The book begins with Alan Querdilion relating the tale of his escape from a prisoner-of-war camp in Eastern Germany during WWII.

He ends up in a slave world, 100 years later, where some slaves have been genetically altered. And hunted for sport. And then he time travels back. Or does he? Actually, I'm being serious. I don't quite understand the timeline in this story, or why it happens. I was definitely frustrated at the end.

The book cover has this written at the top - “If The Nazis Had Won Their War". Honestly, I didn't really get what that title was referring to, as the action in the 'future' is only confined to the one area that is described, and there is no mention of the Nazi's ruling the world, or running it, or any such thing. Which was a disappointment to me, as the idea of an alt-history "what if" story was part of the reason I bought this. ( )

A good quick read but definitely the weakest of Sarban's outings. Its a sort of jacked up Most Dangerous Game set in a sketchily defined alternate future. All you really need to know is that the Nazi's won and its about 2047.

It doesn't partake of much of Sarban's real skill for depicting subtle weirdness although the setting is certainly unique. It gets a trifle sentimental towards the end by introducing a hardly believable romance angle. It in no way tries to explain how the protagonist gets to the future and gets back so it seems almost like an idea that Sarban didn't know what to do with, a problematic beginning and ending, so he tagged a framing story to it so we wouldn't notice.

However it was a good suspenseful quick read. I still liked it a lot.

Having read most of Sarban's published output I think it is a shame he didn't decide to write more in his life. All of his stuff is top shelf, everything. It seems that from his biography he treated writing as a hobby when he had free time during his civil service stint overseas. Its kind of sad to think of the fact that with so much natural writing ability that Sarban just considered it a hobby to dabble in and as soon as he found he was too busy or just lost interest in it he stopped, forever. Almost worse than a life cut too short in a way. ( )

https://nwhyte.livejournal.com/3107725.html

The only thing I knew of this novel before reading it was that it has a “Hitler Wins” scenario. I hadn't realised that the framing narrative is set shortly after WW2 in our timeline, but the protagonist recounts a story of breaking out of a PoW camp in Germany and getting somehow zapped forward to a different mid-21st century where the Allies were defeated. It's a very short book, and the key point is that the future Nazis have bred genetically modified young men to hunt women through the woods for sport. This is, needless to say, a really icky set-up, and I think the best point of the novel is that it doesn't especially dwell voyeuristically on the ickiness, but on the practicalities of getting the hero and his young female ally out of immediate danger. (Defeating the system isn't an option.) Even so, there are a number of loose ends, and I can't agree with those who rate it among the greats. However, I'm glad to have read it. ( )

A British prisoner escapes from a German POW camp in 1943--only to stumble into a weird netherworld. This short novel presents a compelling picture of a place of madness and slavery. The framework that encloses the story doesn't help a lot, nor does it offer any explanation for the mysterious happenings. This is an excellent, dark fantasy that won't leave your memory very soon. ( )

This is one of those classics that I somehow missed until I won a copy. I’m very glad it came to my attention. It’s a very interesting mix of alternate history (what if the Nazis had won their war?), time travel, and a retelling of the Wild Hunt. The story starts off slow, with hints of ‘something not quite right’ as Alan Querdilion reacquaints himself with an old friend years after WWII has come to a close. The two find themselves drinking and smoking by a late night fire when Alan relates his odd tale of a walk on the weird side.

Alan finds himself in a future world 102 years after the Nazis obtained dominance. He stumbled upon it after having escaped a WWII POW camp, lost, dehydrated, and zapped by something he bumbled into. He wakes up in a German hospital-type place. The two nurses and the doctor try to help him, thinking he is suffering from a bad hit to the head. Eventually, he learns something of the baron whose land the hospital resides on. Slavery is common place for both young men and women. Alan won’t let go of his believe that this place and time is not quite real, but he quiets down enough about it for the doctor to start taking him out and about.

What Alan learns is disturbing. The slaves have been bred or perhaps genetically altered at the zygote level to provide a service or entertainment for this baron. Some are physically altered as kids or teens, such as having vocal chords cut. The baron treats many of these specialized slaves as animals, using them to hunt as well as providing them to be hunted. It’s all rather disturbing and very well written. The book doesn’t get caught up in bigger picture morality issues. Instead, it stays focused on Alan’s tale as he tries to survive this encounter and his thoughts on what is wrong or right.

Alan eventually offends the baron by sneaking about and he is tossed into the fenced forest to be hunted at leisure. This starts the heart pounding suspense as Alan must avoid the Hunt again and again. The moonlit Wild Hunt scenes were absolutely riveting. The plot thickens as he meets others who are part of this hunt and he learns a little of the politics off of the baron’s property.

As you might guess, since Alan is telling this story from the beginning years after the even happens, he survives the event, though not unmarked. The reader is left to decide whether or not Alan truly experienced this event, if it was his hallucination, or if Alan made it up to mess with his friend. It’s an excellent suspense-filled tale.

I won a copy of this book from the publisher (via The Audio Book Reviewer) with no strings attached.

Narration: Stefan Rudnicki was excellent. His performance really added to the tension and excitement and the disgust Alan felt from time to time. His female voices were good and his accents were well done. During one of the hunting scenes, these wild cats (sort of) are being used to hunt and Rudnicki was in the middle of the narrative that explains the wild yowling sounds as they go on the chase when my old deaf cat let out a yowl of her own. I almost jumped out of my skin! ( )