I'm a huge fan of Brian Parker's Easytown series which made me anxious to try out his next novel. I had no knowledge of what Grudge: Operation Highjump was going to be about but soon discovered it was a classic conspiracy theory brought to life. After the end of WW2, Nazis moved to Antarctica to create a massive underground civilization with the help of aliens. These Nazis proceeded to keep updating their technology with the aid of collaborators as well as their alien allies until they were ready to begin a vengeance war against the United States.
In terms of historical fiction, this is ridiculous even with the presence of aliens. However, this is a story where you're meant to stretch your suspension of disbelief and if you can't then, well, you can't. This isn't going to be a book for everyone as the Nazis slaughter millions before their entire self-destructive Blitzkrieg falls apart. This isn't even a spoiler as the brief bits with their alien masters show this is just a proxy war to soften up the planet. That's why the Nazis are attacking America rather than the Russians.
This is a pretty grim book starting with the slaughter of everyone in Fort Lauderdale during Spring Break and continuing onward into a very brief global war. Brian Parker doesn't make it a shining case of Good vs. Evil either, which I appreciated. Yes, the Nazis are horrible but the current crop of troops have been spoon fed a diet of propaganda and the few who are exposed to the truth of what they're planning to do as well as what was done by their ancestors are horrified.
The American government is also more than willing to sacrifice any number of the Nazis civilians because, well, Nazis. They're also not above taking advantage of the confusion of some of the aforementioned horrified soldiers to brainwash them into being soldiers against their own people. Good, evil, or just war? You judge. I admit, in my case? Well, they're Nazis so [expletive] em.
There's some surprisingly touching moments in-between the scenes of the Nazis slaughtering innocent civilians, only to get attacked in return with the full attention of their enemies. You wouldn't think a book with as Roger Corman-esque a premise as this (straight out of Iron Sky only played mostly straight) would have moments of actual depth but there's more than a few. People who lost loved ones during the war and those who are traumatized by the events involved.
So, do I recommend the Grudge? Yes, with the caveat this is a gory B-horror movie sort of book which still takes its subject matter seriously. The Nazis aren't played as cartoons anymore than Wolfenstein: The New Order. Instead, the book treats them as horrifying perpetrators of evil which just so happen to have more backup than Hydra by the Skrulls. The book has an open ending which could lead to a sequel but I actually think it works fine as a stand-alone too.
8/10