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Title: How Few Remain by Harry Turtledove ISBN: 0-345-40614-1 Publisher: Del Rey Pub. Date: 29 April, 1998 Format: Mass Market Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.39 (107 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: solid, dependable alternative history
Comment: This is among the best alternative history novels written. Unlike Turtledove's earlier Civil War alternative history, "Guns of the South," this does not turn on a deus ex machina. There's no real science fiction gimmick in this novel, just an honest to God what-if, and a good one. What if Lee's attack on Washington DC HAD succeeded. Lee's battle plans being discovered wrapped around cigars after being dropped by a courier has always seemed like a bad plot device anyway. "Correcting" that error makes for a solid novel.
Turtledove portrays the South honestly and effectively. He is clearly against slavery, but he also understands that much of the South was fighting for what they saw as honorable intentions. He also makes some solid points about "wage-slavery" in the North. Turtledove's continued use of the Mormon uprisings in Utah works as a bit of a plot device, but it's also historically accurate.
As an English teacher with both English and history degrees, I find this sort of mind-play fascinating. The follow-up series based on a completely different World War I coming out of the consequences of this book also gets my highest recommendation.
Rating: 5
Summary: One of Turtledove's best
Comment: Harry Turtledove writes many different types of alternate history, some mixed with science fiction (Worldwar series, The Guns of the South), some with a fantasy element (Darkness series, Detina series). How Few Remain is straight alternative history; Turtledove changed one event, and then from this "branching point" a different world emerges. In this book, the Confederate States of America defeated the USA because a courier did not drop secret battle plans (as happened in our timeline). The CSA is a nation in its own right. 20 years later, the USA still seethes from their crushing defeat and economic downturn, and attempts to remake the Union again.
Using multiple viewpoints in short vignettes, similar to John Brunner's novels or John de los Passos' USA, Turtledove evokes the moods of different groups and geographies. And as in Worldwar, Turtledove introduces famous people whose lives have changed because their history diverged. Thus Abraham Lincoln lives past 1865 (our 4-year Civil war ended sooner in this timeline, with a different victor), but is disgraced for losing the war, and finds himself extolling the virtues of socialism. Teddy Roosevelt finds an opportunity to drum up a volunteer army at age 21, fighting the Brits in Western Canada.
Political intrigue and diplomatic tangles abound. The CSA aligns with England and France, while the USA forms a partnership with Germany. But the US is surrounded by enemies, with British Canada to the North, and the CSA with its new Pacific ports (having purchased two provinces from the Empire of Mexico). The USA is spoiling for a rematch, and President James G. Blaine, the first Republican elected since Lincoln, intends to avenge the loss of the Southern States.
How Few Remain is the springboard for Turtledove's Great War series, with a USA/CSA version of World War I thirty years later. These are followed by the American Empire series of the 1920s and 1930s, with the CSA playing the role of Germany in our timeline. While these books are enjoyable, none of them compares with the freshness and the fullness of HFR.
Several critics of Turtledove's novels, such as the six books in the two series mentioned above, note they are painted with too broad a brush, and painted by the numbers. This novel transcends the others' failings, though, by evoking a haunting sense of defeat and despair in his descriptions of the defeated North.
Rating: 5
Summary: An oldie but a goodie.
Comment: This is one of HT's earlier books, telling the story of the "Second war between the states," as the tagline goes. There's a brief preface telling why the CSA won it's independance in this timeline, then the story goes into the era of the war, and it really takes off. The characters are well-done, the story is textured, and this book in particular is far superior to his later works, in which he follows our history too closely. That's a different matter, however. Multiple viewpoints cover most aspects of this world, and a foreign viewpoint gives a unique view that is lacking again in his later stuff. He also doesn't fall into the normal authorial trap of not killing off characters, and he's not afraid to have the "good guys" lose. All in all, this is one of his better books, and a good one to introduce someone into the genre.
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Title: The Great War: American Front by Harry Turtledove ISBN: 0345405609 Publisher: Del Rey Pub. Date: 01 May, 1999 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
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Title: The Great War: Walk in Hell by Harry Turtledove ISBN: 0345405625 Publisher: Del Rey Pub. Date: 05 July, 2000 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
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Title: The Great War: Breakthroughs by Harry Turtledove ISBN: 0345405641 Publisher: Del Rey Pub. Date: 03 July, 2001 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
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Title: American Empire: Blood and Iron by Harry Turtledove ISBN: 0345405668 Publisher: Del Rey Pub. Date: 25 June, 2002 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
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Title: The Guns of the South by Harry Turtledove ISBN: 0345384687 Publisher: Del Rey Pub. Date: 01 September, 1993 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
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