Walk in Hell (the Great War, Book Two)

Harry Turtledove has got me hooked! I started with Guns of the South, and have read all three books of the current series. I am waiting for Great War - Breakthrus to come out in paperback. He has a nack for putting together a convincing story based on the history of the USA/CSA as only he knows it. Once you start to read these books, you must know how it will all end. A big plus is Harry's method of having real historical characters such as Custer, and T. Roosevelt playing believable roles in his alternative history. You will not be able to stop once you start to read these books.

Unlike books like "1632" or Turtledove's own "Worldwar" series, there's not a single fantastic element to be found in the Great War series. There isn't dragon cavalry or time travel; instead, this is simply a story of people doing as well as they can in a world gone insane with bloodlust.The characters are universally *human*. There are no cardboard cutouts mouthing platitudes about how just the war really is after all, just scared and tired men realizing that they are very likely going to die, and suffer before the end. Even the CSA's soldiers or Communist revolutionaries get moments of human dignity and each one is sketched out with details rather than having indistinguish- able cardboard cutouts for characters.The action takes place almost solely on the North American continent, but that means everything from Canadian winters to the newly annexed Confederate states of Chihuahua and Sonora. And regardless of whether it's the Navy patrols on theMississippi river or house-to-house fighting in Utah the action is quick, brutal, and never really gets redundant.Unlike some authors, Turtledove isn't afraid to kill off anyone (my own favorite character in the series bleeds to death in a desert skirmish), which leads the reader to care even more for the ones that do survive. Even the people on the home front aren't always safe, and the ones left behind from a soldier's death are shown in mourning.Buy this book.

Again, Turtledove does an excellent job of presenting an alternate history. Amazing to think it all turned on one event as presented in "How Few Remain." From the small amount I know of how the USA and CSA saw each other during the US Civil War (War of Secession in this series - I guess it's true that the victors write the history!) this is very plausible as to how the two countries would have dealt with each other.As a Canadian, I somehow find myself rooting for the CSA even though I hate what it stood for. As portrayed in both books of the Great War series, we Canadians are just as patriotic as you Americans, we just don't show it as overtly. Even though it's fiction, it just goes to show how war makes strange bedfellows.I too can't wait for the next book in the series, and I can't wait to see how the borders will have been redrawn again after the conclusion. I just hope that Turtledove continues this series through to World War II (likely to have happened inevitably no matter who won WWI) and even into the 50's and 60's and the civil rights movement. Just how might things have been different.I must disagree with others who found the pace slow - WWI was slow and this comes across well in this book. I don't think there are too many characters, and they could be developed more, but each book, they are more fleshed out.Please, Harry - give us the next one soon!

This is the end of a genre! Alternate history will never be the same again after Turtledove's books, and thank God for that. With Dr. Turtledove you have a felling of credibility in what he writes. I agree, there may be minor lapses, but no big ones, as in many other alternate history books.Now, this is how it ends. With Britain committed to defending Canada and keeping the CSA afloat, Germany will win, at the latest when the Kaiserschlacht comes along in the Spring of 1918. There will be no American forces and not enough British ones to deal with the Germans freed from the Eastern Front. So, how does it fell, America? You will rule the world along with Kaiser Bill!

This series has all the merits of a really first-rate historical novel -- vivid characterization, compelling plot, meticulous research -- with one important added bonus.You don't know who's going to win!As always, Turtledove does an excellent job. I got to read this one in galleys, and I'm _still_ going to buy the hardcover. In fact, I may buy several copies as Christmas presents.Go ye and do likewise.