Darkness Descending (Darkness Series #2) » (~)

Harry Turtledove is the Hugo-winning author of many SF and fantasy novels. His alternate-history novels, include the bestselling The Guns of the South, How Few Remain, the Worldwar series, and the recent Ruled Britannia. He lives with his wife and daughters in Los Angeles.

Forthweg has been lost to the Algarvian and the Unkerlanter soldiers. Not satisfied to share the plundered Forthweg, Algarve invaces Unkerlant and begins its march on the capital during the harsh Unkerlant winter. Away from the front, Algarvian soldiers corral Kaunians to send them west, toward the front, to work camps. The Kaunians left behind are worried about what the camps might mean, but are assuaged by Algarvian lies.

In Kuusamo, scholars race to find the relation between the laws of similarity and contagion, while the patient warriors of Zuwayza weigh the merits of siding with either the Algarvians or the Unkerlanters. Rumors abound about the Algarvian work camps, rumors most cannot believe are true. But the mages know, for they can feel the loss of life in their very souls.

The characters take on their own lives as the reader sees the war from all sides and understands how the death and destruction benefits no one, not even the victors. In this world, the battle escalates and people tremble under the darkness descending.

Publishers Weekly

The author of the Worldwar and Great War series displays his virtuoso command of the details of WWII in this fourth book (after 2001's Through the Darkness) about a conflict between mythical feudal kingdoms using magic instead of science as the basis for technology. Aficionados will enjoy picking out the parallels the Japan-analog Gyonghos Empire, for example, fights "the grinning dwarves of Kuusamo" (i.e., the United States). On the equivalent of the Eastern front, the German-based Algarvian Empire recovers from its losses in the frozen urban hell of Sulingen and prepares for its usual summer advance against the forces of King Swemmel of Unkerlant, leading to a replay of the battle of Kursk. Turtledove's great strength has always been the depiction of ordinary characters who have to live with the consequences of their superiors' decisions an Algarvian policeman in Forthweg objects to rounding up Kaunians, while a group of theoretical magicians must work on a thaumaturgical Manhattan Project. Alternate history derives half of its fun and all of its significance from the understanding it fosters of the ur-conflict, but when the Algarvians begin mass killings of the Kaunian minority in Forthweg to incorporate their life energies into potent sorceries against their opponents, only to be matched by Swemmel's willingness to slaughter his own peasantry for a similar magical advantage, one doesn't feel that our understanding of the Holocaust is advanced. Turtledove may offer few insights into WWII, but he sure knows how to use the facts to entertain. (Mar. 28) Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.