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Dammit Kacey Ezell! I didn't want to like this chick. I mean I really, really, didn't want to like this chick. They thought she was dead in the first book. I thought she was dead in the first book. I was HAPPY about that fact. But not only did Adalina Sucherin survive in Minds of Men, she is the main character of Ezell's newest work, The World Asunder. I knew that going in and it almost made me not buy the book. Why? BECAUSE I HATED THAT BITCH! Of course, I'm a member of the CKP Facebook Group, and I mentioned this there and was reassured by none other than the factory boss himself.
Apparently, I'm even more forgiving than even I thought I was because I honestly did end up liking this chick. Of course, it helps that the only thing worse than a Nazi is a Communist and chick starts out the story being oppressed by Communists. Enemy of my enemy and all that. Oh, and she's helping to take care of a family of innocents caught in the aftermath of World War II. I guess that makes up for a lot, especially since there were a bunch of daughters. I have daughters, so I therefore have a soft spot FOR daughters.
Okay, so maybe there was more to Lina than I saw the first time around. Maybe, just possibly, she wasn't the ginormous [redacted] I thought she was. I mean, I could have missed something. Things happen and sometimes I don't reach my normal heights of absolute brilliance. I guess.
I'll say this much though: Having read her story, which starts in East Berlin during the Berlin Airlift, I am actually a big fan of one Miss Sucherin. It took her a bit to win me over, but that's not surprising. I wasn't ready to give this character the benefit of the doubt. What I'm going on about here is that Mrs, Ezell has done one hell of a job building a very flawed and believable character and making her believable. Seriously. Lord knows if she were my girlfriend I'd never allow her around a body of water bigger than a Dixie cup.
Lina is also a woman who has been through a lot. That makes sense. If anyone knows what the Soviet troops did in Berlin after they conquered it that makes sense. Any conquered city is going to suffer, but Berlin had one of the worst fates of any city in modern warfare and it's women suffered worse that its men. Russians raped every woman they could get their hands on and were perfectly happy to rape young girls if they couldn't find a woman. (Seriously, if you don't believe me, read A Woman in Berlin. )
Of course, Sucherin is not the only character in the book. This is a good thing. Characters grow a lot more when they have other characters to interact with. A lot changes for Lina throughout The World Asunder. It's actually pretty amazing how much she remains herself after all of the changes. Lina is a strong woman and that hits home for me. When my daughters were little, I used to ask them what kind of person they were. I made them tell me that they were Proud, Strong, Smart, Tough, and Brave. I wouldn't leave them alone until they did. Lina is all of the above and that makes her the kind of woman I really respect.
I want to be careful here. There is a family that Lina is staying with at the beginning of The World Asunder. They are totally believable. There are a lot of other characters too, but I don't want to go too far into them because the way this thing is laid out, I'd have to reveal the plot to show where everyone fits in. Suffice it to say that they all make sense in context. Even when someone did something I did't want them to do, I knew why they did it. I like characters whose actions make sense according to their own motivations. Ezell apparently gets human nature. And actually, the girls in that family have all of the traits I taught my girls to have too. Maybe that's why I liked them so much.
Speaking as a historian with a fancy sheepskin, I'd like to compliment the author on her historical research. The backdrop of this story is about as perfect as you're going to get from a work of fiction. There were many things that went on after the Second World War that the average American doesn't know much about. Many of them are things that I find regrettable. In The World Asunder, Ezell features some of them. The United States really did bring people into the country who were complicit in some of the Nazi atrocities perpetrated during the war. It wasn't pretty. It wasn't right. I happened though, because it was necessary. Ezell gives about as balanced a portrayal of these actions as I've ever read. Kudos to her.
I will, however, stress that you should not go into a novel like The World Asunder thinking you already know what's going to happen. As a matter of fact, a smart reader will keep their head on a swivel because you never know what's coming next. I'm not saying that the book takes a lot of weird jumps. It's written in a logical manner, but there are surprises aplenty if you're paying attention.
Paying attention....
Hmm...
Not going to spoil anything.
It's possible that I missed something somewhere though. This is actually a good thing for the author. It's good for The World Asunder as a work of literature. I'm just saying that it might be possible that one of the surprises would have been a little bit less surprising if I hadn't had my cranium inserted into my third point of contact. Then again, since I am a member of the Facebook group, I've seen other people post vaguely, and have reason to believe that they missed the same things. It was a lot of fun once I figured it out, and someone out there is the note-taking type who is going to figure it out early, but if you're not that one percent of all nerds supernerd, it will come as a shock and it's more fun that way.
So, I enjoyed The World Asunder so much that I'm afraid I'm going to be forced to nominate it for the Dragon Award for Alternate History. I'm afraid that I have not consulted Mrs. Ezell to find out if she has room for one on her mantle, but that is quite frankly not my problem. If she doesn't have room, I guess I'll just store it for her. Or sumfin.
Seriously. Buy it. Read it. Nominate it. Thank me later.
Bottom Line: 5.0 out of 5 Boiling Beakers
The World Asunder (The Psyche of War Book II)
Kacey Ezell
Theogony Books, 2019
The World Asunder (The Psyche of War Book II) is available for purchase at the following link:
Oh, and I meant it when I recommended A Woman in Berlin. You can pick up a copy of that here:
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