History Literature / TheColdestWar

* SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong:
** [[spoiler:Gretel's goal is revealed to be to create a new timeline in which she and the rest of humanity are spared from the Eidolons. Marsh refuses to go back in time so that Gretel will die with everyone else, but she already anticipated this back in [=WW2=], and points out that this way Marsh can save his daughter's life.]]

* SovietSuperscience: The Soviets have made use of the intelligence they captured during the war to develop their own program.

%%* AdvancingWallOfDoom: [[spoiler:As the Enochian's start to destroy the world.]]
* ApocalypseHow: [[spoiler:When Britain comes under attack from Soviet supersoldier infiltrators, Marsh orders the Eidolons to kill them directly. This gives the Eidolons the foothold they need to wipe out humanity.]]
%%* TheAtoner
%%* BadassNormal: Marsh, even 20 years older and out of shape.

%%* BloodMagic
%%* BlueAndOrangeMorality: As it turns out, Gretel.

%%* CassandraTruth: Marsh ignores Will's warnings about the Enochians. Pembroke ignores Marsh's warnings about Gretel. [[spoiler:Ironically Gretel engineers Pembroke's death because only Marsh is driven enough to use the Enochians to kill directly.]]
* TheChessmaster: The full extent of Gretel's machinations are finally revealed. For example, she drove Heike to suicide in book one [[spoiler:''just so she could get a glass jar at Arzamas-16''. Although it's no news that she sent German bombers to kill Marsh's daughter, we finally get the reason -- going back in time is the only way Marsh can save her life.]]
%%* ChekhovsGun: Loads of them thanks to Gretel's precognition.
%%* CreepyChild: The British child warlocks.
%%* {{EMP}}: Milkweed turn Will's house into an improvised EMP bomb, among other booby traps. Unfortunately the batteries used by the Soviet supersoldiers are hardened against EMP.
%%* FakingTheDead: Will after his house blows up.

%%* GodzillaThreshold: Marsh [[spoiler:invoking the Eidolons to kill the Soviet infiltrators.]]
%%* HowTheMightyHaveFallen: Reinhardt, aka Junkman has spent years scavenging electronic components in a desperate attempt to reconstruct the batteries and regain his Willenskräfte.
%%* {{Jerkass}}: Both Marsh and Will, albeit for really justified reasons.
%%* LanguageOfMagic: Enochian.
%%* LivingMacGuffin: Gretel needs to keep both Marsh and Will alive (throughout [=WW2=] as well) for her plan to work.

%%* NiceJobBreakingItHero: Oh hell yes. [[spoiler:Though Gretel has foreseen that ''all'' timelines result in the Enochians destroying humanity.]]
%%* OneLastJob: Klaus agrees to help Marsh in exchange for a new identity far from her sister.
%%* OnePersonOnePower: [[spoiler:As the British learn a bit too late, this is not true for the Soviet version of Westarp's supersoldiers.]]
%%* PlayingWithFire: the Soviet psychic assassin.
%%* PoweredByAForsakenChild: Literally, for the new generation of British warlocks.
* SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong: [[spoiler:Gretel's goal is revealed to be to create a new timeline in which she and the rest of humanity are spared from the Eidolons.]]

%%* TheSoulless: John Marsh
%%* SovietSuperscience
%%* TakingYouWithMe: [[spoiler:Marsh refuses to go back in time so that Gretel will die with everyone else, but she already anticipated this back in [=WW2=], and points out that this way Marsh can save his daughter's life.]]
%%* TwinTelepathy: Necessitates and facilitates one of the latter Milkweed missions.
%%* VoiceOfTheLegion: [[spoiler:Marsh's son after being taken over by the Eidolons.]]
%%* YourApprovalFillsMeWithShame: Marsh does ''not'' like getting compliments from Gretel.

* OneLastJob: Klaus agrees to help Marsh in exchange for a new identity far from her sister.

* YourApprovalFillsMeWithShame: Marsh does ''not'' like getting compliments from Gretel.

* AdvancingWallOfDoom: [[spoiler:As the Enochian's start to destroy the world.]]
* [[spoiler:ApocalypseHow: When Britain comes under attack from Soviet supersoldier infiltrators, Marsh orders the Eidolons to kill them directly. This gives the Eidolons the foothold they need to wipe out humanity.]]
* [[spoiler:AlternateTimeline: Gretel's goal is revealed to be to create a new timeline in which she and the rest of humanity are spared from the Eidolons.]]
* TheAtoner
* BadassNormal - Marsh, even 20 years older and out of shape.

* BloodMagic
* BlueAndOrangeMorality - as it turns out, Gretel.

