Settling Accounts Drive to the East

...know what Harry Turtledove's USA/CSA books are all about. If you do not know, then I encourage you to run, not walk to a bookstore and pick-up at the beginning of the series with How Few Remain. Turtledove has create the best, most plausible alternate history written with his series, now going on 9 books. The stories assume that the CSA defeated the USA in the Civil War. One of the most plausible outcomes of that result is that blacks were much worse off in both countries as a result. Another plausible, and difficult to read, aspect is that socialism took a much deeper root in the defeated North than it really did. The descent of the CSA into fascism is telegraphed a mile off and a near blatant rip-off of how Hitler rose to power. But I forgive that because the lesson is too important to forget and it is important to realise, that with the right conditions, we too can descend into tryanny. Turtledoves posits make me squirm and think. But they also make me appreciate our own history and outcome, flawed though it may still be, even more. Truly for small events, our lives could be much worse. If I have any criticisms of the series, it is this: I get really tired of the serial approach to the different characters after a while. After about the third book, I was happy when some of the protagonists (not to mention the antagonists) started dying. I am tempted to ask Harry for timeline and a set of maps and be done with it. But these are minor complaints.

The south has cut the United States in half, blitzkrieging to Lake Erie, but the US fights on. Recognizing that the Confederate States lacks the manpower or industrial resources of the north, Confederate President Jake Featherston and his generals come up with an ambitious plan to cripple the US's industrial capacity by striking at the heart of her steel industry--Pittsburg. With new barrel (tank) designs, the south rips another dramatic offensive--before getting bogged down in house-to-house fighting in Pittsburg. In the meantime, the US is filled with other frustrations. Japan has captured Midway and is striking at the Sandwich Islands (Hawaii), Utah is in rebellion as the Mormon community attempts to create an independent country in the heart of the American west, and occupied Canada, the only route connecting the east coast with the west, is in revolt. In the south, Featherstone has embarked on an ambitious plan to eliminate the black population entirely, replacing black workers with machinery and with Mexican guest workers. Although the US protests against Confederate genocide, few are that sympathetic. The plight of the black community is seen as an internal Confederate problem. As with most Harry Turtledove alternate history, the story is told from multiple viewpoint characters. Civilians, enlisted soldiers on both sides, politicians, generals, terrorist bombers, concentration camp guards, and black workers make up the cast. When this system works, it provides a kaleidoscope view of an entire world--and it works quite well in DRIVE TO THE EAST. Turtledove has reigned in his cast to a manageable number, killed off some of the more annoying, and narrowed the focus of his work. Students of history will enjoy Turtledove's continued exploration of a world where the south won the Civil War, allied with France and England, and in turn created an alliance between the US and Germany/Austria-Hungary. Turtledove doesn't hesitate to use history from our own timetrack to reflect back on his alternate. The Pittsburg offensive closely parallels Hitler's Stalingrad offensive during World War II, and Featherstone's genocide parallels Hitler's 'final solution' attempt to wipe out Europe's Jewish population. Turtledove is no bright-eyed utopian. Although the U.S. is clearly the more sympathetic side here, Turtledove's technique of focussing on multiple viewpoint characters lets us see the war from multiple sides. From their standpoint, the actions of terrorist bombers, genocidal maniacs, and ordinary soldiers on every side in the war make sense--seem almost inevitable. A few flaws marr Turtledove's work. Featherstone's decision to continue the Pittsburg offensive against the advice of his generals seemed inconsistent with the character Turtledove has created--although being necessary to exactly parallel the Stalingrad operation. One of Turtledove's style techniques--the repeated use of phrasology along the lines of 'The bed might have been more com

