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Great War #1
American Front
When the Great War engulfed Europe in 1914, the United States and the Confederate States of America, bitter enemies for five decades, entered the fray on opposite sides: the United States aligned with the newly strong Germany, while the Confederacy joined forces with their longtime allies, Britain and France. But it soon became clear to both sides that this fight would be different--that war itself would never be the same again. For this was to be a protracted, global conflict waged with new and chillingly efficient innovations--the machine gun, the airplane, poison gas, and trench warfare.
Across the Americas, the fighting raged like wildfire on multiple and far-flung fronts. As President Theodore Roosevelt rallied the diverse ethnic groups of the northern states--Irish and Italians, Mormons and Jews--Confederate President Woodrow Wilson struggled to hold together a Confederacy still beset by ignorance, prejudice, and class divisions. And as the war thundered on, southern blacks, oppressed for generations, found themselves fatefully drawn into a climactic confrontation . . .
Across the Americas, the fighting raged like wildfire on multiple and far-flung fronts. As President Theodore Roosevelt rallied the diverse ethnic groups of the northern states--Irish and Italians, Mormons and Jews--Confederate President Woodrow Wilson struggled to hold together a Confederacy still beset by ignorance, prejudice, and class divisions. And as the war thundered on, southern blacks, oppressed for generations, found themselves fatefully drawn into a climactic confrontation . . .
562 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published May 12, 1998
244 people are currently reading
1629 people want to read
About the author
Harry Turtledove
564 books1,918 followersDr Harry Norman Turtledove is an American novelist, who has produced a sizeable number of works in several genres including alternate history, historical fiction, fantasy and science fiction.
Harry Turtledove attended UCLA, where he received a Ph.D. in Byzantine history in 1977.
Turtledove has been dubbed "The Master of Alternate History". Within this genre he is known both for creating original scenarios: such as survival of the Byzantine Empire; an alien invasion in the middle of the World War II; and for giving a fresh and original treatment to themes previously dealt with by other authors, such as the victory of the South in the American Civil War; and of Nazi Germany in the Second World War.
His novels have been credited with bringing alternate history into the mainstream. His style of alternate history has a strong military theme.
Harry Turtledove attended UCLA, where he received a Ph.D. in Byzantine history in 1977.
Turtledove has been dubbed "The Master of Alternate History". Within this genre he is known both for creating original scenarios: such as survival of the Byzantine Empire; an alien invasion in the middle of the World War II; and for giving a fresh and original treatment to themes previously dealt with by other authors, such as the victory of the South in the American Civil War; and of Nazi Germany in the Second World War.
His novels have been credited with bringing alternate history into the mainstream. His style of alternate history has a strong military theme.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 129 reviews
January 15, 2010
Turtledove is great at describing the endless tedium and frustration of war; he attacks it from all sides and perspectives, building a complete picture. If you're interested in the big and little picture of war and political events, this is great. If not, the reader bores quickly.
August 10, 2010
I may include spoilers, so if you're planning to read the book (let's face it; you're not), consider yourself forewarned.
First recall that we're talking about an alternate history where the South won the Civil War with the help of England and France. This book takes us to 1914, where World War I is starting. It's England, France, Russia and the Confederates (the "Quadruple Entente") versus the US, Germany, and presumably Austria and the Ottoman Empire. (If the latter two get a mention, it's very brief.) In North America, the war is primarily a struggle of the US versus the Confederates and Canada.
The book is, like How Few Remain, told from a variety of perspectives. Unlike HFR, however, TGWAF (are those acronyms annoying enough?) tells the story from the perspective of common people. There are some historical figures present -- I counted Teddy Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, George Custer, Eugene Debs and Marcel Duchamp, but I'm sure there were more. These characters, however, are secondary to the everyday folk -- the New England fisherman, the Confederate Army major with the unfortunate surname "Lincoln", the black butler in a South Carolina mansion...
There's less excitement in "I wonder what a New England fisherman would do in this timeline" than "I wonder what Abe Lincoln would do if he lost the war (and survived)." The book at times sounded like one of those histories where they try to convince you that the life of ordinary people is more worth studying than the life of kings and statesmen. Sounds fun, huh? Nevertheless, the book succeeded in making me think about World War I in different terms -- by hearing Virginia ripped apart by trench warfare, I could more readily imagine the psychological shock to Europeans. And I could more readily appreciate the benefit to America of not having a war on our home soil during the twentieth century.
