Customer Reviews

Return Engagement (Settling Accounts, Book 1)

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

In Settling Accounts: Return Engagement author Harry Turtledove returns to the world of alternative history that reflects what would happen if the South had won the Civil War. In this future, a harsh and violent regime much like Nazi Germany has come to power in the South. A brutal surprise attack launches a world at war with a large part of the fighting taking place in the United States.

Jake Featherstone - a sergeant from a rural part of the South - has created the "Freedom" Party and become president of the Confederacy. He has also instituted a "final solution" to deal with the problem of a large black population that is ineligible for citizenship. Perhaps the most shocking part of this book is how easy it is for very sympathetic characters to devolve into mass murderers.

On a side note, Jake's Vice President Don Partridge - a bumbling westerner without much smarts but lots of political and family connections is obviously a parody of Dan Quayle. It makes me wonder if there are other parodies that I'm just not smart enough to catch.

For the most part, Mr. Turtledove's writing style makes this an easy read, one that can just be enjoyed as an alternative history. On the other hand, one can read deep ideas lurking behind the surface. What exactly are the nature of class and race in the United States? Why have we as a nation sidestepped some of the potential conflicts - real conflicts with genocide, slavery, and intergenerational hate - that have plagued Europe and Asia? Is there such a thing as American exceptionalism or were we just lucky? What must we do to deal with these challenges in the future? This book is crafted so that you can come to your own conclusions, but don't be surprised if they are different from a friend who has read the same book.

I highly recommend this book, but one should only read Turtledove in small doses. He writes each book as if it is your fist introduction to this alternative world, so it can be a bit repetitive and grating. Additionally, his writing style and turn of phrase can become annoying if you try and read all of his books in a particular storyline in one sitting.

Anyone who is going to read this book should know, if they don't already, that it is the 8th volume in a series extending back to the classic How Few Remain. Beginning with the premise that the South won the American Civil War, Turtledove has created an entire "what if" universe in which the USA and CSA have remained mortal enemies through the late 1930s. Seeing the horrors of modern warfare---entrenched soldiers, nightly bombing raids, poison gas---visited upon familiar places like Columbus, Philadelphia, and Richmond serves to remind the reader how lucky Americans were to have avoided such massive destruction and bloodshed during the last century.

The newest novel in the series begins with a surprise Confederate attack on the USA. Although the characters don't know it, World War II has begun. Throughout the novel we follow familiar characters on various "sides" in the war as the two nations prepare to engage in one of the bloodiest conflicts the war has seen. (The Freedom Party dominated-CSA, playing the role of the Nazis, is also embarking on its quest to eliminate the untermenschen and solve the "black problem" once and for all.)

Turtledove continues to use multiple personal perspectives to paint an intimate portrait of the times, and his habit of killing off a few of these characters in each novel simply serves to underline the "reality" of the story. (As well, I applaud his use of normal, non-military circumstances---like car wrecks, domestic abuse, old age, disease, etc---to kill off characters, because that is the way real life works.) His pacing is excellent, and the novel, like its seven predecessors, is a page-turner. As well, like the best of alternate history, Turtledove's work allows us an interesting vantage point from which to look at our own history and see why things turned out the way that they did.

long book but well worth the read. His series is getting deeper into the unfolding drama of the US vs. the CSA.

As I did, readers of Turtledove's alternate history series may have found that Victorious Opposition, the last installment covering the interwar period, was a tedious and unpleasant exercise during which one knew nothing good was going to happen, but which was nonetheless unavoidable to set up what would follow. Part of the problem with that book (in addition to Turtledove's annoying penchant for repeating himself) was its almost complete lack of suspense: having bought into the parallels of Turtledove's alternate reality, the reader KNEW each step of what must happen before it actually took place. As I wrote in a review of that volume a year ago, it was like watching a train wreck in slow motion. With the first volume of Settling Accounts, however, Turtledove has returned to form, again spinning a yarn that keeps the reader engaged and surprised. The key here is that, in spite of hints and what the reader "thinks" he or she knows, since it is Turtledove's universe he can nudge it along in whatever direction he wants. Thus, the Confederates' initial victories come along a line few Americans (in either Turtledove's universe or ours) would expect. This more than makes up for those times when the author has telegraphed his intentions and the handwriting is on the wall for all (but his characters) to see. As before, familiar historical figures, from FDR and Al Smith, to Joseph Kennedy, Jr., Winston Churchill, and Louie Armstrong appear in decidedly unfamiliar roles...although it is maddeningly unclear why the instantly recognizable Douglas Macarthur is suddenly rechristened "Daniel" in this saga. Also as in the last two volumes, characters who have outlived their usefulness to propel the story meet various timely and untimely deaths, some more satisfying than others. But with a slimmed down cast, Turtledove has the chance to move the story along at a somewhat more rapid pace than he has previously. This said, however, readers may be forgiven if they wonder if Turtledove really had to make this latest saga a trilogy as his previous installments were. The gnawing sense of backtracking, repetition and needless filler dog this book just as they dogged its three immediate predecessors. This quibble aside, the expository repetition IS reduced, the cast of characters HAS been trimmed, and surprises and twists await the reader in this generally satisfying opening salvo of Turtledove's version of WW II. Since no one (save Turtledove himself) knows exactly how he is going to eventually end the tale (and thereby make whatever moral and political points he has in mind) the three volumes of the Settling Accounts promise to be an interesting ride indeed.

