Last year, Turtledove published the third volume of
his "Supervolcano"
series entitled Things Fall Apart.
That title could just as easily have been applied to Last
Orders, the final volume of his "The War that Came Early" series.
Covering action on the Pacific, Western, Russian, and Spanish fronts as
well as activity in Philadelphia, midway through the novel sudden
changes occur which cause an almost domino effect, bringing the war that
has raged through the six volume series to a sudden end.
Turtledove's characters continue to run the
full gamut, from civilian Peggy Druce in Philadelphia, dealing with the
aftermath of her divorce from Herb and finding her way within the
Pennsylvania Democratic Party to Julius Lemp, trying to carry the war in
the Atlantic to the Allies, but stymied by the suspicions of the SS and
eventually party leaders and Admiral Dönitz, who wonder about the
loyalty of Lemp and his crew, as well as every other naval commander.
The first key moment in the book come in Spain,
where sniper Vaclav Jezek continued to take shots at Nationalist
officers trying to recreate the success he had when he managed to kill
Francisco Franco. In Germany, an uprising in Münster is witnessed by
Sarah Bruck and her family, although the Jews of Münster aren't
participating in the riots which were sparked by the treatment of the
popular Catholic bishop.
Reflective of unspoken dissatisfaction with the
manner in which the Nazis are waging the war on multiple fronts, the
uprising of Münster begins to draw resources the Nazis would rather use
against their external enemies, with Turtledove's various tank teams and
infantry men pulled from the front to help suppress the uprising. While
over the previous five novels, these individuals, including Adi Stoss,
the probably Jewish tank driver, are simply being pointed at foreign
enemies to fight for the Nazis, now they must begin to question where
their loyalties lie, and whether the Nazis and Germany are
synonymous. As may be expected, Stoss, Lemp, and Arno Baatz come
to various different conclusions. And none of them, or the readers, can
be entirely sure where the loyalties of those around them fall.
While there is a fair amount of military action in Last
Orders, told from the many viewpoints Turtledove has been following,
there is also plenty of room for examining his characters, and not just
in terms of their loyalty to Germany or the Nazis. In the Pacific,
Japanese soldier Hideki Fujita and US Marine Pete McGill both find
themselves in situations with regard to their countries that make them
question whether their countries value them. On the Western front,
Aristide Demange and Alistair Walsh are fighting a war and hoping for a
return home, while Chaim Weinberg in Spain must deal with rapid changes
in the battle he has been waging since long before the World War broke
out. Turtledove focuses attention on all of their personal stories even
as he describes the battles raging around them.
Once things fall apart
, the action wraps up pretty quickly, in many cases leaving plenty of
room for Turtledove to follow up on the lives of his characters in
subsequent novels. However, Turtledove demonstrates an almost
Whedonesque ability to kill off his characters and just because someone
manages to live until the peace doesn't mean they will live to appear in
any potential sequels. While the war itself is wrapped up pretty
well in Last Orders, the book does leave the reader with the
feeling that the stories Turtledove has told aren't quite finished.
