Hitler's war

Review by Booklist Review

Turtledove is always good, but this return to World War II, one of his favorite turfs, is genuinely brilliant. Suppose Britain and France had not folded at Munich, and the Sudeten Crisis had led to war? In Turtledove's alternate history, a Czech soldier fights to the last before fleeing to Poland and then France, while a traveling American wife fights the German bureaucracy, as tenaciously as the Wehrmacht if not as skilled, to get home. The tankers of the Wehrmacht ride into battle in the modest Mark III, radio-equipped but undergunned, while on the opposite side, a French conscript and a British sergeant improvise a new war effort. Stuka pilot Hans Ulrich Rudel is as brilliant as his counterpart in our time line, while trying to live the clean life of a minister's son. Russian bomber pilots have to fly against the Poles (a German ally), while worrying about the secret police, while in Germany the Goldman family is watchful about everything. And in Peking, the American marines are evacuated to Shanghai, while Sergeant Suzuki, a good and loyal soldier of his emperor, marches into Russian Siberia at the same time the German spearheads are being halted not far from Paris. The characterizations in particular bring the book to extraordinary life and will make most readers hope this is the beginning of another saga.--Green, Roland Copyright 2009 Booklist

From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.

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Review by Publisher's Weekly Review

Alternate historian Turtledove (The Man with the Iron Heart) brings the deprivations of war to life in this vision of a very different WWII. After Konrad Henlein is assassinated in Czechoslovakia in 1938, France and England refuse to condone Hitler's plans for annexation, so he invades instead. American Peggy Druce, caught behind the lines, gets a firsthand look at the period military hardware and nationalistic mindsets that Turtledove so expertly describes, though readers looking for more characterization or plotting may be disappointed. Action in the Spanish Civil War and on the Mongolian border muddy the waters, possibly setting up for a clearer plot in subsequent volumes. Until Turtledove reveals more of the direction this scenario will take, there is little to differentiate it from many of his other novels. (Aug.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

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Review by Library Journal Review

The 20th century's world wars have provided Turtledove with ample material for his alternate histories (e.g., "The Great War" tetralogy). His latest series ponders what might have happened if British prime minister Neville Chamberlain had refused to allow German annexation of the Sudetenland in 1938. As in previous books, the author tells his tale through a series of alternating minisagas that follow select fictional and historic characters through his narrative arc. Verdict The author's mastery of the ever-widening ripples that small changes make in history is unchallenged, his storytelling always gripping, and his research impeccable. Certain to appeal to alternate history and World War II aficionados. [Library marketing campaign.] (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

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Chapter One 20 July 1936--outside Lisbon General José Sanjurjo was a short, heavyset man in his early sixties. He looked from the light plane to the pilot and back again. "Is everything in readiness?" he asked, his tone saying heads would roll if the pilot told him no. Major Juan Antonio Ansaldo didn't tell him anything, not right away. Ansaldo was pacing back and forth, his agitation growing with every stride. He watched as Sanjurjo's aides shoved two large, heavy trunks into the airplane. "Those look heavy," Ansaldo said at last. "They hold the general's uniforms!" an aide said, as if to a simpleton. "On the eve of his victorious march into Madrid, he can't arrive in Burgos without uniforms!" Nervously, Ansaldo lit a cigarette. Who was he, a major, to tell Spain's most senior--and most prestigious--general what to do? He'd placed himself at the disposal of the Spanish state . . . which Sanjurjo would embody, once he flew from Portugal to Burgos to take charge of the rising against the Spanish Republic. When he flew to Burgos? If he flew to Burgos! The city, in north-central Spain, was a long way from Lisbon. The plane, a two-seater, had only so much fuel and only so strong a motor. "General . . ." Ansaldo said. "What is it?" growled the man people called the Lion of the Rif because of his victories in Spanish Morocco. "¡Viva Sanjurjo!" the general's men shouted. "¡Viva España!" Sanjurjo preened . . . as well as a short, heavyset man in his sixties could preen. "Now I know my flag is waving over Spain," he boomed like a courting grouse. "When I hear the Royal March again, I will be ready to die!" That gave Major Ansaldo the opening he needed. "General, I don't want you to die before you get to Spain, before you hear the Royal March again." "What are you talking about?" Sanjurjo demanded. "Sir, those trunks your men put aboard--" "What about them? They're my uniforms, as my aides told you. A man is hardly a man without his uniforms." At the moment, Sanjurjo was wearing a light gray summer-weight civilian suit. He looked and acted quite manly enough for Ansaldo. "They weigh a lot." The pilot gestured. "Look at the pine trees all around the airstrip. I need the plane's full power to take off. I have to make sure I have enough fuel to fly you to Burgos. I don't want anything to happen to you, Señor. Spain needs you too much to take chances." General Sanjurjo frowned--not fearsomely, but thoughtfully. "I can't fly into Burgos like this." He brushed at the gray linen of his sleeve. "Why not, your Excellency? Why not?" Ansaldo asked. "Don't you think the people of Burgos would be delighted--would be honored--to give you anything you need? Aren't there any uniforms in Burgos? God help the rising if that's true!" "God help the rising." Sanjurjo crossed himself. Major Ansaldo followed suit. The general took a gold case from an inside jacket pocket and lit a cigarette of his own. He smoked in abrupt, savage drags. "So you think we'll crash with my uniforms on board, do you?" "When you're flying, you never know," the pilot answered. "That's why you don't want to take any chances you don't have to." Sanjurjo grunted. He took a couple of more puffs on the aromatic Turkish cigarette, then ground it out under his heel. "Luis! Orlando!" he called. "Get the trunks off the plane!" His aides stared as if the Excerpted from Hitler's War by Harry Turtledove All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.

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