Into the Darkness Book

Alternative history SF is Harry Turtledove's speciality--he rewrote the US Civil War with added AK-47s in The Guns of the South (1992), and dropped alien invaders into World War Two in his "Worldwar" tetralogy (1994-6). Into the Darkness opens a fantasy sequence which more distantly echoes the multi-factioned complexity of WWII, as nation after nation plunges or is sucked into an escalating war. Energy sticks and magical "eggs" replace rifles and bombs; there are armoured columns of behemoths, dragon air forces, sea leviathans planting limpet-mine eggs. Names, geography and details are all new, but one nation excels in magical Blitzkrieg tactics and also persecutes the equivalent of the Jews ... foreshadowing worse horrors to come, since in this world human sacrifice is a potent source of magic and death camps could be highly practical. There's a Dunkirk-like flotilla of small boats, but it's used for attack rather than retreat. Theoretical sorcerers are on the edge of some fundamental breakthrough: an occult Manhattan Project looks likely to follow. Avoiding the genre's Good versus Evil simplicities, Turtledove's fantasy wars relentlessly reflect our real world's intractability and mess. Into the Darkness reads well once it's gathered momentum, but the excitements are tinged with considerable grimness. Sequels will follow. --David LangfordRead More