Rulers of the Darkness

The fourth volume of Turtledove's six-part parallel history of the second world war in a world where technology uses magic instead of engineering. Most of the books of the series covers about a year of the war's history: in terms of equivalent time this one is the shortest, corresponding roughly to late Spring, Summer and Autumn 1943. It starts immediately after the Algarvian surrender at Sulingen (e.g. the German sixth army's surrender at Stalingrad) and the main thrust of the book describes the attack on the Durrwangen (Kursk) salient. This series of novels all have "Darkness" in the title but they are sometimes referred to as the "Derlavi" series, that being the name given in the stories to the huge continent which is historically equivalent to Eurasia. I have also seen it described as the "World at War" series. The full series is: Into the Darkness Darkness Descending Through the Darkness Rulers of the Darkness Jaws of Darkness Out of the Darkness Most alternative history books are "what if" stories which begin with a situation exactly as in our real history, change one detail, and depict how things might have gone on from there. Turtledove's "Darkness" series, and a similar series he wrote about the American Civil war, beginning with "Sentry Peak" are quite different. These novels describe how real events in our own world might have seemed to the people taking part in them. However, by mixing up details like North and South, skin colour, hair colour, etc, the author makes it easier for the reader to put aside the strong opinions which everyone holds about events like World War II. This helps you to identify with all the characters sufficiently, not to approve of what they did, but enough to begin to understand why they might have acted that way. As one person says in the following book, nobody is a villain in his own story. Sometimes the parallels between the fantasy world of these book are impishly amusing, for instance that the role taken in our world by Finland is played by an hot equatorial country whose inhabitants are more like Zulus than Finns. The North African desert becomes the "Land of the Ice People". Sometimes the irony is a lot more biting - for instance the "Kaunians" corresponding to the Jews are tall, fair skinned, and blonde. Both the strategic outline of the war and many local details of the books have been inspired by actual events. There are no major surprises in the main historical sequence of the story, although in a few places it has been simplified, and one or two of the countries and events in the story do not have a single precise analogue. "Sibiu", for instance, is an island nation in roughly the equivalent geographic location to Britain. However, in terms of the events of the war the country in these stories whose history corresponds most closely to Britain is not Sibiu but "Lagoas". For the first three books, the history of Sibiu, which was conquered by the Algarvians early in the war, matched most clo

Rulers of the Darkness is the book for you if you like fantasy and/or action books. The setting takes place in Derlavi and its bordering islands. This book contains many character's points of view so it is your opinion whether certain people are evil or certain people are good. There are way too many characters in this book, so I can't really tell you them all. Instead, I will tell you two of my four favorites. Pekka is a Kuusamin mage helping on a project to make a very powerful magic to turn the tides of the war. Fernau is working with Pekka and he likes her a lot but Pekka is married. I think this is an awesome book. Harry Turtledove is my favorite writer and I have only read one of his books! I recommend this book to good readers and people who like fantasy and/or action books.

