Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-25626-20170620165203/@comment-21519-20170707181953

Max Bachman
Takes over POV duties right as he's demobilized. Goes back to the ruins of Fulda and tries to rebuild his life. This would have been hard enough, but it grows even harder thanks to. . . well, wait and see.

Daisy Baxter
Did not survive last year's cliffhanger. I don't think I've ever been so sad to see one of HT's characters go.

Cade Curtis
Has a lot of scenes in the trenches of Korea. They're repetitive as hell, but thankfully, he's thoughtful enough to come up with observations that keep them from getting too repetitive. Is badly wounded about halfway through the book. (When he gets to an aid station, Hawkeye takes charge of him; I guess HT couldn't resist.) Loses a leg. Legally adopts Jimmy thanks to the good offices of a well-connected surgeon (this one an original character). Sees a lot of ugly racism in the Army, but gets Jimmy as his adoptive son even so. Gets home and rehabs. Hopes to go back to school and continue studying aeronautical engineering.

Aaron Finch
Goes to work, lives with his family, argues with relatives. There's one cute scene where he teaches his son the difference between words that end in -x and words that end in -cks. The only other thing going on with him is taking Istvan under his wing, more on that below. He really does nothing to advance the plot, but I like him even so.

Boris Gribkov
Comes back from Washington deciding he just can't take it anymore, and tells his superiors that the next time they order him to drop a nuke, he'll kill himself instead. It doesn't matter because the East Coast bombing run is the last time the Soviets deploy their nukes. He gets a lot of assignments to drop regular bombs on the rebel holdouts. In his last scene he hits Riga, but gets shot down on the way home. Juris Eigims is the Latvian officer who captures him.

Luisa Hozzel
Survives the gulag by refusing to give up on the belief that she'll see home again. She assumes that Trudl Bachman feels the same way and that their sisterly bond will see them through. But Trudl decides they'll probably never be released, so she starts sleeping with a guard to get slightly better conditions. Luisa does not take it well. The two of them do indeed get home, and the first thing that happens to Luisa is learning of Gustav's death. The trauma of it causes her to become rather unhinged. Bitter reflection leads her to hate Trudl for being reunited with the husband she'd given up on while Luisa has lost the husband she always held out hope for. She tries to sabotage Trudl's undeserved happiness by ratting her out to Max. It's just an ugly situation all around.

Bruce McNulty
Takes over for Daisy. In his first scene he attends her funeral. To add insult to injury, he gets there late because he's lost time filling out paperwork to borrow a jeep from his base's motor pool for a personal errand. Does not deliver the H bomb that kills Stalin, though he does play a supporting role. After that he mostly just dicks around, which leaves me wondering why it was necessary to kill the poor girl off and make room for him, though his dicking around scenes are not at all unpleasant. Like Gribkov and B. Staley, he finds himself awash in guilt over the death toll he's caused, but he takes a more philosophical approach and doesn't just become depressed. Resigns from the Air Force to ensure he'll never have to drop a nuke again. Applies for jobs with all the airlines, but the market is flooded with demobilized Air Force pilots. Ends up working as a cropduster instead; doesn't pay well, but reminds him how much fun flying can be.

Rolf Mehlen
Spends about half his scenes having the same argument over and over with Max, and the other half delivering internal monologues that are. . . distasteful. Becomes depressed when the war ends as he realizes he's probably done killing Russians for good this time. Does some minesweeping in minefields that the retreating Soviets left behind. Stumbles into a minefield that the Nazis had laid back in '45 that had somehow gone undetected all those years. Is killed by a Bouncing Betty. He'd laid plenty of them himself back in the day, so 'tis great sport to see the engineer hoist with his own petard--literally.

Konstantin Morozov
Apart from generic battle scenes, he's mostly concerned in the first part of the book with convincing Eigims not to desert. At this he fails. He misses Eigims, both as a gunner (his replacement is a friggin dumbass who, among other things, needs four shots to kill an old WWII relic) and as a confidante. Gets redeployed to Latvia after the armistice, and of course the reader is expecting him to be reunited with Eigims. A Molotov Cocktail forces him to bail, and he runs into someone who he thinks is Eigims. After a split second of recognition, each man kills the other at very short range with a machine pistol. It's not Eigims, though, because he shows up later to take charge of Gribkov. Pretty anti-climactic.

Ihor Shevchenko
Gets redeployed to fight rebels in Poland, then gets sent to Ukraine as a drill instructor. Close enough to his wife that he can bike home to see her on weekends. A happy ending, of sorts.

Marian Staley
Her story in this book consists almost entirely of a budding romance with and marriage to Favyl Tabakman. In her final scene, the doctor confirms that she's carrying his baby. Another happy ending, of sorts.

Istvan Szolovits
He really has nothing of value to offer US Army Intelligence, but Captain Kovacs likes him enough to send him to LA anyway. After telling other Intel officers what he can, he gets a green card. The Army also pulls some strings to get him a job at Blue Front and he replaces Jim Summers as Aaron's partner. Works hard, goes to night school, American dream, etc. A third happy ending, of sorts.

Harry Truman
Beyond what you've gleaned from my other post, he's very concerned about the horrible precedents he's setting trying to lead a government that's been so decimated. For instance, he has to replace an unknown number of Cabinet secretaries, and does so without Senate approval. Omar Bradley replaces Marshall as both SecDef and as the only secretary Truman ever consults, whether on military matters or not. He has another scene where he calls George Kennan for advice, and a bit more comes of it than was the case last year. Delays the election till '53, knows he's screwed the Democrats and that Stevenson doesn't have a chance, makes his peace with Ike. The Congressional elections return large Republican majorities. He's worried that the GOP will favor the Midwest, which was touched so much more lightly than the Northeast and West Coast, and steels himself to play hardball if they do.

Vasili Yasevich
The woman he'd helped escape is recaptured and gives him up. This prompts his Chekist pal to take a closer look at him, and of course his story doesn't check out. He's up for a 25 year sentence in a labor camp, but for friendship's sake the Chekist allows him to join the Red Army instead. He winds up in Poland, where his parents' experience fills him with disgust at the thought of trying to cram communism down anyone's throats. However, he can see that the Poles are outclassed, and this cures him of any desire to join them, despite sympathizing with them. Joins them anyway when he's captured and makes himself useful so he won't be killed. Ends up in Warsaw with a resistance cell that operates out of a pharmacy, which is of course the one skilled job he's qualified for. Falls in love with the boss's daughter and resolves to try to find happiness in spite of the occupation; he's done it before, after all.