Darkness Descending by Harry Turtledove
Well, first if you haven't read my review of Into the Darkness yet, I suggest you do. I will be revealing the end of that book in this review, so perhaps you might even want to read the first book before you read this review. Anyway, now for the actual review...
Well, the sequal starts off where the last book ended. Which was, the Algarve had invaded Unkerlant, and cut through the defenses like a hot knife through butter. The Unkerlantians eventually are able to slow the Algarvians to a slow enough pase that they would run out of troops long before they ever reach Cottbus (Moscow). Now, in the book, one of the sources of sorcerous energy is human life. That is, if you kill somebody, you can harnass their energy.
King Mezentio (Hitler) takes advantage of this by ordering a large number of Kaunians, an ethnic minority (Jews) to be killed in camps near the border, in order to release sorcerous energies large enough to stop the Unkerlantians. In order to stop this, King Swemmel (Stalin) has camps on his own side set up, mainly killing random peasants (the gulag system). When Kuusamo learns of this, they immediately declare war against Algarve. Algarve then uses the tactic on Kuusamo, which delays the progress of developing the laws of similarity and contigion.
Meanwhile, Lagoas plans an invasion of the Austral continent, the major source of cinnibar, a chemical dragons need. They believe that if they go conquer it from Yania, a country allied with Algarve (Austria), Algarve will have a much harder time fighting Unkerlant. There aren't any clear results, although Algarve had to re-station a few dragons in order to fight back.
In Unkerlant, the winter was slowing down the forces of Algarve, especially their Behemoths. Algarve managed to make it almost to Cottbus, but they were repulsed in the villages surrounding it. Come spring, both sides are pretty much stopped, and there is little momentum in either direction.
A large part of this book was meerly character development. It tried to display the feelings of the characters, and it tried to show what life is like living in an occupied country. Some embrace the conquers, because it is the only way they know how to live. Others fight back a la French resistance. The book also deals with the relationship between a young Forthwegian and a Kaunian, obviously outlawed.
The book was done very well, although it went much slower than the first one. It also went much more into the personal lives of each of the character. The role of characters have in the big picture becomes more evident: it is clear that Garivold will play a crucial part in the war inspiring the Unkerlantian troops through song, and it is also becoming clear that Skarnu will become the leader of a resistance group. One odd thing I've noticed about the book is that about halfway through it, its written like its the start of a new book. Like you know how an author, when writting a sequal, will explain things that somebody should already know. Well, its pretty evident that Turtledove originally intended this to be two books, but at some point in time condensed it into one.
Overall, it was pretty much like the first one, except a bit more character development and a bit less plot. Its evident that there will be a sequal, but to the best of my knowledge it hasn't been written yet.
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