Vienna Prelude

He opened the door of the Packard. "There is no way to change it. No stopping it." He stepped aside for Elisa to get into the passenger seat. "There are those who will stay -" he looked at Sporer- "and those who will die." He let his eyes linger not on the woman but on the little child. Then will a sad smile, he looked straight at Elisa. "And there are those who will run away."
"Are you finished?" Elisa asked, tears brimming in her eyes.
"With you? Yes." Otto drew himself up. "Heil Hitler," he said bitterly.

Elisa Lindheim performs with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra under the name Elisa Linder and very few know her secret - that she is half Jewish. They only admire the transcendent music that she is able to coax out of her violin. The show more way it makes them forget about the war, the ugliness, the infernal greediness of Adolf Hitler. But Hitler has not forgotten about Vienna, he has it square in his sights. Elisa and all those that she loves are in his path.

Vienna Prelude is the first in the Zion Covenant series by the Thoenes. Even though I have a penchant for WWII fiction, I was not sure if I would enjoy the book. I think it's one of the best specimens of Christian fiction that I have read. Perhaps the life-and-death big issues of war make the religious passages feel more natural. If I had a fault to find, it was that it seemed as if nearly every male in the novel instantaneously fell in love with Elisa and carried a torch for her. But the Thoenes had a plan and I should have just trusted them. The story did sweep me along and I do have my eyes set on the next installment. show less

'Vienna Prelude' by Bodie and Brock Thoene is a prequel of a six book series. The story concentrates on Jewish life in Germany and Austria during 1933 through 1936. I learned quite a bit about the reaction of the Austrian government to the takeover by Hitler. I didn’t know about the protest about the protest of the Austrians even though there was no hope of rescue from England and United States. I was very impressed by the words and actions of Churchill and Eden and some of the Austrian statesmen.

The main characters are Elisa Linder aka Elisa Lindheim, a concert violinist whose father was raised as a Jew and John Murphy, an American reporter. The story has many minor characters but it was easy to keep them straight. Both characters show more were very emotional and not able to communicate their hurt and disappointment to each other so there were plenty of misunderstandings in their love story. Even though I was interested in their story throughout the book, I ended up fascinated by the story of the fall of Austria, and mostly of Vienna. The characters were painted very real and the story was vivid.

My main negative criticism is that the book’s font was tiny the book was long. I think that there could have been more edited to reduce the size of the book. I did feel like I would like to read the other five books sometime to find out what happened to all the characters of the story. Did Otto reform? Did Elsa’s father survive? Did the two continue to have turbulent lives?

Also, I thought Elsa’s life could have been simplified. She could have fewer loves. I see now that this book was written to show case what was happening to a German Nazi, a county man not carry too much about politics and the American reporter but it got so I was impatient with Elsa because she couldn’t make up her mind!

I recommend this particular part of the series to people who want to learn more about other countries that Nazi Germany took over before and after. The font verged on beginning too small for me to read and I think that may prevent me from reading the rest of the series. show less

I've just started into this series for the second time and found it just as readable as the first time around 5 years ago.

The story is spread across Germany, Czechoslovakia, Austria and Poland during the reign of Nazi terror. I studied the in-depth history of the two world wars at school so found the book was well researched and remarkably accurate historically. The main characters are a Jewish family who become involved in smuggling documents and moving Jewish people out of the kill zone.

I wouldn't describe this as an overtly Christian book. It has some faith discussions and some of the characters clearly have a strong faith in God. There are even Gospel principles and themes at times, but this is not present throughout. The show more discussions also seem to have a Catholic rather than an Evangelical flavour, probably due to the cultural context. There are also questionable scenes in relation to the various romances that occur--nothing especially graphic, but just worldly suggestions and thinking that could have been handled more appropriately.

There is no swearing in this book. There is violence and some scenes of torturous conditions and death in a concentration camp. There is an attempted rape. The details are not explicit but were borderline at times.

Even though each of the books in this series is long, they can be hard to put down as I have discovered before! I recommend this series, but it might be better to approach it from an historical novel perspective rather than as a Christian book to avoid disappointment. show less

Elisa is a half-Jewish German violinist with a Vienna orchestra whose best friend is a Jewish violinist. She gets involved with the hiding of Jewish children and meets an American journalist, John Murphy, who helps her by marrying her so she can have an American passport. There is a possibility of a romance, but I wouldn't classify the book as a romance. The authors fill in a lot of background information about the politics of Germany and Austria in the late thirties. I may continue the series, but not right away.

I thought "Vienna prelude' was well written, easy to read and established both the setting and characters very well. I learned a lot about political issues in the past and the hardships of those who had to endure or die. Next book in the series is "Prague Counterpoint " and continues on with the characters and introduces a few more. She captures the climate of how hostile it was to live during this time period and includes spiritual overtones of God's intervention in difficult situations. Sometimes I just wanted to jump in and help these people and shoot the Nazis! Definitely shows the evil side of mankind. - Sandy H.

I had avoided this series because I thought it would be formulaic and too evangelical for my taste. I was pleasantly surprised, that while the storyline has a Christian theme, it is actually well-written and historically accurate. I just started the second book in the series, Prague Counterpoint, and it is also capturing my interest. -- So far this series reminds me of historic fiction by Irving Stone or John Jakes. Not great fiction but a good read.

This is the first book I've read in what is apparently a series of books, this, I'm told, being a prequel to The Zion Chronicles Series. The writing style did't really thrill me, but I wanted to see what happens with the story enough so that I kept reading. I did find myself getting irritated when the author has Elisa talk about Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring. Thoener uses theEnglish translation, which is pretty weird and not nearly as beautiful or meaningful (or even the same meaning as) the German one, which bugs me every time I sing it, too. So, for a German to wax poetic about what essentially is a bad translation, struck me as weird.

There were things I liked about the book -- the heroics of everyday people that go unsung, the show more references to the music that floated throughout the story, the glimpses of Berlin and of the mountain area around Berchtesgarten, where my family has spent many happy hours. Like Rebekkila, the love story kind of interfered with my enjoyment. A little too soap-operaish for me. show less