Review: THE ROMANOV RESCUE, by Tom Kratman, et al

Better dead than red.

3 skilled historical writers play with an exciting "what-if" scenario, wherein the Romanov family was not executed by communists in the 1910s, but were instead rescued by a daring officer at the helm of an airship.

The story

This is a piece of historical fiction that requires you to know a little bit of Russian history in order to grasp the ramifications of what's going on. The short version is this: the Romanov dynasty governed Russia for over 300 years, from 1613 to 1917. The direct male lineage stayed intact for the first 150 years or so, until one generation only produced female heirs. In order to keep the Romanov name going, a German royal family married into the dynasty.

This made Germany and Russia's royalty family. That matters because in THE ROMANOV RESCUE, the familial tie prompts a German officer to go rogue and rescue the Romanovs once he learns just how much danger they are in. If the Bolsheviks carry out their plans, a brutal murder awaits the Russian royals.

The characters

There are, of course, the Romanovs who are in immediate peril, namely Nicholas and his wife Alexandra, with their four children.

The zeppelin on the cover is captained by Ludwig Bockholt. His wireless operator, Wilhelm Mueller, also features in the formation of the plot to go get the Romanovs.

And the man with the most influence in the "alternate" part of this alternate history is German Major General Max Hoffman, who puts the plot in motion: he issues the order to Major Brinkmann, who is then accompanied by a Russian named Daniil Kostyshakov, who speaks perfect German.

If the names are a mouthful for you, you're not alone; my own bilingualism takes me into the Romance languages, away from the Teutonic and Cyrillic, so there was a bit of training involved in getting the names to make the right sounds in my head as I read them. But once you get these core characters down, the rest start to fall into place.

The world

As with any alternate history, it starts with our own world and plays with a few details. So the Romanovs did rule Russia for three centuries, the Holstein-Gottorp Germans did intermarry, and the Bolsheviks did rise up to overthrow the government.

And since it's in Russia, holy crap it's cold outside. That gets even worse when you're working at altitude, as becomes apparent right out of the gate:

"Not for the first time, Wilhelm thanked his lucky stars that he'd been trained as a wireless operator, and therefore got to spend most of his time in the forward control compartment. They could still smell the engine fumes, but it was nothing like the noisy, vibrating, hellish environment of the engine compartments.

"On the other hand, being up front was no picnic either. Between unexpected turbulence, and unpredictable weather at altitude, no one on the crew of a zeppelin had an easy time of it. It was a mark of a man's toughness-both physical and mental--to be selected for airborne service. They were an elite grroup, hand-picked for this important mission, and justifiably proud."

From there we hit the rough transition from World War One to the Russian Civil War, which would drag for six miserable years.

The politics

Powerfully anti-communist, as the factions opposing the Bolsheviks are the protagonists of the story.

The authors are students of history and very much present this story from the angle of individual liberty, while still preserving the structure of royalty-based governments as the norm of the day.

The writing

On that note, this is where I'd like to point out an issue with collaborative storytelling, where more than one talented author brings his or her skills to the table: books like this can easily end up with an inflated word count, or overly descriptive scenes. The cold that bites the skin, the shovel that scrapes the dirt, the peculiar function of a specific weapon--this problem doesn't always rear its head with two authors, but with three it seems to become a little more obvious.

Kratman is retired Army, a retired lawyer, and a current novelist, while Watson is a West Point graduate and Ezell is a retired Air Force chopper pilot. The military bearing is definitely on point with the three of them and their experience.

THE ROMANOV RESCUE tips the scales at a hefty 560 pages and there were places where I felt it could have trimmed the fat. By the time I got to the final chapters, the narrator pausing to describe the goal of using a flamethrower in an enclosed space was a bit of a speed bump.

That said, the action was clear because the necessary details were always there, sometimes in excess, but it was easy to know just what was going on. As a final note I appreciated the visual aids included, such as historical pictures of people and vehicles, as well as floorplans of different buildings.

Content warning

THE ROMANOV RESCUE does not shy away from military-accurate levels of profanity and violence, there are no kid gloves on this story.

Who is it for?

This is historical fiction written for history aficionados. I consider myself to be just that, however my area of interest hasn't overlapped much with the history of Russia. I had to hit the history websites a couple of times throughout the read to understand why one particular event or person was relevant to the story.

But I enjoyed that, because good historical fiction should make you want to learn real historical facts.

Why read it?

If you're unfamiliar with this particular sequence of Eastern European events, it's a great primer for knowing who was on the board, where they went and why, as well as how these things went on to affect the rest of the 20th century.

And if you're already acquainted with the details of post-Great War Russia, it will move even faster for you.

All told, I liked it. It presented a change of pace from most of the other Baen books I've read, which fall into the thriller category by comparison. The heft and depth of THE ROMANOV RESCUE are a testament to the love its authors have for its subject matter.