War of the Rats | 
 enlarge | Author: David L. Robbins
Publisher: Bantam
Category: Book
List Price: $6.99
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Avg. Customer Rating:  219 reviews
Sales Rank: 178833
Media: Mass Market Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 512
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.6
Dimensions (in): 7.1 x 4.3 x 1.2
ISBN: 055358135X
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9780553581355
ASIN: 055358135X
Publication Date: June 6, 2000
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Amazon.com
David L. Robbins grimly recounts the merciless determination of the German and Soviet combatants of the battle of Stalingrad in War of the Rats. Drawing from real events, Robbins tells the story of one of the battle's most pivotal contests: the famous sniper duel between Chief Master Sergeant Vasily Zaitsev and S.S. Colonel Heinz Thorvald. Zaitsev, a cunning Siberian hunter hardened by Stalingrad's butchery, has formed an impromptu sniper school in the midst of the battle, training his comrades to kill with implacable efficiency. The hundreds of bodies left in their wake prompt the Nazi leadership to send Thorvald, the cold-blooded master of the Wehrmacht's elite sniper academy, to assassinate the Soviet prodigy. Robbins's nerve-wracking prose depicts the two adversaries as they pursue their private war across a twisted hellscape of burning tanks and gutted factories. In the novel's most impressive section, Robbins leaps between the thoughts of Zaitsev and Thorvald as they struggle, in their final battle, to put the crosshairs on each other's head. A war novel that reveals the shrewd savagery in human nature, War of the Rats vividly reveals why the Germans referred to the fighting at Stalingrad as Der Rattenkrieg. --James Highfill
Product Description
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....
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 mission: to find his counterpart—and kill him.
But an American woman trapped in Russia complicates this extraordinary duel. Joining the Russian sniper's cadre, she soon becomes one of his most talented assassins—and perhaps his greatest weakness. Based on a true story, this is the harrowing tale of two adversaries enmeshed in their own private war—and whose fortunes will help decide the fate of the world.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 214 more reviews...
 The movie version did not do this book any favors!! June 14, 2008
David L. Robbins will probably be best known for this work. It is one of the most exciting books that I have ever read. The plot twists are absolutley stunning. The way that he decribes the combat is bar none some of the best that I have ever read. Both snipers come across as genuinely likeable characters making the reader have to choose between which one will or should die. Really classic stuff, If you are on a bummer about not having something to read, do yourself a favor and pick this book up. Just be warned, you might not be able to set it down.
5 Star Sniper Masterpiece Novel May 20, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I do not give 5 star ratings to many books but this novel set in the ruins of Stalingrad definitely deserves the max rating. It is Red supersniper against Nazi supersniper in a battle that can only end one way. Vasiley Zaitsev is running a local sniper school right in Stalingrad during the height of the struggle for control of this non-strategic value city that Stalin and Hitler chose to wrestle over. He gains fame thanks to the writings of a politrook, or political commissar of the Communist Party. With Nazi corpses piling up at an alarming rate from the Hare as he is called, SS Colonel Heinz Thorvald is dispatched from the Wehrmacht sniper school at Gnossen with only one mission: kill the Hare and come back home. The cat and mouse game in the rubble of the city between these two is incredible. The back and forth from Hare to Headmaster as the story progresses is genius by the author. This is the book that the movie Enemy at the Gates was based upon. Highly recommended.
The stuff heroes are made of April 21, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
David Robbins has a way with words. He has a way with characters. He is by far a master of character development, a task made all the more difficult when one is constrained by reality. Vasha Zaitsev, Tania Chernova, Nikki Mond and Heinz Thorwald are all historical characters in a compelling setting. You can't help but bond with the two protagonists. You share their fears, their joys, their passions, and their accomplishments.
The Battle of Stalingrad is likely the most costly battle in human terms of any in recorded history. History repeats itself as von Paulus' 6th Army is totally destroyed by the Russian forces under Chuikov, as Napolean was defeated earlier. Without losing sight of the larger picture, Robbins focuses on a small segment of the battle and the incredible people who form one small part of the total operation. We learn about the tactics of snipers and their specialized skills as hunters. We witness street battles and door to door combat within the ruins of a great city. But most important, we learn how ordinary people become heroes.
I don't want to give anything away for fear of detracting from your enjoyment. Suffice it to say, I could hardly put this book down. I would read and look for logical break points (subchapters, etc.), but invariably was driven to read further. When I finished, I was driven to do further research on my own to verify the reality of the characters and their actions.
 Mediocre Laundry List of Incidents January 25, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
The story of the battle for Stalingrad is an inherently dramatic setting. A competent writer like Robbins could not - and does not - fail to have some involving elements in telling the story. Howver, given the subject matter, I was surprised at how "by the numbers" it felt. By which I mean, I felt that the author had simply read, for example, Wm. Craig's earlier book, wrote down incident upon incident (sewer transits, dangerous river ferry crossing, disabled German tank (from any Stalingrad photo or even the drawing on Craig's book), sniper duel, singing to cover tunnel digging, reputed Soviet mastery of street fighting via using "storm groups"(as if assaults like Zaitsev's sailor comrades'charge never happened), etc., then added a love story and some biographical details to fill the narrative out and thus: War of the Rats. I'm trying to say that virtually all of the dramatic and involving elements of this story are well-known Stalingrad "stories" and the new "stuff" adds little. A mediocre story in the end.
Excelent July 31, 2007
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
This book is nothing short of amazing. Unlike the majority of other war books I've read, this one is devoid of any and all of that Hollywood garbage. As far as its depictions of the warfare itself that is. Somewhat peculiarly, while the warfare itself is as vivid as it is believable, the characters, and their interactions with one another, could've been taken straight from any stereotypical action movie **cough** tenia **cough**.
Also, though I wouldn't want to spoil anything, I will say the ending is climactic, but, overall, somewhat of a letdown.
Nitpicking aside though, from an entertainment perspective, if you enjoy war books, you'll definitely like this one.
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