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Rating: 
Summary: Much potential...lacks in delivery.
Review: A long-lost journal of Edison's surfaces and a Time Portal is built. Our "hero" and his friends go back to the South in hopes of changing history "for the better". For a modern day Confederate, the author mis-quotes repeatedly and more; "Succession" vice "secession", A.S. Johnston making a defense of the South by attributing a statement from the Articles of Confederation to the Constitution etc. Navigating the story is difficult due to numerous grammatical errors. An almost semi-decent alternate history read... I applaude the author's imagination. A longer book with more character development would increase this book's readability tremendously.
Rating:
Summary: Much potential...lacks in delivery.
Review: A long-lost journal of Edison's surfaces and a Time Portal is built. Our "hero" and his friends go back to the South in hopes of changing history "for the better". For a modern day Confederate, the author mis-quotes repeatedly and more; "Succession" vice "secession", A.S. Johnston making a defense of the South by attributing a statement from the Articles of Confederation to the Constitution etc. Navigating the story is difficult due to numerous grammatical errors. An almost semi-decent alternate history read... I applaude the author's imagination. A longer book with more character development would increase this book's readability tremendously.
Rating:
Summary: Good Concept, Poor Delivery
Review: Bradley Burch has conceptualized a fascinating time travel story. The characters are transported back in time to a farm in Alabama in the year 1847 through the use of a T. A. Edison device. The objective of the travelers is to change the outcome of the Civil War. Interesting concept, but not developed. The book is a quick read and not bad for a younger audience. Many concepts presented would make for interesting discussions in a middle school history class. I felt I was reading Mr. Burch's outline for the story and not a novel. Large time segments, as well as the logistics for spreading modern technology throughout the Southern states, were explained in a paragraph or two leaving me shaking my head trying to conceptualize what had happened! I would have liked to have seen more character development. For example, why did some of the travelers switch to the Union side of the conflict? I would have like to have read from the traitors' point of view their rationale for betraying their Southern comrades. In conclusion, an interesting, imaginative story, but in need of additional details and character development. A long way from a Harry Turtledove alternative history novel!
Rating:
Summary: Good Concept, Poor Delivery
Review: Bradley Burch has conceptualized a fascinating time travel story. The characters are transported back in time to a farm in Alabama in the year 1847 through the use of a T. A. Edison device. The objective of the travelers is to change the outcome of the Civil War. Interesting concept, but not developed. The book is a quick read and not bad for a younger audience. Many concepts presented would make for interesting discussions in a middle school history class. I felt I was reading Mr. Burch's outline for the story and not a novel. Large time segments, as well as the logistics for spreading modern technology throughout the Southern states, were explained in a paragraph or two leaving me shaking my head trying to conceptualize what had happened! I would have liked to have seen more character development. For example, why did some of the travelers switch to the Union side of the conflict? I would have like to have read from the traitors' point of view their rationale for betraying their Southern comrades. In conclusion, an interesting, imaginative story, but in need of additional details and character development. A long way from a Harry Turtledove alternative history novel!
Rating:
Summary: Wishful thinking on grand scale and amateurish to an extreme
Review: I am in the process of compiling an alternate-history and alternate-history related library, so I've resigned myself to taking the bad with the good, and Mr. Burch's work is clearly the former. The premise of the book is as ridiculous as it is predictable; plot and character development is at best severely lacking and at worst nonexistent. The way the narrative jumps from one point to another without a coherent bridge makes the reader think the author is still asleep, just as he is describing in the foreword, and is dreaming all this. The arguments used to defend the Confederate point of view, although sincere, are so beat up it is hard to keep from yawning while reading them for anyone familiar with the subject. The only tolerable part of the book is Chapter 1, where the author argues the issues of the Civil War with his history professor, and the only reason it is tolerable is because the author does not overstep the boundaries of his writing abilities with his literary ambition, which he does from that point onward. College-essay style may be appropriate for a four-page chapter, but the entire book written like this makes for a slow torture of a read. No wonder Mr. Burch needed the services of a friend who owns a publishing company to have his book see the light of day. No self-respecting publishing house would look at it twice. I have only one question - doesn't the publishing company that produced "Return" offer editing services? I mean, reading about the South wanting to "succeed" from the rest of the Union pretty much sums up the quality of the book for me. Perhaps Mr. Burch should've contacted that history professor who gave him an "A" in the class and asked whether he had any friends in the English department who would've helped turn this joke of a literary work into something slightly more palatable.
Rating: 
Summary: A Great Time Travel Book
Review: This book was very interesting because of its imagination and use of time travel to go back to the Civil War. It also has many true historical facts. In reading this story, one gets the feeling that the idea of going back into the past could really happen! Time travel is a fascinating subject and the author explores the concept in a very believable fashion. As a Civil War historian, I found the book to be entertaining as well as informative, and plan to recommend it to others.
Rating:
Summary: A Great Time Travel Book
Review: This book was very interesting because of its imagination and use of time travel to go back to the Civil War. It also has many true historical facts. In reading this story, one gets the feeling that the idea of going back into the past could really happen! Time travel is a fascinating subject and the author explores the concept in a very believable fashion. As a Civil War historian, I found the book to be entertaining as well as informative, and plan to recommend it to others.
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