This part 2 of Harry Turtledove's "Darkness," series. I guess there are six in the series. I started reading this one right after I read volume One. I got involved and finished it fairly quickly.This is a fantasy novel, written with Turtledove's usual exactness and attention to detail. It is a very rewarding read. I liked it very much. The premise of this novel is that in this place, Magic works. There are dragons and magic spells that work, monsters in the sea. There is a great war beginning and gradually getting bigger and more serious. The plotting is intricate and very much resembles Earth, during the First and Second world wars. People are being dragged in and their lives are changed for better or worse. This is like reading a novel of real history, not fiction. I really enjoyed it.But--and there is always a "but"--at the end of this novel I was thinking that there were four more in the series. I guess they end at the end of the war. Do I want to know who wins/loses? And my answer is "no." Not right now. I've got a lot of other things I'd rather be reading first.So read and enjoy. Very good. I'll finish the series later.
I can give a number of reasons why I would expect not to like Darkness Descending (or the series for that matter): too many characters, too many countries, too many wars, no real ending and rather slow reading (took me four weeks to finish these 600 pages).Yet I rather enjoyed it, once again most likely because of the diversity of the characters, which are smart, irritating, boring, nice, naïve, arrogant, stupid, mean and everything in between.But where for Into the Darkness I hesitated between 3 and 4 stars, there is no doubt here: a very solid 3 stars, but no more.
