Global Frequency, Warren Ellis

"Created by Entertainment Weekly "It" writer Warren Ellis, Global Frequency is a worldwide rescue organization that offers the last shred of hope when all other options have failed. Manned by 1001 operatives, the Frequency is made up of experts in fields as diverse as bio-weapon engineering and Le Parkour Running. Each agent - equipped with a special mobile vid-phone - is speciffically chosen by Miranda Zero, enigmatic leader of the Global Frequency, based on proximity, expertise, and, in some cases, sheer desperation!"











Every time I read something by Warren Ellis I'm reminded how much I love his work.

I mean, obviously, he's great, and on a purely intellectual level, I know he's great. But somehow I always forget just how much he's written that I absolutely adore.

The Authority, Planetary, Transmetropolitan. All cracking. And NEXTWAVE, probably the most comicy comic ever.

And now, add to that Global Frequency, a book that reminds me how much I love Warren Ellis writing Fringe style science investigations, detective work and crazy situations. Much like Planetary this is a comic that explores big ideas. Weaponised black holes, Alien memetic incursions, cyborg supermen - every issue has a totally different feel (and the rotating artist means a totally different look too)

The central idea, a super-national organisation with 1,001 members; each an expert in a specific field, who can be called upon to solve crises beyond the reach of anyone else. It moves around the idea of traditional superheroes, whilst bringing in enough high concept science as to make anything possible.

These are human heroes, masters of a craft, solving non-human and post-human problems - like a hundred strong Thunderbirds team.

But like NEXTWAVE this is a series that seeks to transcend the stereotypes of comics. One issue is simply a fight between two people. Panel after panel of two men punching and kicking one another, escalating into stabbings and limbs being pulled off. It quickly approached and surpasses parody - played totally straight and drawn with sombre seriousness.

This is an excellent antidote to the silliness and unthinking extravagance of mainstream cape comics - if you like anything Ellis has written, this is amognst the best.

Also Try:
Warren Ellis, Planetary
Warren Ellis, Transmetropolitan
Warren Ellis, NEXTWAVE
Jonathan Hickman, The Manhattan Projects
Brian Wood, DMZ

Siege: Battlefield, Various

"We all know how the Avengers are involved in Siege, now fi ve action-packed stories reveal how Osborn's plan sends shockwaves through the rest of the Marvel Univerise. See Spider-Man do battle with Venom. Watch as Wiccan and Patriot are pushed to their limits. Take a journey into the mind of Loki. Learn all about Nick Fury's master plan. And, witness how this event will defi ne the relationship between Bucky Barnes and Steve Rogers! COLLECTING: Siege: Spider-Man, Young Avengers, Loki, Captain America, Secret Warriors"










A collection of multiple one shots around Marvel's Siege event - including Spider-Man, the Young Avengers and the Secret Warriors.

It's a bit of a mish-mash to be honest - it's always nice to see the original Young Avengers in action, and they get to take on the wrecking crew, who I love, but they're only in one fifth of the book.

The Spider-Man story is a pretty generic tale of fighting Venom (enlivened by an appearance from Ms/Captain Marvel), but the real highlight is the Secret Warriors issue which features Phobos killing scores of Secret Service agents in an effort to show he can assassinate the President whenever he wants.

Skating over the poor thought process of these 'heroics', who really came up with an idea that they sold to Marvel that the tie in to an event based in Asgard should involve their child God killing everyone in the White House.

The Loki event probably makes more sense if you're reading the Thor comic that the stuff he's doing corresponds to, but at least it has McKelvie art to look at and Gillen writing it, so it's shiny.

The Captain America one shot is total garbage and looks like what happens when you decide that computer generated and coloured art is as good as that done by an actual artist.

Overall, this is semi-enjoyable but totally stupid. Probably not worth the money I spent on it really.

