The last Tavern
Tuesday 07 April 2020
7:14 pm I am writing this right after I leave the Fortress . It took me half the night and half the next day to solve the mystery, but I turned pages at a dizzying pace and was alive. You can read after dark, although I do not promise that you will fall asleep unhindered. Firstly, the story is very addictive, and secondly, no one would want to fall asleep in the darkness and coldness of the Fortress dungeons in the face of something steeped in inhuman evil. On the other hand, reading during the day will not take away these impressions anyway, because each word floods your imagination and takes you far beyond the walls or any space in which you absorb reading.
When the bad gets the worse
The madness of war extended far beyond the borders of the Third Reich. Wehrmacht soldiers reach a poor Romanian village on the Dinu Pass, tasked with patrolling one of the strategic points of the current armed conflicts. The ancient fortress immediately arouses a lot of emotions in them and provokes them to ask new questions. Despite his foreboding and no answer, Captain Woermann has to wait for a relocation permit and then take over the building. Although they have already marched many times, it is here that their nightmares are embodied, and even the strongest units go crazy. An encrypted message reaches SS man Major Kaempffer, through which he changes his plans and directs troops to the Transylvanian Alps.
The action takes place in 1941, in the brutal realities of the war, in which soldiers are willing to sacrifice their own lives for the victory of the nation. I appreciate the multitude of details accentuated by the author, thanks to which we can easily immerse ourselves in this piece. Why don’t birds fly over the fortress? Who built it? Finally, who keeps the building in perfect condition? The climate is constantly thickening and flows around the reader like liquid fog. The emerging illustrations created by Mariusz Gandzel work to the advantage. They overlapped with my sense and image of places and characters, completing the dark description. The book is made with a fantastic attention to detail – fonts, illustrations, a wonderful hardcover. Moreover, not only
And who is in charge in the Transylvanian Alps?
The text is expressive, each character has a different moral backbone and their characteristics and motivations. Initially, I was most close to the commander Woermann, I was captured by common sense and creative thoughts wandering through my head. It quickly turns out that the other characters also convince the reader with their authenticity. The characters reflect my ideas about women and men during the Second World War. I understand the decisions made and the way of thinking because the author reliably presents their weaknesses. It is not immediately clear what the course of events is leading to and who is really good or bad. You may find that every reader is rooting for someone else… And that’s what’s great! We get to know the characters a little closer than they would like to get to know themselves and we can decide if the course of action is fair for them, or maybe they are being hurt undeservedly. The author beautifully mixes good and evil, creating a disturbing and moving work to the marrow.
In the Stronghold, all the plots are interconnected, the themes introduced have a purpose, and each character has a role to play. Although the author surprises with the course of action, the novel itself is not complicated, I would even consider it quite straightforward. The pace is classically increasing thanks to the emerging clues – along the thread to the ball. F. Paul Wilson does not extend the drama unnecessarily, he doses information well, although in the end the solution of the puzzle falls on the reader like a bolt from the blue!
The essence of Wilson’s sinister strength
SS soldiers have to deal – this time – not with similar ones, but with something beyond their comprehension. In the face of danger, i.e. the loss of power and control, they try to unite and cooperate, even with the existing objects of extermination. The real horror will take place in the human psyche, which will turn out to be a short-sighted, tight cage, susceptible to influence and manipulation. I am convinced that the screening does not reflect so many nuances for making your own reflections, and it does not fall reliably enough. More than once, we will brush against brutal and horrifying scenes, but at the same time the author avoids solutions that could particularly disgust the readers and contribute little. In the Fortresswe reach the apogee of fear, which chills the blood in our veins, intuition sounds the alarm – signaling a threat. This is nothing but the fear caused by the SS-men so far – for intimidation, for obtaining information or for their own entertainment. Suggestive descriptions and stylistic treatments build tension, thanks to which we will feel the coldness and hear the echoing echoes in dark nooks and crannies. What’s more, the book also shows a lot of good and warmth, with which we can warm up for a while and regain circulation. Magnetism interacts between characters, releasing sparkles in the descriptions of their relationships.
Summary
Reading the Fortress was not wasted time, I had a lot of fun from it. The history, admittedly, is not overly complicated, but perfectly drawn up and hence few remarks. The creation of evil heroes is an absolute masterpiece, the flourishing of the fantastic plot is due to the thoughtful gradation of information and descriptions that affect the imagination! I can only wonder why I did not read it earlier, because the first edition appeared in 1981 – hence I set myself up for a classic horror film. The more positively surprised me was the solution of the threads and the ending of the book.
