Bitter Seeds by Ian Tregillis

What if the Germans had a top secret weapon that could trump all the other players in WWII? What if their strange experimentation and attempts to dabble in the unknown had succeeded? In Ian Tregillis's Milkweed trilogy, this is just the case.

Dr. von Westarp is not a name well known outside of Germany. In fact when Lieutenant-Commander Raybourn Marsh first hears of von Westarp and his children, he has no idea what the information will mean for England. Sent to collect a defector with supposed intel that could change everything, Marsh is unprepared for what happens next: the defector bursts into flames and Marsh is barely able to escape with the man's smoldering briefcase. When he and his superior begin to analyze the contents of the case, they realize that they're up against something terrible and amazing. They create a new operation dubbed Milkweed specifically devoted to ferreting out any and all info on von Westarp and his strange creations. In an attempt to understand what their enemy has accomplished -- and to fight against them --  they also call on the help of a secret group of warlocks living in the UK. Now, as magic battles science, the fate of the free world hangs in the balance.

You may recall that I've posted about Bitter Seeds before. I'd purchased the book when it was released in hardcover and then it languished for a period in my TBR before I discovered that the second book had been delayed. Happy days, though, Cold War was released on July 17 and is at the top of my current "To Read" list.

I'd actually hoped to do a bit of a themed run, but am sadly behind. See, Ian Tregillis is part of George R. R. Martin's Wild Cards collective and I'd planned to dig up some other authors and titles and do a whole themed readathon on my end. Sadly my plans have been delayed. But that doesn't mean I'll be holding off on reading Cold War. Nope, I'm dying to know what comes next!

I loved the combination of fantasy and sci-fi wrapped around actual events. Of course a creative mind can do all sorts of thing with any time period, but the blitz was chaotic to begin with. The idea that this group of warlocks is hiding in plain sight in England and working their magic against this troop of engineered super power soldiers works on a lot of levels. You put the two together and it's pretty easy for me to suspend my disbelief and disappear into the story.