The Great War: American Front

Rating:
Summary: Decent start to the series...
Review: I like Harry Turtledove's work, so pretty much anything he does is fine with me. The American Front, while slow moving at times, was a good start to this alternate series on WWI. Some of the battle scenes were pretty exciting, and the Red revolution of the oppressed Confederate blacks was the best part of the entire novel. I'm looking forward to reading more about that. In the novel preceding The American Front, How Few Remain, every character was an actual historical figure, but not so here. Most of them were simple grunts dogging it out in the trenches and, due to the staggering amount of these characters, forgetting about them came pretty easily. I was shocked at times to start reading sections about people I don't even remember from earlier in the book (yes, that's pathetic, I know). There could have been so many opportunities for historical figures: perhaps Alvin C. York as a Confederate soldier (he was from Tennessee), General Pershing (who was actually briefly mentioned in The American Front), or even Adolf Hitler (who could have made an appearance as part of a German relief force to the U.S.). I felt that The American Front was basically a prelude to even grander installments, and am hoping for more in Walk in Hell (coming in paperback this summer) and the next book Breakthoughs (also coming in hardcover this summer). Till, then, I'll finish up the Worldwar series...

Rating:
Summary: Okay...
Review: On the whole, I liked this, but not enough to buy it in hardcover (or paperback; I checked it out from the library). I liked the idea of the two Americas fighting in WWI, but I thought that the North was being unduly Prussified (with the depicted insistence on forms and such), while still being portrayed as battlefield incompetents, when their alliance with Germany would logically give them a much greater appreciation for the military arts. It's still an interesting book, though.

Rating:
Summary: Painting by numbers
Review: As an avid WWI historian, I was thrilled when I found out Turtledove would be writing an alternative history of the Great War. I loved 'Guns of the South' and 'Worldwar,' and I expected the same from his new offering. Perhaps one of the book's biggest problems is that, unlike most of his other alternative works - in 'Great War' history diverged from what we know a long time before the story begins, making the world more alien and more difficult to relate to. Regardless of that, what makes the story so difficult for me to swallow is that the warring nations seem to be acting almost on autopilot. To clarify, they each seem to be saying 'We're fighting WWI, so now we'll dig in and begin trench warfare. In a couple of months, we'll start using poison gas.' The story seems coerced into following the blueprint laid out in Europe 85 years ago, not changing for anything. Moreover, this coercion lends an almost robotic aspect to the combatants, so they once again go through the motions of what seems a 'paint by numbers' war, and gives no hint of the desperation men felt trying to apply Napoleonic tactics to the industrialized battlefield, no hint of the blinding stupidity of hide-bound geriatric generals, and no hint of truly diverging from 'the way WWI just absolutely HAS to be fought.'

Rating:
Summary: EXTREMELY GOOD BOOK!!
Review: This is, in my mind, the best alternate history book that has ever come around. It has a plot that sweeps you off your feet, the research to make it realistic, and that characters that bring it to life. While reading this book you are swept into the bloodiest conflict ever to happen on American soil. and you are ACTUALLY brought into the novel. I felt as if I was in the trenches in this book. I would recommen this book to anyone who loves alternate history or just wants a good book to read. I loved this book and cannot wait to read the sequel.

Rating:
Summary: Sluggish, Boring, Disjointed, and Non-conclusive.
Review: Having read Harry Turtledove's earlier work "The Guns of the South" I expected this book to be more entertaining and seamless than it was. As the title says I found the book incredibly disjointed. It follows the lives (in excrutiatingly minute detail) of about a dozen different characters in a dozen different settings and stories. It also delves into about another dozen character's lives that each principal character's lives touch. By the end of the book you need to have developed an extensive chart to remember who is who and on which "team" they play. I trudged thru this book and after about 250 pages almost gave up. However, I assumed that the author would eventually pull all these diverse stories together. I was wrong. The only common thread was the war and how it affected the character's lives. I took this book to the beach in Mexico where I usually get thru 2 or 3 books in the week I am there. I only got about half-way thru the book in that week and I just finfished it after having been back for over three weeks. I thoroughly enjoyed his "The Guns of the South", but other than the fact that both of these books are fictitious accounts af how our continent has evolved thru wars since the South won the War of Seccession in "Guns", I would have thiought this book authored by a different writer. I will not be reading any more of Mr. Turtledove's works.

