Customer Reviews

Through the Darkness (World at War, Book 3)

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Turtledove, long recognized as the Grand Master of Alternate History, has now firmly established himself as a fine crafter of off-beat fantasy extravaganzas, as well. His sweeping, multi-volume "Darkness" epic retells World War II with a very bizarre twist: the world is not Earth, and magic takes the place of science. Strange though this may sound, it has made for a very fascinating and entertaining series. Military historians will enjoy looking for familiar places and events, while fantasy buffs will find plenty of interesting magical gadgets. And, as long-time Turtledove fans have come to expect, there is a large and varied cast of characters, representing every nation and all walks of life. From these myriad viewpoints, readers are treated to a full view of the war, in all its bloody detail.

In this third volume, the struggle enters its critical phase. Events are taking place that will have a major effect on the outcome of the conflict. Algarve (Germany) gears up for a massive assault on Sulingen (Stalingrad). If they can take this strategically-vital city, the material wealth of southern Unkerlant (Russia) will be theirs for the taking. Meanwhile, down in the Land of the Ice People (North Africa), Lagoan (British) and Kuusaman (American) forces struggle to expell the Algarvians, with massive supplies of cinnabar at stake. This valuable mineral allows dragons to shoot their fiery breaths much further, greatly increasing the air power of whoever posesses it. And in Kuusamo itself, government-backed mages continue to plumb the deepest, darkest depths of magic theory. The further their research progresses, the more astonishing- and terrifying- their findings become. Although some are afraid to continue, no one wants to run the risk falling behind Algarve.

All of this is told with Turtledove's usual blend of action, humor, romance, and suspense. And the horror of WWII is never far away: Algarve continues to sacrifice innocent Kaunians in a savage Holocaust, using their life energy to power deadly magical attacks. Against this increasingly terrifying backdrop, the myriad viewpoint characters must fight just to stay alive. In the conquered kingdom of Forthweg (Poland), Ealstan the bookkeeper struggles to keep his Kaunian lover hidden from the prying eyes of the Algarvians. Far to the east, in Valmiera, Skarnu's guerrilla war with the occupying army places his life in increasing danger. Trasone comes face to face with the sheer determination of King Swemmel's (Stalin's) soldiers as he fights for his life in the blasted streets of Sulingen.

If you've read the previous books, don't hesitate to buy this one. A gripping and detailed flight of (dark) fantasy, it is a most enjoyable way to spend your leisure time.

Harry Turtledove continues his (sort of) retelling of World War II in "Through the Darkness", the third book in his World-War-II-as-a-fantasy-epic series. The third book in the series is just as effective - and enjoyable - as the previous two and takes us from the equivalent of early spring 1942 through the winter of 1942-43.

This book covers the continuation of (primarily) the equivalent of the European theater of the war and details the fighting up through this world's equivalent of the end of the seige of Stalingrad - Sulingen in Turtledove's world - by Algarvian (German) forces as well as the Lagoan and Kuusaman (British and American) victory in North Africa and the continuing research by the Kuusamans (Americans) into the the nature of magic (read: The Manhattan Project).

As with the previous books in the series, this one does not parallel World War II exactly and while most of the major countries that fought in World War II are included (the major exception being China), attention is definitely focused far more on Turtledove's equivalents of Germany, France, Poland and Russia than it is on the countries representing America, Britain and Japan. In fact, the Pacific War practically does not exist in the series as the role of China seems to be portrayed by Unkerlant, the Russia-equivalent, and the entire Pacific War is told from the perspective of one character given roughly equal weight with the other people whose stories are told. To put this in perspective, the Poles and the Jews have three characters, the Germans three, the Soviets two, the French two, and the Americans, Finns, Belgians, British and Dutch one each.

As with the previous novels, the story of the war is told through each of the characters and many important events are either lived through or mentioned as background information, depending on whether or not he has a character in the appropriate location. The characters are all pretty standard for this style of story (the Darkness series is very similar in style to the Worldwar series and the Great War series) and while entertaining, none of them have great depth. The real fun of the story is in comparing the story to the actual history.

I, for one, learned a fair amount of history after reading this book, much like I did after reading the previous two. If anything, it reminded me how little I knew of the European Theatre of the War and has definitely given me the incentive to read more about World War II - which, after all, may well be Turtledove's point in writing the series. He certainly does a good job of presenting World War II from a nontraditional viewpoint and definitely reminds us that not everyone that fights for an evil cause is evil - or that everyone that fights for a good one is good.

On the whole, I definitely recommend giving this series a try. While I regret the fact that so little attention is paid to the equivalent of the Pacific side of the war - the history of the Pacific War is every bit a fascinating and terrifying as the European War - it's definitely a worthy read. If you haven't read the previous novels already (Into the Darkness and Darkness Descending), though, I definitely recommend picking those up first.

