''The Children's War'' is a 2001

alternate history Alternate history (also alternative history, althist, AH) is a genre of speculative fiction of stories in which one or more historical events occur and are resolved differently than in real life. As conjecture based upon historical fact, altern ...

novel by J.N. Stroyar. It was followed by the sequels ''A Change of Regime'' and ''Becoming Them''. The book was the long form winner of the

Sidewise Award for Alternate History The Sidewise Awards for Alternate History were established in 1995 to recognize the best alternate history stories and novels of the year. Overview The awards take their name from the 1934 short story "Sidewise in Time" by Murray Leinster, in wh ...

in 2001.

Background

The

point of divergence Alternate history (also alternative history, althist, AH) is a genre of speculative fiction of stories in which one or more historical events occur and are resolved differently than in real life. As conjecture based upon historical fact, altern ...

happens in 1941 when

Adolf Hitler Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Nazi Germany, Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his death in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the le ...

astrologer Astrology is a range of divinatory practices, recognized as pseudoscientific since the 18th century, that claim to discern information about human affairs and terrestrial events by studying the apparent positions of celestial objects. Dif ...

convinced him that attacking the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

was a bad idea and the

German nuclear weapons program The Uranverein ( en, "Uranium Club") or Uranprojekt ( en, "Uranium Project") was the name given to the project in Germany to research nuclear technology, including nuclear weapons and nuclear reactors, during World War II. It went through seve ...

saw better progress. Fifty years later, the truce between

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...

, the Soviet Union, and the

North American Union The North American Union (NAU) is a theoretical economic and political continental union of Canada, Mexico and the United States, the three largest and most populous countries in North America. The concept is loosely based on the European Union, o ...

is still holding. The main character, Peter Halifax, finds himself betrayed by the British underground and forced into a life as a

slave Slavery and enslavement are both the state and the condition of being a slave—someone forbidden to quit one's service for an enslaver, and who is treated by the enslaver as property. Slavery typically involves slaves being made to perf ...

to a Nazi household, but later escapes to the Polish resistance.

Characters

* Peter Halifax/Alan Yardley (aliases for Niklaus Adolf Chase) * Richard Traugutt (alias for Ryszard Przewalewski) * Zosia Król * Karl Vogel * Elspeth Vogel * Julia Hoffmeier * Katerina Kalischer

Literary critique

The Bradenton Herald ''The Bradenton Herald'' is a newspaper based in Bradenton, Florida, in the United States. History On September 15, 1922, Volume 1, Number 1 was published as ''The Evening Herald''. It was a merger of two weekly papers: the ''Manatee River Jour ...

'' described ''The Children's War'' as "a brutal look at what might have been and a reminder of the price of freedom."

References

;Notes ;Bibliography * *

External links

Official J.N. Stroyar website

''The Children's War'' on Google Books
Sidewise Award for Alternate History winning works Alternate Nazi Germany novels {{2000s-ah-novel-stub

Background

Characters

Literary critique

See also

References

External links