Rating: 
Summary: GREAT START FOR THE GREAT WAR SERIES!!
Review: A great book to start off a series! The book gives us a background on what's going on, before the war starts. When World War 1 begins in Europe, the civil war begins again in America. The big problem is that the U.S. is wedged between two fronts, with the Confederates in the south and Canada, being allied with Britian, France, Russia, and the Confederacy. The Confederates does a great breakthrough our capital of the United States and keep on advanceing on to the Susquahanna Valley in Pennsylvania. The front stretchs through West Virginia, Northern Kentucky, on the border of Kansas and Sequoya (Oklahoma), and into Mexico. The progress in Canada is slow and bloody. Harry Turtledove also introduces a civil war hero, who might be a madman, and is commanding the Army in Kentucky, which will get bloody also. As the book goes on, we see more and more characters poping up and will be important for the main characters, from the beginning of the book. The battleing isn't done on the land, but at sea. The U.S. is "single-handedly" defending the Pacific against the Japs, Limeys (British), and Canucks (Canadians) fleets. The main battleing, in the Pacific, takes place around the Sandwich Islands. The Confederates also goes as far as to take U.S. fishermen prisoner and exchanging them for Confederate sailors, but the problem is that one of the sailors who get captured is one of the main characters in the book, and his treatment in capitivity will be brutal. The blacks, who are free but are harassed by the southerners, start getting into with the Reds Revolution, near the end of the book, and are fueled by Marxism. So the Confederates deal with two fronts of their own also and the lost of man power. Sadly, there's no end to the fighting when the book goes from 1914 to 1915. But the Socialists and Mormons start up again. Socialists are getting ready to run for congress and presidency! While the Mormons have a uprising in the state of Utah, which makes the U.S. Armies send troops there to stop the uprising. With all of these events and characters and action, the book becomes fascinateing from page to page and makes you want to read the next book in the series and see what happens. Great book for a person that likes alternate history or fiction.
Rating: 
Summary: It's a diffrent world
Review: The Great War American Front was a very good story. From a big fan of alternate history I prefered this book and How Few Remain more then Guns of the South because Guns of the South isn't believable. In reading the other reviews most are under the impression the CSA, UK, and France would lose fairly soon to a USA, Germany, and Austria. I don't think that's so because if the CSA won its independence the USA would be totally different then we know it today. With a defeat like that the United States wouldn't have been so ambitious in the latter half of the 19th century in becoming a dominant power. Not to say the US isn't someone to reckon with. But not as we would know. Many are right about the trench warfare, and how it probably wouldn't have happened. I'd like to see more common historical happens to be mentioned in the following novels. For example if Britain and the CSA are close would the Titanic have sank, or would she have sailed to Norfolk or Charleston? What about the Lusitania and the unrestricted sinkings of merchant ships by the Germans. I am very intersted in the Red Revolution that seems to be bubbling in Dixie and how Russia fits into all this. Also it would be intresting to see a young Hitler somehow intangled into the story. Depending on how this war turns out it might prevent the Second Great War. Overall I am pleased with Mr. Turtledove's interpretation of an independent South and the world that resulted. I would like to see a detailed world map of that period to see who has what (i.e. Russian Alaska, British Hawaii) and also I would like to hear how the war is going in Europe.
Rating: 
Summary: I couldn't finish it
Review: The spotlight reviewer who gave it two stars is absolutely right: there are far too many characters in this thing. I had troubles keeping up with the storylines after about the tenth one! Its almost like Turtledove wanted to have several books in one, taking turns with each chapter. What's even worse is just that many of these characters I have zero interest in - some serve no real purpose and just exist, while others seem like basic archetypes.I can't say the dialogue is terribly clever either. The one part with Jackson's relative was unbarable to read because it was such a typical "I am a high-class rich guy" conversation. The part where it explained a guy thought every foreign language was latin "even Jewish" was corny as well. I seriously wonder how Harry Turtledove has such a strong fanbase, because every time I venture to one of his books I find good ideas and poor delivery. If perhaps it had stuck to one to three theaters of the war I could have enjoyed myself better. With the current narrative, it almost reads like Turtledove is making it up as he goes along.
Rating:
Summary: Definitely not Turtledove's best work.
Review: The Great War: American Front was definitely not Turtledove's best. The book and its characters were believable and the story followed How Few Remain well, but The Great War moved a little too slowly and there are too many characters to keep track of. Some of the characters, notably Cincinnatus, Arthur MacGregor, and Flora Hamburger were superfluous and added nothing to the story. Also, Turtledove went back to his old pattern of writing about the war and not having a perspective from all of the sides. There were too many USA and CSA perspectives and none from Germany, Britain, France or any other nations who were part of the war. Since the book jumps around to different characters so much, something that would assist Turtledove in conveying his message would be situation maps that would appear periodically throughout the book and show where in the world the character in question is. Multi-perspective books such as The Great War that do not use this technique ! are confusing. Another criticism is that the only historical figure that plays a big part in the book is Custer. Most of the characters are completely made up, and those characters are often hard to relate to. Finally, this is not major but how could Turtledove be so sure that World War One would still have occurred in 1914? It seems like in this alternate world everything would move faster because of the bigger alliance system and desire of the USA to avenge their two defeats at the hands of the Confederates. It seems to me that Turtledove, in a hurry to write a How Few Remain sequel, rushed the book through the development process, and as a result the book is subpar. I am extremely disappointed.