One of the book's drawbacks is its large cast of characters that makes it hard to remember who's who. Sometimes I had to wait until a soldier cursed the other side to remember which side he was on. Another is that everything is very slow developing and telegraphed. In an early scene, Confederate President Woodrow Wilson is giving a speech in Richmond, and soldiers fire bullets into the air to scare away the crowd. Is it really necessary to have a character wonder to himself what will happen when the bullets come back down? It doesn't move the plot along, and it doesn't really provide any "flavor" to the story.
Nevertheless, the alternate history is fairly compelling. By the end of the book, the USA has advanced across most fronts, though the war is stalling. The USA has also pushed the CSA out of Pennsylvania and is trying to retake the parts of Maryland and DC that have fallen. The South is starting to be disrupted by a Marxist revolution led by blacks. That's one of Turtledove's cleverer ideas, and I'm waiting to see how this will play out.
First recall that we're talking about an alternate history where the South won the Civil War with the help of England and France. This book takes us to 1914, where World War I is starting. It's England, France, Russia and the Confederates (the "Quadruple Entente") versus the US, Germany, and presumably Austria and the Ottoman Empire. (If the latter two get a mention, it's very brief.) In North America, the war is primarily a struggle of the US versus the Confederates and Canada.
The book is, like How Few Remain, told from a variety of perspectives. Unlike HFR, however, TGWAF (are those acronyms annoying enough?) tells the story from the perspective of common people. There are some historical figures present -- I counted Teddy Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, George Custer, Eugene Debs and Marcel Duchamp, but I'm sure there were more. These characters, however, are secondary to the everyday folk -- the New England fisherman, the Confederate Army major with the unfortunate surname "Lincoln", the black butler in a South Carolina mansion...
There's less excitement in "I wonder what a New England fisherman would do in this timeline" than "I wonder what Abe Lincoln would do if he lost the war (and survived)." The book at times sounded like one of those histories where they try to convince you that the life of ordinary people is more worth studying than the life of kings and statesmen. Sounds fun, huh? Nevertheless, the book succeeded in making me think about World War I in different terms -- by hearing Virginia ripped apart by trench warfare, I could more readily imagine the psychological shock to Europeans. And I could more readily appreciate the benefit to America of not having a war on our home soil during the twentieth century.
One of the book's drawbacks is its large cast of characters that makes it hard to remember who's who. Sometimes I had to wait until a soldier cursed the other side to remember which side he was on. Another is that everything is very slow developing and telegraphed. In an early scene, Confederate President Woodrow Wilson is giving a speech in Richmond, and soldiers fire bullets into the air to scare away the crowd. Is it really necessary to have a character wonder to himself what will happen when the bullets come back down? It doesn't move the plot along, and it doesn't really provide any "flavor" to the story.
Nevertheless, the alternate history is fairly compelling. By the end of the book, the USA has advanced across most fronts, though the war is stalling. The USA has also pushed the CSA out of Pennsylvania and is trying to retake the parts of Maryland and DC that have fallen. The South is starting to be disrupted by a Marxist revolution led by blacks. That's one of Turtledove's cleverer ideas, and I'm waiting to see how this will play out.
February 2, 2017
I was hooked after reading the previous novel, "How Few Remain", and knew I had to continue with this series. It didn't serve as a prequel, but added some context and familiarity that I appreciated. This book had me flipping page after page, and I burned through it in just about a week or so. The third-person multiple POV is a bit confusing, but once I got each character straight, I loved seeing so many different experiences and lives during the war. A really thought-provoking and interesting read, looking forward to what else this series holds!
March 27, 2014
Not as thoroughly awesome as How Few Remain, the first in this series, but quite engaging. The First World War affects the USA and CSA as something of a continuation of the Civil War, here - it seemed they were just waiting for an excuse to start fighting again, and they fell into war again with vigor. The author's refusal to take sides is interesting as well. I was also fascinated by the way alliances fell out in this version of history - very plausible given the events of How Few Remain, but it seriously messes with my good guy-bad guy ideas of World War I. Looking forward to finding the next one in the series.