This book is the third installment of Harry Turtledove's World at War Series in which a fantasy world of magic and dragons is plunged into a scenario along the same lines as our own Second World War. Most of the same characters return for this volume and the same plot lines are continued.

At this point in this series, you are no longer reading these books if you don't like the plot or the characters. Personally, I find the characters engrossing and the plot line interesting. While it is sometimes obvious how a plot will play out because of knowledge of WWII it is interesting to see how Turtledove makes it work in a fantasy setting and what characters he looses or gains along the way. I am particularly interested to see how the "Manhattan Project" plot line ends. Some other readers complain about the large number of characters involved and keeping them straight, Turtledove does a good job of reminding us who is who and I find I don't have any trouble with it. This book pretty much parallels the events of 1942 into 1943. I would advise against reading this book unless you have read the first two books in the series.

To be honest, I started this series only planning to read one book as a break between some other non-fiction that I was reading. I have not been able to put down the series since, every week I go back to the bookstore (we won't mention which one since it is a rival!) to buy another book in this series. I don't plan on stopping until I have read all these books (two more, so far) and then I will anxiously await the next book.

This series gets better and better. Now 3 books in, you find yourself automaticaly 'translating' the various protagonists in this magic-driven WWII into their 'real' equivalents. And, even though their national characteristics are completely different (to extremes in the case of the Zuwayzi/Finns) you find yourself rooting for 'your' side. But, if that was all the books were about it would get boring pretty quickly. Fortunately, the book is entertaining in its own right, doing that 'grand sweep of history' thing that Turtledove does so well, with a huge number of characters, including ones he's not afraid to kill off as the war progresses. Definitely worth reading 'Into the darkness' and 'Darkness Descending' first though. And here's to the next volume where Yanina gets invaded and changes sides and the Lagoans and Kuusaman start strategic dragon raids against Algarve!

Turtledove has written excellent characters, and interesting plots. He is one of the few authors to kill off main characters, which is realistic (there IS a war going on here), but it is frustrating to have a well-liked character be killed.

This series has a ton of action, emotion, and suspense. The characters race the clock, and time never seems to be on their side. Despite all the problems, love still thrives and life goes on. This is a great book, and a great series.

The war for Derlavai continues to engulf the continent, one bloody step at a time, and its residents are unable to stop it.

Having easily smashed Forthweg, Jelgava, Sibiu, and Valmiera, Algarve seems to have met its match in the vast frozen wastelands of Unkerlant. Even continuing to use the life energy of murdered Kaunians, the Unkerlanters aren't breaking, and instead follow suit by murdering their own people. A desparate war is being raged in the streets of Sulingen, including a deadly feud between two snipers. Meanwhile, scholars of Lagoas and Kuusamo struggle to unlock a magical secret that can shift the course of the war.

Turtledove's engrossing characters also struggle with their lives. In Forthweg, Kaunian girl Vanai discovers a spell that gives her and other Kaunians a new shot at life. In the north of Zuwayza, King Shazli begins to admit Kaunian refugees, while in the south of Valmiera, Krasta cuddles up to her Algarvian lover while her brother fights against them in the underground resistance.

While any Turtledove fan can forgive the reduntant character descriptions and phrases, they will always enjoy the tale.

Through the Darkness (2001) is the third novel in the World At War fantasy series, following Darkness Descending. In the previous volume, the Algarvians, although outnumbered in Grelz, keep outmaneuvering the Unkerlanter army. In Kuusamo, Pekka, with Siuntio and Ilmarinen observing, uses a divergent series chant to release enough energy to blow out all the window glass in the lab. In Forthweg, Sidroc finally signs up for Plegmund's Brigade and Ealstan is sick, so Vanai has to venture out to get medicines for him.

Cornelu finds that his Lagoan leviathan isn't as well trained as Eforiel, but still gets the job done. In Jelgava, Talsu keeps being told that he is lucky to be alive after the stabbing incident. In far western Unkerlant, Istvan is not enjoying his stroll through the woods, being too busy fighting ambushes and forest fires. In Valmiera, Valnu takes Krasta for a walk just before a bomb goes off where they had been; unfortunately, the bomb only causes superficial damage to Colonel Lurcanio. In Grelz, Garivald is caught by the Algarvians but is rescued by Unkerlanter irregulars.

In this novel, Ealstan recovers from the sickness and finds that some of his clients have made other arrangements. Zuwayza has Kaunians coming to their shores requesting asylum from the Algarvians. Skarnu attends a meeting of the resistance which is raided by the Algarvians. Constable Bembo and his fellows come to Oyngestun to round up Kaunians. Garivald goes on his first ambush with the Unkerlant irregulars. Colonel Sabrino returns to his dragon farm to find that the Lagoan dragons had dropped eggs there earlier.