Rating:
Summary: Confederate fighter planes?
Review: I'm waiting for Turtledove to expand this series to World War II and beyond. So far, the only way he's done that is in the sci-fi based "Worldwar" series--I'd prefer an "us Earthlings only" approach. This book gives those who are far too used to Amerca as a superpower an opportunity to realize that events leading up to World War I would have happened even had there been no Western Hemisphere. And I tend to wonder whether Custer was really all that obsessed with the Mormons. One thing I find disquieting, though--literate Afro-Confederates reading the socialist theories of Marx and Lincoln (? ) and seeing in it the potential for a race war. Especially since all through the Civil Rights 'Sixties, Klan publications were calling the drive for racial justice "the influence of godless communists". It's a bit depressing to think that the Red Tar Brush might be there for racists to apply to any move towards racial parity.

Rating:
Summary: The Great War: American Front
Review: Having read the World War series and How Few Remain, I would have to say this is the best book yet by Harry Turtledove. It combines an intresting what if scenario with a sound grounding in the facts as they prevailed at the time.

Many reveiwers have criticised it on the grounds that the USA would have completely dominated its opponents. I feel it is my duty to correct some of the misaprehensions of some of the reveiwers.

1.The US Navy of 1914 while being one of the worlds premier navies was none the less small in comparison to the Royal Navy, which at the outbreak of the war in 1914 was larger than the next two navies (Imperial German Navy 2nd and United States Navy 3rd) combined. This does not include the fact that Imperial Japanese Navy (4th), French Navy (5th) and Imperial Russian Navy (6th) were all on the Allied side, not to mention the Confederate Navy.

2.On the matter of manpower/economic advantages, the United States of Turtledove's book (34 states instead of 48 historicaly) were not that great. In 1914 the USA's GDP per capita was only 10% greater than that of Britain. Given that the population of the rump USA of the book was roughly 2/3rds that of reality would give it a population of around 65 million (similer to that of the German Empire)compared to the Allies (CSA around 30 million, Britain 40 million, France 38 million, Russia 120 million, Japan 55 million, Canada 8 million, Rest of British Empire 400 million). Not to mention numerous smaller allied nations. Thus while the USA outnumbers the CSA and Canada combined, the disparity is no greater than that France and Germany, and look what happened there historicaly. Thus unlike todays reality, a USA deprived of its southern territory in 1914 would have been just another Great Power.

3.The beleif that there would have been no trench warfare is also incorrect. The distances involved in the Eastern theater of war, to which most resources would have been devoted,would not have been much greater than those on the western front (Atlantic to the Mississippi around 1,000 miles compared to Western Front slightly under 700 miles), while west of the Mississippi both sides had to few troops to gain a desicive advantage.

4.The beleif that Canada would be quickly defeated is also incorrect. With thirty years of emnity with which to prepare, all the vital areas would have been heavily fortified. While it is true that it would have been impossible to defend every inch of the Canadian border, it would also have been impossible for the USA to attack all along the border (especialy while having to deal with CSA as well). Given that fortfied defenders tend to have a 3 to 1 advantage over attacker, the USA's manpower advantage would have been considerably diminished.

Thus when taking all these factors into account, niether side has a particular advantage, which was precisely what made WWI so bloody. While the fact that the author takes no sides in the book makes the outcome of the story of an alternate WWI all the more suspenseful.

I can't wait for the next books.

