When I learned I'd won this book via Early Reviewers, I decided to borrow the first in the series from the library, so I wouldn't be missing anything starting this one. After reading that book, I noted that The Afrika Reich "was practically non-stop gore, and the characters who weren't obsessed with revenge were total sadists. Just ridiculous quantities of torture and misadventure were heaped on the 'heroes,' none of whom were particularly engaging or sympathetic, and nearly all of whom lived and died grotesquely. Honestly, I expected a certain amount of nastiness from the premise, but I've read a fair amount of 'Nazis win WWII' alternate history, and it can be really excellent and quite nuanced with intriguing characters. This was not. At all."

So I wasn't thrilled by the idea of picking up the sequel and wouldn't have done so if I didn't have to give it some sort of review. I decided three chapters were enough to tell that this book was going exactly the same direction as its predecessor, namely down the drain. In theory, this series could be interesting, dealing as it does with the scenario of what might have happened had Nazi Germany conquered Europe and Africa while the UK and US stood aside. But there's too much relishing of violence for my tastes, and I have no intention of finishing this book or picking up the third volume.

The Madagaskar Plan: A Novel is a brilliantly imagined and terrifyingly realistic alternate history where the Nazis and the Axis powers have triumphed over the Allied powers in World War II. This book chilled me because everything that happened in it seemed like what could have happened. The scope of the book was wide and encompassed all of the fronts of the war with the action jumping from place to place, while at the same time drawing you into the story with relatable characters with an intimate and personal storyline that had me crying.

This book is very intense. Almost too intense, which is why I gave is three and not four stars. That being said, it is a fascinating read and I recommend it to all history, and alternate history, fans. ( )

While I like alternate history, I struggled to really get into this book at all. I can't really put a thumb on why exactly other than it just didn't appeal to me. The story seemed to go from one crazy situation to another situation, with each escape seemingly unreasonable. Once is good, twice is fine... but umpteen times is a bit much.

There certainly could be a market for the book, but it's not one for me

I found it difficult to stay with this book. After starting and stopping and starting I finally did finish but am still not sure it was worth the effort. It's grim and violent and the hero's escapades are pretty implausible. I won't be reading back or forward to books 1 and 3. ( )

While reading this book, I was uncertain what I would say about it. While it's a sequel, it's able to stand alone if one hasn't read the predecessor, neither losing the reader in an unexplained setting nor requiring one to have read the previous book for moments to have the appropriate emotional impact. The setting appears well researched (although the author admits to taking some liberties for story reasons), and the possibility of the alternate history, with the Nazis winning World War II and shipping Jews to hellish camps in Africa, is documented in an appendix. However, the story wasn't really leaving much of an impression one way or another.

Then, I reached the final chapters. Not only is this book a sequel, but part two of at least three. As such, I understand that it can't really reach a proper conclusion. The ending it does reach, however, may be the worst place to do so, with none of the problems resolved positively for the protagonist, and the main one serving simply to motivate him in the next book. (I'll mention another problem I had with it at the end of the review, since it's a spoiler.) Perhaps the story will read better as a whole with the third book, but I don't expect to find out (see comment about the story making little real impression on me).

SPOILER WARNING FOR THE CONCLUSION:

After the hero spends the entire book trying to find the heroine, the two are reunited late on, only for her to be stuffed in the fridge so that he'll go after the two responsible in the next book. This both reduces her from character to plot device and makes the whole story seem like a waste of time. ( )