October 7, 2019
The Great War American Front is a fascinating book that covers the beginning of an alternate version of World War 1 and its effects on the regular person and soldier. It’s the second book of the Southern Victory series from author Harry Turtledove which is a sort of thought exercise on how the world would look if the Confederacy had won the civil war. I found it extremely interesting the idea of European trench style warfare taking place on American soil. The books starts with the Assassination of The archduke of the Astro-Hungarian empire Franz Ferdinand. With tensions between The US and the Confederacy high each side was almost eager for war. Told through many perspectives the book has a lot of characters, which other reviewers seems to hate as they thought it made the story convoluted but I thought it was an incredible way to show the full scope of the war and sort of display how many people really were touched by this war. I did wish we got more points of view from the real life characters we see such as confederate president Woodrow Wilson or an old General Custer, but the points of view are limited to characters that weren’t actually real.
One of the bonuses of haven’t multiple points of view is the book was able to show off the new method of war that were introduced. We see this technology highlighted in some of my favorite scenes in the book. This includes a scene that has a confederate squad take in a US tank where the confederate soldiers are baffled by sheer power and destruction that a was able to cause and it caused them to fear what other atrocities the war has in store for them. Another one of these scenes is a dogfight that shows how aerial combat can be so crucial to getting the edge over an opponent.
Though this book only covers the beginning of the war it is still an incredibly engaging read from start to finish the switching points of few keep the events of the war fresh and interesting while accurately portraying the horror of warfare and its effect on the The everyday person. If you enjoy history then you will find the gold that this book has into a believable alternate history novel. The only complaint I would give it is that some scenes can drag a little to long and that if the scene goes on to long without action the point of view can become boring.
One of the bonuses of haven’t multiple points of view is the book was able to show off the new method of war that were introduced. We see this technology highlighted in some of my favorite scenes in the book. This includes a scene that has a confederate squad take in a US tank where the confederate soldiers are baffled by sheer power and destruction that a was able to cause and it caused them to fear what other atrocities the war has in store for them. Another one of these scenes is a dogfight that shows how aerial combat can be so crucial to getting the edge over an opponent.
Though this book only covers the beginning of the war it is still an incredibly engaging read from start to finish the switching points of few keep the events of the war fresh and interesting while accurately portraying the horror of warfare and its effect on the The everyday person. If you enjoy history then you will find the gold that this book has into a believable alternate history novel. The only complaint I would give it is that some scenes can drag a little to long and that if the scene goes on to long without action the point of view can become boring.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 29, 2020
Turtledove is getting better with each book. The civillian and soldier perspective of this really sells it.
January 17, 2019
The War to End All Wars consumes North America!
Continuing the alternate history of How Few Remain, in which the Confederacy won the Civil War, The Great War: American front imagines a First World War where the USA and CSA meet for the third time on the battlefield. Machine guns, armored cars, and airplanes replacing the strategies of the previous century. The chaos and international defense pacts in Europe now involve North America, as fighting rages in the US, CS, and Canada. In addition a workers revolution begins to stir, primarily among the African American population in the south, ready to rise up against their white oppressors.
Another great what if novel by Turtledove, who paints with a wide brush, encompassing many points of view and many individual stories, but it never feels overwhelming. If you enjoy studying history, and the thought experiment of alternate history, I recommend it.
Continuing the alternate history of How Few Remain, in which the Confederacy won the Civil War, The Great War: American front imagines a First World War where the USA and CSA meet for the third time on the battlefield. Machine guns, armored cars, and airplanes replacing the strategies of the previous century. The chaos and international defense pacts in Europe now involve North America, as fighting rages in the US, CS, and Canada. In addition a workers revolution begins to stir, primarily among the African American population in the south, ready to rise up against their white oppressors.
Another great what if novel by Turtledove, who paints with a wide brush, encompassing many points of view and many individual stories, but it never feels overwhelming. If you enjoy studying history, and the thought experiment of alternate history, I recommend it.
May 7, 2018
Harry Turtledove’s The Great War: The American Front, is a fast paced alternate history novel focusing on World War One after a confederate victory in the United States Civil War. After the assassination of the Austro-Hungarian Archduke, The US sides with The German Empire, Austro-Hungarian Empire, and The Ottoman Empire. The CSA does the opposite, they join the Entente with The British Empire, French Empire, Russian Empire, and Serbia. Fierce fighting on the border of the CSA and USA ensues.