Also Try:
Brian Michael Bendis, Siege
Dan Slott, Amazing Spider-Man: Brand New Day
Allan Heinberg, Young Avengers: Childrens Crusade

Kung Fu High School; Ryan Gattis

"Fifteen-year-old Jen B is a student at Kung Fu High School, a place where violence is routine and the only goal is survival. But keeping her head down becomes impossible with the arrival of her cousin, Jimmy Chang, a Chinese-trained kung fu master who became notorious after vanishing into thin air during a fight. Ridley, leader of the school's most vicious gang, wants to see what Jimmy can do. The only problem is Jimmy's sworn never to fight again ...Jen struggles to cope with the sudden murder of her brother, an ailing father, and an uncomfortable attraction for Jimmy, while tension at school builds to a dramatic final showdown. Razor-sharp and unexpectedly moving, KUNG FU HIGH SCHOOL stamps on the throat of the American Dream."

If I ever get the opportunity to adapt a book to film, or write a HBO series based on a novel, the first place I will go to is my bookshelf to pick out my copy of Kung Fu High School.

I use superlatives pretty freely on here (because I like almost everything I read), but Kung Fu High School is the kind of book that sticks with you. It's a work of breath taking power. If Tarantino dropped the dialogue and just filmed violence, it might look like this. It's not a pleasant read. It's neither cathartic or comfortable. Make no bones of it, this is a truly horrible book. But it's also incredibly real.

Originally conceived in the wake of the Columbine shootings, Kung Fu High School imagines a school system so desensitized to violence and so throughly corrupted and forgotten about that every day is a (literal) battle for survival. Every pupil belongs to a gang, the most powerful person in the school is the drug dealer who owns the staff, local police, media and politicians, and maiming or death are a routine hazard of daily life.

Through the course of the book main characters die with reckless abandon - bones are snapped, people are shot, stabbed and kicked to death. Unflinching explanations of eye-gouging, flesh rending violence starts on the first page and runs to the end.

Few words are wasted, creating a storyline that rushes towards the inevitable total destruction of every character and the whole system of violence. It's startlingly compelling, and I found that I could remember vividly much of the plot despite not having read it since it was newly published, nearly 8 years ago.

It is, frankly, AMAZING. It's also out of print, and that shouldn't surprise you, because it's incredible that this book was ever published. But you should definitely read it, and I think (I hope) you'll like it.

And maybe, one day, you'll get to see the film.

Also Try:

Melvin Burgess, Bloodtide

Koushun Takami, Battle Royale

Suzanne Collins, The Hunger Games

Fables: Legends in Exile, Bill Willingham

"WHO KILLED ROSE RED?- In Fabletown, where fairy tale legends live alongside regular New Yorkers, the question is all anyone can talk about. But only the Big Bad Wolf can actually solve the case - and, along with Rose's sister Snow White, keep the Fabletown community from coming apart at the seams. FABLES: LEGENDS IN EXILE collects the first five issues of writer and creator Bill Willingham's acclaimed new VERTIGO series (superbly illustrated by Lan Medina, Steve Leialoha, and Craig Hamilton), and includes a new FABLES short story written and illustrated by Willingham."










My first reread of the year, and a graphic novel that my girlfriend picked out to read herself, Fables is one of those books that I can go back to again and again.

Like many of the Graphic Novels I pick up I actually have lots of Fables already, saved as comics on my hard drive. I have a real desire to try and get physical copies of comic files I love. The main reason is that I enjoy comics (and books) more as a tangible presence. Reading a paperback comic is more enjoyable and readable than on a screen. It's also far easier to loan out, a vital part of being a comics evangelist!

But one of the most important reasons is that I want to support the writers that I like. In many cases I will pick up comics solely because the writer is someone I have enjoyed the work of in the past (Brian Wood is probably the perfect example of this). For most comics writers (and artists) wages are low and creator owned work is often one of the few ways that money can keep coming in. So where you find a work, or a team, that you love, support it!

