Harry Turtledove
***
The similarities end there. Turtledove slumps back into bad habits and the novel, while better than such as his Great War/American Empire set, is not nearly as well written as Britannia is or as any novel of this potential should be.
I found the many seemingly pointless bridge games played throughout the novel intruiging, did they contain some overly clever metaphor that the truely dedicated bridge player would understand?
Personally I'll never know, I wasn't so dedicated to the book that I would learn bridge, so I did my best to tolerate these parts.
The depiction of the world, is solid, the counterfactual, in which Germany won the Second World War and went on to defeat America in another, is logical and well reasoned, the riot scene is well described, many of his descriptions are good.
However Turtledove has a paradox in the premise of the novel. The title promises Jews (It's taken fom the twenty-third Psalm) and he wishes to describe the lot of these survivors. Yet when he takes up their story he must shy away from excitement. A Jew hiding in Berlin would fear excitement, fear anything that could expose him.
Turtledove's answer to this paradox is... satisfactory.
Purchase: Lukewarm Reccomendation, wait for the Paperback.
Price (Amazon):
(Hardcover): $17.47