Customer Reviews

The Guns of the South: A Novel of the Civil War

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Virtually every historian, amateur or professional, has asked the question --- What if ? What if Hannibal had not made it across the Alps ?

What if Germany had won the Battle of Britain ?

What if the South had won the Civil War ?

That's the question Harry Turtledove tries to answer in The Guns of The South.

The book begins in the winter camp of the Army of Northern Virginia. Robert E. Lee, only months from the defeat at Gettysburg, ponders yet another spring and summer of confrontation with the North when he is approached by a man offering him an unparallelled advantage in the war --- weaponry from the 20th Century in the form of the AK-47. As it turns out, this man is the leader of a group of South African whites who have traveled back in time to 1864 in an effort to change the course of history and create in the Confederate States of America a power center for the white race into the 21st Century.

The course of a Civil War changed by automatic weaponry is predictable. Instead of winning the Battle of the Wilderness, the Army of the Potomac suffers a horrible defeat at the hands of the Lee's men and begins a retreat back to Washington that never succeeds.

The first half of the book ends with the Confederate Army on the lawn of the White House as General Lee accepts the surrender of Abraham Lincoln. The description of battles that never took place --- in Bealton, Virginia and Rockville, Maryland --- is gripping and the vision created by the description of Lincoln and Lee standing on the White House Lawn amidst a sea of Confederate Gray made me wish the book had been made into a movie.

The second half of the book is where the interesting things happen. The South has won its independence and now, the question is, what will it do with it ? Reflected primarily through the character of Robert E. Lee and First Sgt. Nate Caudell, Turtledove paints a picture of a Confederacy not entirely at ease with the institution that sets it apart from its Northern neighbor -- slavery. As Lee begins his path toward the Presidency of the Confederacy, he begins to question whether slavery should continue and comes to a conclusion that puts him at odds with the foreign benefactors who gave the South the means to achieve its independence.

Ultimately, this book tries to answer the question of what the Civil War was really about. Was it about state's rights and federalism as modern-day Southern partisans would claim, or was it really about slavery and the domination of one race of men by another ? I'm not sure I agree that an independent South would have given up slavery as easily as the author suggests, but he presents a compelling case.

On some level, though, I found this book disappointing. It wasn't true alternate history. It was history manipulated by the deus ex machina of time traveling South African racists. I would much rather see a story that took history has it actually occurred and simply changed the outcome of one event. That, apparently, is what How Few Remain and the books that follow it is about. That is a story I look forward to seeing unfold.

Time travel, as absurd and unlikely a concept that it is, has long enamored science fiction fans. Witness the incredible box-office returns of the "Back to the Future" and "Terminator" films -- movies about as far apart in overall audience appeal as one can get, yet both dealing with the same basic premise. Most of the genre deals with the potential paradoxes involved, and a few (David Gerrold's "The Man Who Folded Himself" springs to mind) investigate the logistical issues. Yet Turtledove takes a completely different approach: Who cares about Paradoxes, if you had a time machine, what would you do with it? If you could change history, what even would you alter?

For a renegade band of South African mercenaries, the answer is easy: Change the outcome of the Civil War. At risk of dating myself, I remember a long-ago Saturday Nigh Live sketch in which Napolean was given a B52. Absurdist comedy, nothing more. Yet the intriguing cover of this book shows Robert E. Lee holding an AK-47. What if, indeed?

The mechanics of the time machine are not investigated, nor should they be, as this is a historical novel as opposed to a sci-fi novel. I find it more akin to "Killer Angels" than anything by, say, Arthur Clarke. Instead we are given an in-depth look at Lee, plus a schoolteacher-turned-first seargent from North Carolina, as they both watch the Civil War unfold in a manner completely different from what you and I were taught in history class.

Turtledove's eye for detail is, as always, keen; after reading the first chapter, the reader could probably pick up, load, and fire an AK47. We meet characters from the 47th North Carolina, and spend a winter and a few battles with them. We see first hand how women and blacks are integrated -- or rather, NOT integrated -- into the southern society, not out of any particular hostility by the white men who run the south, but more as an extension of tradition. It is difficult to read about Nate Caudell, a poor schoolteacher who is without a doubt the most learned man in his community (but one who uses the "n-word" with familiarity) and not have him shatter the image of the backwoods racist redneck (not to worry, there are plenty of those as well).

