Sentry Peak

Okay, so the idea of the American Civil War transplanted to a medieval fantasy world is more than a bit bizarre. After all, crossbows, magic and unicorns are not exactly staples of Civil War literature. However, Turtledove manages to make it work, and further demonstrates his tremendous abilities in describing military tactics and the influence of personalities on the course of battles. The result is very readable, and while it doesn't provide any particularly novel insights into the civil war, it does a good job of holding the reader's interest. Perhaps the most entertaining part of the book are the names of the people and places in this fantasy world. Turtledove demonstrates his sense of humor in his name choices, and its fun to try and figure out the jokes behind the names. My favorites include "Cow Jog" (corresponding to the real world "Bull Run") and "Essoville" (corresponding to Gettysburg).

Sentry Peak (2000) is the first novel in the War Between the Provinces series, a fantastic tale of a civil war fought over the abolition of serfdom, embellished with abundant puns. King Avram wants to free the blonde serfs, but the agricultural northern provinces need plentiful labor to sow, weed, and pick the crops and don't want to pay them wages. On the other hand, the industrial southern provinces need trained workers to operate the machinery and has more ready cash to pay wages. Grand Duke Geoffrey leads a secession of the northern provinces from the kingdom and the southern provinces strike back to quell the rebellion. The war has dragged on for four years and King Avram has continually pushed his generals for a final resolution of the conflict. Eventually his generals gain the offensive and drive Duke Edward of Arlington back into Parthenia. The eastern front has gone somewhat better, with the southern army taking Ramberton and Luxor early in the war. Now they are advancing upon Rising Rock in Northwestern Franklin. In this novel, the southern army under General Guildenstern has forded the River and converged on Rising Rock from three directions at once. The southern forces outnumber the Army of the Franklin about eight to five, so General Thraxton the Braggart falls back to Fa Layette and waits for Earl Broadpath to bring reinforcements from the Army of Southern Parthenia. General Guildenstern selects a fine hotel in Rising Rock as his headquarters and then he waits also. When Lieutenant General Doubting George, his second in command, insists that Thraxton should be pursued immediately, Guildenstern gives him command of half his army with orders to perform such a pursuit. After a day or two, the rest of the army will follow. As the force marches north from Rising Rock, Ned the Forest's cavalry ambushes his vanguard. When this is reported to General Guildenstern, he splits his forces into two columns paralleling George's path and they pursue Ned of the Forest to the River of Death. As can be seen by this synopsis, the author follows the events in the Chattanooga campaign quite closely. The novel goes on through the battles of Chickamauga, Missionary Ridge and Lookout Mountain. Since the real place names are usually based on the Indian names, these geographical features are often translated into English equivalents, but the personal names are puns of every sort. For example, Bart is the pseudonym for Ulysses Simpson Grant and Hesmucet is the pseudonym for William Tecumseh Sherman. Even the personalities are fairly accurate, with some poetic license and a lot of puns. Characters are introduced to portray the war from the point of view of the enlisted men, noncoms, and officers at all levels; to what extent such characters are based on historic persons is known only to the author, but there is a great deal of personal information available, for more letters, diaries and other first hand accounts of this war have bee

You can enjoy SENTRY PEAK regardless of whether or not you've ever heard of the Civil War. It's a good story in its own right, with interesting characters and lively action. What more could you want? If you do know the war, figuring out who's who and what's what adds to the game. I stayed up till one in the morning finishing it, and I sure don't do that unless I'm having a good time with a book. It doesn't read as though Turtledove intended people to take it too seriously, but who wants to be serious all the time?

Harry Turtledove never lets you down with his writing. As a historian myself it was great fun checking out the identities of his characters. I am sure his motives were pure fun as this particular battle has been covered so many times that it is refreshing to look at it from another standpoint. I would like to have seen some strong women characters. It one respect it was hilarious, probably the longest blond joke ever written. Every stereotype ever used for blacks was placed upon blonds, as if they don't have enough in the real world.

If you're like me, a Civil War buff who enjoys abstruse puns, this book is great fun. Rosecrans is Guildenstern, Gettysburg is Essoville, Louisiana is Cloviston, etc. Now if you're not a Civil War buff, much of the detail of this story will be obscure. The story as a story, apart from being about the Civil War, is passably interesting, but not fascinating.