Rating: ★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆
Obtained from: Historical Fiction Virtual Book Tours
Read: March 17, 2015
Sudetenland is the premiere novel by author George T. Chronis. The book delivers suspenseful and sweeping historical fiction set against Central European intrigue during the late 1930s leading up to 1938’s Munich Conference. Having swallowed up Austria, Adolph Hitler now covets Czechoslovakian territory. Only France has the power to stand beside the government in Prague against Germany… but will she? The characters are the smart and sometimes wise-cracking men and women of this era – the foreign correspondents, intelligence officers, diplomats and career military – who are on the front lines of that decade’s most dangerous political crisis. If Czechoslovak president Edvard Beneš ignores the advice of French premier Édouard Daladier and refuses to give up Bohemian territory willingly, then Hitler orders that it be taken by force. The novel takes readers behind the scenes into the deliberations and high drama taking place within major European capitals such as Prague, Paris, Berlin, Vienna and London as the continent hurtles toward the crucible of a shooting war.
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In the realm of World War II fiction, George T. Chronis' Sudetenland is a little different as it digs into a lot of very interesting, underrated and largely overlooked aspects of the conflict. It plays on what ifs, but is extensively researched and chock-full of delightful historic detail.
Sudetenland is not a light piece. There is a lot of very heavy political exposition in the book and I often had to break to let the material settle in before moving forward. Don't misunderstand, I greatly appreciated Chronis' approach, but there is a considerable amount of information between these pages and readers shouldn't expect to fly through it as they would most narratives.
Chronis' writing is dialogue heavy and I'd have liked more atmospheric detail overall, but can't deny the book boasts great tension and wonderful movement. The characters struck me as slightly stereotypic, but as a thriller, I enjoyed the twists and turns Chronis built into the story.
Sudetenland is a challenging read in terms of content and size, but it is a thought-provoking and engaging piece just the same. It is a solid narrative that will appeal to fans of both military and historic fiction.
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"Our allies and out enemies are mentally preparing for war. They may not profess as much openly, but those are the facts. Everything I have witnessed inclines me to believe that a grave crisis in Europe is unavoidable."
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1 comment:
Thanks for the insightful review, Erin. I am glad you enjoyed the read.
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