Resonance Portal Wars by Mike Rawson starts at the beginning of WWII in 1939 with Kammler, a Nazi who is researching the possibilities of Element 115 to create portals. In doing so he opens a portal to Ilyndor, an alternate dimension, where he makes contact with Durgar and Balfur, leaders of a group of Orcs, and decides to ally with them in order to learn more about how to control the portals. Continued use of the portals leads to ripples through Ilyndor and, scared of the potential consequences, the Orcs’ enemy, the elves, decide to open their own portal and ally with England and the Allies. Now both sides are fighting for control of the portals and Element 115.
This was a good book and I did enjoy reading it as it painted an incredible picture of how an alternate WWII might have played out if something like this had occurred. It did a great job of interweaving the actual historical events of the war and the actions and motivations of the two sides with the new elements created by the portals and the introduction of Ilyndor. The two sides were pretty well blended and it created a pretty good, if intense, story. I also really liked how fleshed out the characters were as I really felt like I got to know most of them pretty well by the end of the story, at least the main ones anyway. At the same time I feel like the history and culture of the elves and orcs were not nearly as well fleshed out and was rather lacking in comparison. There were bits and pieces but not nearly enough to get a coherent picture of either group which considering the story might have been slightly important. The story also did a decent job of covering most of the war but I also struggled to get an idea of the overall timeline of events taking place. There seemed to be very little indication of how far apart events were from each other. This may not have been hugely important but I still would have liked to see it just a bit more. There were a few spots where it kept repeating as well so it probably needed to be proofread again. It does have great potential though and could easily be an awesome story though. Overall, I enjoyed it and am giving it three out of five stars.
This book is a fantasy novel with some alternate history thrown in as well so if either of those appeal to you then you might consider trying it. I would recommend only adult readers though as the violence can get pretty graphic at times. There weren’t really any other issues readers should be aware of though so if it sounds interesting then I hope you will try it. If you do feel free to share your thoughts in the comments. I acquired this book through Reedsy Discovery so you can also find a copy of my review there.