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Book Review of 1945

1945
1945
Author: William Forstchen, Newt Gingrich
Genre: Literature & Fiction
Book Type: Hardcover
reviewed on + 10 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 2


I liked the alternate WW2 scenario outlined in this book. While the main character was not all that inspiring, the story was compelling enough to keep me reading. The book started out slow but the pace kept picking up all the way to the end.......only it wasn't the end. You see, on the last page of the book you read these words:

"TO BE CONTINUED"

I am not kidding. The book was meant to be the first of a trilogy telling the story of an alternate WW2 where an isolationist Fortress America, which has just finished off Japan in the "Great Pacific War" but which never went to war against Germnay, now finds itself having to face-off against a superpower Nazi Germany that is master of Europe from the Atlantic to the Urals and from the Artic to Africa.

Unfortunately, the first book was slammed by the liberal book critics and did not sell well...probably because Newt Gingrich was in office in 1995 when the book came out and many people were unwilling to give the book a chance because they disliked the politics and personality of one of the co-authors.

This is too bad, because the story was good, and getting better when the book just abruptly ends...with the promise of 2 sequel books that never got published.

So, read the book if you like all alternate history, but just be aware of the fact that you're only getting 1/3 of the story that Gingrich and Forstchen intended to write. After 14 years, I doubt seriously that they'll ever re-visit the project.