DARKNESS DESCENDING

Second installment of Turtledove's alternate-world

fantasy (Into the Darkness,1999). The big what-if here: How might WWII have been fought if magic worked? Well, this time Turtledove's analogue-Nazi war machine finds the usual justifications for slave labor and extermination camps. Altogether, a series that highlights the author's familiar strengths—historical knowledge, enormous scope, skillful juggling of plausible what-ifs—and

weaknesses—indistinguishable characters, scattershot narrative, and a general sense of inertia