I enjoyed this installment of the alternate world wars series. The "American Empire" novels plodded along at points. The action sequences were good in the novel and each character was fairly well drawn. The only feature of these books which prevent them from being entirely enjoyable for me is Turtledove's prose which is often full of needless aphorisms. He also spends alot of time in his character's heads which normally be a problem except for the short five pages in which we spend with the character which gives the plot the illusion of moving really slow and fast at the same time. But I'm just griping. These novels are brilliantly imagined and entertaining for any student of history who wonder what might have happened.

Harry Turtledove does an awesome job in recreating an alternate history. A must for the Science fiction fan who can read a story under "What if this really happened?"

It's about time Turtledove sent the Confederacy into the U.S.A. to exact some much needed retribution for the unlikely defeat they put on them in the Great War books that he wrote. Now lets see how far the Southerners will take their punnishment to the U.S.

It's June 22, 1941 -- the day Jake Featherston had waited almost 25 years for. His hatred and loathing for the United States of America ran so strong, he didn't bother to issue a declaration of war, but instead let his bombers and artillery do the announcing for him. His armored forces and air force push north toward the Great Lakes as if they had the hosts of hell behind them, shooting or blowing up every U.S. soldier and barrel in their path. The Confederate States of America will put the Yankees in their place, so help them God -- or so Featherston declares. And even while General Patton leads the Confederates through Ohio, dark events occur in the swamps of the Deep South. For Jake Featherston is carrying out a different sort of revenge on a different foe -- an entire race of people. When a concentration camp commandant comes up with a radical idea, Featherston is obscenely delighted over this final solution to the Confederacy's problem with its black population...

A great beginning to Turtledove's alternate Second World War tetralogy. The War begins on page one (well, the very last page of the preceding volume, to be precise) and gets worse and worse with each passing page. When chemical weapon attacks and mass murders are already happening in book one, who can guess what will be happening in the final book. And Turtledove brings it off convincingly in an American setting.

The only problem I had was that the war seemed to slow down quite a bit during the middle third of the book -- between Al Smith's radio reply to Featherston's speech and MacArthur's Virginia offensive. But that was a minor annoyance, and not enough to greatly disturb my attitude toward this book. A definite set-up to a different World War II, for sure.

It was clear to me as well as many other readers that the American Empire series was mostly a space-filler, as HT was eagerly getting to the fourth war between the northern states and the southern states. This time the rest of the world will be involved, just like in 1914, so it will in fact probably be called The 2nd Great War.

It is 1941.

There is no war, in Europe or in America, or even the Pacific Ocean.

Until the night of June 22nd...

Without warning the Confederates send aeroplanes and barrels (tanks) and submachine-gunners across the Mason-Dixon line. In the name of the fascist Freedom Party and their undying loyalty to President Jake Featherston, they'll do what their ancestors did (and their fathers could not): defeat the yankees and put them in their place!

All the protagonists we know and love find themselves drawn into this new conflict, like it or not. A conflict which the USA was not ready for at all. Their military watch helplessly as Featherston's unstoppable war machine sweeps across Ohio at a speed unmatched by the previous war.

And to add to the CSA's growing list of atrocities is their latest treatment of negroes. First, their ancestors kidnapped them from Africa and enslaved them. Then officially "freed" all slaves in 1883, but still treated them like vermin when they were issued passbooks and denied citizenship. But now Featherston has decided to deal with them once and for all. And if he suceeds, when the war is over, there won't be a single black face left in the C.S. or occupied U.S. territory anywhere. Ever.

Enough said?

Sadly, virtually no one in the USA cares when they hear about these new "Crimes Against Humanity". Except for Flora Blackford,
the former first lady. But she is only one person. Everyone else is focused on the Confederate Nazis storming across the eastern united states at unprecedented speed, trying to cut the country in half. As well as the British and French suddenly declaring war on the US for the first time in 25 years (not unheard of, of course).

In this book you'll witness the 4th round of brutal warfare between the north and the south, with WW2 technology. As well as the irony of Germany being invaded by French and Russian troops. The second world war has begun, under totally different circumstances to our timeline, thanks to a courier NOT losing his battleplans 80 years ago. (There is a brief mention of that in this book).

Turtledove continues the storyline that began sixty years earlier. The characters, some old, some new, are handled exceptionally well; leading the reader through the opening days of World War II in a world that COULD have been. Excellent.