1945 by Newt Gingrich, William Forstchen
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Book Reviews of 1945
Book Review: Get it at your library
Summary: 2 Stars
Well, it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be - but that would be hard to do. 'Course, I suspect that the "Technical Editor's" job basically boiled down to taking some rough ideas from Newt, and doing the actual writing part of the book - if for no other reason than I've never heard of the job "Technical Editor" before...
It's basically straight military fiction, most of it revolving around the planning, execution, and fighting off of the strike on Oak Ridge - and but for the AH theme, it could be a middling Tom Clancy book.
Danger, Will Robinson! Much to your surprise, you will discover in the last chapter that this book had at least one unwritten sequel planned, and thus it just sort of ends in the middle of the setup for the next book (and as sales were...disapointing...for the first book, a next book that is wildly unlikely).
And this setup strikes me as stretching disbelief just a bit.
Not something I'd recommend buying, but if you're really bored, and it's available at the library...
Book Review: Alternate History at its best
Summary: 5 Stars
In order to enjoy this book you must have a basic understanding of technology at the end of WWII. All the aircraft and technology existed at the end of the war but in very limited quantity. It was really a page-turner for me as the "What ifs" poured out.
The only weak point was the war with Japan. It was mentioned only in passing and it was portrayed as a walk over. Even with the full might of the armed forces Japan should have put up more of a fight than alluded to.
Having the Doughboys of WWI come in, lead by Sgt. York, really brought some humor into the story and if it did stretch plausibility a little far.
The market for such a book may have been too small and I am sorry that the following books never were published.
Book Review: Newt, please stay with politics!
Summary: 1 Stars
This is definitely the second worst book I ever read. Nothing, but nothing is even reasonably the way Hitler and his henchmen would have behaved in speech and action. Even a little research through the large mass of serious research material would have caused the two writers to abstain from writing such idiotic trash.
As an alternate history, ....eeeeh! mebbe, just mebbe! What grated on my nerves was the especially dumb way German words and phrases were manhandled. If you don't have a German handy, don't write in German, Newt.
I found this book especially silly because I had the great honor and extreme pleasure to be in Europe throughout World War II and can guarantee you that nobody who was German ever used the phrase (translated verbatim ) "sh*t in heaven".
Please, newt, stay with politics here you can shine. Just don't write such trash anymore, please.
Book Review: Newt's Notion, William's War: '70's tech in 1946
Summary: 3 Stars
I don't remember when or where I first heard about *1945*, the counterfactual (alternate history) World War II novel. I heard former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich teamed up with historian William Forstchen to produce a trilogy of life-or-death battle between souped-up Nazis and under strength Americans. And that's it: until my brother borrowed a copy and inspired me to buy my own at a used bookshop the other night.
That morning I read it. I found *1945* to be a silly but perfectly passable piece of entertainment. Though the trilogy seems to have stalled after the first book, readers could do worse than pass time at a dentist's office reading this effort.
*History, Shmistory*
Now no-one should exert the wrong effort with this tome. Anybody looking for a serious, scholarly account of alternate history won't find it here. If anything, *1945* is a guide to counterfactual cheating. The authors plow through without a glance back at the plot potholes and twisted logic burning in their wake. Without giving up too much suspense, I can safely point out the debris.
For readers learn immediately that 1946 Germany has inexplicably acquired 1970's era weapons. Our authors breezily mention that avoiding war with the United States somehow lead Germany into developing intercontinental ballistic missiles, SAMs, stealth fighters, optically guided missiles, high-altitude spy planes, and satellite delivery rockets--all in the four years following Pearl Harbor. Meanwhile, the United States has fully demobilized.
None of this meshes with reality. Considering that the German high command, including Air Marshal Goering, simply did not appreciate the importance of jet airpower until 1944 (when it was too late), it is unlikely that Germany would be motivated to develop an armada of Me262 when they were soundly whipping the Soviets, much less motivated to stockpile air weapons fit for the Vietnam War. While Nazis did build a number of futuristic craft and missiles, many of these were engineering abortions too slow in development and too taxing to mass-produce.
At the opposite end of the spectrum, our poor German paratroopers still use Erma MP40s-incorrectly called "Schmeissers"-instead of the StG44 "storm rifle" that was coveted by paratroopers and revolutionized military small arms design here in the real world.
The real world doesn't stop these fellows for a second. Not even from taking liberties with strategy as well as technology. Germany just sort of conquers Western Russia and establishes an armistice with Britain and the Soviets without a consideration as to how out of character this would be. Nor does the book adequately explain why the US demobilizes in the face of a Nazi Superpower when we didn't do so in the face of Soviets. It doesn't account for the Soviet's "scorched earth" and factory relocation policies, the likelihood that a Nazi tactical withdrawal followed by a counterstrike in the Spring of 1942 would help the Soviets as much as the Germans, and the implausibility this would encourage Himmler to hold back his Einsatzgruppen and spare the Ukrainians from holocaust.
Speaking of masses and murder, Nazism is considered by many to have been a cult of personality built around Adolf Hitler. Incapacitating him as the authors do would have more likely lead to a power upheaval and possibly an assassination and coup, not to mention breaking the spell Hitler had over Germany. Gobbels and Himmler might have done most of the actual propaganda and dissent suppression, but Hitler was the fulcrum `round which Nazism and its accoutrements balanced.
*Hope You Enjoyed the Ride*
However, none of this technical babble detracts from the fun. For the book ultimately gives emphasis not to technology but to character. Not character development, mind you. These are cardboard cutouts-but the stock is good. And our authors concern themselves specifically with the role personalities play in war. Much of the historical and logical holes in this alternative universe are covered up by two men. One, famed commando Otto Skorzeny, is almost single-handledly responsible for Germany's success with his daring surgical strikes. The other, naval aviator Jim Martel, almost single-handedly saves the United States from being knocked right of the strategic arms race and doomed to obliteration. Meanwhile, leaders in both the White House and Pentagon are portrayed as so weak and deluded that they actually help the Germans. German leaders are conversely portrayed as audacious and decisive strategists who waste no time implementing a plan to conquer the entire world. It is upon these characterizations and their consequences that the entire story hangs.
And hang, and twist, and turn does the plot, by George. Even as I nitpicked *1945* to death, I enjoyed chasing our characters across no less than five interconnected threads. As the threads wind down into the climactic string tying everything up, I confess I just kept turning the pages. That's the book's strength: in formulaic but oh-so effective suspense. Will the Germans do this? Will America do that? Or will our heroes find themselves thus? Find out tomorrow, same Gingrich-time, same Gingrich-channel!
To put it another way, I cracked open the book at 0030 in the morning. I finished the last page at 0630 the same morning. It's literary popcorn. The sort of thing you read on planes, trains, and buses. I hated the prose-it explained too much and showed too little, editorialized, and wasn't particularly inspiring-but the sheer dearth of earnest dialogue, hair-pulling coincidences, and larger-than-life characters carried it for me.
*Heil to the Hubris*
While this novel should never be mistaken for a plausible alternative history, it should be taken as it is-a novel. Its fun enough, reads well enough, and deserves a chance by anybody who wants to pass time with World War II or psuedo-techno thriller fiction.
Book Review: Where is the sequel ?!?
Summary: 5 Stars
Great story , no end in site.