Rating: 
Summary: Entertaining, but...
Review: I very much looked forward to this book and read it eagerly. I enjoy the whole concept of an alternative WWI with North vs South, but I couldn't help but be disappointed while I was reading and when I was finished.For one thing, Mr. Turtledove has an annoying habit of making the same point over and over with many of his characters. I'm not talking about re-establishing them for this book for those readers who may not have read the early books in the series. I'm saying that he often replays the same scenario every time he comes back to a character within THIS book, sometimes without really advancing the plot or telling us anything new. Seems like wasted verbiage to me. I keep thinking about the newspaper comic strip "Family Circus", which is basically five or so concepts repeated over and over with minor variations. I would have preferred for some of these scenes to be combined in order to cut back on the tedious repetition of explanation about a character's motivations. Another gripe: There is very little about events in the rest of the world. I would have enjoyed considerably more detail about the war in Europe and elsewhere. Turtledove has a great imagination and could easily have tossed in some interesting speculation. Nevertheless, it's a good read, and I would recommend it to anyone who has even the slightest interest in alternative history. And, yes, I'll undoubtedly snap up the final volume as soon as it comes out.
Rating: 
Summary: Another Home Run!
Review: Once again Harry Turtledove churns out yet another great crowd-pleaser, wrapping up just one phase of his ongoing alternate American history epic. There's a little something for everybody in this book. The sudden use of blitzkrieging tanks resulting in a lot of hard-fought battles and victories for action buffs to enjoy. More cameos by crazy old General Custer, wily Teddy Roosevelt, a flustered William Howard Tuft, and mention of a young arrogant Douglas MacArthur. Political maneuvering by our favorite Socialist Congresswoman Flora Hamburger. Actual insight into the psyche of our Canadian friends to the north. Finally an overseas plot involving South America and info on how the war really fares in forgotten Europe and Asia. A murder mystery plot resolved with a shock. As well as the tugging of emotions with a few surprise deaths of long-running characters, some will make you cry, others will make you smile in triumph. The only little nit I have is with the continued treatment of Covington, Kentucky in the Cincinnatus plot as a racist Confederate hotbed. I live right next to the city and know it's history. It could just be hometown pride but from what I understand the entire area has always been more Yankee than the southern part of the state any day.
Rating:
Summary: General Custer ends up the hero!
Review: Breakthroughs wraps up the story of WWI as fought on American soil and at risk of giving away the ending: the US wins. Turtledove brings closure to most of the stories he has woven into the war. Some end well, others in tragedy. There were some very interesting twists and turns, not the least of which is that General Custer turns out to be the hero of the war. He also sets many of the cast up for their part in the American Empire series which follows. The main complaint I have about Breakthroughs (and the entire series in general) is Turtledove's need to rehash the core point of each story as he switches back and forth between them. In theory one could read any of the books independently, but I don't think he should have wasted the space rehashing every little thing that happened in the first two novels over and over again.
Rating:
Summary: Nothing Startling Though Worth Reading
Review: With the third book in the Great War series, Turtledove brings his alternate WWI, if not the series, to a close. There's nothing really startling here as far as alternate depictions of military technology or history. The peace treaty imposed on the Confederacy is obviously modelled on the Treaty of Versailles -- and has an even greater potential for cheating. Politically, of course, a victorious Germany on the Continent has profound implications for the future. As in our history, armored breakthroughs end the stalemate of trench warfare. Here the idea comes from an unlikely source: George Armstrong Custer, whose single notable quality, for good or ill, is aggressiveness. A noted variation from our timeline is an earlier linkage of air power with naval power. But the real attraction of the book is to find out what happens to the characters we've followed in earlier books. Some benefit in unexpected ways from war. Some suffer. And some don't survive the war. Some carry on the fight after the armistice, and others begin to prepare for what they believe will be another war between the United States and the Confederacy. The most interesting development is that one embittered Confederate veteran seems on his way to becoming a Hitlerian figure in the series' future.
Rating: 
Summary: An End to the Great War?
Review: I was a little skepitcal when I read the first book in this series, 'American Front.' I felt it conatined far too many characters and situations that the overall story would get lost in the shuffle. This fear followed me into the next book, 'Walk in Hell.' Although 'Walk' was a lot better I was worried that Turtledove was missing out on some great ideas with regaurds to the way the European war progressed and also the political aspects of the war in the two Americas. But I am happy to say that the new book in the series, 'Breakthroughs,' addresses these aspects of the war in a wonderful and satisfying way. As the war continues, new tactics are employed that allow the U.S. to force her enemies to seek peace- but that's just the beginning of the troubles that lie ahead, troubles that both Yankees and Rebs simply aren't prepared for. In the north the U.S. must learn to integrate it's hard-won conquests into the union, in the south confederates stuggle to adjust to humiliation and defeat and turtledove even gives a character with disturbing parrellels to Adolf Hitler during his time in the trenches. Far and away the best of the series so far (excluding 'How Few Remain') this is a fun romp through what might have been. Turtldove is once again on top of his game!
