Rising Sun, Falling Shadows

Tannhäuser #1

by Robert T. Jeschonek

Winner of the 2013 Scribe Award for Best Original Novel. The year is 1954, and in a dark and violent alternate history, the Great War never ended. The forces of the Reich, led by the occult-obsessed Kaiser, have sold their souls to demonic powers as they scour the earth in search of paranormal weaponry. Meanwhile, President Edison has sanctioned the use of potent alien technology recovered at Roswell, in hopes of aiding the beleaguered Union in its fight against tyranny. As the war rages on, can anything - or anyone - tip the balance of power? Enter the Shogunate, a far-eastern warrior sect with their own shadowy agenda. When a small force led by "The Daimyo" Iroh Minamoto sets out toward the evergreen peninsula of Kamchatka, Union Major John McNeal and the 42nd Marines must discover their plans before it's too late. To make matters worse, the nefarious Hermann Von Heizinger of the Reich's Obscura Korps seems to be in league with the Shogunate. The race is on to control a weapon that could finally bring the Great War to its climactic end!

Genres: Alternate History

336 pages, Paperback

First published July 5, 2011

About the author

Robert T. Jeschonek is an award-winning writer whose fiction, comics, essays, articles, and podcasts have been published around the world. His young adult fantasy novel, My Favorite Band Does Not Exist, won the Forward National Literature Award and was named one of Booklist’s Top Ten First Novels for Youth. His cross-genre science fiction thriller, Day 9, is an International Book Award winner. He also won the Scribe Award for Best Original Novel from the International Association of Media Tie-in Writers for his alternate history, Tannhäuser: Rising Sun, Falling Shadows. Simon & Schuster, DAW/Penguin Books, and DC Comics have published his work. He won the grand prize in Pocket Books' nationwide Strange New Worlds contest and was nominated for the British Fantasy Award. Visit him online at www.thefictioneer.com. You can also find him on Facebook and follow him as @TheFictioneer on Twitter. Sign up for the Robert T. Jeschonek newsletter right here: http://eepurl.com/tpKhr

Reviews

[Douglas Miller · Rating 2 out of 5]

The best of the three novels from the Tannhauser game. The author either relies on cliche less, or was given more freedom to break from the heavily cliched style of the previous books. The characters are more enjoyable, and better fleshed out, although there are a few odd behaviors which make for some less enjoyable moments. Unfortunately a revelation that occurs about 75% the way into the book makes the last 25% feel unnecessary, but this last bit has a good amount of nice action.

[Christian · Rating 2 out of 5]

I put this review in a spoiler tag,.....

not because of a story reveal but more about the style in which it was written. I figured out by page 50 that nothing serious was EVER going to happen to the main characters in the book. It is totally cannon. It was so obvious that there was no suspense at all. Its worse than Star Trek. At least there you had a few red shirts running around that kept things intersting.

However, that doesnt mean i didnt like the story. I got passed the fact that any history of the characters read like the back of their cards from the game and paid more attention to what was happening in the present (and a lot of foreshadowing into the future). The book is basically a race to get to the big reveal at the end and it was worth the ride.

If you are a fan of the system from Fantasy Flight, then i think you would enjoy this as well. It kind of gives you a better insight into the game. The book is written at a lower level so it isnt a challenge to follow along.

I would have given it a 2.5 but it wasnt as bad as a 2 so i gave it a 3. I plan on reading the next one in the Tannhauser series when it comes out at Gencon.