Through the Darkness: A Novel of the World War--And Magic

The third installment of this series is a work of genius. The characters come alive and it is well worth a read. Harry Turtledave is the greatest author ever.

I have only read the first three books of the WORLD AT WAR Series, but this one is the best so far. The characters are just getting better and better, although the parts with some of the soldiers get a bit boring. But still this is the best book in the series so far.

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

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.

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