just as finland did with Hitler.

Lagoas is Britain. As an island nation, it is the only anti-Algarvian country able to escape invasion.

Kuusamo is the United States. They have remained out of the war with Algarve so far, and seem to be on the brink of discovering a magical A-bomb (M-bomb?).

Gyongyos is Japan. They are fighting an island war against Kuusamo, and are constantly referred to as "Gongs".

The Land of the Ice People is Africa. The rest of the world considers it very unpleasant, but builds colonies there for economic reasons (sure to offend the heck out of Afrocentrists).

Siaulia hasn't really been introduced to the story yet, but I'll bet it's Australia. The map makes it out to be a large but sparsely populated (no major cities) land mass.

Ortah has likewise not been introduced, but would appear to be Switzeland. It's small, mountainous, neutral, and in the middle of the continent.

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars WWII in a world of magic., June 23, 2003

By 

Oren Shochat "Oren Shochat" (Qadima Israel) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Into the Darkness (World at War, Book 1) (Mass Market Paperback)

As a general rule I Read the Amazon reviews starting with the lowest rating before making a purchase. Somehow I glean a lot more out of people advising me against reading a book. Into the Darkness had plenty 1 and 2 stars reviews but it had intrigued me so much I've decided to give it a shot anyway. I'm glad I did and I'll use this stage to answer some of the bad reviewers main points.
The main argument against this book and series was weak predictable characters with no development. Another common complaint was about the sheer number of them (about 15 viewpoint characters) which was confusing and didn't allow any of them to arise as a major character. I think anyone using this argument is missing the point entirely. This book focus is on EVENTS not on people. Turtledove is telling his version of imagined history. Read the rise and the fall of the third Reich (Shirer) or Stalingrad (Beevor) for comparison of historical text. Turtledove uses his characters eyes to describe events, for that matter he could have used a hundred different characters. The story would have been as good as his story telling is excellent. If you want character development during wartime read one of the masters (War and peace, Doctor Zhivago), this book style and pace is entirely different. Another point raised was that the similarity with the 2nd world war made it too predictable and boring. That is like saying that "every novel based on historical events is boring due to predetermined ending". A book doesn't have to be entirely fictional to be good. Another common complaint dismissed the feasibility of the magical and the social system. Hey guys, this is after all a Fantasy genre. I bet none of you said anything when Gandalf used his tricks.
So why only three stars?
* Turtledove sees the Soviet Union through western eyes. Stalin was in no way the idiot buffoon bent on whimsical decisions as depicted in the story. Cruel, Shrewd and paranoid, yes, but not an idiot.
* Turtledove somewhat removed the sting and humanized the Algarvians (The parallels to the WWII Nazis). As a Jew that is always hard for me to accept.
* The teeth breaking names Turtledove chose for his countries and characters were tough to remember which caused me a lot of annoying browsing to the legend pages.
Summery: Great military fantasy, I recommend reading it.

13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars World War Two with magic, January 25, 2000

By 

Jonathan Markley - See all my reviews

This review is from: Into the Darkness (World at War, Book 1) (Hardcover)

I am a fan of Turtledove's formula of alternate scenarios, and this isn't the first time he has written on the theme of societies where magic does the job of technology. I think this worked better in 'The Case of the Toxic Spell Dump' and 'Thessalonica' than it does here. In these other two books Turtledove treated the idea with humour and it worked. In this book he takes the idea altogether too seriously, and it just gets to the point where you are left wondering what difference it makes? This book might as well have been a tale of World War Two, and nothing more has really been added to the story by making it on a different world and using magic instead of technology. What difference does it make if you are flying on a dragon having dogfights and dropping bombs, or flying an aircraft? The only thing that I found interesting about this story was trying to place who was who (eg which state is Russia, which is Germany etc.) and I'm afraid it wasn't all that hard to spot. If you are going to write allegory, it ought to be a bit more subtle than this. There was, for example a small state which fought a war with the alternate 'USSR' and it was a desert nation, but it was pretty obvious that it was supposed to be Finland. There is even a minority people all set up to play the role of the Jews...

I've just been rereading Tolkien's 'Lord of the Rings' and I think Turtledove would do well to read his comments in the preface about the role of allegory in writing a story, and how he expressly denies trying to parallel it to the war, despite writing much of it during those years. 'Lord of the Rings' works better for it, and if Turtledove is going to write of fictional worlds I wish he would really do that. This was just too close to WWII, and he's already treated the WWII theme pretty thoroughly in his 4 books series of alien invasion.