Axis of Andes (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9781990860638)

BERLIN, 1937. Adolph Hitler and his cabinet meet with a delegation from a Small South American country. Three years later the consequences of that fateful meeting plunge nations into upheaval and light a continent on fire in a life and death struggle.

Axis of Andes is a stunning two-part alternate history of a South America caught up in the second world war, emerging as a third theater of war alongside Europe/North Africa and Asia Pacific. As events spiral out of control, one nation after the other is dragged into chaos and bloodshed. What in our history was an almost bloodless brushfire conflict between Ecuador and Peru, escalates into a life and death struggle which spreads relentlessly, bringing death and destruction. Axis of Andes, and its follow up, New World War, is written in the style of a formal history book with narrative portions. Nations and peoples are the real characters and the real focus of the stories, and genuine history draws out the comic and tragic events of South American life, seamlessly showing how different choices, both good and bad, lead to a terrible conflict that rewrites the landscape. Axis of Andes explores the baroque journey of Latin America from independence to the depression and chronicling a dark account of what might have been.

Reviews

"This "might have been" tale of South America in the era of WWII is like listening to a series of lectures by a favorite professor. You are astonished by his erudition, amused by his clear-eyed cynicism and way with words... and shows you what could have happened with just a few small changes, making you breathe a sigh of relief that it didn't. Frankly, this is the best alternate history (AH) book I have ever read." Crusty Critic

"A tour de force alternate history. An eye-opener, really. To read this book is to gain, first, an understanding of the intricacies of South American history up to the 1930s, and then, second, an understanding of the kind of fatal flaws politicians are prone. Reading this book will give you a better understanding of what is happening anywhere and everywhere. I wouldn't be at all surprised if it results in an epiphany or two for the majority of readers. It's that good an historical essay." R. Graeme Cameron, Amazing Stories Online

"The Ecuador-Peru war of 1941, in our timeline a minor conflict. In Valdron's books however it ignites into a far more bloody affair and South America sees some of the hell that Europe and Asia experienced. This is a book with an imaginative premise, genuine historical knowledge about areas of the world which we don't think about as much in the west and the audacity to create genuinely new things and depict societies we never saw in OTL. Valdron is a genuinely talented writer, he creates vivid characters, has a keen eye for dialogue and has a strong narrative voice. There are scenes in these books that are fantastic. The last stand of the president of Bolivia is one of the best darkly comic scenes I've read in any book, let alone just AH, for its depiction of a man caught up in a different story to the one he thought he was. He also knows what he's talking about, the research is palpable." Sea Lion Press