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8 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
In a magic world a nazi officer gets a 2nd chance to choose right or wrong , 30 Oct 2008
Harry Turtledove is one of those authors for whom almost every book they write attracts some people who love it and others who hate it. "After the Downfall" is clearly yet another example. It is obvious from other reviews here and on the Amazon US site that some people really didn't like this book - though how any sane person can read the book properly and express the view that "nothing happens" in it is beyond me - but others did enjoy "After the Downfall" and I was one of them.
While perhaps it is not up there with Turtledove's very best writing such as "The Guns of the South" or "The Two Georges" I found this to be one of his more original and enjoyable novels. Like many of his works, it is an exploration of what happens when people who are not wholly evil find themselves fighting on the wrong side, and of whether there is anything they can do about it ...
The story begins as the Russians are over-running Berlin in 1945. Hauptman (Wehrmacht captain) Hasso Pemsel and what's left of his unit are in the City Museum, surrounded by overwhelming numbers of tough Red Army soldiers who have a score to settle with the Germans after what the Nazis did to Russia.
In between dodging bullets in what he expects to be his last minutes of life, Hasso notes an inscription above an ancient stone which suggests that the stone was supposed to be a gateway to other worlds. As an act of gallows humour, he follows his Feldwebel's advice to sit on the stone and see what happens - and the astonished NCO sees him disappear. The NCO leaps, too late, for the stone himself, only to be cut down by Russian bullets. To the advancing Red Army soldiers who loot and rush past his body it is only another stone.
Hasso Pemsel finds himself in a swamp in a completely different world - and the first person he sees there is a tall, magnificently beautiful, blonde woman fleeing from three men, armed with crude weapons, who are pursuing her with obviously hostile intent. Without thinking he acts to rescue her, and this is not too difficult as his sub-machine gun works perfectly in this new world (at least, it does while he has ammunition for it.)
The lady insists on thanking Hasso, there and then, in the most intimate way that a beautiful woman can thank a man for saving her life, and then shows him the way to her people's nearest fortress: shortly thereafter they travel to Drammen, the capital.
As he learns their language, Hasso discovers that this is a world of magicians, spells and unicorns, but no technology. His lady friend, Velona, is regarded by her people as a Goddess incarnate - a bit like the Dalai Llama, except that this woman is much sexier and is definately not an advocate of non-violence. Her country and her race, the blonde, blue-eyed Lenelli, are engaged in a war to the death with another nation, Bucovin, which is inhabited by the shorter, dark-haired Greyne. It's Aryan versus Slav all over again.
The Lenelli welcome Hasso, first as a hero for saving their incarnate goddess, then as a recruit to their army who can advise on more effective ways to fight the Grenye.
But Hasso soon becomes uncomfortable with the atrocities which his new country inflicts on anyone who gets in their way - crimes which his actions in winning battles for them are helping to bring about.
As Hasso's concern grows, both at the evils he sees and the overconfidence of his new comrades, he begins to see disturbing parallels with the war he has just escaped, and also begins to look with a new light at the actions of his former country, Nazi Germany. Has he again found himself on the wrong side, and is his new country going down the same evil course to disaster ?
The plot includes some well-crafted battle scenes, a detective story as Hasso tries to establish why the Lenelli's magic becomes less and less reliable the further they advance into Bucovin, and some strong and interesting characters.
As mentioned, not everyone liked this, but for me it was one of Harry Turtledove's better and more imaginative works and I recommend it.
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3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Terrible!!!! , 6 Jan 2009
This has a great idea, that a German officer is magically transported from wartorn Berlin in 1945 to a fantasy world of Unicorns and Wizards, etc, where there is a war going on too so naturally he can offer his expertise and modern automatic weapons.
However despite this original concept this books is sooo very dull, nothing happens! A great missed opportunity. Dont buy this book. Try Poul Anderson instead, he was a great fantasy writer.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
after the downfall, 23 April 2009
A WORKMANLIKE BOOK PREDICTABLE BUT THE CHARACTERS ARE ENTERTAINING A STANDALONE BOOK NOT ENOUGH FOR A SEQUEL.
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