* CassandraTruth: Marsh ignores Will's warnings about the Enochians. Pembroke ignores Marsh's warnings about Gretel. [[spoiler:Ironically Gretel engineers Pembroke's death because only Marsh is driven enough to use the Enochians to kill directly.]]

* ChekhovsGun: Loads of them thanks to Gretel's precognition.
* UsefulNotes/ColdWar - between the enormously successful U.S.S.R. and a rather diminished British Empire.
* CreepyChild: The British child warlocks.
* {{EMP}}: Milkweed turn Will's house into an improvised EMP bomb, among other booby traps. Unfortunately the batteries used by the Soviet supersoldiers are hardened against EMP.
* FakingTheDead: Will after his house blows up.

* GodzillaThreshold: Marsh [[spoiler:invoking the Eidolons to kill the Soviet infiltrators.]]
* HowTheMightyHaveFallen: Reinhardt, aka Junkman has spent years scavenging electronic components in a desperate attempt to reconstruct the batteries and regain his Willenskräfte.
* {{Jerkass}} - both Marsh and Will, albeit for really justified reasons.
* JustOneMan: Gretel needs to keep both Marsh and Will alive (throughout [=WW2=] as well) for her plan to work.
* LanguageOfMagic - Enochian

* MyCountryRightOrWrong: Marsh doesn't care [[spoiler: Will helped the Soviets kill all the British warlocks because he wanted revenge for the Missing, the people sacrificed by Milkweed to make the Eidolons help to win the war]]; it was done for the British Empire and that makes [[spoiler:Will]] a traitor.
* NiceJobBreakingItHero: Oh hell yes. [[spoiler:Though Gretel has foreseen that ''all'' timelines result in the Enochians destroying humanity.]]

* OnePersonOnePower: [[spoiler:As the British learn a bit too late, this is not true for the Soviet version of Westarp's supersoldiers.]]
* PlayingWithFire - the Soviet psychic assassin
* PoweredByAForsakenChild: Literally, for the new generation of British warlocks.

* SpeakInUnison[=/=]VoiceOfTheLegion: [[spoiler:Marsh's son after being taken over by the Eidolons.]]
* TheSoulless: John Marsh
* SovietSuperscience
* TakingYouWithMe: [[spoiler:Marsh refuses to go back in time so that Gretel will die with everyone else, but she already anticipated this back in [=WW2=], and points out that this way Marsh can save his daughter's life.]]
* TwinTelepathy: Necessitates and facilitates one of the latter Milkweed missions.
* YourApprovalFillsMeWithShame - Marsh does ''not'' like getting compliments from Gretel.

The second book of ''TheMilkweedTriptych'', preceded by ''Literature/BitterSeeds'' and followed by ''Literature/NecessaryEvil''.

* JustOneMan: Gretel needs to keep both Marsh and Will alive (throughout WW2 as well) for her plan to work.

* TakingYouWithMe: [[spoiler:Marsh refuses to go back in time so that Gretel will die with everyone else, but she already anticipated this back in WW2, and points out that this way Marsh can save his daughter's life.]]

* TakingYouWithMe: [[spoiler:Marsh refuses to go back in time so that Gretel will die with everyone else, but she already anticipated this back in WW2.]]

* MyCountryRightOrWrong: Marsh doesn't care [[spoiler: Will helped the Soviets kill all the British warlocks because he wanted revenge for the Missing, the people sacrificed by Milkweed to make the Eidolons help to win the war]] it was done for the British Empire and that makes [[spoiler:Will]] a traitor.

''Someone is killing Britain's warlocks''.

''Twenty-two years after the Second World War, a precarious balance of power maintains the peace between Great Britain and the USSR. For decades, the warlocks have been all that stand between the British Empire and the Soviet Union-- a vast domain stretching from the Pacific Ocean to the shores of the English Channel. But now each death is another blow to Britain's security''.

''Meanwhile, a brother and sister escape from a top-secret research facility deep behind the Iron Curtain. Once subjects of a twisted Nazi experiment to imbue ordinary humans with extraordinary abilities, then prisoners of war in the vast Soviet effort to reverse engineer the Nazi technology, they head for England''.

''Because that's where former spy Raybould Marsh lives. And Gretel, the mad seer, has plans for him''.

''As Marsh is drawn back into the world of Milkweed, he discovers that Britain's darkest acts didn't end with the war. And as he strives to protect Queen and country, he's forced to confront his own willingness to accept victory at any cost.''

* MyCountryRightOrWrong: Marsh doesn't care [[spoiler: Will helped the Soviets kill all the British warlocks because he wanted revenge for the Missing, the people sacrificed by Milkweed to make the Eidolons help to win the war]] it was done for the British Empire and that makes [[spoiler:Will] a traitor.