Rating: 
Summary: Imaginative, sometimes comic
Review: Michael is a young doctoral student in England whose thesis centers on the early life of Adolf Hitler. He encounters a physicist who harbors a deep hatred of Hitler (as well as a deep secret), and the two hatch a plot to make so Hitler was never born. The two change history, but the world doesn't turn out how they intended. Michael struggles in this new, disturbing world to find the physicist and to right the wrong, and along the way he finds love with another man. But will this love survive when they try to set the world right? Sometimes fun, always intelligent, this novel can be called a sci-fi comedy, or just a highly imaginative book. Any which way, though, Fry's book is a marvelous read about history and our views on it.
Rating: 
Summary: "Innocence is the Sweet Younger Brother of Stupidity."
Review: It is rare to find a book that is this lighthearted and fun, yet profound enough to make me shed real tears. Which is better, pain or oblivion? Our hero discovers the answer, and not just within the context of the Holocaust. This book is clever on so many levels. But I still can't help but wonder what the world would have been like if Queen Victoria, rather than Hitler, was the one erased from our History.
Rating:
Summary: Water, water, everywhere!
Review: Stephen Fry has produced a novel that not only causes laught but also intrigues the mind. Ever thought 'what if the German's had won?'well, Fry considers this situation. We the readers are merely dragged along with a plot that is audacious to say the least. Hitler is, in fact, not the dictator of the world at all. Instead there is some kind of 'imposter'. The world is actually a better place to be in with Hitler as part of its history. The story sees our leading character dashing in time to remove a pill from the water supply that distorts what we now know as histroy. Inventive to an unpresidented extreme. If there is one flaw, it has to be the slightly weak conclusion. One feels that there could have been something with a little more impact than what we do get. However, this should not deter you from reading this exellent book. Any weaknesses this novel has are easily outweighed by its merits.
Rating:
Summary: Enthralling!
Review: Admittedly, I usually shudder when a novel is described as 'enthralling', but there...I've gone and done it myself! Well, to be fair, in this case, it's an accurate description. Stephen Fry's third novel takes the reader on an amazing ride through what could have been. Fantastical - and yet, plausible - the story explores the possibility of what might have been if one were able to alter history in order to eliminate one of it's least savory characters - Hitler. Would we be better or worse off? There's no way of knowing for sure, but Fry gives us one possiblity. More than just conjecture about what history was and might have been, Fry's story is filled with wonderful characters, and the joy in reading it is just as much for following the development of the characters, as for exploring the possibilities of a Hitler-free world.
Rating:
Summary: Fun SciFi with lots of Pop Culture references
Review: I've enjoyed most of Stephen Fry's books and this is no different. The idea isn't new...How would the world change if Hitler had never lived. Fry's funny style and witty pop-culture references make this a very enjoyable read. It's well researched, well written and keeps you wanting to come back for more. Even the unexpected love story is sweet without being saccharine. Definitely recommended along with "The Liar" by the same author and others.
Rating:
Summary: It kept me up all night, when I had work the next day
Review: I highly recommend Stephen Fry's book. Not everyone is going to like it, because it is fairly complex, and not everyone has the patience or indulgence to tolerate an alternate history about Hitler (you have to take it on its own, if you approach it from the point of view of saying "Hitler has been done to death" and then comparing it to other alternative histories, you will exclude yourself from receiving the book on the level where it is the strongest and most affecting), but I rather liked it. As I say, it absorbed me so that I could not put it down all night, and that amounts to a real accomplishment. I don't give it five stars because that amounts to perfection which this is not, but it ranks among the favorite books I have read. "Making History" was an engaging and witty book and a good story, although I suspect you won't like it if you don't like things too complicated or conversely if you prefer your literature pretentious. I have had a real taste for alternate histories, and Fry's book sits well in that genre. It is also rather intelligent and well-written. And I discovered to my surprise that it came together into a rather sweet gay love story on one level (not enough literary and uncontrived-feeling gay love stories like this out there!). However, I disagree with reviewers who would say that it is about exploring the Nazi past, or about promoting "political correctness" or some other aspect of the gay angle or, for that matter, that it is a comedy. I did not find it comedic. It could be funny, but wit did not detract from a sense of compassion and respect for the seriousness of the subject matter. I did find it very human. It resolved Michael Young, the protagonist, into a more likeable and mature person within his very personal Weltanschauung, which to me feels like the most important thread of the book. And to me it explored an important idea: that simplifying history into an accident created by special individuals is a foolish and unproductive way of understanding the world, and that we can't rightly know what the effect of any particular change would be without examining the full context. The conditions in 20s and 30s Germany were ripe for the rise of an ugly mass movement. This is not an indictment of Germans, it's an unfortunate fact. While Hitler had a unique talent to focus that energy into a movement that plunged the world into war, he did also have a number of important flaws that helped ensure his failure. WWII was his to lose. And the war had collateral effects on the world that echoed through history... Gay rights is as reasonable a place as any to choose to examine how that can be. Hitler may have existed for a terrible purpose... "Making History" is both thought provoking on a macro level and a satisfying slice of one human's condition on the micro level. The book defies ready stereotyping, but has a lot of meaning and an interesting story that works on a number of intellectual levels. It has a number of subtle threads, it is not preachy, overpowering or overly technophilic, and it is very intelligent and very human. A worthwhile read.
