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'The Man with the Iron Heart' review

Very much enjoyed this review, Alex. I particularly like the point about how the allies in the book are less harsh against a nazi resistance then they were against otl independence movements in the third world.

For those curious, this is now 7 articles by other people which quote @SenatorChickpea. We were on track for eight but I talked @Charles EP M. out of one.

He's very much our guiding light here at Sea Lion Press. We carry around a little red book with his wisdom in it at all times.
 
Good review, though, Alex.

I do think you grasped the truth of the matter, though; parallels are not necessarily a bad thing, and in 2008 many Americans probably felt a sort of cathartic need to read a tale of the Iraq war with characters and places they had a greater familiarity with.
 
You don't have to look at how the Allies dealt with the independent movements OTL. Look at how they dealt with the Germans OTL. They were more than happy to kill a hell of a lot of them during the war and had plenty of tools in the occupation handbook. They also OTL had to be talked into not completing their actually begun deindustrialisation plans and were essential in the german population not starving to death.


The Germans make life hard, the Allies make German life impossible.




Also the Germans OTL were pretty fucking crushed, there wasn't any fight left in them.
 
A very good review all around, esp. regarding parallelism as already mentioned. Doesn't change my overall "ehh" attitude towards it, as shown here in a review I wrote a long time ago (most of all the fates it doles out for certain German scientists whom Paperclip would've definitely grabbed in the face of an Iraq War-style Nazi insurgency), but approaching it solely on the basis of parallels and allegory does make it an acceptable read.
 
I will say that Man with the Iron Heart but with the Allies going all out with a Morganthau plan thing added would be very good grist for a horrible dystopian novel. Think in the fashion of Decisive Darkness. It have the potenital to be absolutely heart breaking and gut punching but so decisive you cannot look away...
 
I will say that Man with the Iron Heart but with the Allies going all out with a Morganthau plan thing added would be very good grist for a horrible dystopian novel. Think in the fashion of Decisive Darkness. It have the potenital to be absolutely heart breaking and gut punching but so decisive you cannot look away...

A version of this can be found in the collection Travellers in an Antique Land available where all good alternate histories are sold. I forget who wrote it but I'm sure he's handsome and erudite.
 
A version of this can be found in the collection Travellers in an Antique Land available where all good alternate histories are sold. I forget who wrote it but I'm sure he's handsome and erudite.
Hmm, Id definetly be interested in reading it!

Continuing on though, One thought I had on the matter would be just how much of a wreck Europe, especially Western Europe would be after such a thing, as you have just effectively destroyed the industirial center of the continent, leaving it a infinitely less profitable farm field riven with Dead bodies. That would certainly impact recovery across the board and indeed the long term health. it also severely impact how the world views the Second World War, and make it seem a whole lot more morally grey than it was... (Killing 25 million people through starvation tends to do that...) and would imbue the German people with a very large amount of bitterness... Not that they can do much about it outside of Terrorist attacks but it would seep deep into the country and poison the atmosphere for decades, along with constantly prompting Interventions from the foregin powers, Perpetuating the Bitterness.
 
I will say that Man with the Iron Heart but with the Allies going all out with a Morganthau plan thing added would be very good grist for a horrible dystopian novel. Think in the fashion of Decisive Darkness. It have the potenital to be absolutely heart breaking and gut punching but so decisive you cannot look away...

Although it doesn't have the "Iron Heart" element to it (or it might, just off-page/screen), this book depicts a Morgenthau Plan Germany fairly well, IMO, with plenty of the other aspects you mention.
 
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