Fables is a work that it's easy to love. Whilst these early issues show a lot of promise, it's in the development over years worth of stories that Fables shines. The plot is simple enough - the characters from fables, fairy tales and nursery rhymes have been forced out of the lands of fiction and are refugees living in hiding in New York. The first few storylines are in the style of a murder mystery, but it soon develops into a war, romance, spy, epic fantasy - basically any style of story imaginable!

Just great.

Also Try:
Neil Gaiman, American Gods
Alan Moore, League of Extraordinary Gentleman
Kim Newman, Anno Dracula

Scott Pilgrim vs The World - Colour Edition; Bryan Lee O'Malley

"SCOTT PILGRIM

has two girls on the go. When he's with Knives Chau, he feels he can erase the past and start over. When he's with Ramona Flowers, he's ready to accept all that and grow up. But Ramona comes with baggage - SEVEN EVIL EX-BOYFRIENDS, each eager to challenge Scott for the right to date her. What happens when Knives and Ramona meet? Which girl will he choose? And why, oh why, can't the past stay past?"





Having read the first of these updated colour editions I was sufficiently impressed to immediately go and buy the second volume. The slow schedule of these releases mean it will be the end of 2014 before we get the complete set (quite a while to wait for material that's just being coloured) but these volumes are handsome enough that I have no problems letting the anticipation build.

As well as the four colour treatment there's a selection of extra's at the back, including character design sheets and an excellent section on how O'Malley used photoreferenced buildings to create the look of Scott Pilgrim's Toronto. Whilst it's nothing like the extra's put into any one of Kirkman's Invincible omnibuses it does add something to be able to see the creative process in action, especially in the character designs.

O'Malley has often spoken about how bemused he is that his art style is so lauded when it's just drawn that way because he can't draw it looking like anything else, but there's a clean, childlike glee to his drawings. His backgrounds and clothing are the most focussed parts of his images (like a manga-inspired James McKelvie) so it's wonderful to get a sense of how these aspects of his craft develop.

The story itself is wondeful, more divergent from the film, especially in creating a true ensemble with Scott at the centre, rather than simply a Scott focussed book. The development of Stacey, Knives and Kim in particular helps, and this is a book full of strong female characters in both supporting and starring roles.

Also Try:
Kieran Gillen, Phonogram
S. Steven Struble, Li'l Depressed Boy
Grant Morrison, Kill Your Boyfriend

The Ides of March: Valerio Massimo Manfredi

"March, 44 BC. Rome, in all her glory, has expanded her territories beyond the wildest dreams of her citizens, led by Caius Julius Caesar — Pontifex Maximus, dictator perpetuo, invincible military leader and only fifty-six years old. He is a man in command of his destiny, who wields enormous power throughout the vast empire. However his god-given mission – to end the blood-splattered fratricidal wars, reconcile implacably hostile factions and preserve Roman civilization and world order – is teetering dangerously close to collapse… His power is draining away. None of his supporters can stop the inexorably evolving plot against him and prophecy will explode into truth on the Ides of March and the world will change forever. This is political thriller laced through with all the intrigue and action surrounding one of the most crucial turning points in the history of western civilization."




Bought for me by mistake (I had been asking for the George Clooney film, The Ides of March) I was initially sceptical of the appeal of a book about the assassination of Caesar. I'm generally not a fan of the Romans (often portrayed in a fairly boring manner), and wasn't sure how much could be strung out of the events of Caesar's death that hadn't been done elsewhere.

It's fair to say that this was better than expected. It was a fast paced and surprisingly interesting read - in part because of the decision to split the focus between Caesar, the plotters and those trying to save the dictator from his fate.

Problems remain however. It's the fictional narrative that's the best - the ride of Caesar's most trusted lieutenant from Gaul to Rome, pursued by agents of the conspirators, and his attempts to get a message warning of Brutus's role in the plot. These parts elevate the weaker elements of the story - generally the factual sections which can often be twinned with rampant speculation and tend to steer the storyline off path to introduce historically significant, but narratively unimportant characters.

