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beingshort's review
adventurous
dark
emotional
hopeful
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.5
jschuenke7's review against another edition
dark
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
redlikeroses's review against another edition
3.0
What if Stalin turned on us?
That's the premise Robert Conroy lays out for us in this novel.
I really don't have much to say about this book. This book was enjoyable for me but not enthralling or a must read in my opinion. As many have mentioned in their reviews, there are giant plot holes and choppy transitions throughout the book. In the book, you follow multiple characters and see from their perspective which I really enjoyed even if some characters were irritating. Even so, the majority of characters were lovable and easy to care about though. The love story in this book was charming and I lived for the moments between them, even if they weren't believable at times.
A few dates were wrong and sometimes you had to suspend your disbelief, but that doesn't make it bad. Honestly, as long as you aren't expecting something mind blowing it should be an enjoyable read despite its faults.
That's the premise Robert Conroy lays out for us in this novel.
I really don't have much to say about this book. This book was enjoyable for me but not enthralling or a must read in my opinion. As many have mentioned in their reviews, there are giant plot holes and choppy transitions throughout the book. In the book, you follow multiple characters and see from their perspective which I really enjoyed even if some characters were irritating. Even so, the majority of characters were lovable and easy to care about though. The love story in this book was charming and I lived for the moments between them, even if they weren't believable at times.
A few dates were wrong and sometimes you had to suspend your disbelief, but that doesn't make it bad. Honestly, as long as you aren't expecting something mind blowing it should be an enjoyable read despite its faults.
12140holmes's review against another edition
3.0
Definitely not Conroy's best but is very good reading. Interesting alternate happenings that kept me entertained throughout.
jeffstevens's review against another edition
4.0
Rather enjoyable as a bit of escapist alternate history. A good balance of new, fictional characters and historical figures.
notionsofdragonsfire's review against another edition
3.0
Nice what if war story. This book is an interesting show of all sides involved and not just the guys in the bunkers. This book shows the planning and strategy of the President and Generals, the fear the Russian Generals had of Stalin, and the struggles of both the soldier in the bunk and the civilians trying to survive.
speesh's review against another edition
3.0
The 'What if?' premiss of Red Inferno is a good one and given the state of affairs in the final months of WWII, one that was entirely possible.
What if, Conroy wonders, while they rushed to capture Berlin, hopefully capture Hitler alive and at the same time exact the maximum possible revenge for the atrocities committed against them - both real and imagined - the Russians had decided the chance and opportunity was there to continue on past Berlin? What if they had decided to continue the war past the shut-off date we all know and continue onwards to take the whole of Germany, then continue on even further into Holland, Belgium and ultimately France? What if they had decided the Eastern European countries they captured were not enough of a buffer zone and that the chance was actually there to 'export' the Communist revolution to the whole of Europe? How might that have unfolded? What might have happened to the (mostly) US forces who were already a long way in to Germany at the time (even though their leaders were duped by Stalin into holding back from a full-power rush to Berlin themselves)? How might the US have reacted and how might the Russians have been stopped (presuming of course, our sympathies lie with the West here, shall we say)?
That's the set-up and a good one it is at that.
However, while I enjoyed reading the book and at no time found it poor reading, I did feel that it was one of missed opportunities. One which, in better hands could have been a lot more satisfying. Conroy is an entirely competent writer, it seems, but the story deserved someone better. He shows the broad picture, the big plans, the leaders and the generals deciding policy, but he also manages to focus in on the soldiers and the (German) civilians caught at the sharp end and paying in their own blood, the price of the generals' broad strategic sweeps.
As I say, there's no shortage of interesting ideas, but perhaps my problems with the book can be pretty much traced back to the fact that it just isn't long enough. This can't be a short story and with so many different elements necessarily having to be involved, it really needed to be (at least) twice as long to fully do the story justice. To fully develop the ideas, possibilities (and not least) the characters, but also the ethical questions raised and the psychological possibilities he begins, but hasn't space or possibly ability, to develop properly. So, not deep enough, not broad enough and not long enough. A 'what if?' alternative history that was entertaining enough, but left me wondering 'what if, it'd been written by Max Hastings or Anthony Beevor?'
