Zero Over Berlin (Hardcover)

by Joh Sasaki (Author), Hiroko Yoda (Author), Matt Alt (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
A major Japanese talent in detective and thriller fiction appears in English with this excellent, compact WWII tale. Hitler decides to build a Japanese Zero fighter, and Japanese navy officials, with mixed feelings about the alliance with Germany, have to find some way of getting two Zeros from Japan to Germany. This involves picking two maverick pilots, Lt. Keichi Ando and NCO Kyohei Inui, and arranging for airfields in British territory (India) and British-patrolled territory (Iran and Iraq). Both pilots are well-drawn characters, Ando especially, and competent sketches of people like Gaj Singh, an anti-British maharajah; Ando's sister Michiko; and American pilot of fortune Jim Purvis lend depth to the book. So do the flying scenes (including a raid on British Victoria bombers in Iraq, into which the Japanese pilots are blackmailed by Iraqi Colonel Hussein). Sasaki also draws on the wartime history of Japan to deal with themes not well-known to Western readers, including the rivalry between the Japanese army and navy and the "culture war" between Japanese patriotically sticking to traditional ways and those maintaining modern tastes. The writing is sometimes awkward but never incomprehensible, the pacing breakneck, the cast a trifle large for the length, but the total effect a compact Japanese version of a W.E.B. Griffin novel.
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Review
"...a compact Japanese version of a W.E.B. Griffin novel." - Publishers Weekly

"Much more than just a plane-ride story, Zero Over Berlin offers a broad canvas of a world uneasily slipping into a world war. "- The Complete Review


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Product Details

• Hardcover: 352 pages
• Publisher: Vertical (July 1, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1932234098
• ISBN-13: 978-1932234091
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.3 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,764,082 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good book, interesting author, March 26, 2005

By	Jason (Castro Valley, CA) - See all my reviews

When I first read the book it was almost like the mission really happened. This is also part of a trilogy of books based during WW2.
As for this being a pro-axis book. Come on, pilots of an axis power would consider England as the enemy. This doesn't mean that the book is trying to make what Japan did in WW2 acceptable. One of the two pilots, Ando, even hates the Japanese military for what they have done.
On a side note, I saw the author talk about this book in San Francisco. It's interesting that an engineer for Honda would become an author.
Even he is sure this book will not become a movie or mini-series, as a couple of his other books have in Japan, because of the production cost.

5 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fun to read, so speedy, but also so deep!, July 27, 2004

By	NovelNinja2 "Tom" (Japan) - See all my reviews

The great author in Japan, Sir. Joh Sasaki,
finally presented this Planet Wide Zero Fighter's Pilots Adventure
novel in any other language areas!
I really want to see "Zero Over Brlin" at any theaters
as the one of Hollywood Made cinema!
I can't wait for that!
Please read at first!

3 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Disturbing pro-Axis slant, October 28, 2004

By	zombie (California) - See all my reviews

Yes, the story line is interesting, and the book moves along energetically, and the historical details are informative. No one's going to deny that. But I am deeply disturbed by a more fundamental apect of this book: the Axis Powers (Japan and Germany) are portrayed as the good guys, and the Allies are the villains. We as the readers are expected to root for the Nazis and the Japanese imperialists -- not as some sort of postmodern ironic joke, but for real. The British and the Russians and the Americans menace and threaten the book's heroes. While the hero/villain dichotomy is not completely black and white in Zeros Over Berlin, the basic thrust is that the readers want the pilots to get their planes to Berlin so the Nazis can copy the designs and drop bombs on England and America.

I see this book as part of a long-term trend -- which is really coming to a critical point in recent months -- of rehabilitating the reputations of the Axis Powers in WWII. England issued a sort-of apology just a month ago for attacking Germany at the end of WWII, and both Japanese and German politicians, authors and historians have been declaring of late that they should feel no more national shame than the Allied Powers do. Zeros Over Berlin is part of that trend, and because of that I feel it sets a dangerous precedent.