Turtledove completely avoids the paradox issue; we assume that the Afrikanners are building a new world that will evolve from 1864, not changing their own planet Earth of 2014. But even early on, I felt a bit of a chill, as an obscure colonel named Rutherford Hayes is casually mentioned to have perished in a battle. Should the South Africans gather their automatic weapons and retreat into the future, the world has already been irrevocably changed (especially for me; Hayes is (was) a distant relative. And my great-great grandfather was wounded at Petersburg, a battle that never happens in Turtledove's world. Can I be reading this if I don't exist?).

Quite possibly the perfect airplane book, "The Guns of the South" strikes a balance between being thought-provoking and entertaining.

Harry Turtledove, Guns of the South (Del Rey, 1992)

Time to make shish kebab out of another sacred cow. Guns of the South is considered THE alternate history novel by many, the one alternate history novel that should be required reading in history classes and on just about every historian's list of must-read Civil War books. And to be fair, it's almost that good. Really.

As with most fiction of the speculative type, especially alternate-history speculative fiction, the plot can be summed up by asking one simple question. In that case, "what if the South won the American Civil War?" The book is essentially divided into two halves; the first half takes place during the war, and the second half afterwards. And when Turtledove is writing battle scenes, he shines. The first half of the book flies by. It's a page-turner to end all page-turners.

Unfortunately, when Robert E. Lee moves from military command to political life, the story bogs down. Badly.

It does pick up again, a hundred or so pages later, but there are a few places in the book where the pace gets so glacial I started to think I'd accidentally picked up Frank Herbert's Children of Dune instead. Yes, it gets that slow. It all wraps up pretty nicely, but the journey to get from point A to point B can sure be hard sometimes. ** 1/2

I was a little wary of this book when a friend recommended it to me. Even though I'm a lifelong Southerner (with roots here that run back to the 1700s - I ain't from carpetbagger stock), I'm not the sort who nurses a permanent grudge against Yankees, and who's just itchin' for a rematch. But I went with my friend's suggestion, and I was pleasantly surprised. This really is a terrific book. If you're looking for a hard scientific look at time-travel, you'd best look elsewhere - the time-travel in this book is just an excuse to provide the South with a means for winning the Civil War. The rest of the book is a thoroughly researched, entertaining work of "alternate history," which will also give readers a good sense of the politics and personalities that were at work during this period of history. Civil War buffs should love it. A great, fun book. I highly recommend it.

The premise of 'The Guns of the South' is simple. In the war's final months the beaten but not defeated Confederate army is presented with weapons that will alter the course of the conflict- a substantial number of AK-47's. General Robert E. Lee uses these new weapons to great affect against the superior northern armies and eventually wins the Civil War. However the bearer of these super weapons, a mysterious group of men with strange accents, clothes, and customs, demand a heavy price. 'The Guns of the South' is one of the greatest alternate history novels that Turtledove has written, if not the best. Although the time travel aspects of this book do tend to stretch the story's believability, Turtledove nevertheless produces an amazingly thought provoking novel of a triumphant Confederacy. Turtledove's interpretation of Robert E. Lee and other historical figures make this novel worth reading alone. This novel along with Turtledove's other work of Civil War alternate history fiction, 'How Few Remain,' should be read not only by fans of science fiction, but by anyone interested in the people, events, and politics that made up this pivotal time in American history.

In 1864, the south is in desperate straits as the north finally selects active generals and begins to push its final offensive. But strange merchants arrive with a deal for the Confederacy. They offer a new gun, the AK-47, for a price of only $50 Confederate, and can make hundreds of thousands available. Automatic weaponry can hardly help making a huge difference and Grant's Wilderness campaign, far from a costly stalemate, becomes a huge Confederate victory with Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia smashing straight through to Washington D.C. The merchants have an ulterior motive, however. They are an extremist racist group of Afrikaners (the AWB) from our own near-future who intend to use the south as a launch pad for their own war against rights for the African American and for blacks everywhere.