Turtledove uses a unique style of writing which throws you from character to character while never visiting one character twice. This strategy is hard to adapt to at first but eventually moves the story along quite nicely. This book touches on some sensitive topics such as genocide and war and the bad things that come with war. Such as how often soldier characters can die randomly. It also has a very heavy use of racial slurs so I would suggest no one under the age of 14 read this book due to its mature content. Overall I would give this book a ⅘ due to its interesting plot and realistic view on war and its effects on countries and people.
Turtledove uses a unique style of writing which throws you from character to character while never visiting one character twice. This strategy is hard to adapt to at first but eventually moves the story along quite nicely. This book touches on some sensitive topics such as genocide and war and the bad things that come with war. Such as how often soldier characters can die randomly. It also has a very heavy use of racial slurs so I would suggest no one under the age of 14 read this book due to its mature content. Overall I would give this book a ⅘ due to its interesting plot and realistic view on war and its effects on countries and people.
December 29, 2018
This is another book I was hoping to like a lot more, especially after the opening of the series. But wheras that volume included ample interesting and easily identifiable chapters using historical figures, this one tries to cover a vast military front -- from western Canada to the east, from Oklahoma to Maine, and many points in between -- with much less easily recognized characters. So the problem is trying to figure out who is who, Reb or Yank, Reb ally or Yank ally, from one page to the next. And for very little payoff since as in Europe, WW I turns into a lengthy stalemate across a massive front, with the only significant event occurring in the final pages, to set up the sequel. But I am hooked, so will eventually pursue the series subsequent volumes.
February 23, 2024
Great concept, but I’m not going to keep reading the series.
Too many characters and storylines.
Would have been much better if the 3 book series had only been one book.
Too many characters and storylines.
Would have been much better if the 3 book series had only been one book.
May 27, 2024
The first book in the Great War Trilogy, second in the whole Southern Victory/TL-191 series, is pretty good and worth reading.
*Minor spoilers warning*
Because it covers the early stages of this alternate WWI before it really settled into trench warfare, the action keeps moving and stories move at a good clip. The many, many POVs in this legitimately help in the first half or so, setting up the normal for this world and the societal changes the war brings about (Pinker Davis's changing attitudes to black men due to factories hiring them in large numbers to cover for drafted white men, Scipio's unwilling involvement in the growing Red Rebellion, Cincinnatus's unwilling involvement in the Confederate resistance) or giving us the big picture on the war (Jake Featherson and Hiram Lincoln the best POV for the Confederate, and overall, war effort). Additionally, compared to later Turtledove novels, here we get enough higher-up POVs to know how the war is actually going on all fronts.
BUT there are some big flaws that keep it from being a five-star. For starters a lot of the important stuff is off-screen:
- We don't see the actual start of the war for either side. We hear Wilson's speech that marks their declaration of war, but not the actual first shots of any of the offensives.
- The main plot on the Confederate side, the Schlieffen Plan-like Philadelphia Offensive, is first shown already well underway, then we're shown their retreat. It should have been the main narrative but we barely get any chapters about it.
- We don't see the actual evolution of the war. We don't see the change from the war of movement to the trenches, or the introduction of new technologies like poison gas and such.
Also, during the second half the plethora of POVs really starts taking its toll. Because Turtledove refuses to end them when they serve their purpose the stories become stall and repetitive to the point it starts getting difficult telling them apart. For example, one of the Confederate POVs is a factory worker and its used to show how war affects the common people; when he gets drafted into the army, rather than his story ending we follow his journey as one of the many, many soldier POVs we already have. on the US side, we get a fisherman POV that also shows how the war affected his trade before turning into yet another navy POV.
When it's not repetitive, we get mundane stories like the woman in occupied Washington, whose story as a resistance member of sorts gets taken over by an old customer from her days as a prostitute who wants to get back with her.
Lastly, most of the interesting POVs in the novel are either Confederate or Canadian. The US's are painfully boring and forgettable. The only two I remember are the aide to the elderly George Custer, and the Socialist party member, and the latter never showed any of the politics of this USA.
At the start of this review I saw it was a good book and I stand by it. If you start skipping certain characters' segments the book becomes a lot tighter, faster-paced, and an even worthier read.