I agree with many reviewers that the quality of the writing in this installment is an improvement over what Turtledove has done in the past few years. Being addicted to this series, I am very happy to see better plot development and also more depth and personality in the characters, both good and bad guys. However, it is not for the savoring of the written word that I read Turtledove (for a higher level of writing from him, try "Ruled Britannia"). Turtledove simply has created an enthralling melodramatic saga that, although full of flaws, grabs those of us who enjoy alternate history. Readers actually using these reviews to guide their purchases should know by now not to start the series here. The individual books do not really stand up by themselves. However, as I titled a review of an earlier installment, the Sum is Stronger than the Parts. The same can be said for this book. From the Yankee viewpoint, this book is the start of a thrilling triumph of the stuff that made the United States in our universe great. At this point, virtually all White Confederates are debased and corrupted and I imagine many Southerners are offended and disgusted. The battle scenes are relatively brief and offer a mixture of heroism and horror. Greater details of the strategic situation both in North America and the rest of the world along with maps would be extremely welcome, but I doubt that Turtledove has any more hard information for us at this time. The most striking part of the book is the Negro holocaust in the making. While it is hard to accept that it could possibly happen here, this plot line is depressing (in the best sense), painful, and gripping. On a lighter note, I enjoy the brief cameos of historical figures whose path in our universe is not even a dream. Being well versed in baseball history, I especially enjoyed seeing the names of two "running backs," Foxx and Greenberg, being used as a soldiers' password (Turtledove even picked the correct phyical types). I am sure that there are many others I missed. One complaint I do have is Turtledove's dismissal of baseball as a minor sport seldom worthy of comment. The quality of cigarettes from the U.S.A. and the Confederacy seem to be a running joke among my fellow reviewers. Spoiler Warning! I especially enjoyed the scene near the end where the Confederates trapped in the Pittsburg pocket are reduced to smoking U.S. cigarettes. There are many problems such following too close to the WWII Eastern front template, repetitive dialogue, and scenes stolen from Turtledove's own Days of Infamy. However at the end of the day, most loyal Turtledove fans will feel that they got their money's worth!

Harry Turtledove's alternative history continues to intrigue, inspire, and sometimes fatigue me. In this world, the South won the Civil War and then defeated the US again in the Second Mexican War in the early 1880s. In World War I the CSA joined Britain, France, and Russia in a war against the USA, Germany, and Austria-Hungary. After the CSA and its allies were defeated in 1917, they slid into fascist style dictatorships and began to prepare for a war of revenge. World War II began in 1941 and now rages across the globe. Turtledove once again portrays a host of characters from both the US and the CS, jumping from one storyline to another several times in each chapter. The CS has invaded the US and cut the North in two, but its charismatic President (dictator) Jake Featherston seems oblivious to warnings from his generals about overreaching. Meanwhile, Featherston's Freedom Party is systematically carrying out a black Holocaust in a camp in Western Texas. The US struggles to continue fighting, its leadership bolstered by the knowledge that a secret super weapon is under construction in the west. One of my favorite aspects of this Turtledove series is the way he interweaves imaginary and historic characters. Thus Flora Hamburger Blackford, former US First Lady and now Socialist Congresswoman in Philadelphia (and my favorite character in the series), has many dealings with Robert Taft and Franklin Roosevelt. Jimmy Carter also makes a brief appearance. Turtledove tries to carry on too many storylines and has too many characters who have little to no development. Some segments, particularly battle scenes, seem to drag on too long (although Turtledove does us a service by emphasizing the blood and violence of war). I feel these weaknesses are outweighed by the imaginative sweep of the series and the insights we are given into our modern world with its suicide bombings and advocates of "preventive war". Anyone with more than a cursory knowledge of World War II's actual history will be able to figure out what lies in wait for the US and the CS in the next volume, but the ultimate fate of Turtledove's many characters, both imaginary and historic, is still up in the air.

This the 9th installment of the massive alternative history epic by Harry Turtledove. The series spans from 1862 in "How Few Remain" to the early 1940's in the current volume. Mr. Turtledove assumes that Lee wins a decisive victory in 1862 and America splits into two separate nations. The Confederates win the rematch war in the 1880's (with the help of England and France) while the USA defeats the South in World War I (with the aid of the German Empire). Now the series takes a turn and Mr. Turtledove clearly has the racist South standing in for Nazi Germany in his current trilogy. This new volume opens in the midst of World War II, start by the CSA launching a surprise invasion of the North in the previous volume ("Return Engagement"). The enjoyment of these books is to see how Mr. Turtledove's imagination works on the changes if America was two nations: as a Southerner, General Patton splits the USA in half with his drive to Lake Erie, Al Smith and Charles LaFollette are the Socialist President/Vice-President of the USA, concentration camps are hidden deep in Texas and so forth. Mr. Turtledove is not a wordsmith but he is a good storyteller and the map showing the American continent divided into two countries will set the reader thinking. Because this novel opens without any of the vast history of the previous 80 years and only alludes to it, I recommend that the reader start at the begining with "How Few Remain" before reading this book. One can read this novel on its own merits, but the reader would miss the layers of richness that has gone before it.