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4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Second Part of my Review, 5 Jun 2004
As I expect I have said previously, I am a great fan of alternate history, with particular emphasis on the Second World War and the American Civil War, and The Fox on the Rhine appeared to be a good book about a subject that i have oftne wondered about (And read about). What would have happened...if Hitler had been killed by the bomb plot in 1944- how would history have changed?Although the writing on the back cover was sparse, it got my interest. Rommel fighting Patton in the Battle of the Bulge...A Peace with Russia...the mass production of the ME262, the fighter plane that could have won Germany the war. It sounded too good to be true, especially as it was in a form of a novel and not an essay form. I will say that i have not bee too disappointed by the book. The facts appear to be correct, down to the writers creating an entire fictional army division, and the do seem to have got the personalities down to a 't'. The action is fast-paced and exciting, with enough basis in history to make it more than credible, down to the way in which the SS sieze power from the plotters. In most ways it is a good book. The reason that it did not get 5 stars is because of what i believe to be slightly unreal historical facts. (Warning- Spoilers).Would Stalin really have made a peace with a Germany that he was on the verge of defeating, and would the Germans have given away so much of their territory to an enemy that would make good use of it? I found these questions slightly disturbing in an otherwise good book, as i also found some of the characters to be unusual. A pilot who carries a whip around in his briefcase and uses it to whip slave prisoners was something that i find a little too stereotypical and melodramatic for a book based on such firm historical ground. Would Rommel have surrendered so easily... and would the Alliesd have risked WW3 by fighting the Russians, as the plot of their next book goes? Still, apart from a few odd historical facts and a tendency for melodrama, it is a very good book and worth buying.
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