Rebel Nation [Paperback]

Christopher Stires (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 7, 2005

In the Confederate States of America, a US television reporter and her Southern-born ex-husband hunt for the killers of a famed civil rights leader.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Rebel Nation's magnetic power draws you into a complex and family relationship whirl where power is second to money.” -- Lillian Cauldwell, Amazon.com ". . . a twisting, intriguing and downright solid story that shouldn't be passed over." -- Tara Black, The Romance Studio --This text refers to the Kindle Edition edition.

About the Author

Christopher Stires lives in Riverside, California. The Inheritance is his debut novel. It is the winner of the 2003 Dream Realm Award for Horror. Christopher has had over sixty-five short stories accepted by publications such as Fangoria, Fantastic: Stories of the Imagination, The Edge: Tales of Suspense, Vestal Review, Outer Darkness, Hardboiled, Whispers from the Shattered Forum, Underworlds, Andromeda Spaceways In-Flight Magazine (Australia), Redsine (Australia), Of Unicorns & Space Stations, and others. He has also had several erotic stories published under his pseudonym, A.M. Norman.

Product Details

• Paperback: 323 pages
• Publisher: Zumaya Publications (March 7, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1554102197
• ISBN-13: 978-1554102198
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,871,140 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great alternate history story--gotta read pick., December 27, 2006

By 

Cheryl Swanson "Author" (Kauai, North Shore) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Rebel Nation (Paperback)

Meet McKenna Alexander, clear-headed TV-reporter, and her drunken, womanizing, gambling ex-husband, Cullen Davis, the future president of the Confederacy. That's right--or at least that's a possible future in this relentlessly interesting alternate history tale.

For connoisseurs of the alternate history genre, Rebel Nation delivers from the very beginning. In a fantastic double set up, Ulysses S. Grant meets an untimely demise, leading to the survival of the Confederacy. Almost two hundred years later comes the bombing death of a famed civil rights leader, which triggers rioting and revolution until McKenna and Cullen enter the picture. These two lovers fight and duel, but are, of course, destined to be reconciled.

Rebel Nation has enough decadent wealth, courage, weakness, vengeance, hate, family conspiracies and other juicy human indulgences to hook you and keep you reading. Alternate history is a tough genre to write--it requires a peculiar kind of imagination, but Christopher Stires creates active scenes and concrete details that make his story compelling and believable.

Rebel Nation is an interesting, challenging tale that deftly conceals a deliciously unexpected villian until the grand finale. It's a story you can sink your teeth into. A thumping good read.

Reviewed by Cheryl Swanson, Reviewer with Gotta Read and Author, Death Game

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars for a rising star in Alternate History., July 28, 2005

By 

Dr. Fred R. Eichelman "arous" (Salem,, VA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Rebel Nation (Paperback)

Just when I thought the theme of the South winning the Civil War had been done to death this author proves me wrong. Christopher Stires, in Rebel Nation, presents a divided America as we enter the 21st century. With flashbacks galore he traces an interesting history of a Federal United States and a Confederate United States after the Civil War. Sure he makes the mistakes made by Harry Turtledove in having people alive up through World War 2 who would not have been with such a change in our history. However, the author traces history in such a way that you believe him. For example he makes it logical that after Pearl Harbor the two nations fought side by side to defeat the Japanese and Nazis. Still they are very separate nations and though slavery is abolished in the South, there is an internal Civil War for Civil Rights brewing. What puts the author above Harry Turtledove and many other alternate history authors is the way he defines his characters, he makes you care about them. Unlike Turtledobe, he isn't afraid to have some decent White people in the South who care about Civil Rights. Both American nations do seem to have a preponderance of spies and assassions. Cullen Davis is the lead character, however there are so many more of interest. Two very strong women dominate the story. First is reporter McKenna Alexander who is from the North, but who loves the South. A great heroine. Even more interesting is a woman who has to be the most evil and compelling to appear in print. It is the matriarch, Victoria Talbridge who is a master manipulator with her fingers in every plot in both countries. Like a mafia queen she fights to make her family supreme and beside her, J.R. Ewing and Tony Soprano are babes in arms. I plan to read this again, soon. It is great. A real page turner.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not the greatest alternate history, but a decent novel, March 27, 2009

By 

Chris Swanson "I'm just this guy, you know?" (Phoenix) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Rebel Nation (Paperback)

I'm a fan of alternate history, though most of what I've read in the genre is, yes, Harry Turtledove. I've also read a bit of S M Stirling and Eric Flint, as well as the "Axis of Time" series by John Birmingham, and even things like "Fatherland", so I've something of a high standard when it comes to alternate history.

This book (which is, incidentally, the first book I've read on my new Kindle), is not good alternate history. Oh, it has a reasonable point-of-departure, where the CSA manages to win the Civil War, but aside from the fact that the USA and CSA are two different countries, there's no real differences between this world and ours. History seems to have gone on exactly the same track as it did in our world, and that's just not as it should be. As a result, I'm docking the novel a star.

That aside, it IS a good mystery and political thriller-type novel. The overall plot of investigating how events thirty years ago tie into events happening in the present day works well, and the main characters are interesting and compelling.

So as a story, it's good, but it doesn't work as alternate history and, here's the rather confusing part, it didn't really NEED to be alternate history. Change just a few elements and this story would work in our world which is, as I pointed out, not all that different from the world in the novel.

I did like the book enough that I'm willing to check out other stuff by the same author, but I do hope if he tries to do alternate history again, he'll make it actually, you know, alternate.