*Minor spoilers warning*
Because it covers the early stages of this alternate WWI before it really settled into trench warfare, the action keeps moving and stories move at a good clip. The many, many POVs in this legitimately help in the first half or so, setting up the normal for this world and the societal changes the war brings about (Pinker Davis's changing attitudes to black men due to factories hiring them in large numbers to cover for drafted white men, Scipio's unwilling involvement in the growing Red Rebellion, Cincinnatus's unwilling involvement in the Confederate resistance) or giving us the big picture on the war (Jake Featherson and Hiram Lincoln the best POV for the Confederate, and overall, war effort). Additionally, compared to later Turtledove novels, here we get enough higher-up POVs to know how the war is actually going on all fronts.
BUT there are some big flaws that keep it from being a five-star. For starters a lot of the important stuff is off-screen:
- We don't see the actual start of the war for either side. We hear Wilson's speech that marks their declaration of war, but not the actual first shots of any of the offensives.
- The main plot on the Confederate side, the Schlieffen Plan-like Philadelphia Offensive, is first shown already well underway, then we're shown their retreat. It should have been the main narrative but we barely get any chapters about it.
- We don't see the actual evolution of the war. We don't see the change from the war of movement to the trenches, or the introduction of new technologies like poison gas and such.
Also, during the second half the plethora of POVs really starts taking its toll. Because Turtledove refuses to end them when they serve their purpose the stories become stall and repetitive to the point it starts getting difficult telling them apart. For example, one of the Confederate POVs is a factory worker and its used to show how war affects the common people; when he gets drafted into the army, rather than his story ending we follow his journey as one of the many, many soldier POVs we already have. on the US side, we get a fisherman POV that also shows how the war affected his trade before turning into yet another navy POV.
When it's not repetitive, we get mundane stories like the woman in occupied Washington, whose story as a resistance member of sorts gets taken over by an old customer from her days as a prostitute who wants to get back with her.
Lastly, most of the interesting POVs in the novel are either Confederate or Canadian. The US's are painfully boring and forgettable. The only two I remember are the aide to the elderly George Custer, and the Socialist party member, and the latter never showed any of the politics of this USA.
At the start of this review I saw it was a good book and I stand by it. If you start skipping certain characters' segments the book becomes a lot tighter, faster-paced, and an even worthier read.
November 8, 2020
(This review concerns American Front, by Harry Turtledove, in case Goodreads does this stupid thing where it collapses multiple entries into some type of anthology edition)
General impressions
Synopsis: How would WW1 have looked if the CSA had won the US Civil War?
NB: This book is part of a series. I may or may not have focused my efforts in reviewing the last part of the series.
Rating (Intuitive*): 4
Rating (Weighted**): 3.83
RMSE***(Intuitive,Weighted): 0.431
Mean error***(Intuitive,Weighted): -0.047
Format: Audiobook
Language: English
Setting and premise
Aesthetic: 4/5 [w:2.5]
Verisimillitude: 5/5 [w:2.5]
Originality: 3/5 [w:1]
Plot
Design: 3/5 [w:2]
Verimillitude: 5/5 [w:2.5]
Originality: 3/5 [w:0.5]
Characters
Design: 4/5 [w:1]
Verimillitude: 5/5 [w:2.5]
Development: 4/5 [w:2]
Sympatheticness: 4/5 [w:2]
Presentation
Prose: 4/5 [w:1.5]
Additional modifiers
Page turner factor: 3/5 [w:3.5]
Mind blown factor: 2/5 [w:2.5]
*The rating I felt this deserved before thinking about it too much.
**Weights displayed next to each applicable scoring criterion. (Weights version 3.1)
***Root mean squared error and mean error calculated for all reviews using this format for books read from 2020-07-12 up until this book (33 reviews).
June 4, 2025
At the end of Harry Turtledove’s How Few Remain, the War of Secession had been won by the Confederates and the continent of United States had been divided up into the North (The United States) and the South (the Confederate States). In this new volume, first of a trilogy, the Great War has commenced in Europe after the assassination of Archuduke Ferdinand, and the two American countries have entered into it along allied lines. In this case, the USA has partnered with Germany, while the CSA has backed England and France, who aided them during the Secession struggle. The book is more like a piece of a new Civil War, with detailed and gruesome reportage from battlefields and the introduction of ‘modern’ warfare, such as tanks, machine guns and gas. The USA has begun hostilities on two fronts, the South and into Anglo-French Canada to the north. The action was, as always, presumed to be of short duration, but it has dragged on well into 1915 by book’s end. Both sides seem unaware of the simmering tension between whites and blacks and the nascent Red worker menace looks set to rear its head. I enjoyed it immensely but realise that it is not for everybody. Military history buffs will find plenty to chew over in this multiple viewpoint book.
