The Winds of War is a decent, straightforward historical novel. It  reminded me of similar books by authors like John Toland: the characters  witness essentially all events of historical moment so that the author can  do "the whole story," and that evaporates most possible suspense  about where the book's going. It's hard to work up tension over whether  lend lease will pass in those circumstances; you take the big events for  granted. In many ways I find real history to be more surprising and  suspenseful than novelizations of it.
That being said, Wouk's choice to  bring the novel only up to the American entry into the war was an adroit  one. He orbits around his extended Henry family, touching on its friends  and acquaintances as is convenient for the outline of the war/plot; the  personal stories have a flavor to them that makes sense in the context of  America's ambivalence about entering the fighting. For a historical epic  sort of a novel, that was a good decision.
The other fun side of the book  is the framing faux-history of the war from the perspective of a German  army officer. Wouk makes "van Roon" a figure roughly comparable  to Victor "Pug" Henry, his America protagonist - a staff officer  at the planning level. Partly this lets the author present the German side  of things, but you wouldn't describe the effort as unbiased. Pug has  translated van Roon's post war recapitulation of events, is the idea, and  some sly little asides sneak in along the way. Again, there's nothing  really surprising about the stuff, it's just pleasantly well done by Mr.  Wouk.
If you enjoyed Winds of War, or if you want to read books like it  and can't decide which ones, I would recommend two very readable history  titles:
* John Toland's nonfiction titles, with the glaring exception of  Day of Infamy. The Rising Sun is probably Toland's best general history,  though it's only the Pacific theater.
* The War, 1939-1945, edited by  Desmond Flower. An amazing collection of first person accounts that span  the war. No fictional contrivance can compare with the voices in this book,  not meaning any offense to the capable Mr. Wouk. This will keep you up very  late at night.
The Winds of War is a decent, straightforward historical novel. It  reminded me of similar books by authors like John Toland: the characters  witness essentially all events of historical moment so that the author can  do "the whole story," and that evaporates most possible suspense  about where the book's going. It's hard to work up tension over whether  lend lease will pass in those circumstances; you take the big events for  granted. In many ways I find real history to be more surprising and  suspenseful than novelizations of it. That being said, Wouk's choice to  bring the novel only up to the American entry into the war was an adroit  one. He orbits around his extended Henry family, touching on its friends  and acquaintances as is convenient for the outline of the war/plot; the  personal stories have a flavor to them that makes sense in the context of  America's ambivalence about entering the fighting. For a historical epic  sort of a novel, that was a good decision. The other fun side of the book  is the framing faux-history of the war from the perspective of a German  army officer. Wouk makes "van Roon" a figure roughly comparable  to Victor "Pug" Henry, his America protagonist - a staff officer  at the planning level. Partly this lets the author present the German side  of things, but you wouldn't describe the effort as unbiased. Pug has  translated van Roon's post war recapitulation of events, is the idea, and  some sly little asides sneak in along the way. Again, there's nothing  really surprising about the stuff, it's just pleasantly well done by Mr. Wouk. If you enjoyed Winds of War, or if you want to read books like it  and can't decide which ones, I would recommend two very readable history  titles:
* John Toland's nonfiction titles, with the glaring exception of  Day of Infamy. The Rising Sun is probably Toland's best general history,  though it's only the Pacific theater. * The War, 1939-1945, edited by  Desmond Flower. An amazing collection of first person accounts that span  the war. No fictional contrivance can compare with the voices in this book,  not meaning any offense to the capable Mr. Wouk. This will keep you up very  late at night.