By only making passing mention of his rise to power or the fall-out of his death the book forgets the fact that dying is the least interesting thing Caesar ever did. In ending with the funeral of Caesar the story leaves at a point where history actually becomes more engaging again. The problem with Caesar's death is that it should really be the end or the beginning of the story - not the solitary event.

For all the skill present in writing the book, its subject matter eventually kills it dead.

Also Try:
Bernard Cornwell, Harlequin
Conn Iggulden, The Gates of Rome
Rosemary Sutcliff, The Eagle of the Ninth

Invincible Ultimate Collection Volume 5: Robert Kirkman

"Witness Invincible's transition from new hero just starting out to an established superhero! This volume collects Invincible's confrontation with Cecil Steadman, the return of the Reanimen, and the beginning of a bold, new era for Invincible!"















Read back to back with Volume 4 (the way all long running comic series should be), Volume 5 of the Invincible Ultimate Collection rewrites the tone of the series (again) to place Invincible as the enemy of the Government sponsored Global Defence Agency.

Whilst it still feels like it's setting up events for later volumes (the Invincible Wars, Conquest and the Viltrumite War all take place in the next two books, alongside another Sequid invasion) this definitely contains some great issues - the Reanimen versus the Guardians of the Globe, and Invincible against Powerplex in particular are two very different stories with very different emotional outcomes.

Whilst Ottley isn't given anything on the scale of the Martian warship or aerial cityscape from Volume 4 to draw his pencilling continues to evolve. An especial highlight of the Ultimate Collections is the wealth of extra's included at the end, from scripts, cover breakdowns and pre-inked panels to convention requests and character designs. These serve to demonstrate just how much work is put into the simplest of panels and give the reader some idea of how the book is constructed.

Having read both of these volumes as individual comics years ago it was a pleasant surprise to realise I remembered almost nothing of the story contained in this volume and was able to get as caught up in the plot twists as if I were a new reader. Invincible remains one of my favourite comics, and with Volume 8 out later this year one that still has a lot to offer those interested in reading one of the most interesting and original superhero comics around!

Also Try:
Robert Kirkman, The Walking Dead
Allan Heinberg and Jim Cheung, Young Avengers
Peter David, Young Justice

Invincible Ultimate Collection Volume 4: Robert Kirkman

"Witness Invincible's transition from new hero just starting out to an established superhero! This volume collects Invincible's violent battle with the villainous Reanimen, the invasion attempt by the Sequids from Mars, and the introduction of the Viltrumite agent, Anissa."

Invincible, Robert Kirkman's long running cape comic, has established itself as one of the best superhero comics around, and it's easy to see why in this book.

The joy of Invincible is how vast the universe feels. The action moves from the Ocean floor to the furthest reaches of Space, and it's as diverse a world as any in comics. From Atom Eve in Africa to Mark's life on campus at university each character has a distinct identity and presence in the book which sets it apart from other Image titles, even those in the same shared universe.

Kirkman distils the very essence of cape comics into a single epic story. By this point many of the threats and adversaries that Mark faces have been established - the Mauler Twins, Lizard League, Sequids and Viltrumites all show up. From the start of the series Invincible felt like a comic with a wider reach, with pre-existing villains and a very different status quo.

By this point the set up from previous arcs has begun to pay-off and storylines like Allen seeking out Omniman, or Oliver's burgeoning powers become big moments. In a book where every issue feels like an event, where there are consequences and repercussions for every action, this is a final calm before the storm of the next 30-40 issues.

If you've never read Invincible this isn't a great place to start - the downside of the grand scale worldbuilding is that it presupposes that you know who's who. It won't be incomprehensible to new readers, but you're better off starting at the beginning. It's a journey that's worth it, and it'll make the heroics, the sacrifices and the pay-offs all the sweeter.

