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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Impressive conclusion to a mediocre series, May 27, 2010
This book makes a complete-feeling conclusion to the World At War saga. No loose ends, and very little story left to tell, Turtledove succeeds in closing this very long and complex series in a way that satisfies the reader. In order to do that however, this book was by necessity one of the longest of the series, and nearly the entire thing read like a conclusion. Throughout, you get the sense that Turtledove was trying to wrap things up as neatly and as efficiently (which Swemmel would have appreciated) as possible. No new plot elements were developed, nothing too unexpected happened, and the end of the series was accomplished without any hitches. In fact, this entire book was very predictable, with just about everything happening almost exactly like you'd expect it would, which is only exacerbated by this being a mirror-history to our own. Actually, in an effort to close out this series in a reasonable amount of space, Turtledove killed off a couple of characters that we had been following since the beginning right at the start of this book, all in all an effective strategy.
If you've enjoyed the rest of this series, this book should please you also. The general tone is similar and events sort of plod along their predetermined paths towards the predictable conclusion. Turtledove's writing in this book contains two noticeable differences from the rest of the series, one positive, one negative. On the positive side, the descriptions and character dialogue seem less repetitive here, something that all of the other books suffered greatly from. He finally stops (almost) pounding it into your head that Algarvians wear kilts and Forthwegians like mushrooms. Negatively, Turtledove seems to have become completely obsessed with sex while writing this one, even more so than in the previous books, and the constant references to it and descriptions of it here become distracting. One thing that having so many POV characters caused however, was that Turtledove had to spend a very large part of the book wrapping things up and telling the 'happily-ever-after' for each character. In effect, there was a separate conclusion for each character, and it seemed like the book could have closed just fine after any of the last 20 or so sections.
I would hesitate to recommend this series to anyone, especially considering how long it turned out to be. The main feeling I got from this one was "I'm Finally Done!!!", after finishing it. Nothing too memorable or inspirational here, overall a 3.8-star series. (( Into the Darkness 4-stars, Darkness Descending 5-stars, Through the Darkness 4-stars, Rulers of the Darkness 3-stars, Jaws of Darkness 4-stars, Out of the Darkness 3-stars)).
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6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
The end, at last, April 19, 2004
This review is from: Out of the Darkness (World at War, Book 6) (Hardcover)
Out of the Darkness, by Harry Turtledove The finale of a six-book series, which spans almost as many years in this fantasy retelling of World War II. This last book is the equivalent of 1945's collapse of Germany as the US and the USSR find themselves switching from allies to rivals. Turtledove's recasting our history as a fantasy world is intriguing, but after six books some of the analogies start to wear thin. Once again he follows more than a dozen different people through their misadventures due to war and social upheaval. Some will still be alive by the end of this book. Of those who don't make it, Turtledove is ready to move others in to represent that part of the story. Once again slight links to his other works flicker in and out: a character wondering what the world would be like if magic didn't work, or if there were no kings, or finding the phrase "I thank you" in two places (a common phrasing from yet another WWII series of his). Some characters will even find a happy ending, but not all. While this book, like the other five, was difficult to put down (I read it whenever I could over a day and a half), the formula which was so fresh and exciting in the first book seemed worn by book six. Yes, the aggressor nation, which is supposed to be Germany but the natives all have red hair, Italian names, and flamboyant style, loses in the end. Yes, one of the allies entering the war late becomes victorious, despite the Finnish names, the subdued emotions, and distinct resemblance to East Asians. About 75% of the story is straight history, add in the substitutions of technology for magic and monarchy everywhere, and then a few of Turtledove's adjustments. No China or Southeast Asia, no India, no Near or Middle Eastern nations either. The US equivalent shares an island with the British equivalent, yet the respective natives are very different from each other. In fact it was these blatant physical similarities between national groups that was hardest to accept by this sixth volume. Wouldn't there be mixes among the groups, especially at borders? While the "Poles" did bear some similarity to the "Russians," it was the strikingly different looks of the "Brits" versus the "Americans," sharing an island a la Haiti/Dominican Republic that made me lose it. And the technology for magic analogy also started to break down, despite the success of the "Manhattan project" (which was one of Turtledove's more ingenious ideas here). Because not once in these six books do any of these characters, who have lots and lots of marital relations, ever use or discuss or even wish for birth control. If sorcery works, wouldn't that be one of the first things people would ask for? Yet the problem of illegitimate and unacknowledged children is everywhere. And there is no religious authority, parallel to the Catholic Church, say, that is trying to stop birth control either, in fact there is no religion in these books at all other than the Japanese equivalents' constant concern for whether the stars will shine on their spirits after death. I think Turtledove started off great with the series and the idea of technology equals magic. After all the "Americans" had the best sorcery, such as the rest crate; a box that suspends time so you can keep your food hot or cold until you need it. But with all his effort on the magical version of an A-bomb, Turtledove didn't plan for what people really want from practical sorcery. (Yeah, a tailor using a charm to do most of his hand-stitching is kind of cool, but why isn't that midwife using any of these arts?) Still worth reading, still enjoyable, still has lots of thought behind the concept, and 300 times better than the poorly-executed Detina series (fantasy version of US civil war). But good enough that I dared to expect perfection and then was dissatisfied when I didn't get it.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Final instalment of Turtledove's WW2 Epic, February 24, 2007
"Out of the Darkness" is the sixth and final part of Harry Turtledove's reworking of the World War Two story set on a planet where people use magic instead of technology.
Dragon riders replace aircraft, Behemoths replace tanks, East and West have been transposed, Eurasia has been moved to the Southern hemisphere so that the Finns look like Zulus and the Saraha Desert becomes "the land of the Ice people." And all the names have been changed. But otherwise this is not alternative history at all.
By chance I read Anthony Beevor's "Stalingrad" shortly after reading the earlier voume ("Through the Darkness") in this series which included the events corresponding to that battle, and the same author's "Berlin" just before reading this one. Again and again I found myself recognising the real events on which Turtledove bases the disasters and atrocities in the "Darkness" books.
When reading the earlier books in this series I thought Turtledove's aim was to do was write an account of great evil and how some people were sucked into it, others fought against it, others just tried to live through it, changing some of the details so the reader could leave some of the emotional baggage behind. By the time I reached this book, my mind was instantly translating everything back to real-world equivalents - Algarve as Germany, Kaunians as Jews, Swemmel as Stalin, etc - but the book still has power to make the reader think. As one character explained in the previous book, nobody is the villain in his own story.
It is also a gripping story, not because the reader is in any doubt about what will happen overall, but because you want to know what will happen to the many viewpoint characters, most of whom are fictional creations caught up in real events.
In fact, Turtledove takes one noticeable liberty with history in this book, which I won't spoil by giving it away here, but anyone who wants to explore the point further after they've read this book might also be interested in Barbara Delaplace's short story "No Other Choice" which is included in the collection "Alternate Presidents."
The "Darkness" series is best read in the correct sequence -"Into the Darkness", "Darkness Descending", "Through the Darkness", "Rulers of the Darkness", "Jaws of Darkness" and finally "Out of the Darkness". The mood is as black as the titles indicate, but the series is a very exciting read.
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