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Title: Stars & Stripes in Peril (Stars & Stripes Trilogy (Hardcover)) by Harry Harrison, Angela Tomlinson ISBN: 0-345-40935-3 Publisher: Del Rey Books Pub. Date: 28 November, 2000 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $25.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 2.63 (19 reviews)
Rating: 3
Summary: You can speed read you way throught this alternate history
Comment: "Stars & Stripes in Peril" is Harry Harrison's novel of alternate history in which the British declare war on the United States over the Trent affair. Somehow the British not only end up attacking the Confederate port of Biloxi, they also rape and pillage the Southern town, which results in Union General Sherman deciding to join with Confederate General Beauregard in repelling the invaders. Of course, this fanciful excess is only an excuse to bring the North and South together so Harrison can lay out how "modern" weapons and the blitzkrieg tactics of Germany in 1936 could have been used in 1863 by the Americans to liberate Ireland. To appreciate this novel you must have above average knowledge of the Civil War. For example, you need to recognize the significance of Ralph Semmes serving as Captain of the U.S.S. Virginia, with its twin turrets designed by John Erickson, each housing two large Parrott breech-loading cannons. Harrison certainly does not have time to explain much beyond briefly identifying the various players as this book is more of an elaborate sketch than a full-fledged novel. Lincoln, Lee and the rest of the players are presented as caricatures. Because he is the Father of Modern Warfare, Sherman leads the American Armies, assisted by Lee and Jackson during the invasion of Ireland while Grant is laying siege to a key British port down in Mexico, but you do not get a sense for the true nature of any of these characters. In fact, both Jefferson Davis and Queen Victoria are presented in extremely unflattering fashions.
Ultimately these characters are but chess pieces, moved about by Harrison who is obviously more concerned with the invents in his giant game of "what if." In the end, "Stars & Stripes in Peril" reminds me more of MacKinlay Kantor's "If the South Had Won the Civil War," which was essentially a series of events briefly sketched out, than Harry Turtledoves "Guns of the South," with its detailed character study of Robert E. Lee and which remains the best alternative history of the Civil War I have read to date. There are certainly some provocative idea in this book, but Harrison could have advanced them just as easily with a short essay than with this novel.
Rating: 3
Summary: Decent Alternate History
Comment: Like some of the readers here I found this to be an enjoyable but ultimately forgettable read. I have not read the first novel but it was easy to get into this one without having done so. What is strange about the book is that it is not lacking in pages (it's long for a sci fi novel) yet there isn't much detail. Probably because there's so much ground to cover. Yet one comes away with the impression that invading and liberating Ireland would have been extremely simple. Whole battles are resolved in the space of a few sentences. Even the Protestant problem Harrison brings up is dealt with in a matter of a few pages.
There are also a couple of situations where Harrison sets up problems just to lengthen the story. So he offers a ridiculous setup and an even more ridiculous solution. A good example of this is when the secret service agent is following the spy into the tavern, watches him for hours, and then suddenly leaves at the perfect time to "get a bite to eat". Just silly.
Unlike another reviewer I wasn't exactly put off by the dropping of the Jefferson Davis as night rider storyline - it was rather embarassingly foolish. So the ex-president of the Confederacy spends months recovering from a nearly fatal wound to ... put on a hood and ride around with a white trash movement like the KKK? Give me a break. Not to mention that Jefferson lived on the coast in his palacial home (which is still a monument in Biloxi). And he just happens to be the only one shot in the raid? It was all very poorly constructed, and I would have preferred that Harrison make his points about the Freedmans' Bureau and the slowness of the South to change in a more elegant fashion.
Harrison's general attitude towards the South is rather tiresome throughout the novel. Most people come away from Civil War study with the naive opinion that the North was a land full of idealists who wanted to free the slaves, and the South was just a bunch of racist jerks. Not the case. The North was just as complicit in the construction of slave-based economy as the South was, and their plan for the dismantling of that economy was as nonexistent as our exit plan for Iraq. Certainly the system should have gone, but to expect it just to vanish because we suddenly deemed it not right was ignorant. But that's a whole matter in and of itself. It's just tiresome to see the place I grew up continuously misrepresented. I expected more from a Civil War buff like Harrison.
So in the end the book is a sometimes fun ride, but also at times irritating and trite. This edition of the book is also full of some strangely placed punctuation and a number of typographical errors, which only mar the story. But it's definitely better than Harrison's last two "Stainless Steel Rat" entries.
Rating: 1
Summary: waterlogged
Comment: I am truly glad I did not purchase this one at full price. I only regret what I wasted buying it.
I thought the first novel of this series was pathetic. This one is not up to that standard.
The story line of this one is as waterlogged as the Merrimac's engines the author arranges to have salvaged and put into another ship, and just as bad in performance.
It gets nowhere for me.
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Title: Stars & Stripes Triumphant by Harry Harrison ISBN: 0345409388 Publisher: Del Rey Books Pub. Date: 02 December, 2003 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
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Title: 1901 by Robert Conroy ISBN: 0891418431 Publisher: Presidio Press Pub. Date: 30 December, 2003 List Price(USD): $7.50 |
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Title: American Empire: The Victorious Opposition by Harry Turtledove ISBN: 034544423X Publisher: Del Rey Books Pub. Date: 29 July, 2003 List Price(USD): $27.95 |
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Title: Ring of Fire (Assiti Shards (Hardcover)) by Eric Flint ISBN: 074347175X Publisher: Baen Books Pub. Date: 01 January, 2004 List Price(USD): $23.00 |
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Title: 1634: The Galileo Affair (The Ring of Fire) by Eric Flint, Andrew Dennis ISBN: 0743488156 Publisher: Baen Books Pub. Date: 01 April, 2004 List Price(USD): $25.00 |
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