Once the Confederacy's existance is confirmed, the south becomes convulsed between Robert E. Lee who fears the Afrikaners, and General Forest, who buys into their racist doctrine. With South-African gold, modern weapons, and modern political methods, the AWB intends to ensure that the nation they preserved takes their path--no matter what they need to do.

Author Harry Turtledove narrates this fascinating alternate history through the eyes of Robert E. Lee and Sergeant Nate Caudell of the 47th North Carolina. Caudell seems caught up in most of the action--from Wilderness to Washington D.C. to the battle against AWB in their heartland, giving a close-up look at how a rapid-fire weapon could have transformed war (as indeed it has). Turtledove's Lee is a gentleman, but also a thinker who sees that the southern stand on race is wrong and destructive to the nation he has adopted, but who still carries the casual racism of his time.

THE GUNS OF THE SOUTH makes for fascinating reading. Many of Turtledove's later works adapt devices he develops here, in a setting of interest to most U.S. readers. The explicit racism of many of the characters will make some readers uncomfortable, but it is certainly an accurate reflection of the times. Some readers may also question whether AWB would do so much for the Confederacy without a more explicit promise to support its causes in the future, and wonder why it chose the southern states rather than the Boer colonies for their support, but this doesn't detract from the reader's enjoyment.

After three weeks I finally finished it! The Guns of the South is an enjoyable book, which thoroughly entertained me throughout those three weeks. It successfully combines science-fiction with history, what with the whole time travelling thing and all. The novel was not really about just the South winning the Civil War, but more about what the first few years after the war would have been like had the South indeed won the Civil War. The controversy brought about by Robert E. Lee's plans to manumit the slaves was particularly good, as was the final battle in Rivington, where Rhoodie's men's means of travel to the nineteenth century is discovered. The inclusion of the 47th North Carolina was interesting, as well, and Mr. Turtledove must have gone through a hell of a lot of research to include the various privates and such serving in the regiment. I did a little research of my own, and I happily recognized several names of the 47th's roster, including George Lewis, Ben Drake, and Wren Tisdale among others. And I was pleased that Turtledove didn't go and make the North out to be a bunch of bumbling nitwits like in his other alternate Civil War novel, How Few Remain. Relations between the USA and CSA actually remain pretty good by the end of the Guns of the South, unlike the aforementioned How Few Remain, and its sequel, The American Front. Guns of the South was not perfect, though, the story could have been just as easily told without some of the Nate Caudell scenes. Other than some occasional lags like that, the Guns of the South was a highly enjoyable novel, and if you like reading about the Civil War (like me), then you might like this book, too.

In science fiction criticism, they talk of stories that create a sense of wonder. I look for that experience when I buy sf, but it's a hard commodity for me to find. The Guns of the South evoked that sense of wonder, and also provided a very strong sense of time and place -- the Civil War during and after a Confederate victory. The victory, of course, was the work of Nazi-like racists from the future who provided the South with AK-47 assault rifles. The novel focused on two protagonists -- Nate Caudill, a Confederate soldier, and Robert E. Lee, who becomes the president of the new Confederate nation. Both key characters are humble, good men with whom I could comfortably identify. And other than the time travel premise, I found this book remarkably plausible, without the absurd coincidences that serve as plot mechanisms in many best sellers. The ominous machinations of the Rivington men against the backdrop of 19th century America was simply fascinating.

From the onset, it's all too obvious that Confederates armed with automatic weapons will slaughter their Union opponents & win the war. The great interest in this book is it's story of what happened after the war: that Abraham Lincoln lived on as a discredited advocate of north/south friendship; that Lee became the Confederacy's progressive president; and that the South was, 1st, to defeat their S. African racist allie, and, 2nd, to learn and apply the 20th Century technology that the S. Africans had bought with them.

Good alternative history is thought-provoking & educational. This brings the Confederacy to life: backward institutions like slavery are put in context, as for example in ancient Rome. Robert E. Lee's character is developed well. The 47th NC are convincing, though their language jars our modern sensibilities. An excellent & entertaining work.