August 21, 2024
I'm sure I've read this before, but it was long enough ago that I barely remember it. I think the prequel novel, How Few Remain might be somewhat better, but American Front is really interesting in its own right. The author explores the experience of war through over a dozen viewpoint characters: soldiers, activists, officers, factory workers, farmers, and families. There's a big emphasis on the commonality of many experiences, but also the different ways different characters react to the disruptions of war. As you'd expect from a setting where the South won the US Civil War, there's a big emphasis on race relations. The US and CS as depicted in this book are both horribly racist societies, and reflect the real-world racism of the US during the time period. Like one would expect, the South is far worse, but the North is still clearly a racist society, with systemic racism augmenting legal restrictions keeping the few Black people in subservient conditions. Overall, a good read with some neat ideas.
May 19, 2022
This novel is the sequel to How Few Remain. In these novels, Turtledove supposes that the Confederacy won the Civil War and follows the course of history in a North American continent that is now divided into three separate countries.
World War I is beginning in this novel. Led by President Woodrow Wilson, the Confederate States of America (CSA), along with Canada have aligned themselves with Britain, France and Japan. Theodore Roosevelt is the President of The United States of America (USA) and has formed an alliance with Germany. The USA prepares to fight a war on three fronts: both in the north and south, as well as in the Pacific Ocean, all the while protecting their harbors on the Atlantic Coast.
To read my full review, please see: https://thoughtsfromthemountaintop.co...
World War I is beginning in this novel. Led by President Woodrow Wilson, the Confederate States of America (CSA), along with Canada have aligned themselves with Britain, France and Japan. Theodore Roosevelt is the President of The United States of America (USA) and has formed an alliance with Germany. The USA prepares to fight a war on three fronts: both in the north and south, as well as in the Pacific Ocean, all the while protecting their harbors on the Atlantic Coast.
To read my full review, please see: https://thoughtsfromthemountaintop.co...
December 7, 2018
As a sequel to How Few Remain it goes above and beyond its predecessor with better characters and more realistic motivation and world building with the first few chapters you see his world building in action like when the POV character in the south is talking about the wealthy having imported cars from the USA instead of locally produce ones in the CSA. Another improvement this book has over its predecessor is its sense of scale with USA soldiers fighting in Canada and DC with the Confederates. This book in my opinion deals with historical individuals better than its predecessor with them being only brought up occasionally and only for important things that our POV character would not know about.
February 26, 2021
I love alternative history novels, and Harry Turtledove writes some of the best.
American Front reminds me of the US during the Trump era.
-People ignore blatant racism.
-The winner of the war--or election--writes the history.
-Ignorance keeps people in their social group no matter hurtful it may be to themselves.
The first time I read American Front, I would have never dreamed our country would have elected Donald Trump or gone through the Jan 2021 Uprising. However, when I look at my three bullet points, those were true when I first picked it up. I shouldn't have been surprised.
On an aside, always be wary of people wanting to burn books. If you don't put a book on a list, it might die from obscurity. List a book, and you will only draw attention to it.
American Front reminds me of the US during the Trump era.
-People ignore blatant racism.
-The winner of the war--or election--writes the history.
-Ignorance keeps people in their social group no matter hurtful it may be to themselves.
The first time I read American Front, I would have never dreamed our country would have elected Donald Trump or gone through the Jan 2021 Uprising. However, when I look at my three bullet points, those were true when I first picked it up. I shouldn't have been surprised.
On an aside, always be wary of people wanting to burn books. If you don't put a book on a list, it might die from obscurity. List a book, and you will only draw attention to it.
May 12, 2018
i was expecting more based on what others say abut HT. My first issue with this book is that it is labeled to be the the first book in the series... turns out that it is actually the 2nd one and I am sure a lot of my confusion comes from the fact that he lays out his "alternative" reality in book 1. Anyhow... if I do pick up the 1st or 3rd book in the series it will be due to the fact that he has Pancho Villa running for president of the Confederacy.... so far fetched as Villa never had presidential ambitions (in reality he was president no more than a week resigning to go back to battle; the real power holder was that who commanded the army).
