Rating: 
Summary: Not the best by Turtledove but still a great read
Review: Before you read this book be sure to read "How Few Remain" by Harry. Although they are not part of the same series, they are of the same timeline. This new book does not give as much lead-in as some of his other works. The war starts pretty much right away. The battle scenes are not as detailed as in past works but it still makes you want to keep reading. Like all of Harry's alternate history books, you can't help but think about what might have been. Its a great adventure for history buffs like me. I can't wait until the next in this new series.
Rating:
Summary: REQUIRED READING: Between Tolstoy & Keegan
Review: <i>How Few Remain</i> gave us view of the "Second Mexican War" tied closely to familiar figures in the War Of Secession. The first volume of <i>The Great War</i> follows modern military history by giving us a selection of views through more typical and ordinary if, nonetheless, very well positioned eyes. One thing I miss from the previous work were the views of German and British observers of events in the U.S. I am dying to find out the role of the Socialist and Communist International organizations, indeed, of British and German military intelligence observers and operators on the American Front. This is a serious exercise in military-political history. I believe it illuminates not just the actual history of this century and the previous one, but also the next. This is truly one of the best ways to study and, I hope, learn the elusive Lessons Of History
Rating: 
Summary: Doesn't live up to expectations
Review: How Few Remain was much better and really gave me high expectations for this novel. Although Turtledove does a great job with the setting, he tries to develop too many characters. Unlike Guns of the South he does not use historical figures centrally. Teddy Roosevelt is President of the US in 1914, a major character in How Few Remain, but not here.
Rating: 
Summary: a great read for fans of alternate history
Review: Please note, read How Few Remain before reading this, that book sets the stage for this one. The great war of 1914 pitted nations and alliances against each other in a level of combat never before seen. As any history student knows, the United States entered the war in 1917 and essentialy ended it by providing a decisive edge in men and material to the allies. But, what if it didn't? What if during the civil war,the Confederate states had managed to hold on and deny the north the victories it needed to keep Britain and France out of the war? How would the great war of 1914 turn out if there were a United States embittered and angry over two losses it had suffered against a Confederacy and it's military allies? The events of WW 1 set the stage for the rest of the century. Harry Turtledove has begun an interesting series which asks, what if things were different?
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: 1914 - The Yankees and Confederates Join World War I
Review: To look at a cover like this, one would think "Impossible!" or "Fiction!" or "This couldn't possibly be so, the Confederates were defeated long before trench warfare and aeroplanes were invented!"
Well that is of course all true. But is it really so implausible when one considers the south was only one dropped set of battleplans away from winning the civil war with British and French help (see "How Few Remain" the prequel)?
And when July 1914 arrives the nation called the Confederate States of America (or CSA for short) is now in its 52nd year and still allied with its longtime european allies Great Britain and France (despite the latter two's disapproval of the C.S.'s virtual-aparthiedist treatment of Negroes who may as well still be slaves in many ways).
And their northern neighbour the United States of America has for years cultivated good relations with the newly-strong German Empire. Up to the point where it is fashionable to grow and wax a Kaiser Bill moustache if you're a USA male!
So now war has broken out in Europe. And each north American nation has honoured its treaty committments. President Teddy Roosevelt of the United States has declared war on President Woodrow Wilson of the Confederate States. After the humiliating losses of The American Civil War and The Second Mexican War, a flood of volunteers rush to join the U.S. army! And south of the border...a flood of volunteers rush to join the C.S. army to defeat the yankees, just like their fathers and grandfathers did!
This novel is about a 3rd American Civil War with WW1 technology and weapons, and horrors. It's written from the perspectives of numerous soldiers and civilians on both sides. The Confederate Army, The U.S. Military, Occupied Canadian farms, a brewing Negro Marxist revolution, pilots in the sky, you name it. To illustrate that a war is always a mixture of different viewpoints and beliefs. And it is always the victor who writes the history. I think you will be impressed by this book, I could not put it down after only a few chapters!
Now I must admit, it does get a bit boring in the middle. However that only makes it more realistic as it depicts what a vicious repetitive circle the First World War was, regardless of geography and nationality.
And I make no exageration when I say it was very cleverly done and thought-out by Harry. And like "How Few Remain" there is a map of the American WWI front. Which is torn apart by machine guns, barbed wire, poisonous gas and the unforgetable trench warfare. Just like the real WW1 it soon becomes clear this war will not be over soon or easily.
There is even a grumpy, aged U.S. general operating on the Kentucky front whom some might recognise...
Those who have read WWI books and stories for years will appreciate this one and its two sequels for a special reason. You don't know who's going to win!
Rating:
Summary: Good story of an America at war with itself
Review: For fans of alternative history, the stories of Harry Turtledove have always promised enjoyable presentations of intriguing possibilities. This book is the second in his "tetralogy" examining a world in which the South won the Civil War. American Front picks up the story in 1914 with the start of a world war between the U.S. and its ally Germany on the one hand, and the Confederate states, Britain, and France on the other. Turtledove knows his history and it shows, as the novel's events ring true enough to their real-life counterparts while developing in new and intriguing ways.
Yet this is a different novel from its predecessor. Though a sequel to "How Few Remain", Turtledove examines the war from a different perspective here, following events through original characters rather than historical ones. This gives him greater flexibility in his depiction of them, yet it is the characters that are the weakest part of the book. While the plotting in most of the story arcs is quite good at sustaining interest, the characters have a sameness about them, using many of the same phrases and slang when expressing themselves. This stands in stark contrast to his previous novel, in which each of the main characters he uses is vividly and distinctly realized, and makes for a weaker work than the excellent inaugural work. Nonetheless, readers interested in an engrossing work of alternative history will find much to enjoy in this story about a divided America plunging into the hell of a "Great War."
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!
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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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