War of the Rats

.. try to get the history right. Particularily such obscure facts as which month Germany invaded the Soviet Union. And that is just one of the small mistakes that add up to make this novel not a very good piece of historical fiction. There are *many* errors about World War 2 history that even an amateur such as myself found glaringly obvious and severely detracted from what should be a historical scene set in Stalingrad. I will not detail all of them because they are simply too many and the novel does not work as a work of historical fiction, though it might fall into the genre of alternate history.I will next address the problems of simple military accuracy. In this matter I rate myself even below an amateur, but the mistakes are *staggering* and once again detract from any sort of 'supension of disbelief'. The German sniper changes his rifle not once but *twice* during the hunt for the Russian sniper, and the second change is to a sort of rifle he's *never* fired before. If you were hunting the best sniper of the other army would you switch from a weapon you knew intimately to one that you'd never fired before (and in spite of what is written in this book) is *widely* agreed upon to be the inferior weapon? I sure wouldn't and it severly detracts from the plausibility of the duel. Other less severe errors abound, such as the author not understanding the difference between machine guns and sub-machine guns etc. etc. Once again, one can simply set these concerns aside and accept that perhaps this is an alternate history and move on to other concerns.The characters: Wow, the Nazis sure were bad people, not much question of that, but the author feels the need to beat the reader over the head with it, talking about the SS sniper shooting wounded and nurses and doctors etc., but of course, the Soviet sniper would never *dream* of such a thing because the Soviets are the 'good guys' and the Germans are the 'bad guys'... at least in this book. And another point, that I believe another reviewer was making. This might come as a surprise to some (including, probably, the author) but not all Germans were Nazis. In fact not even most of the German army was Nazis, in fact, a very *small* number of Germans soldiers belonged to the Nazi party. I could digress into illustrative points about this but suffice it to say that the other simply refers to every German as a Nazi, throughout the book. Fine, I guess, from the point of view of the Soviet soldiers, they were indeed all just Nazis... A finer look at the characters reveals very large pixelated people, no defintion to them at all, simply stereotypical charicatures that no one could possibly care about. I certainly didn't and the possibility that one or more of any of the four main characters might die just filled me with... well nothing, I didn't care if they lived or died.And now the female character and the love affair between her and the Soviet sniper. OH.... MY.... GOD! This is the most pathetic part of the novel, IMHO. The American-Russian woman (uh-huh, whatever) is so sexually liberated that she wants to have sex after crawling through a sewer for several hours, during which one of her party was overcome and died from methane poisoning, and while she and her other companion are still covered in dried feces. Yep, nothing turns me on like a good trek through the sewer of a city of several million people. And the sex scenes are the most clusmily written and awfully described sort of these I've ever read. It got to the point where I simply would skip over these little vignettes and move on. And the trip to the brothel... oh, please, please stop writing this.And now, on to the writing itself. It is not good, rather it is like a man who has found a list of metaphors is writing very poor descriptions of something he hasn't read nearly enough about. The writing is just plain not very good. It's clumsy and overly-wordy and clearly not properly edited at all.Any one of these things about the novel would detract from it slightly, but still make it interesting and readable, but the list of errors, cardboard cut-out characters, and poor writing of the author makes it less a work of fiction and more like work trying to get through it.

I enjoyed War of the Rats. It is a good read, an enjoyable story and provided good insight into that portion of WW2. My only complaint is that the author would frequently go on rambling journeys that added little to the plot. It was almost as if he had a minimum number of words that he had to achieve and didn't have enough story to accomplish his quota.Otherwise, I recommend this book.

David L. Robbins’s novel War of the Rats tells the story of the siege of Stalingrad from a very personal nature. One character sets the tone by asking, “Will this war overlook nothing? Is it beginning to hunt for us now by name, one at a time?”. The story centers around four viewpoint characters- two Russian, two German, and tells the story of how the battle for the city became a battle between two snipers.The first part of the book introduces the reader to the stories’ four main characters- snipers Vasily Zaitsev, Tania Chernova, and Heinz Thorvald, as well as German corporal Nikki Mond. The book focuses on the snipers of Stalingrad, beginning with Nikki witnessing a German lieutenant being shot by sniper- a sniper who turns out to be Zaitsev. Tania joins Zaitsev’s newly formed sniper school, and the Germans send for their best sniper, Heinz Thorvald, to kill Zaitsev. The majority of the book follows the duel between Zaitsev and Thorvald as Tania assists Zaitsev and Nikki assists Thorvald, and ends with the fates of Tania’s and Nikki’s characters.Though the book is a story of snipers, I found the German corporal, Nikki, to be the most interesting character of the story. As a German soldier, Nikki should be the bad guy. He's part of an invading army, and the Russian snipers are justified in trying to drive them off. However, Nikki, like many a member of the Wehrmacht, is just doing his duty. Nikki doesn't particularly care about Hitler, or the war, or about taking the city of Stalingrad- he's a cog in Hitler's war machine, and he just wants to survive to go back home.This is a definite must read to anyone interested in WWII history. An interesting thing to note as well is that the book is based on a true story. Zaitsev and Tania are both real snipers, and the duel is based on an account by Zaitsev. To get the full story of the Battle of Stalingrad, I would recommend reading Enemy at the Gates by William Craig. (And avoid the movie, which will make you mad at its reduction of Tania to a mere love interest and its complete removal of Nikki's character.)

David Robbins has a way with words. He has a way with characters. He is by far a master of character development, a task made all the more difficult when one is constrained by reality. Vasha Zaitsev, Tania Chernova, Nikki Mond and Heinz Thorwald are all historical characters in a compelling setting. You can't help but bond with the two protagonists. You share their fears, their joys, their passions, and their accomplishments.The Battle of Stalingrad is likely the most costly battle in human terms of any in recorded history. History repeats itself as von Paulus' 6th Army is totally destroyed by the Russian forces under Chuikov, as Napolean was defeated earlier. Without losing sight of the larger picture, Robbins focuses on a small segment of the battle and the incredible people who form one small part of the total operation. We learn about the tactics of snipers and their specialized skills as hunters. We witness street battles and door to door combat within the ruins of a great city. But most important, we learn how ordinary people become heroes.I don't want to give anything away for fear of detracting from your enjoyment. Suffice it to say, I could hardly put this book down. I would read and look for logical break points (subchapters, etc.), but invariably was driven to read further. When I finished, I was driven to do further research on my own to verify the reality of the characters and their actions.

Gripping and compelling but in a dark voyeuristic way. The forces both within and without which set snipers apart from regular soldiers as cold blooded killers remain a mystery but this book, in describing the unbelievable horrors of urban warfare in Stalingrad goes some way towards us understanding it.I read much of this book in the small hours of the morning as I was unable to sleep due to night-time coughing and feeling quite ill with influenza and this has etched the darkness of the book even deeper in me.God rest all those poor souls

I have given this story, which is largely based on fact, a four star rating. An interesting read with a mix of fact and fiction relating to the Second World War battle of Stalingrad. I did, however, feel that the latter part of the book was long drawn out on the fiction part. That is just my opinion and should not put readers off from purchasing this book.AnOn

the best book ever written, just bought a copy for my father. If you like historical fiction David L Robins is up there with the best

This is a fascinating story of true bravery and the true horrors of war. Robbins writing puts you there with the characters. Will be looking to read more of his books.

As you'd expect