July 5, 2024
An interesting (or horrifying) alternate history novel about World War 1. Set after the events of How Few Remain, this book tells the tale of a house divided during the Great War. The beginning explains how the CSA has won secession from the Union with the help from the United Kingdom. What remains of the USA allies itself with Kaiser's Germany in World War 1 in an effort to destabilize the British Empire and reclaim the southern states. The book carries on with a host of characters that have to deal with the horrors of trench warfare as the US and the CS duke it out in another great war.
Read if you like How Few Remain.
Read if you like How Few Remain.
June 28, 2018
I had some issues with this Turtledove, even though I've enjoyed some in the past. Almost too many characters and he jumps back and forth between them in little short vignettes. For most of the book I struggle to remember who and what was going on.
Besides that, it is interesting to imagine a world with a separate CSA and how things might have been. Based on the characters in the book and their stories, I think I'd want to live in Canada then!
Not for those offended by a look at racial discrimination, especially in the 1910s, but in a world where there still is a CSA.
Besides that, it is interesting to imagine a world with a separate CSA and how things might have been. Based on the characters in the book and their stories, I think I'd want to live in Canada then!
Not for those offended by a look at racial discrimination, especially in the 1910s, but in a world where there still is a CSA.
December 27, 2017
We never hear whether Turtledove ever served in the military, but books like this make me feel as if he did. I keep seeing other conflicts as I read. The experiences on both sides of the war, both on the battlefield and trying to maintain family and peacetime work, gives a moving picture of what war does to everyone. This is what might have happened in America in the early 1900s if the Confederacy had won the Civil War.
February 12, 2019
Definitely a great war novel. Offers a good perspective from various angles of different countries through the eyes of their citizens. The book covers both soldiers and peasants, but kinda leaves out almost all political figures. The "amount" of perspective was, to be honest, somewhat overwhelming, because the sheer amount of personalities involved was a bit too high. But to sum it all up, if you like history or politics, definitely give it a try.
July 23, 2024
This book stinks. Maybe straight alternative history isn't for me, but this was boring. No science fiction element, few real historical figures, and mostly irrelevant drama among made up people who seemed pretty unimportant. It was also gratuitously racist. I get that the people in the previous book were often racist because it was during and immediately following the Civil War period. But geez, the number of uses of racial slurs was a bit much in this book.
October 14, 2017
Great book but needs more about the rest of the world
The work just needed more on the rest of the war and not just the parts where the USA is involved. Very little is mentioned about the European western and eastern fronts. No mention of the Ottoman Empire being involved at all. It’s a great group of stories, some coming together in the end.
The work just needed more on the rest of the war and not just the parts where the USA is involved. Very little is mentioned about the European western and eastern fronts. No mention of the Ottoman Empire being involved at all. It’s a great group of stories, some coming together in the end.
August 16, 2020
Turtledove takes care to make each primary character interesting and well-rounded. His historical research is exemplary, and he creates an alternate that is realistic and believable. However, there is a cornucopia of recurring primary characters, and this requires quite a bit of focus from the reader.
August 15, 2017
Written well enough to make World War 1 interesting. Harry Turtledove has a very interesting take on alternate history and the ending has me itching to get the second book so I can find out what happens with "De Revolution!"
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 18, 2019
Didn’t enjoy this book as consistently as the last one in the series. Unlike the last book none of the POV characters are major players so a lot of them run together. However alternative history is always fascinating and the author is brilliant at writing it!
August 3, 2019
An interesting twist on world history. After the South wins the civil war in book one, how does ww1 go? Once again turtledove delivers a story with no stars, no hero’s, just as a reporter, with good and righteousness seen from each perspective.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 21, 2020
Too many unlikeable characters with limited development. The historical Easter eggs are nice, but it's an ultimately depressing story with repetitive battle descriptions of the horrors of WWI fighting. I don't have much interest in the sequel.
February 11, 2021
Lots of story lines, all about battles and fronts, except for the Red revolution brewing in the CSA among the black population. The is part one. It took me more than 2 weeks to slog through this one. I think I may wait a year before reading the next.
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