Rating:
Summary: Great story
Review: this was a great story, after having read How Few Remain, its nice to see the US not getting completely destroyed. as for their being too many characters, well, i think there are too many civilian characters. there are way to many civilians involved in this, esspecially the two occupied canadians, and the multiple black revolutionaries. the one thing that is needed is more information on whats going on elsewhere in the world/war. i think that the US officer in the War dept. is going to start providing that in book two. all in all, it is a great book, with a better amount of military characters, and US characters then How Few Remain. and the addition of navy characters is great.

Rating:
Summary: Excellant Alternate History.
Review: Harry Turtledove is probably the acknowledged master of alternate history fiction today. His "Guns of the South" is a classic of the genre and more recently he has turned his attention towards an interesting alternate time-line: what would the First World War have been like if the South had won the Civil War? The answer is "The Great War: American Front", as exciting and interesting a book as I have ever read.

In Turtledove's scenario, the South won the Civil War, then emerged victorious in the Second Mexican War, which saw a humbled US lose to the combined power of the CS and England. As the Great War begins, the United States is allied with Germany (and presumably Austria-Hungary, though this is not mentioned) while the Confederate States are allied with the triple powers- England, France and Russia (with Japan thrown in for good measure).

Historically, the addition of the US to the German/Austrian side would have dramatically tilted the balance of power against the triple powers. Not only would they have been deprived of American armies which contributed to the winning of the war against Germany, but England must now also contend with the American invasion of Canada and the presence of the American navy on the high seas. Indeed, it was American soldiers who helped to save the beleaguered armies of England and France in the pivotal days of 1918, when the German army came perilously close to capturing Paris and perhaps winning the war.

The events of "The Great War: American Front" are quite plausible as well. Slaves in the CS, whose position is quite like that of the serfs of Russia in 1914, take to reading Marx. The US must quell a Mormon uprising in Utah. Poison gas is used to break the stalemate in Kentucky . . . all events that are quite plausible and dramatically told in Turtledove's excellent prose. The First World War was the great upheavel of Europe's old political and social order. The effect in America might have been similar. The reader must give Turtledove kudos for taking the might-have-beens of the story and making them feel like they did actually happen.

As good as Turtledove's work is, "The Great War: American Front" has some weaknesses. For one, there are far too many characters. Do we really need two different perspectives on the U.S. occupation of Canada? Do we really need so many looks at the war in the trenches? Sometimes characters tend to blend together, or they take time away from another whose story you may want to follow more closely. Also, this reader would have enjoyed longer looks at the naval aspects of this war. Historically, Theodore Roosevelt's interest in naval affairs was such to suggest that the U.S. Navy in 1914 would have been a formidable fighting force, quite the equal of the Royal Navy. The peeks at the naval dimensions of the war Turtledove grants his readers are too slight for my taste.

This reader would also enjoy a longer look at the political implications of the war. The US has a two-party system divided between the Democrats and Socialists. I would love to see how Turtledove might portray this at work. CSA President Woodrow Wilson and USA President Theodore Roosevelt make little more than cameo appearances, leaving the reader to wonder what the decision-making process of the two respective governments is actually like.

On the balance: a magnificent book. I can hardly wait to find out what happens next.

Rating:
Summary: Of Writers and Bigots.
Review: Now, just to make a few things clear: I read the Great War Series because because I'm curious about the possible consequences of a Confederate Victory in the Civil War. Others do so because Turtledove's literature strengthens their argument that a United America was better for the entire World.

Then there are those who call themselves "Major Michael Kelley, CSA" or "A reader from North Carolina, CSA." These people just ought to get off the group and leave us alone. I don't know about the rest of you, but I have no sympathy for bigots who interrupt their their confederate wet dreams long enough to remind us that the world went wrong when the South won the Civil War.

So, Gentlemen, if you will send me your addresses, I'll be happy to mail you a dollar each. That way, you can buy yourselves a life.

Respectfully yours, Robert Daguillard