Bitter Seeds

I am kinda torn on rating this book. I feel I may be doing something of a disservice to it without reading the other two books in the trilogy. The ending left me with no closure, a thousand dangling ends. and so many things I just didn't understand.

As a self-contained book, it had a lot of things I liked and a lot of things that just weren't really my bag. The idea of Hitler's Ubermensch being actual Supermen was captivating if the characters felt kind of static. I guess I've just watched enough Joss Whedon to be a bit tired of the Drusilla/River/Gretel character. Crazy precog female has been done to death, as has hothead pyromaniac. Klaus was by far the most interesting on the Nazi side, possibly because we get to hear so much of his perspective and look into the psychology that motivates him to keep doing awful things, even after no one is holding the whip on him any more. He also has the coolest power.

The juxtaposition of the Nazi X-men against a Lovecraftian cult is probably my favorite thing about the book. I probably will continue the series just to see what goes on with the Eidolons. They are a terrifying and refreshing spin on the concept of magic. It's Lovecraftian, but still has its own set of rules that keep it unique. Will is my favorite character on the Allied side. His transformation is both frightening and realistic, and I just kept hoping he would catch a break. Poor guy never can catch a break.

The conceit of the book as alternate history wasn't a great match for me, although I respect what Tregillis did with it. As someone who has no more than a high school knowledge of WWII from a military standpoint, a lot of key points and deviations were pretty much lost on me. Whole lot of googling going on here. If you're a sci-fi fan and a WWII buff, this book was pretty much written for you, and you'll likely enjoy it much more than I did.

Having said all that, now I need to get in to the myriad of dangling questions that left me ending this book feeling perturbed rather than excited.

Why did Gretel give Klaus Agnes' evacuation number if she didn't intend for him to save her? Did she somehow save her? Why does Will leap to the conclusion that the soulless unborn child is Marsh and Liv's? Wouldn't the Eidolon's take an unborn child that was actually in the womb during the negotiations? I'm assuming from a jacket summary of the second and third books that the phantom is Marsh. I'm sure it has relevance later, but it just felt so dropped in.

All of this and more is probably resolved later in the series, but not having even hints at some of the answers really hurt my enjoyment of this book. I finished it with a lot of wtf feelings. Obviously, you need a cliffhanger or two before the next book, but this one barely resolved a single story line. It felt chopped right up the middle. I know Tregillis intended a self-contained novel beginning with what's now the second book, but this book became more than exposition and should have been wrapped up accordingly.

I've not decided whether I'll continue the series. The first book was only 2.99 on the Nook but the second two are 12.99 which is more than I'll pay for an ebook. We'll see if any copies crop up at the used store. Otherwise, I'm a bit too annoyed to go out of my way for a copy just yet.