On the Southern continent, Fernao is pleased when Kuusaman and Lagoan dragons fly in, but they don't bring any more supplies; the meals continue to be camel or ptarmigan. Leudast's men give the Algarvians a hard time in a swamp before reforming on higher land.

Marshall Rathar perceives the Algarvian strategy and convinces King Swemmell that the red heads are trying to take the Mamming Hills. The King permits him to build up his forces to stop the Algavians before Suligen.

This series is an allegory of the World Wars, with magic replacing the science and technology of this worldline. Some of the events in this series are more indicative of the first World War while others are more like the second; for example, the life force magic is analogous to the chemical weapons used in WWI, but the new magic being developed by the Kuusamans is much more like the atomic weapons developed during WWII.

Another reflection of earlier events is the invasion of Gyongyos into far western Unkerlant. These actions seem to reflect various Japanese intrusions into Russian territories beginning with the Russo-Japanese War in 1904-1905, through the Russian Civil War in 1917-1921, and then to 1924, when Japan returned Sakhalin Island. However, Japan occupied other areas, including Korea, in the northern Pacific coast of the Far East until the end of WWII.

Recommended for Turtledove fans and anyone else who enjoys speculative fiction with a strong historical and moral component.

-Arthur W. Jordin

THROUGH THE DARKNESS continues the wonderfully imaginative fantasy mirroring our own World War II. As with the previous books, this one is very enjoyable, full of familiar (depending on your knowledge of WWII) scenes from our own history. While it may seem like a predictable plot, Turtledove is able to maintain enough uniqueness to keep the readers' attention. As the story progressively unfolds here, the characters further develop into more and more knowable (and likeable) figures. And even though you may know the primary direction of the overall story, you'll still be interested in following each of these characters through their unique adventures, and there is no way you'll predict where they'll end up.

In this book, the primary story focuses on the Derlavian War's battle for Stalingrad (Sulingen here) where the Algarvians have gotten bogged down in an over-reaching effort to capture Unkerlandt's Cinnabar deposits. Elsewhere, irregulars continue to battle the occupying Algarvians in any way they can, and the equivalent of the Manhattan Project continues on without a hitch. The dynamics of the war continue to change, and each of the primary characters from the first two books are still the focus here. Somehow, Turtledove is able to keep each of those characters' stories interesting even when they don't seem to be directly involved in the main events of the book.

The only major complaint I have about this story reflects the most common criticism of Turtledove's writing. Redundant and repetitive descriptions of characters/settings and constant reminders of easily-memorable facts is at times extremely annoying. We know that camel meat tastes bad. We know that Algarvians are overly expressive. We know the Gyongyosians don't eat goat. We know that the Zuwayzi(sp?) don't wear clothes. WE KNOW! Also, Turtledoves penchant for starting each character's section in the same way, time after time, is frustrating. If Pekka is surprised by a knock on her door one more time, I think I may rip some of my hair out. I guess Turtledove wants to hammer into his readers' brains certain characteristics of his characters, but overly repetitive actions and very similar scenes occurring over and over can be extremely off-putting. Almost like your intelligence is being questioned. Thus, four stars instead of the five stars this book came close to deserving.

Still highly recommended for those interested in getting involved in an epic fantasy closely mirroring our World War II.

Really, I think that this is a great book. I would prefer to give this a 3.5, but that unfortunately isn't an option. It has great action and great character developement, yet I think there are some weak points in it, mainly how often it switches characters, and also the setting.
The big problem I saw with how often it switches characters is that it switches so often that it's difficult to really get into the book. There are several main characters who are in this book, and every 6-10 pages the main character switches. Then you don't normally find out any more about them until 30-60 pages later, resulting in getting bored occasionally. Also, if you like a few characters in particular, it's anoying when it switches to a character you don't like that much.
I think that a good description of the setting is one of the most important parts of any book. The setting really isn't described that well throughout the book. Sure, Harry Turtledove gave a great description about what everything looked like all over the place, but that description doesn't make me feel the way that I feel about settings in books such as The Lord of the Rings, or R.A. Salvatore's Dark Elf Trilogy, which are very great parts of those books. I really think that Through th Darkness was hurt by this.
Although there are a few poor parts of this book, I think that it is very exelent, and I would deffinately recommend it to anyone who has read the first two books, and anyone who enjoys war books. If you are unsure about if you should buy this or the first book, get it anyway, it's an exelent book.

This marvelous continuation of World War II (I mean delevaian war) lets us see deeper into the characters. Harry has picked a good war to write about. Usually his series run out of steam around the third book, due to the huge scope of the historical background his format thrives and gets better. All his viewpoint characters are memorable (a feat in itself).

Also on a side note all the place names in the novel are not made up rather names of places that are expropriated (the Kuusamo tourist board site is a must see)

Enjoy!