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The Coldest War (Milkweed Triptych) Paperback – 7 Feb. 2013
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For decades, Britain's warlocks have been all that stands between the British Empire and the Soviet Union - a vast domain stretching from the Pacific Ocean to the shores of the English Channel. Now each wizard's death is another blow to Britain's national security.
Meanwhile, a brother and sister - the subjects of a twisted Nazi experiment to imbue ordinary people with superhuman abilities - escape from a top-secret facility deep behind the Iron Curtain. They head for England, because that's where former spy Raybould Marsh lives. And Gretel, the mad seer, has plans for him.
As Marsh is once again drawn into the world of Milkweed, he discovers that Britain's darkest acts didn't end with the war. And while he strives to protect queen and country, he is forced to confront his own willingness to accept victory at any cost.
- Print length432 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherOrbit
- Publication date7 Feb. 2013
- Dimensions12.6 x 2.49 x 19.8 cm
- ISBN-100356501701
- ISBN-13978-0356501703
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Eloquent and utterly compelling ― KIRKUS REVIEWS
Will keep readers spellbound and on the edge of their seats with an intense sci-fi/alternate history thriller plot ― RT Book Reviews
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- Publisher : Orbit (7 Feb. 2013)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 432 pages
- ISBN-10 : 0356501701
- ISBN-13 : 978-0356501703
- Dimensions : 12.6 x 2.49 x 19.8 cm
- Best Sellers Rank: 1,036,562 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- 1,561 in Norse & Viking
- 3,184 in Science Fiction Alternate History
- 3,866 in Superhero
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The series is an original take on the events and the aftermath of the World War II period of history and Britain's fight against Germany and Russia.
Set over 20 years after the events in Bitter Seeds, Europe is a vastly different place, Russia is the controlling entity and an uneasy truce remains in place.
Gretel and Klaus, for me the two outstanding characters from the first novel have been prisoners for 20 long years in Arzamas-16, a large and heavily guarded research facility, a secret city formerly known as Sarov.
The Russians have reversed engineered the Götterelektron (battery powered) technology and made massive strides improving there 'supersoldiers' to eclipse anything the Nazi Doctor Von Westarp's Reichsbehörde project could produce.
Incarcerated for 20 years its finally time for Gretel to initiate their tricky escape and restart the gears turning to bring all her plans to bear as they make their way to Britain. During these events Klaus has been growing in awareness of what Gretel is capable of, he realises with horror that she talked Heike into suicide all those years ago simply to use the glass jar that contained part of her brain as a glass for the guards to get drunk and aid in their escape. The sheer callousness bought new depths to Gretels amazing foresight and the insight into his sister brings a fear to Klaus like nothing before.
Raybould Marsh, the former British spy, is now a broken down middle-aged man with his marriage hanging by a thread and a depressing life with nothing to look forward to. Flitting between jobs, he works as a gardener, fuelled by alcohol and a temper that keeps getting him into trouble. His wife Liv seeks escape but they are bound by a son who is mentally ill, a child without a soul. As Gretel and Klaus reach London, Marsh is called from his enforced retirement to once more serve his country and serve he must as he is vitally important to Gretel's plan.
The warlocks are dying, a mysterious assassin who deals death that looks entirely natural, the Milkweed team has a traitor and once more Gretel whose aim is now seemingly to assist the government pulls the strings and the traitor is caught on film but to what ends.
A stunning read, Tregillis raises the bar with The Coldest War, a tension filled jaunt with some surprising twists and turns. All the characters are excellent but once again Gretel steals the accolades and as her plans slowly reveal it is captivating and fascinating. She is one of the most memorable female characters in all the books that I have read, incredibly realistic, devious in a spine chilling way.
Gretel's ability is the power of precognition and her plans revolve around what she has seen but these plans have taken seed right from the start of the series and the author skirts around this wonderfully, never quite revealing enough until the end. And the ending is done superbly, can Gretel manipulate the future or simply delay the inevitable.
In this, the second series, Tregellis mashes up Lovecraft with Le Carre with this tale of a very different post-WW2 Cold War. The Soviet Union has appropriated Nazi superman technology, in much the same way as the allies tracked down and stole rocket science at the end of the (real) war.
Our heroes, and villains, return in an attempt to stop Soviet hegemony... which leads to some awful Eidolon shenanigans and the unravelling of Gretel's mysterious plan (whatever it is).
** SPOILER **
This leads to some time travel at the end of the book. Bejaysus I hate time travel.
What keeps me reading? Well, one thing Tregellis can do is long-game plotting. That the series is in fact about Gretel and her quest for survival (albeit tinged with utter madness) is compelling and keeps me reading. Were the issues I described above absent I would happily give this series 4+
As is, as a native English-speaker and Briton, I'm afraid I can't.
The real weaknesses for me are the almost soap opera style personal misery and the need for people to do the stupidest things to make the misery compound.
Will decides that he blames everybody for the blood sacrifices..carefully forgetting that he caused it all...apparently now, the guys he recruited made him do it.
All the main characters, enmity not withstanding, all end up in the same safe house where Gretel can do her machinations.
And that's the thing, the minute you knew what Gretel had done and could do, you'd kill her...no questions asked. Maybe Gretel has chosen a timeline where people do the stupidest things and give her huge latitude, but such stupidity does not make for a good novel.
Going downhill I'm afraid.
Pulls together a lot of the open mysteries of the previous books; the characters develop further, and a lot of the mysteries are revealed.
What I particularly loved was the humanity of the characters. They all have their crosses to bear, and have a personal life that's deeply afflicted by their moral choices in the defence of the realm.