Also Try:

Brian Michale Bendis, Ultimate Spider-Man

Robert Kirkman, Tech Jacket

Brian K. Vaughan, Runaways

Scott Pilgrim's Precious Little Life - Colour Edition, Bryan Lee O'Malley

'SCOTT PILGRIM

is dating a high schooler, but when Ramona Flowers starts skating through his brain, everything changes. While Scott pursures Ramona, someone else has their sights set on Scott; HER SEVEN EVIL EX-BOYFRIENDS. If he wants this relationship to work, he needs to defeat them all - but even that herculean task might not be enough!'






Scott Pilgrim vs The World is one of my all time favourite films, a wonderful distillation of Bryan Lee O'Malley's Oni Press series. The modest success of the film, along with the enduring cult status of the original books, have led to this sumptuous rerelease - a hardback colour update for the pocket sized original.

Aesthetically, its a wonderful book. The hardcover is a sturdy volume that sets it up as part one far more than the previous books did (the inclusion of the question marked boss fight section on the back is excellent), but it's the interior where the majority of work has been done. Nathan Fairbarn colours extensively for the big comic publishers, notably on Batman, Inc and for various X-Men titles, and his colouring here is excellent.

Colouring is an underrated skill, and one that's shown off to its best be updating an original black-and-white graphic novel to full colour. Considering that the movie went a long way towards creating the definitive pallette for the books it's great to see how well this fits in with both art from O'Malley and the film. It would have been easy to recolour this very differently, but it ties in as a very friendly readaptation (of the film of the book).

The colours pop of the page and serve O'Malleys exaggerated, cartoony art. The fight (and romance) scenes in particular give Fairbarn an opportunity to unleash, but the real skill here is in maintaining an interestingly coloured book in the more mundane parts - something which is integral to Scott Pilgrim, the most mumblecore of semi-mainstream original graphic novels.

It's this familiarity which ultimately elevates the story of Scott Pilgrim after all. Scott truly is an everman - a selfish, needy, idiotic, very humanly flawed individual firmly rooted in a specific place - early adulthood. This is the perfect way to enjoy Scott's adventures from the beginning, again.

Also Try:
Bill Watterson, It's a Magical World (Calvin and Hobbes)
Tsugumi Ohba, Deathnote
Bryan Lee O'Malley, Scott Pilgrim's Precious Little Life (OGN)

Bossypants: Tina Fey

Once in a generation a woman comes along who changes everything. Tina Fey is not that woman, but she met that woman once and acted weird around her.

Before 30 Rock, Mean Girls and 'Sarah Palin', Tina Fey was just a young girl with a dream: a recurring stress dream that she was being chased through a local airport by her middle-school gym teacher.

She also had a dream that one day she would be a comedian on TV. She has seen both these dreams come true.

At last, Tina Fey's story can be told. From her youthful days as a vicious nerd to her tour of duty on Saturday Night Live; from her passionately halfhearted pursuit of physical beauty to her life as a mother eating things off the floor; from her one-sided college romance to her nearly fatal honeymoon - from the beginning of this paragraph to this final sentence.

Tina Fey reveals all, and proves what we've all suspected: you're no one until someone calls you bossy.

Few celebrity biographies are very good, but they are popular Christmas gifts, and they're normally a decent diversion (depending on your affection for the subject). Tina Fey's isn't the worst, by a long stretch, but it shines more in comparison to the woeful alternatives around.

It helps, of course, that Tina Fey is entertaing and endearing, and her story is boring enough that she doesn't feel much need to dwell on it, instead using it as a springboard for things she has thoughts about.

Fey's early (love) life is actually the most interesting part. By the time she has achieved (critical) success with 30 Rock and popular acclaim through her SNL impressions of Sarah Palin much of that steam has run dry. At this point we get some interesting stuff about how comedy writing works, her thoughts on certain issues and a brief recounting of her time in the public eye. There's little new here (although the fact that she initially didn't want to play Palin, and only ended up practicing the sketch three times before it was performed is pretty great).

Overall, it's far better than it could be, but does more as a book of comedic essays (on everything from airbrushing, to protecting your daughter) than a straight autobiography.

