The writing was beautiful and poignant, the plot hooked me, the characters moved me, the well-researched historical details fascinated me. None of the characters is a wanton, laughing killer, as I think I'd feared I'd find in a war novel; in their own ways, they all recognize the gravity, terror, and tragedy of the war, but without being whiny or unrealistically philosophical. The relationship between Tania and Vasily is genuinely romantic - and it's the historical real deal, not something the author threw in, Hollywood-style. (Indeed, I've read that the movie added a love triangle - as if, "we're in the middle of wartime Stalingrad being hunted by a Nazi supersniper" isn't enough tension for the relationship.) There are four main characters, two Russians and two Germans. The Russian snipers are certainly real. Vasily Zaytsev became famous during World War 2 in the Battle of Stalingrad, the bloodiest battle of the war. He was so successful as a sniper that he eventually started his own sniper school. Tania Chernova was one of his students and lover. The two Germans, not so real. One is a corporal named Nikki Mond, who I think is pure fiction, the other, Heinz Thorvald, is mentioned in Zaytsev's diaries as a main sniper in the German army that he had a duel with. There is no other record of him existing. The reason I like science fiction and fantasy is that it tends to obey Eleanor Roosevelt's dictum - "Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people." - and chooses to discuss ideas above all else. 'War of the Rats' ought to at least succeed at the level of discussing an important event and fascinating people, but it doesn't even manage to do that well. Robbins uses as touch points a number of known Stalingrad events, including Pavlov's House, the Grain Elevator, Goebbels's Stalingrad "choir," and the Cauldron offensives. Although the figures Tonia (more specifically Tania Chernova, often mentioned in books about the time period but never historically verified) and Thorvald (mentioned in Vasily Zaytsev's book, but again not historically verified) are in doubt, it's known that Russian women were snipers, and there is no doubt that Zaytsev was a sniper of great renown. This book thoroughly expresses the tension edured, physical effort, and mental acuity required of snipers.

A frighteningly realistic patchwork depicting the long siege that changed the course of the war. Based on a true story, the novel deftly captures an extraordinary time and place in history...[in a] vivid, authentic representation of men of unusual skill and focus in the midst of a barbarous war." "-- Richmond-Times Dispatch" The plot focuses on a 1942 battle between the Nazi Germans and the Soviets set in Stalingrad, Soviet Union. The battle is declared by Viktor Tabori to be " Rattenkrieg"; translated, War of the Rats. Also, I felt like Zaitsev, one of the main characters, didn't become really complex until about halfway through - would've been nice to get to know him earlier.

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German soldiers call the battle Rattenkrieg, War of the Rats . The combat is horrific, as soldiers die in the smoking cellars and trenches of a ruined city. Through this twisted carnage stalk two men—one Russian, one German—each the top sniper in his respective army. These two marksmen are equally matched in both skill and tenacity. Each man has his own to find his counterpart—and kill him. For six months in 1942, Stalingrad is the center of a titanic struggle between the Russian and German armies—the bloodiest campaign in mankind's long history of warfare. The outcome is pivotal. If Hitler's forces are not stopped, Russia will fall. And with it, the world.... Zaitsev was a senior sergeant of the 2nd Battalion, 1047th Rifle Regiment, 284th Tomsk Rifle Division. He was interviewed by Vasili Grossman during the battle, and the account of that interview, lightly fictionalized in his novel, Life and Fate (Part One, Chapter 55), is substantially the same as that portrayed in the novel, without putting a name to the German sniper that he dueled with. On the other hand, the duel is portrayed quite differently in Zaitsev's own book, Notes of a Sniper, [1] and in William Craig's 1974 history Enemy at the Gates: The Battle for Stalingrad. The final chapter features Nikki Mond, Thorvald's accomplice while he was alive. Nikki is wandering about the German camps, talking with soldiers and thinking about the war. The German's are surrounded by a huge amount of Russian troops and they have almost no chance of escaping without being taken prisoner. Their resources were being depleted and some men had resorted to cannibalism. He sums it up with one good thought: a good candidate for the thriller of the summer award... gives a compelling and graphic sense of the heroism-filled nightmare called Stalingrad...A readable, gritty adventure story." "-- The New York Times"

I've been trying to branch out in my reading lately, and every time I do, I get reminded why I don't. The story focuses in on the lives of two expert snipers, a Russian and a German, each with the goal of killing the other. The two snipers, Army Chief Master Sergeant Vasily Zaytsev of the Red Army and SS Colonel Heinz Thorvald of the German army, are equally matched. However, the story is complicated when a female sniper, Tania Chernova, becomes one of Vasily's most talented assistants and his battlefield lover. A frighteningly realistic patchwork depicting the long siege that changed the course of the war. Based on a true story, the novel deftly captures an extraordinary time and place in history...[in a] vivid, authentic representation of men of unusual skill and focus in the midst of a barbarous war." --Richmond-Times Dispatch

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Zaitsev's rate of success, and his known proficiency at training others, prompt the Germans to bring in their own "super" sniper and teacher, Heinz Thorvald. Thorvald's only assignment in Stalingrad is to kill Zaitsev. We follow Thorvald's efforts, and get more of an overview of the horror of Stalingrad from Nikki, the German Corporal who is charged with guiding and supporting him.

Mr. Robbins doe an excellent job in describing not only the supposed duel between Zaitsez and Thorvald (which is still being debated by historians) but his ability to paint the picture of a city ravaged by the opposing forces is phenomenal. He puts you in the heart of the dieing city. Can you imagine the closets metropolitan town in your vicinity being decimated to hulks of sagging I-beams, burning timbers and crumbled concrete structures. Yes, it is worse than the current destruction we witnessed in Joplin, Mi and Tuscaloosa,Ala (all weather related). Colonel Heinz Thorvald, also known as Erwin Konig, may or may not even be a real person in the Battle of Stalingrad. Both were popular German names at the time and there is much debate on whether Thorvald's "character" was a fabrication or if he was actually real. This book, like the movie Stalingrad traverses every human emotion imaginable. The fortitude of the Russians to fight for the Rodina, not for political ideology but for themselves and the thousands of Russians caught in the grips of the Nazi war machine. He also paints a vivid description of the invaders. The arrogance has been left far behind. Stalingrad is a war unto itself. The once proud Wehrmacht is faced in a titanic struggle for what? Will the battle bring them victory or will is be just another conquered city along with thousands of others? Will the war end or will it continue to drag on taking with it tens of thousands other lives?The book just didn't keep me gripped. The storyline was a bit vague, the supporting cast of characters had little or no depth, there was far too much made of the love story between Zaytsev and Tania, and the finale had some really stupid inconsistencies. Really the only reason the German sniper, Thorvald, lost was because he suddenly became really stupid at the last minute. For a guy who was supposed to be so cowardly that he took no risks, he took a really huge risk in gambling that he could shoot at the dummy target first when he knew that Zaytsev had him in his sights. Why would he do that? I loved this book. That's quite something, coming from a person of notoriously squishy sensibilities whose last encounter with what you might call a war novel was a required reading of The Killer Angels in tenth grade. David L. Robbins was born in Richmond, Virginia, on March 10, 1954. He grew up in Sandston, a small town east of Richmond out by the airport; his father was among the first to sit behind the new radar scope in the air traffic control tower. Both his parents, Sam and Carol, were veterans of WWII. Sam saw action in the Pacific, especially at Pearl Harbor.