Rating:
Summary: Clever idea couched in superb writing!
Review: Stephen Fry's analysis of what might have happened if Hitler had not been at the helm of the Third Reich in WWII is brilliantly executed from a science fiction standpoint, but is also a great story with believable characters. Most alternate history fiction I've read spends way too much time on tearing apart the exact moment when things changed. Fry's book spends more time on the personal ramifications of a different life than the one we know. His writing style is straightforward yet innovative. I particularly enjoyed his switch to screenplay format at key points. The book held me til the end, and the end made me cry. Thank you, Stephen Fry, for a wonderful read.
Rating:
Summary: It starts with a dream . . .
Review: Stephen Fry's third novel is an interesting and amusing (though not as frightening as he would have it seem) re-imagining of what would have happened had Hitler never been born. Twenty-four-year-old Cambridge University history scholar Michael Young has a penchant for the type of fictional embellishing that Edmund Morris was guilty of in his recent memoir of Ronald Reagan. But unlike Morris (and Reagan himself, to some extent) Young really is a fictional character. He still has to pay the price for his creative scholarship (his thesis is rejected by his advisor), but it is this imaginative sense that bears him up for the journey back in time to sterilize Hitler's father before the evil seed is ever planted. I recommend that people read MAKING HISTORY after Fry's two earlier and more scintillating novels, THE LIAR and THE HIPPOPOTAMUS. The heaviness of the subject matter here is slightly out of Fry's hitting zone and I would hate to have anyone put off perhaps the funniest intellectual writer alive today. That said, this is a fine book in its own right and contains an excellent understanding of academic life (at both Cambridge and Princeton) and human nature. Special points, too, for an opening chapter that ranks among the most screamingly funny in Fry's oeuvre--what would you do if you woke up late for class and only had decaf in the house? As an avid Stephen Fry fan I was in no way displeased with this book, I just know that he has done better work--most recently with the sensational autobiography, MOAB IS MY WASHPOT. MAKING HISTORY is not a book for science fiction connoisseurs, but definitely an ambitious, well-imagined work of literary merit. You'll be surprised how much you laugh.
Rating:
Summary: Turning Back Time in Making History
Review: Why is it that all alternative history stories somehow deal with making sure Hitler is never born? Although this genre and subject have been done before, Fry's wit and inventive mind make this story fresh and engaging. Making sure Hitler wasn't born only make the future worse with sometimes comic results. As a fellow historian of holocaust studies I was impressed with the accurate detail of Fry's research. The dialog sparkles and only Fry would tell the childhood of Hitler in novel form. The lead character is interesting but no Adrian Healey in depth and amusement. Still it is an excellent read and I would get my hands on this paperback copy or the hardback. You'll be glad you did.
Rating: 
Summary: Doesn't go anywhere
Review: The story starts out rather promising. But as it goes on it gets progressively worse. The worst part being when the author stops writing in paragraphs and instead pretends that he is writing a screenplay. The rest of the story isn't particulary good. I don't know if the author was trying to get across a point, but if he was he didn't do a good job getting it across. I also found it frusturating the way the author attempted to tell two different stories at once. Unless your a really big fan of alternate history stories, I really wouldn't recommend this book. There just isn't any real point to the story. The book comes across as incoherent babble, not as a story with a central focus.
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