Rulers of Darkness (2002) is the fourth novel in the World At War fantasy series, following Through the Darkness. In the previous volume, the Unkerlant trap the Argarvians within Suligen and cut off an escaping column. Major Spinello is flown out of Suligen with a chest wound. Outside Suligen, Leudast saves a man in the penal battalion and shares food with him. Within Suligen, a behemoth drops an egg on Transone. In Kuusamo, Pekka, Ilmarinen, Siuntio, and Fernao blow a great hole in the ground with the new sorcery and produce a clump of green grass amidst the snow. In far western Unkerlant, Istvan and his men scavenge felt boots off Unkerlanter corpses. In Zuwayza, Hajjaj learns about the new magic development from the Algarvian ambassador. In Forthweg, Vanai goes to the public bathhouse and finds Algarvians enjoying the public nudity. In Lagoas, Cornelu gets a new uniform coat, but finds Balio's cafe burnt to the ground. In this novel, Leudast's unit leaves retaken Suligen and heads north to the next hot spot. There, near Durrwangen, Sidroc and the Plegmund's Brigade are trying to hold back the Unkerlanter assault and are rescued by counterattacking Algarvians. In Trapani, Major Spinello is released from the hospital and assigned a regiment in Eoforwic. In Unkerlant, Marshall Rathar, despite his words of caution, is ordered to attack and keep attacking. In Valmiera, Skarnu has escaped to Ventspils but the red heads are close on his trail. In Kuusamo, Pekka and Fernao speculate that they are producing energy by twisting time with the new sorcery. In Jelgava, Talsu is interrogated by local constables who want names, but don't care whose they are. In Forthweg, many walls are beginning to bear the word "Suligen". Elsewhere in Forthweg, Bembo and his partner arrest Vanai's grandfather. In Grelz, Sadoc tries to hide footprints in the snow and makes them luminescent instead. In Valmiera, Krasta is beginning to think about the Algarvians loosing the war and not liking her thoughts. This series is an allegory of the World Wars. However, many of the details are deliberately scrambled. For example, the names for these nation states seem to have been taken from cities in various parts of the world: Kaunas, Valmiera and Jelgava are Latvian cities, Siaulia is Lithuanian, Algarve is Portuguese, Bari is Italian, Yanina is Greek, Gyongyos is Hungarian, Kuusamo is Finnish, Sibiu is Romanian, and Zuwayza is Jordanian. Lagoas means lakes in Portuguese and there are several towns and cities in Brazil and elsewhere that include Lagoas in their name. The geography in this series includes only a small number of nation states as compared to the real world. Everybody agrees that these states represent one or more of the real world countries as constituted after WWI: Algarve represents Germany, Unkerlant is the core states of the Soviet Union, Gyongyos is Japan, Zuwayza is Finland, Forthweg is Poland, Lagoas is England, Yanina is Italy, Kuus

Comprehensively defeated at Sulingen (Stalingrad), the Algarvian (German) invaders and their fairweather allies rally by springtime, but the summer offensive they are planning is blatantly obvious and culminates in 45 blistering pages of ferocious fighting as the Battle of Durrwangen (Kursk) explodes. As the Unkerlanters (Soviets) advance into Grelz (Ukraine) there is bitter vengeance for all collaborators... Falling back too are Plegmund's Brigade, a sort of Kaminski Brigade of bloodthirsty volunteers from Forthweg, whom I can easily predict razing Eoforwic (Warsaw) to the ground in the next book.Further east (or west) in Algarvian-occupied Forthweg (Poland), bookkeeper Ealstan and his sorcerously disguised Kaunian (Jewish) wife Vanai try to keep a low profile as Vanai's people are in turn persecuted and massacred, but the deception is proving ever harder to maintain. Amid all this, corrupt Algarvian occupation cop Bembo can't seem to stifle the odd flickerings of a conscience every now and then.As the tide of war turns against Algarve, collaborators in Valmiera (France) start to wonder whether they've backed the wrong horse (or behemoth, if you like). I see a shaven head and a tarring and feathering for Krasta in Book 7!Transferred away from the forest front in remote western Unkrlant, a platoon of Gyongyosian infantry have a terrible secret to conceal that could exile them from their own people forever. Funny, I didn't like curried goat either.In a magical world where trains are leyline-powered caravans, fighter-bombers are dragons and cinnabar is the oil that powers them, and where behemoths substitute for tanks and leviathans for U-boats, World War II progresses in the fourth of seven volumes, covering the equivalent of roughly February to November 1943.I'm completely hooked and can't wait for the next one. Thankfully, Harry Turtledove is astonishingly prolific, keeping on the go not only this epic saga but the second of the American Empire trilogy at the moment (and those follow three Great War books and their prequel, and three more still to come!). All proof that Potter's not the only wizard Harry in town.

Even though less happened with the war in the series than I might have expected, I still considered it a worthwhile read. The stories of each of the characters were interesting and easy to follow. I know that some reviewers here complain about how nothing much happened with the war and how it is dragging on, but I think that is exactly the feeling that Turtledove wished to convey because that's exactly how the series' characters are feeling about the raging conflict about them, as though it is never going to end.It was also interesting to see certain point of view characters interact as they meet for the first time. But I did feel that one of the characters: Cornlu, the leviathan rider, behaved a bit out of character in the end. I am also curious as to how the blossoming romance between the two mages, Pekka and Ferno, will develop.I eagerly await the next installment of this fascinating series.