Wolf Hunt (The Burning Ages) [Kindle Edition]

Clocking in over 60 million dead, WWII was the deadliest war in history. So if you somehow found yourself thrown backward in time to 1940, before the most brutal campaigns of the war, before the Holocaust was in full swing, before Barbarossa, before Pearl Harbor and Nagasaki, and for that matter before the Soviet Occupation of Eastern Europe, the division of Germany and the fall of China to Mao, you might be tempted to try to change history.

Especially if you happened to have the power of a NATO naval fleet at your command.

Alternate histories of WWII and the idea of people from our near future traveling back in time to WWII, are not new, but this book offers a unique twist. For more than half of the NATO force that find themselves thrust back in time are German. And they have their own, very strong ideas about how history can be improved.

The premise is pure, distilled awesome. As I was reading the beginning, I was wondering, are these NATO forces *really* going to turn on each other? Is that believable? But the author made it not only seem believable, he keeps both sides very sympathetic and heroic.

At the heart of the story are two men, a German, Captain Florian Hallwinter of the German lead ship, the destroyer FMG Brandt, and an American, Captain Steven Flynn of the US Navy destroyer USS Halsey. Their deep friendship is what makes the story downright gut wrenching when everything goes south and they find themselves on opposite sides. There are a number of well-drawn supporting characters as well. No one in this book is a caricature, each comes across as a flesh-and-blood person with strengths and weakness--even the more vile ones.

There are also a lot of frankly fun scenes in here. Haven't you secretly always wanted to know how a battle would go between fellow NATO ships? (Be honest.) How modern destroyers would fair against the pride of WWII's navies? How geeks from Los Alamos would react if you showed them a modern computer? If a single twenty-first century soldier could take out a panzer?

Why I almost gave this book 4 stars instead of five: There are malapropisms, which interrupt the smooth reading, and a fair share of clunky sentences. (Not unlike the writing in The Girl with the Dragon Tatoo.)

Why I gave it 5 stars anyway: I stayed up all night to finish this book. My biggest regret after toggling the last page was that the sequel is not out yet.

This book ended with a satisfying bang. It could be a stand alone, but there's also plenty room for more. I am curious to see where the author will take it from here.

Tara Maya
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Many readers will compare this novel with John Birmingham's "Axis of Evil Trilogy". In both universes we get a naval force from the future taken back in time into the Second World War. And in both cases they try to change history as we know it. The similarities end there and I urge every fan of alternate history to pick this book up.

I really found myself fascinated with this novel. If the "Axis of Evil" books dropped the reader right into the action (don't get me wrong, I loved them), "Wolf Hunt" takes its time, letting you discover the characters and the dilemmas they face. The main characters are good friends and both have a sense of honour that will take them down opposite paths. From friends to enemies it's a long trip, but the author knows how to keep the reader interested without swamping him with technobabble, battles, historic "cameos" and jokes.

You get the feeling the author did a thorough research and really tried to write a book that is much more than a "Uptimers Vs. Evil Nazis". And he did a excellent job! The book kept me glued until the last page and, without spoiling anything (just a hint - the next book will be called "Clash Of Eagles"), I can say I was surprised by the ending. Changing history isn't as simple as it seems and even if you have the military upper-hand, there's always going to be some resistance.

To finish, another reviewer mentioned a "fair share of clunky sentences" and I have to agree with her. I think there are lots of commas missing, making some sentences very long and, sometimes, even hard to read. But that isn't enough to spoil the book, especially if you take into account that the author isn't a native English speaker.

I can only hope that Mr. Breit gets picked up by a big publisher who further helps him in his burgeoning career. If his first book - self-published - is this good, one can only imagine how far can he go if supported.

This novel engaged me from the first page to the last. Though the book weighs in at 175,000 words--three times as long as an ordinary novel--I never felt the work was too long. It certainly was never boring. I was impressed on every page by the author's broad and deep knowledge of both present-day and World War II era armaments and weapons systems. He integrated an enormous array of highly technical information into a story that could go toe to toe with anything by Tom Clancy--and win, hands down. As might be expected in a story drawing heavily from the techno-thriller genre, characters are mostly throw-away, one-dimensional creations. But one does not read a story of this type for the characters. Technology bristles on every page of this novel. In less capable hands, the weaponry would serve merely as a catalogue of the author's vast knowledge. Even in the capable hands of someone of the stature of Tom Clancy, stories can become bogged down in technical details that are difficult to make sense of. Mr. Breit somehow avoids both problems in this novel, creating a story that is as compelling as I have read.

I normally reserve accolades such as these for five-star novels. This novel, unfortunately, is not among the few books I have granted a perfect score. If I read a book only for plotting and integration of far-flung bits of technical savvy and historical erudition, this book would certainly earn five stars. However, this novel suffers a most noticeable deficiency in editing. Though I have to applaud Mr. Breit--a native German--for his command of the English language, the quality of his writing does not meet the standards I expect in an engaging novel. Rather than `esprit de corps', I read `esprit the corps'. Words of just slightly incorrect meaning were often used, as in "It was one of those seldom moments when the world and Moritz Dierke were in the balance." An experienced wordsmith would probably render the previous sentence as "It was one of those rare moments when the world and Moritz Dierke were in balance." Frequently used phrases included `everything but', as in "The Second Operation's Officer was everything but a superstitious man" or "The picture emerging from these reports was everything but encouraging." Interrogatives were frequently used in statements, such as in this example: "With how cheap, reliable, and superior in quality digital radio communications was nowadays even the poorest of..." Again, an experienced wordsmith would remove the interrogative, engineering a simpler yet more substantive statement: "With the superior quality of modern digital radio communications, even the poorest of..." Phrases were repeated, to the point of becoming an assault on the eyes, and removing the reader from the story. Hitler "sported" a unique moustache. A destroyer "sported" damages, an admiral "sported" red hair, and so on, several dozen times through the book. If I had seen the word "sported" in the last ten pages of the novel, I probably would have docked this novel to three stars.

This book needs heavy editing, and I hope Mr. Breit will have the work done quickly. He has created a novel that could become an Amazon bestseller and even 2015's biggest movie of the year, but it's not going to happen until the novel meets minimum standards of composition. In all other respects, this novel is one of the best I have read this year, and I recommend it to any interested in a fast-paced action-adventure story of the first rate.

Review by: Pearson of Sift Book Reviews
Sift Book Reviews received a free copy for review from the author. This has, in no way, affected the reviewer's opinion.