Two Fronts (The War That Came Early, Book Five)
Turtledove’s new variation on the theme of WWII is departing more and more from the original, sometimes in subtle ways (the Tiger tank is the Mark V instead of the Mark VI) and sometimes in less subtle ones (Sergeant Fujita flies on missions to drop bacteriological weapons on Hawaii, making life uneasy for marine Pete McGill, and Herb Druse gets a certain research project in Tennessee canceled). The lot of the poor bloody infantrymen, however, does not change—it’s still miserable, and for Wilhelm Deming, fatal. Meanwhile, British sergeant Walsh, French lieutenant Demange, and Czech sniper Vaclav Havacek are still full of fight, the first two on a French front bolstered by lend-lease supplies and the third in Spain. Hans Rudel continues to enjoy a charmed life in his tank-busting Stuka, while Julius Lemp takes his U-30 into Arctic waters, where he unbolts his record by sinking a British aircraft carrier. The real pressure for an explosion is building up in Germany, as dissatisfaction with the progress (or regress) of the war is building. The center of the dissent is in Münster, where newly widowed Sarah Bruck is dealing with it up close and personal and finding that not all Germans think of Jews as untermenschen. What’s next is anybody’s guess, except that it will almost certainly be more surprises. --Roland Green