From Publishers Weekly
The author of the Worldwar and Great War series displays his virtuoso command of the details of WWII in this fourth book (after 2001's Through the Darkness) about a conflict between mythical feudal kingdoms using magic instead of science as the basis for technology. Aficionados will enjoy picking out the parallels the Japan-analog Gyonghos Empire, for example, fights "the grinning dwarves of Kuusamo" (i.e., the United States). On the equivalent of the Eastern front, the German-based Algarvian Empire recovers from its losses in the frozen urban hell of Sulingen and prepares for its usual summer advance against the forces of King Swemmel of Unkerlant, leading to a replay of the battle of Kursk. Turtledove's great strength has always been the depiction of ordinary characters who have to live with the consequences of their superiors' decisions an Algarvian policeman in Forthweg objects to rounding up Kaunians, while a group of theoretical magicians must work on a thaumaturgical Manhattan Project. Alternate history derives half of its fun and all of its significance from the understanding it fosters of the ur-conflict, but when the Algarvians begin mass killings of the Kaunian minority in Forthweg to incorporate their life energies into potent sorceries against their opponents, only to be matched by Swemmel's willingness to slaughter his own peasantry for a similar magical advantage, one doesn't feel that our understanding of the Holocaust is advanced. Turtledove may offer few insights into WWII, but he sure knows how to use the facts to entertain. Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
The worldwide conflict known as the Derlavaian War grinds on as the armies of the Algarvian empire sweep through country after country, using magic powered by the blood and suffering of a peace-loving captive nation. In desperation, former enemies unite against the merciless conquerors, and mages from the lands of Kuusamo and Lagoas strive to create a new kind of magic powerful enough to stand against the Algarvian might. The fourth novel in the "Darkness" series (Through the Darkness, etc.) brings Turtledove's retelling of World War II in a fantasy setting to a turning point. The author's grasp of military tactics as well as his talent for translating the accoutrements of modern warfare into fantasy equivalents makes this a standout choice for fantasy collections.Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
From Booklist
The fourth volume of the alternate-history saga Darkness deals with the fourth year of a World War II colored by magic but fought with the same horrifying ferocity and devastating physical and psychological impact of the unmagical conflict we still recall so vividly. Kuusamo's sorcerous Manhattan Project has the potential to generate destructive energy by drawing on the past and the future, which is the same way the Algarvians use the life energy of murdered Kaunians. Meanwhile, more conventional counteroffensives against Algarve are in progress, with Unkerlant and Algarve reaching a gigantic confrontation in a battle recognizable as a re-imagining of the Battle of Kursk. One need not, however, be able to run down all of Turtledove's real-world parallels to appreciate how well he presents the human dilemmas of global warfare. Marshal Rathar hopes to have his head on his shoulders when the war is over, while Major Spinello is now a colonel wondering what happened to his cute Kaunian mistress. Ealstan and Vanai face the persecution of the Kaunians in the expectation of being parents. Pekka the theoretical sorcerer ends up heading the aforementioned Manhattan Project and coming to terms with her attraction to Lagoan colleague Fernao. The Sibian leviathan rider Cornelu and the peasant-bard-guerrilla leader Garivald both have bleak homecomings. And there is also much mixing and matching of national characteristics, which are full of surprises and for which Turtledove endows each nationality with a range of peculiar cuisines, art, sayings, stereotypes, and taboos. The end is a cliff-hanger promising even grimmer darkness in the two volumes that will conclude the saga. Forewarned is forearmed. Roland Green
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Review
“Turtledove is almost certainly unique in reconceiving World War II in magical fantasy terms and on an immense scale--so far, completely successfully.” —Booklist (starred review) on Darkness Descending
Review
“Turtledove is almost certainly unique in reconceiving World War II in magical fantasy terms and on an immense scale--so far, completely successfully.” —Booklist (starred review) on Darkness Descending
Book Description
Magic and Destruction--On a World Scale
Imagine the drama and terror of the Second World War--only the bullets are beams of magical fire, the tanks are great lumbering beasts, and fighters and bombers are dragons raining fire upon their targets. Welcome to the world of the Derlavaian War, a world which is slowly but surely being conquered, mile by bloody mile, by the forces of the Algarvian empire...forces whose most terrible battle magics are powered by the slaughter of an innocent people. In this, the fourth volume of the series which began with Into the Darkness, the war for the continent of Derlavai builds toward its crescendo as the mages of Kuusamo, aided by their former rivals from Lagoas, work desperately to create a newer form of magic that will change the course of the war. But this is really a story of ordinary people--on all sides of the conflict--forced by fate to rise to their heroic limits...or sink to the level of their darker natures.
About the Author
Harry Turtledove is the Hugo-winning author of many SF and fantasy novels. His alternate-history novels, include the bestselling The Guns of the South, How Few Remain, the Worldwar series, and the recent Ruled Britannia. He lives with his wife and daughters in Los Angeles.
