Review: Premise is a little shaky
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 09 23, 2013
To me, the best alternate history tales are based on a single, or even two events, in real history that could have gone either way. An assassination attempt the failed in real time, but succeeded in the alternate history story. Or a decision that was iffy when made and the story has that decision be the opposite of the one that was made in real time. The book depends on several assumptions to set up the story.  All of them I would deem questionable. For instance I don't think there was any indecision among the Japanese government of the necessity of attacking the US. The Roosevelt administration had placed on embargo on Japan that threatened her ability to provide the fuel and other material they needed to carry on there war with China. The felt that they had to hurt America bad enough that the Americans would give them free reign in the Pacific. And, Roosevelt wasn't likely to do that. That means that the Roosevelt administration would play out about like it did in real time. A better take would be that Hitler did not declare war on the US. That would leave the industrial might of American to be totally,or almost totally, turned against the Japanese.  In that case the aid to Briton might be greatly reduced and the war with Japan might have been a bit shorter. That would likely have impacted Britons ability to make war against Germany. The other assumption was that because the Japanese attacked the Soviets that they couldn't bring the necessary troops from the east to provide the manpower to defeat the Germans on the eastern front and thus the Germans defeated the USSR. The fact is that the Russians. Moved all their manufacturing into the hinterlands and produced a vast amount of arms and heavy weapons for the army. Including the T-34 tank which was probably the best tank produced in WWII. I don't think that there is any way that the Russians would have been defeated in that war unless you change a lot of conditions in the story. A better plot would have Hitler not invading Russia and therefore Briton had to stand alone against the German war machine. It also seems that the Grey Wolves of the novel never learned anything from the resistance that was attempted during the earlier war (what we call WWII) and went around doing stupid things instead of what was learned from earlier experiences.I gave the book a 4 star rating because in the end it is good read.