Also, the quotes on the back encouraging you to buy it made me laugh hysterically.

Also Try:
Caitlin Moran, How To Be A Woman
Jade Goody, Catch a Falling Star

Moneyball: Michael Lewis

"Moneyball is a quest for the secret of success in Baseball. In a narrative full of fabulous characters and brilliant excursions into the unexpected, Michael Lewis follows the low-bedget Oakland Athletic's visionary general manager Billy Beane, and a strange brotherhood of amateur baseball theorists. They are all in search of new baseball knowledge - insights that will give the little fellow who is willing to discard old wisdom the edge over big money."





The thing about Moneyball is this. It really shouldn't be any good.

Adapted into an Oscar nominated movie starring Brad Pitt Moneyball is an attempt to explain how a baseball teams can succeed with few stars, almost no cash and a system that emphasises conservatism over style. It's packed with the history of baseball analysis (Sabermetrics), judgements about which statistical measurement most successfully explains the worth of fielders, and the kind of easy use of insider speak and jargon that completely throws an English person reading about baseball for the first time.

An yet it's probably one of the most engrossingly enthusing non-fiction books I have ever read. Michael Lewis distills a book about baseball into a book about a certain king of baseball; a biography of the Oakland A's, a team with one of the lowest payrolls in American baseball who turned the acquisition of cheap, overlooked stars who failed to perfectly fit the baseball mold into a conveyer belt to success.

The nominal star of the book is Billy Beane, the general manager of the Oakland A's who transformed their scouting system into a scientific experiment designed to capitalise on finding players who would do one thing the most, but the book includes biographical accounts of some of the most unconventional of the Oakland A's stars, and a breakdown of how the success of Sabermetrics failed to penetrate a system still based on gut-feeling and looks, Moneyball elevates itself from being 'just' a book about baseball or statistics. Instead it's about why it's easier to ignore the evidence, and why small-team efficiency can sometimes trump the ability to buy the best. And, of course, about how statisticians can turn gambling into card-counting.

There's something gleefully enjoyable about a book that promises to break the secrets of success, that documents a way of working that defies all orthodoxy (and provokes such outrages amongst those invested in the system as it is). Moneyball could be about any subject and it would be worth reading.

I really can't recommend this book highly enough - if you're interested in sport or statistics, this is a book you should be reading. I can only imagine how good it would be if you know about Baseball.

Also Try:
Michael Chabon, Summerlands
Bill Bryson, A Walk in the Woods
Stephen King, Blockade Billy

Michael Chabon presents ... The Amazing Adventures of the Escapist: Various

"Leaping onto center stage from the wings of comics history comes that dazzling Master of Elusion, foe of tyranny, and champion of liberation - the Escapist. Operating from a secret headquarters under the boards of the Empire Theater, the Escapist and his crack team of associates roam the globe performing amazing feats of magic and coming to the aid of all those who languish in the chains of oppression. The history of the Escapist's creators Joe Kavalier and Sam Clay was recently chronicled in Michael Chabon's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay. Now the best of the Escapist's adventures are collected into one volume for all to enjoy."










A collection of short stories written and illustrated by a team of comic stars, based on The Escapist, the creation of Michael Chabon's comic writer characters in The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay.

At its heart it attempts to spin off a Golden Age superhero supposedly created by the 'real' Kavalier and Clay into a series of through the ages snapshots of how a 'forgotten' comic creation fared, an idea that's maintained, Princess Bride-like, by the wonderfully poe-faced prose sections which seek to flesh out the history of the character and the legal wrangles which left The Escapist languishing in pulp roots.

