The Great War: Walk in Hell

Rating:
Summary: Same thing all over again
Review: I hate to give an author I like only one star, but this book is really only a copy of the first one. Yes the plot goes on - if you consider the many small story strings a plot. If instead of jumping back and forth between 15 different small plots which never touch, Turtledove had written 15 seperate stories, not one of them would be worth reading !!! As it is it is tolerable, but only because I hate leaving something unfinished.

Rating:
Summary: Getting Better and Better!
Review: Walk In Hell is a great book and leaves you wishing it did'nt end so soon. As, World War 1 in America is getting more and more interesting. With the United States having to put down a fanatical Mormon uprising in Utah. Whereas the Confederacy has to contend with a Marxist-inspired Black rebellion. Although both nations are successful in supressing the rebellions, the Confederacy is more affected, as the Confederacy has to start recruiting Black soldiers into its army, in order to stay in the field against the numerically superior armies of the US. As always in Turtledove's novels we see these events through the various characters eyes, which makes you feel as though you are actually there. One character to keep an eye on is Confederate sergeant Jake Featherston, who is becoming more and more embittered towards the Confederate ruling classes and that nations Blacks. A Confederate Hitler in the making? We are also witnessing the embitterment of occupied-Canadian farmer Arthur Macgregor, through the death of his son. Also, General Custer who has been bungling the US armies attacks on Confederate lines throughout this book and the last, has a stroke of genius, in regards to the use of Barrels (Tanks)- a WW1 blitzkrieg in the next book, perhaps? On the whole a great read, and at the end of this book you don't have to be Napoleon in order to see who the eventual winners of this great conflict will be!

Rating:
Summary: Standard Turtledove
Review: As a resident of Big Lick (better known as Roanoke) I may be slightlyprejudiced by an author who flattens my home town. However, this bookis pretty much standard Turtledove modern alternate history--multiplepoints of view, characters from our own world with accurate physicaldescriptions (G. A. Custer, Eduard Dietl), puns that range from theawful to the sublime (I particularly liked the one on p. 29 of thehardcover edition about Custer's Last Stand), minor anachronisms (aConfederate veteran is described as wearing a Purple Heart) and so on.The inventiveness of the names given slaves is interesting althoughMr. Turtledove, in "The Guns of the South" showed that heknows perfectly well that most slaves had two or three plainAnglo-Saxon names (e.g. Booker T. Washington). If you can put upwith the multiple subplots, which certainly stretch as basic storyinto three or four books, you'll like this. I don't like the multiplesubplots because, unless dates are constantly repeated, the readerloses all sense of where in time different events relate to eachother--imagine reading a history of the real-world World War I writtenthat way! I also can quarrel with some of the historical assumptionsunderlying this series, such as the lack of mention of Germanatrocities and the strength of the Socialist Party in the North, butthat's just my opinion.ADDENDUM Since writing this review, I have had an exchange of emailwith Dr. Turtledove, who pointed out that (1) according to theinformation he had when writing the book, the Purple Heart could havebeen a CSA decoration and (2) slaves typically did not take surnamesuntil they were freed and, in the Confederacy described in thisseries, whites might well have preferred todehumanize emancipatedblacks by not allowing them surnames.

Rating:
Summary: What happened to my review
Review: I wrote a review of A walk in Hell in the middle of June. It was accepted but then for some reason in the last few days it was deleted. Please advise why???

Rating:
Summary: Better than the first book, and definitely worth reading
Review: This is an excellent book with numerous subplots which make it even more compelling, and is certainly worth the wait. One thing that annoyed me about the first book was that it was made up of the experiences of completely random people (or so it seemed) and some of them were doing things that were genuinely interesting, while others seemed like a waste of space. By the end of the second book, I was interested in every page,because each story had it's own interesting subplots. People seem to complain a lot about the lack of historical characters in the book, but I would like to remind them that the point of alternate history is to be different from real life. If you use a bunch of real people, wheres the fun? Besides, I found several historical figures in the book, that people may not have noticed, like Mordecai (three fingered) Brown, who was a baseball player, and Heinz Guederian. Overall, This one was better than the first book, and picked up right where the first one left off. I'm looking forward to the third book. Turtledove is definitely the best alternate history author I have read.

