After the Downfall

By Harry Turtledove

From Harry Turtledove, the master of alternate history, comes After the Downfall, a novel of magic, epic warfare, and desperate choices. 1945: Russian troops have entered Berlin, and are engaged in a violent orgy of robbery, rape, and revenge. Wehrmacht officer Hasso Pemsel, a career soldier on the losing end of the greatest war in history, flees from a sniper's bullet, finding himself hurled into a mysterious, fantastic world of wizards, dragons, and unicorns. There he allies himself with the blond-haired, blue-eyed Lenelli, and Velona, their goddess in human form, offering them his knowledge of warfare and weaponry in their genocidal struggle against a race of diminutive, swarthy barbarians known as Grenye. But soon, the savagery of the Lenelli begins to eat at Hasso Pemsel's soul, causing him to question everything he has long believed about race and Reich, right and wrong, Ubermenschen and Untermenschen. Hasso Pemsel will learn the difference between following orders... and following his conscienc

• Language: English
• Publisher: Night Shade Books
• Release date: Jun 1, 2008
• ISBN: 9781597802604

Harry Turtledove

Harry Turtledove (he/him) is an American fantasy and science fiction writer who Publishers Weekly has called the "Master of Alternate History." He has received numerous awards and distinctions, including the Hugo Award for Best Novella, the HOMer Award for Short story, and the John Esthen Cook Award for Southern Fiction. Turtledove’s works include the Crosstime Traffic, Worldwar, Darkness, and Opening of the World series; the standalone novels The House of Daniel, Fort Pillow, and Give Me Back My Legions!; and over a dozen short stories available on Tor.com. He lives in Los Angeles with his wife, novelist Laura Frankos, and their four daughters.

Reviews for After the Downfall

[fugitive_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I thought of titling this review "A Connecticut Nazi in King Arthur's Court" but the cover. The cover! One of the awesome, unintentionally(?) goofy book covers in the history of, well, books!Nazi!!! On a unicorn!!! And yes, by the end of the book, our protagonist, Wehrmacht Captain Hasso Pemsel, does get to ride on the back of a unicorn.It's also a pretty good read, though far from Turtledove's best. They can't all be masterpieces, and this tale of a wayward Wehrmacht officer magically transported to another dimension via the Omphalos stone while hunkered down in a Berlin museum besieged by enraged "Ivans" bent on revenge in the last days of WW2 (the Big One) is not a masterpiece. But it is fun.Hasso Pemsel starts off his adventure in the new dimension by saving a buxom blonde goddess from her swarthy attackers, then immediately (and I mean IMMEDIATELY) bedding her. Or roading her. Like the Beatles song. They did it in the road. They do it a lot. Pemsel likes it a lot. His little soldier convinces his big soldier (the brain) to ally himself to the Aryan looking "Lenelli" but it's only a matter of time before he finds out that the swarthy, obviously sub-human Grenye, are much cooler (and sexy as well). About 50 pages in I was saying to myself, "when is he going to invent gunpowder?" and was not disappointed by the end of the book.Please understand, this book is NOT a joke, though reading my description you might think so. Turtledove is attempting his usual "fish out of water in another dimension, or alternate time" trick to teach us that Nazis are people, too. And that appearances can be deceiving. And that beauty is only skin deep. And unicorns are cool. And other stuff.In the movie version, Pemsel would be played by Pierce Brosnan.Three stars for the book (all in all, an entertaining and not boring read). Ten stars for the cover!Nazi!!! On a unicorn!!!