Rulers of the Darkness FROM OUR EDITORS
Alternative history master Harry Turtledove unfurls another lustrous installment of his Darkness series. In Rulers of the Darkness, the fourth volume in the series, the Derlavaian War is approaching a crescendo. As each side attempts to find new and deadlier forms of magic, ordinary people on both sides of the battle suffer and die. The fantastic warfare of Turtledoveﾽs creations blisters across the page.
FROM THE PUBLISHER
"Imagine the drama and terror of the Second World War - only the bullets are beams of magical fire, the tanks are great lumbering beasts, and fighters and bombers are dragons raining fire upon their targets. Welcome to the world of the Derlavaian War, a world that is slowly but surely being conquered, mile by bloody mile, by the forces of the Algarvian empire ... forces whose most terrible battle magics are powered by the slaughter of innocent people, the Kaunians, whom Algarve - like much of the world - holds in disdain." In this, the fourth volume of the series, which began with Into the Darkness, the war for the continent of Derlavai builds toward its crescendo as the mages of Kuusamo, aided by their former rivals from Lagoas, work desperately to create a newer form of magic that will change the course of the war. But this is really a story of ordinary people - on all sides of the conflict - forced by fate to rise to their heroic limits ... or sink to the level of their darker natures.
FROM THE CRITICS
Publishers Weekly
The author of the Worldwar and Great War series displays his virtuoso command of the details of WWII in this fourth book (after 2001's Through the Darkness) about a conflict between mythical feudal kingdoms using magic instead of science as the basis for technology. Aficionados will enjoy picking out the parallels the Japan-analog Gyonghos Empire, for example, fights "the grinning dwarves of Kuusamo" (i.e., the United States). On the equivalent of the Eastern front, the German-based Algarvian Empire recovers from its losses in the frozen urban hell of Sulingen and prepares for its usual summer advance against the forces of King Swemmel of Unkerlant, leading to a replay of the battle of Kursk. Turtledove's great strength has always been the depiction of ordinary characters who have to live with the consequences of their superiors' decisions an Algarvian policeman in Forthweg objects to rounding up Kaunians, while a group of theoretical magicians must work on a thaumaturgical Manhattan Project. Alternate history derives half of its fun and all of its significance from the understanding it fosters of the ur-conflict, but when the Algarvians begin mass killings of the Kaunian minority in Forthweg to incorporate their life energies into potent sorceries against their opponents, only to be matched by Swemmel's willingness to slaughter his own peasantry for a similar magical advantage, one doesn't feel that our understanding of the Holocaust is advanced. Turtledove may offer few insights into WWII, but he sure knows how to use the facts to entertain. (Mar. 28) Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.
Library Journal
The worldwide conflict known as the Derlavaian War grinds on as the armies of the Algarvian empire sweep through country after country, using magic powered by the blood and suffering of a peace-loving captive nation. In desperation, former enemies unite against the merciless conquerors, and mages from the lands of Kuusamo and Lagoas strive to create a new kind of magic powerful enough to stand against the Algarvian might. The fourth novel in the "Darkness" series (Through the Darkness, etc.) brings Turtledove's retelling of World War II in a fantasy setting to a turning point. The author's grasp of military tactics as well as his talent for translating the accoutrements of modern warfare into fantasy equivalents makes this a standout choice for fantasy collections. Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.
Kirkus Reviews
Fourth outing, with a cliffhanger that promises more, in Turtledove's tangled fantasy epic of empires fighting a pointless war in which magic kills just as horribly as TNT. It's too late to say that others have done the sorcery-instead-of-science gimmick better and more elegantly. In his continuing effort to show that human history, even in a drably imagined world reminiscent of late-19th-century Europe, is pluralistic at every level, Turtledove (Through the Darkness, 2001, etc.) piles on subplots involving over a hundred characters in a story that's too complicated to achieve any momentum. Under the possibly mad King Mezentio, the violent forces of Algrave try to conquer the no-less-aggressive Kingdom of Unkerlant, with the Algravians being a bit worse because they derive the source of their magical powers from murdering the Kuusamians, Turtledove's vague stand-ins for Jews. With many other minority peoples involved, some willingly, some not, Turtledove has bleached his setting of the customary sense of wonder that magic fantasies can offer, substituting an oppressively gritty realism that comes off half-baked. Instead of telephones, soldiers communicate by magic crystals, shoot beams of fire from magic staffs, fly dragons that drop incendiary eggs, ride behemoths over land, go under the sea clinging to submersing leviathans, and move supplies on trains that run along ley lines. Meanwhile, in an attempt to oppose Algrave's murderous sorcery, Mages are developing magic that can alter the flow of time, adding even more complexity to a story that desperately needs a sense of direction. Though he brings a tender compassion to many of his characters, Turtledove is no Tolstoy. This vastportrait of nations in conflict makes War and Peace a breezy read.
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