Harry Turtledove - Darkness (01-06)

Into the Darkness (1999)
(The first book in the Darkness series)
A novel by Harry Turtledove
One of an epic fantasy series from the author of "Worldwar". A duke's death leads to bloody war as King Algarve moves swiftly to reclaim the duchy lost during a previous conflict. But country after country is dragged into the war, as a hatred of difference escalates into rabid nationalism.


Darkness Descending (2000)
(The second book in the Darkness series)
A novel by Harry Turtledove
The country of Algarve is successful in its blitzkrieg tactics, but becomes bogged down in the desolate winter of Unkerlant, its main enemy. Algarve's king decides to undertake blood magic, which amounts to genocide, in order to break the deadlock.

Through the Darkness (2001)
(The third book in the Darkness series)
A novel by Harry Turtledove
As th4 war which consumes Dervelai drags on, the reserves of Algarve are ever more stretched. King Mezentio's armies become sucked into the huge landmass of Unkerlant. As more and more of the hated Kaunians are sacrificed for blood magic, conquered races are indected into the Algarvian army, and their fighting edge becomes blunted. While at home, both men and women come to doubt the war and its purposes. Harry Turtledove's blending of World War Two with fantasyhas already gained enormous praise. As a myriad of characters deal with reality, this is a tapestry of the finest writing the genre can create.

Rulers of the Darkness (2002)
(The fourth book in the Darkness series)
A novel by Harry Turtledove
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 kingdom 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.

Jaws of Darkness (2003)
(The fifth book in the Darkness series)
A novel by Harry Turtledove
The grand conflict for control of the continent of Derlavai rages on, in a battle with all the drama and terror of the Second World War-only the bullets are beams of magical fire, the tanks and submarines are great lumbering beasts, and the fighters and bombers are dragons raining fire upon their targets.

Yet hope may be dawning at last. The terrible onslaught of the conquering forces of Algarve-who power their battle magics with the life energy of their murdered victims-begins to founder as it runs into Habbakuk: a sorcerous ship of ice used by embattled nations of Lagoas and Kuusamo to ferry their deadly dragons across the seas to strike at the very heart of Algarvian power.

But though the tide has begun to turn, the conflict is far from over. The widely disdained Kaunians still struggle desperately to escape as the Algarvians kill them by the thousands-for life energy, but also simply for the crime of being Kaunian. And as the deaths of innocent civilians on both sides continue to feed the flames of war, those who have struggled to survive and preserve their freedom have only their passions to see them through. . . .

Out of the Darkness (2004)
(The sixth book in the Darkness series)
A novel by Harry Turtledove
As the Derlavaian War rages into its last and greatest battles, allied nations maneuver for positions against each other in a postwar world. But before that time can come, the forces of Algarve, Unkerlant, and their allies must clash a final time, countering army with army and battle magic with ever-more-powerful battle magic. In the midst of it all, the people the war has battered and reshaped must struggle to face their greatest individual challenges, as loves are shattered and found, terrible crimes avenged . . . and some journeys end forever.And the end of the war may not bring peace. . . .