Rating:
Summary: Engrossing!
Review: Turtledove has written an outstanding, devouring tale of an alternate history. This series has (so far) been far superior to his other works such as "How Few Remain" because most of the characters are fictional or mostly fictional so he is much less limited in character development. While I would agree with other reviewers that there are many subplots, the depth of detail and breadth of vision of Turtledove in this series is remarkable. The most surprising aspect of this series to date has been his sense of humor and sublety. For example, 3-Finger Mordecai Brown makes a subtle cameo appearance, and (not to give too much away), when the AMERICANS bomb Pearl Harbor, a casually tossed in line about "this day will live in infamy" is too rich to pass up. Outstanding.

Rating:
Summary: good alternate history, pretty much vintage Turtledove
Review: You know, reviewing Turtledove's books is a little difficult because of one of his strengths: the interesting twist. To reveal these twists in a review is tempting but would be a spoiler, and it's challenging to give a good description of where the book takes you without spoiling surprises. In this continuation of the Great War series, we see more evidence of Turtledove's ability to question assumptions about what certain real historical figures might have done in an alternate history. When he does this, he produces the many interesting twists I'm referring to.

The story is good (as usual) and there is plenty of action, but Turtledove gets marked down a star for running far too many subplots. Some of them end up treated rather shallowly and character development, as ever, pays the price. There aren't very many characters (leaving out historical ones) in the book whom it is easy to picture in one's mind, for example, and this well into the series. The author needs to work on this.

One issue in this book (and the series in general, but more so here) some may find disturbing, as I did: Canadians and US folks who consider themselves friends of Canada may find the portrayal of the ongoing US occupation of Canada increasingly depressing from a human rights standpoint. (Some may also find it morbidly fascinating. Just wanted to caution you; your mileage/kilometrage may vary.)

Rating:
Summary: Takes Off Where Book One Left Off.
Review: Turtledove's Second Book of an alternate WW1 is well worth reading. If you are a History buff, or if military history is a big interest of yours, then this book is for you.The mixing of fictional characters with actual historical figures adds to the interest factor of the book, for example Heinz Guederian showing up as an obser with american forces in the Canadian Rockies was great. It made me wish that Rommel or Von richoften would show up in the other book as advisors to the U.S.Military. General Custer annoys the me and I hope that he is removed in book three to allow a more compitent leader to take command of the drive on Tenesse.All in all book three paves the way for book three which i can't wait to read. In actual Hisory by 1917 the Russians would have been in the middle of their civil war, which makes me anxious to see how Turtledove will use this in the story, along with all the problems that Britian (i.e. manpower shortage) and France(mutinies and deseretions) have to contend with. will events like these be a factor in the C.S.A.'s war effort? Can't wait for book three, it should be excellent like the first two.

Rating:
Summary: Another triumph in Turtledove's finest series...
Review: Unlike books like "1632" or Turtledove's own "Worldwar" series, there's not a single fantastic element to be found in the Great War series. There isn't dragon cavalry or time travel; instead, this is simply a story of people doing as well as they can in a world gone insane with bloodlust.

The characters are universally *human*. There are no cardboard cutouts mouthing platitudes about how just the war really is after all, just scared and tired men realizing that they are very likely going to die, and suffer before the end. Even the CSA's soldiers or Communist revolutionaries get moments of human dignity and each one is sketched out with details rather than having indistinguish- able cardboard cutouts for characters.

The action takes place almost solely on the North American continent, but that means everything from Canadian winters to the newly annexed Confederate states of Chihuahua and Sonora. And regardless of whether it's the Navy patrols on the

Mississippi river or house-to-house fighting in Utah the action is quick, brutal, and never really gets redundant.

Unlike some authors, Turtledove isn't afraid to kill off anyone (my own favorite character in the series bleeds to death in a desert skirmish), which leads the reader to care even more for the ones that do survive. Even the people on the home front aren't always safe, and the ones left behind from a soldier's death are shown in mourning.

Buy this book.

Rating:
Summary: A vivid and detailed "What might have been"
Review: A great sequel for "American Front" Tutledove shows war in all its aspects. Soldiers, housewives, farmers, politicians, all are touched by the confilct. A big cast of characters, and a truly panoramic viewpoint make this book a must read.

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