Rating:
Summary: Perplexing..
Review: "How Few Remain" started this off, sort of, and was better than anything here. In this series, Turtledove does some things right, some wrong. But I confess I am largely weary of his limited technique. This series is much better at alternate history than things like his WorldWar series with aliens. There is actually a feel here for how things might've gone had X happened. But Turtledove always writes in these jagged snippets. His only technique seems to be to tell 20 different stories at once, each in 3-6 page slices. After awhile, this can become tedious, especially if many of the characters are less than compelling, as here. Plus, the momentum of each saga is too often halted. Further, the sense of a "whole" is constantly lost. There are no grand moments or strategies. It is perplexing how major characters like Theodore Roosevelt drift into minor roles. TR could've been the central focal point from which to tell the story, to make it all make sense. Ultimately, Turtledove's trite technique renders this too episodic, too disconnected. You care less and less as it wears on. The minor characters do not serve the whole--they become it. That is not always a good thing, yet every Turtledove book seems to turn out this way. There ARE other ways to tell a story....
Rating:
Summary: Mustard Gas on the Mississippi
Review: It's most unquiet on the Western Front... The Great War fought on American soil. Harry Turtledove has written a spectacular work of alternate history. Great War: American Front is the first of three books in a trilogy, but you really must read How Few Remain beforehand. Go ahead, I'll wait. How Few Remain (HFR) gives the backstory: Confederate States defeat the USA in 1862 by not losing critical battle plans, and in 1881 the USA itches for a rematch, only to lose again. By 1911 the USA and CSA have been seperate countries for 50 years, with plenty of resentment. The USA, having been defeated twice, is not the economic powerhouse it became in our timeline. Tensions mount between the two countries and their allies. CSA is allied with England and France, USA with Germany. The European struggle is offstage, as American Front covers the war from multiple viewpoints in North America. British Canada is invaded by the USA and becomes Occupied territory; one family secretly resists, another slowly accepts their new overlords. Utah, still a US territory because the government is still fighting the Mormons, who are being supplied with weapons from the CSA. And in the CSA, Marxism is being taught... among the ex-slaves, and the USA is running weapons to them! General Custer is observed through the eyes of his long-suffering aide, take a ride on a CSA submarine, observe enemy intelligence in a Washington DC coffeehouse. Multiple viewpoints, numerous agendas, plenty of intrigue, and laughably bad sex scenes! What more could anyone want? And if you enjoy this book, there are two more in the Great War series, followed by three more in the American Empire series, leading up to the forthcoming American World War II!
Rating:
Summary: Good, but still has problems
Review: Note: This is a review of the entire trilogy. I'll try to keep the spoilers to a minimum, however. Basically, this is an extension of Harry Turtledove's book "How Few Remain". Basically, the South won its independence (he never is extremely specific on how, though). The North ends up fighting the South and is crushed because it is simultaneously fighting the South, France, and England. This book begins a while after that. The South (which I will refer to as the Confederacy now) is still allied with France & England, but the North has now allied with Germany. World War I breaks out, and while the various battles are fought in Europe the USA has to fight the CSA & Canada, though the CSA poses the bigger threat. It's a lot like World War I: Trench warfare, people rushing towards the enemy trenches and being clobbered. The story is shown from the viewpoints of a lot of different characters. Unfortunately, this means it takes about 3/4 of this book to just remember who is few (I actually thought Lucien Galtier/Arthur McGregor were the same people until sometime in the second book--after all, they were very similar). Anyway, so the book is, for the most part, showing the way the war goes from the viewpoint of various characters. By the time you actually remember who is who, however, this book is pretty much finished. Still, someone might expect it to be exactly like World War I. Not exactly. There are various different developments. But I'm not going to give them away. My biggest objection to this book is the frequent swearing and sometimes explicit sex scenes. The author, true, does not go in extreme detail on them, but enough to make some people uncomfortable. True, I guess he may be portraying the battlefield as it is, but I just wish he had toned down the language and had gone without a bunch of the sex, which I believed slowed the story down. Still, overall, it is a very good book.
Rating:
Summary: the american front is great
Review: this book is very interesting because it throws the whole world on its head due to a confederate victory in the civil war. the USA and CSA duke it out on even terms in this novel and we are itnroduced to some very interestign characters like a young artillery sgt. jake fetherson who becomes very important
Rating:
Summary: Turtledove's war
Review: Well-
The imagination is there-
The writing skills are there-
The book is great!
The only thing that I don tlike is that it is a little tricky to remember all 20 or so characters and the way he jumps from character to character can be rather annoying- but it grows on you as you get used to it. All in all= A-
Rating:
Summary: This is a WHAT IF book.
Review: This is just a very good book to read for history buffs like me. It starts out right before the war in America where everyone is reading in the news about the German Empire and the Austria-Hungarian Empire strike at their enemies England, France, and Russia. USA, Germany's, and Austria-Hungary's ally, decided to help their allies by declaring war on their enemies and allies Confederate States of America, the Dominion of Canada and Japan. This book tells the lives of the soldiers of the Confederate States and the United States. It tells the lives of civilians of Canada, CSA, and USA, the lives of Navy personnel of the US. It also tells the life of a US aeroplane pilot.
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