There's an obvious missed opportunity here in not trying to tie the artistic styles of each age in a little more clearly to the Ages each story is supposed to be from, and whilst The Escapist is an enjoyable, but slight, read it adds very little to Kavalier and Clay and doesn't really stand on its own merit. The problem is that it's a curio. Whilst the writer of the majority of the tales, Kevin McCarthy, is paired with some genuinely excellent big name artists (Gene Colan,  Jim Starlin and Bill Sienkiewicz all feature) and some less well known (Dan Brereton needs a big book to launch off, but his Luna Moth story features, at its best, some excellent Milo Manara-esque pin-ups without the extreme raunch). Unfortunately, McCarthy's writing fails to capture the best of the pulp fiction styling that the book could showcase. The Escapist as a character isn't very interesting and the one-and-done natures of the tales means we can't develop much of a bond in the brief panel time available.

There are lots of better comics out there, and though The Escapist has great source material to draw on it's a book that isn't as original, exciting or amusing as Kavalier and Clay was. The cover art is FANTASTIC though - a wonderful piece of graphic design which houses a thoroughly mediocre read.

Also Try:
Michael Chabon, The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay
Will Eisner, The Spirit
Gerry Conway and Gene Colan, Tomb of Dracula
William Goldman, The Princess Bride

Himmler's War: Robert Conroy

"Only days after Normandy, Hitler is taken out of the equation and Heinrich Himmler, brutal head of the SS, assumes control of the Reich. On the Allied side, there is confusion. Should attempts be made to negotiate with the new government or should unconditional surrender still be the only option? With the specter of a German super-weapon moving closer to completion and the German generals finally allowed to fight the kind of war at which they are masters, the allies are pushed toward a course of accommodation - or even defeat! Will the soldiers of the Grand Alliance find the courage and conviction to fight on in the face of such daunting odds? And can Alliance leaders put into place a new plan in time to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat by the German war machine? A new and terrible battle for a free world is on!"


The best Alternate History books take a single, simple change to the course of history and extrapolate how this would have altered the events that followed whilst tying in real-life events as they would have appeared.

Himmler's War is an excellent example of how Alternate History books can go badly wrong. Faced with the twin challenges of pleasing an audience who want both an interesting read that changes what actually happened whilst also maintaining enough historical accuracy to keep from just making things up, Conroy misses the mark. Whilst some of Conroy's earlier books with less scale have been interesting reads, this book never dodges the second charge. Historical figures are reduced to two page cameos (Stalin appears for less than a page, Churchill and De Gaulle are mentioned in passing but don't appear) or have their real world motivations and priorities ignored (Himmler, the fanatical head of the SS giving control of his private army over to the Wehrmacht. Stalin signing a non-aggression pact with Germany in 1944 out of fear that morale in the Red Army is low - and then selling Germany two thousand of the Soviet Union's best tanks). Ultimately it's Conroy's inability to get a handle on his main players that sinks this book - playing fast and loose with characterisation in a book that is supposed to have only a minor single change doesn't work, especially as many of those reading this will have a semi-decent knowledge of these figures already.

This culminates in the development of a German nuclear weapon by 1945, a feat that's impossible no matter who's in charge of the Nazi party.

The macro-scale of the war is still more interesting than the micro however, with the characters focused on seemingly picked at random. Battle scenes go undescribed, or are seen from afar (even by participants), and there is little serious analysis of how the tide of war could have been changed by Hitler's death.

Finally, in a move that bothers me more in retrospect, both the female characters mentioned end up being sexually assaulted. Every woman who features for more than a page ends up the target for rape, sexual assault or a hastily conducted sex scene. If their story lines beforehand had mattered this may be more forgivable, but to introduce female characters just to give motivation to men, or to culminate in a rape scene seems a little embarrassing.

An interesting idea, poorly executed.

Also Try:
Harry Turtledove, The War That Came Early
Guy Saville, The Afrika Reich
Robert Harris, Fatherland
Stephen Fry, Making History

about 'take me to the bookshelf'

take me to the bookself is an attempt to track my reading for one year - a short review of every book I read,  whether fiction or non-fiction, prose or graphic novels. No scores, no stars, just some suggestion of what to read if you enjoyed the book, or if you want an alternative title.