Rating:
Summary: The excitement is tenser than its prequels.
Review: When I started to read the last half of this book I could not put it down! (Luckily that was a Sunday...) The end of the awful global conflict could finally be in sight. Though since Woodrow Wilson is not even President of the Confederate States any more, the end may not see the birth of a League of Nations. Or even be declared "The war to end all wars". Who knows? It is now 1917, and, like Europe and the rest of the world, the war is going nowhere in the Americas. It is a horrible deadlock, thousands and thousands of men from both sides have been killed on land or sea. But no government will give up. And desperate times call for desperate measures. The Confederate States are seriously considering asking for negro army volunteers and the United States are sending so many telegrams to widows that they are not much better off. Then various other nations around the world begin to quit the war or lose, so it becomes clearer that North America could soon be on its own. The protagonists we have come to know and love (or simply acquainted) all relate the closing moments of the worst war this parallel earth has ever seen. Some will survive, some will not. Some will be irrevocably shattered forever, and a tiny handful will benefit. And, for a certain grumpy old general who would have been killed by indians in 1874 if the USA stayed whole, his moment could be coming. As I said this book is hard to put down. You will read about victory, defeat, personal vendettas, nail-biting battles, and, as the author always delivers, historical ironies. (I certainly love the irony of 78 year-old general Custer commanding battalions of tanks!) But this book is not the end, far from it! See also "The American Empire" trilogy that follows. (Could be USA Empire or CSA Empire, I'm not telling.)
Rating:
Summary: the war winds down
Review: WWI winds down in America as the South is severly weakend by internal slave revolts and the invention of tanks and the crazy general Custard who throws them at forces like hurricanes this book also begins to set the stage for WWII
Rating:
Summary: Human version of alternative history
Review: The south won the civil war (thanks to intervention from France and England) and the U.S. has longed for revenge. Now, allied with Germany in the First World War, it just may have its chance. Brutal trench warfare has bled both the north and south for years, but in Tennessee, General George Armstrong Custer has an original idea--what would happen if he massed his tanks rather than committing them piecemeal according to U.S. military doctrine? The result is the beginning of the end for the outnumbered confederacy. While successful in the south, the U.S. also pushes north against Canada and Britain, its resources near the breaking point already thanks to the German offensives in Europe, can do little to help its embattled Empire--or itself. Author Harry Turtledove is something of a master of the alternative history. Using impressions from soldiers, civilians, sailors, politicians, and officers, Turtledove paints a picture of a believable and human story of war and its consequences. In this alternative history, the Republican party nearly vanished with the loss of the Civil War and socialism took its place as the second party. Red revolution, led by southern blacks, damaged the southern cause enough, at least that they could be blamed for the South's defeat (setting the stage for a World War II sequel with the CSA having its own version of Hitler blaming the defeat on anything the South itself. More convincingly than Turtledove's fantasy retelling of actual history, his alternative histories work. Although it takes a while to get into the story (I was tempted to stop reading after the first hundred pages), the novel is finally rewarding. Turtledove gives an evenhanded and sympathetic account of the sufferings of war. It is easy to sympathize with the North's decision to impose Treaty of Versailles-like consequences on the South, and to sympathize as well with the Southerners who think only to prepare for the next battle. Turtledove's mixture of historical and purely fictional characters is occasionally jarring, but makes for a more convincing story.
Rating:
Summary: Breakthrough ! USA on top at last!
Review: When Breakthroughs arrived I dived in and started reading from go to whoa! It was great to catch up with all the Great War family again. The United States on top at last!!! Sweet revenge for all after 54 years! I particulary liked the growing inbitterment of Jake Featherston and his resentment against the Confederate establishment. Naturally a parallel to Adolf Hitler - watch this space! The dealings of the Collerton clan and their fight against the Congaree Reds drew to it's enevidable conclusion and the sad outcome of the CSS Bonefish verses USS Erricson left you feeling hollow and seeking revenge. The comical adventures of the righteous Gordon McSweeny sadly ended with this book. It would have been nice if he was to have survived the Great War. But thats the whole idea of this trilogy. I looked foward to the first of the new American Empire trilogy, as it arrived just as I put down Breakthroughs - and the excerpt from Bold and Iron and the end was just what I needed. A word of warning, you can't put this book down once you start reading. Well done Harry,*****five stars
Rating: 
Summary: drawn out novel
Review: This was the first time I had read an alternate history novel. The idea behind it was fine yet Turtledove switched so much between differnt stories that no one story had much depth and feeling to it. The mini stories, though trying to get a feel from all sides of a war, were superfically set up. There were some characters i wanted Turtledove to go more depth in and others i felt he could have elimintated. The ending of the novel was were the climax was for most characters. I also didnt like how at the end a lot of characters were left hanging. Overall I wasnt that pleased with the way Turtledove wrote about the experiences of war.
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