Through the Darkness by Hurry Turtledove

Harry Turtledove continues to mirror World War II in the third installment of his Derlavai series, Through the Darkness.  While many of the countries, people and events in the series have analogs in the real world, there are enough differences to maintain tension. Turtledove’s military scenes clearly show the difference between strategy and tactics as almost all of his grunts view themselves as being on the receiving end of a major defeat, even when they intellectually know their countries are winning and the generals display a clearer knowledge of the course the war is actually running.  At the same time, it isn’t always clear to the reader where the fronts are and which direction they are moving at any actual time.  This is caused partly by the lack of internalization of the provided maps, resulting in the reader either constantly referring to them to see where the action is taking place, or ignoring the maps and relying on the text for a description.