Book 26

"In The Presence Of Mine Enemies" by Harry Tutrledove

For those not in the know, Harry Turtledove is probably the most successful alternate history authot in the world. His books are usually thick, well-researched, moderately paced and contain one or two sex scenes so needlessly tacked on that Sam and I are considering getting him a hooker so he can stop doing it. They are also usually interesting, enjoyable and pretty damn cool when you get down to it. I've read the first few books of the World War series, and some of his others and enjoyed them immensely.

"In The Presence Of Mine Enemies" centres around the premise that the Nazis won World War II. And World War III. They control Europe, North America and a few other places here and there and have been almost completely successful in wiping out the Jew, Gypsies and other untermenschen. They have also not been subtl about how they did it, so unlike similar works (like "Fatherland") the Nazis are open about how they've been exterminating people. The central characters of the story are a group of Jews living secretly in Berlin. Set in the early years of the twenty-first century, the old Fuhrer has died and a new leader with a mind to reform has been appointed. The events of the novel include strengthening protests seeking democracy, a general display of hatred toward the SS and lots of bridge playing.

Overall, this is a good book. The story kept me interested, the characters were sympathetic and the action was well-written. It looks to me like it was an analogy for the fall of the Iron Curtain, where civil pressures and unrest led to reform that maybe som eareas in the government weren't ready for. There were even one or two twists that I didn't see coming.

What bugged me about it was how much Turtledove laboured some of the his points in the writing. For the first two thirds of the book, barely two pages go by without one of the Jewish characters making some reference to how they can't get away with anything or bring any suspicion down on their heads or shouldn't say this or couldn't possibly do that because they are Jewish. Sometimes it would be only a single page, or twice in page. We get it! We understand that they have to be careful! I'm sure that we're meant to get a rising feeling of dread or something, but I just found myself getting frustrated with the repetition.

Apart from that, I'd recommend this book to all fans of historical or sci-fi books.

Three and a half Aryan Ubermenschen.