What if, Conroy wonders, while they rushed to capture Berlin, hopefully capture Hitler alive and at the same time exact the maximum possible revenge for the atrocities committed against them - both real and imagined - the Russians had decided the chance and opportunity was there to continue on past Berlin? What if they had decided to continue the war past the shut-off date we all know and continue onwards to take the whole of Germany, then continue on even further into Holland, Belgium and ultimately France? What if they had decided the Eastern European countries they captured were not enough of a buffer zone and that the chance was actually there to 'export' the Communist revolution to the whole of Europe? How might that have unfolded? What might have happened to the (mostly) US forces who were already a long way in to Germany at the time (even though their leaders were duped by Stalin into holding back from a full-power rush to Berlin themselves)? How might the US have reacted and how might the Russians have been stopped (presuming of course, our sympathies lie with the West here, shall we say)?
That's the set-up and a good one it is at that.
However, while I enjoyed reading the book and at no time found it poor reading, I did feel that it was one of missed opportunities. One which, in better hands could have been a lot more satisfying. Conroy is an entirely competent writer, it seems, but the story deserved someone better. He shows the broad picture, the big plans, the leaders and the generals deciding policy, but he also manages to focus in on the soldiers and the (German) civilians caught at the sharp end and paying in their own blood, the price of the generals' broad strategic sweeps.
As I say, there's no shortage of interesting ideas, but perhaps my problems with the book can be pretty much traced back to the fact that it just isn't long enough. This can't be a short story and with so many different elements necessarily having to be involved, it really needed to be (at least) twice as long to fully do the story justice. To fully develop the ideas, possibilities (and not least) the characters, but also the ethical questions raised and the psychological possibilities he begins, but hasn't space or possibly ability, to develop properly. So, not deep enough, not broad enough and not long enough. A 'what if?' alternative history that was entertaining enough, but left me wondering 'what if, it'd been written by Max Hastings or Anthony Beevor?'
markk's review
2.0
This book is Conroy’s fifth alternate history novel, yet in many respects it reads like his third one, [b:1945|134261|1945|Robert Conroy|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1320488645s/134261.jpg|129350], given how much he borrows from it. Though the setting is different – with the premise being a clash between Soviet and American forces in Germany at the end of the Second World War in Europe – the elements are all too familiar to anyone who has read Conroy’s earlier work. As in the earlier novel, they will encounter green lieutenants, beleaguered but determined generals, men trapped behind the lines cooperating with OSS agents, a duplicitous Soviet Union, and a plucky man from Missouri attempting to address it all. Even the ending is essentially the same, though this is less of a surprise as all of Conroy’s novels seem to conclude with an “in-the-end-the-world-was-left-a-better-place” sort of wrapping up.
This is not to say that this is not an enjoyable book, as fans of Conroy’s alternate novels will find the author firing on every cylinder that he has within these pages. But it seems that with the fifth novel (and his third consecutive one set in the Second World War) Conroy’s creative well is running dry and he is beginning to recycle earlier ideas in a slightly refreshed setting. In his “Acknowledgments” section at the end of the book he expresses his hope that this will not be the last alternate history novel he writes; while I'm sure it wasn't, I hope that he put more time into giving readers something new and different, rather than just warming over his earlier work.
This is not to say that this is not an enjoyable book, as fans of Conroy’s alternate novels will find the author firing on every cylinder that he has within these pages. But it seems that with the fifth novel (and his third consecutive one set in the Second World War) Conroy’s creative well is running dry and he is beginning to recycle earlier ideas in a slightly refreshed setting. In his “Acknowledgments” section at the end of the book he expresses his hope that this will not be the last alternate history novel he writes; while I'm sure it wasn't, I hope that he put more time into giving readers something new and different, rather than just warming over his earlier work.
bibliowarden's review
4.0
An entertaining and thoughtful read, with a good premise and a plausible execution. It's not overlong as many books of it's type can be. I'm interested in trying other books by this author.
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