Rating: 
Summary: Oh Please!
Review: I bought this book because I already appreciated Turtledove's work in his World War series. I thouroughly enjoyed the series, so I felt this book was a major let-down. I thought that his absurd notion of Andrew Rhoodie and his AK-47 was stupid, as well as his time-machine. Firstly, as Turtledove and many, many others have shown, the Confederacy really didn't need to have sub-machine guns to win. If Lee had listened to Longstreet more during the battle of Gettysburg, or if Albert Sidney Johnston hadn't been killed at Shiloh, are some scenarios just to name a few. In those scenarios the South could have easily one the Civil War, which then would have been named the Confederate Revolution. The only reason I gave this two stars was because I somewhat enjoyed the aftermath and felt that it was a resonable guess to what might have happened had the South won. I also felt that the end was terribly anti-climatic because there wasn't enough action involved. If you prefer science fiction history over alternate history however, by all means go ahead and experiment. But if you are like me and came into this book excpecting a good alternate history, forget it!
Rating: 
Summary: A Deeper Book Than It Appears
Review: As a Hard SciFi buff and a Southerner who has reinacted battles from the War of Northern Aggression, I put off buying this book because the premise was too hokey. AK-47's delivered to the Army of Northern Virginia just in time to turn around the Wilderness Campaign. Yes, it's still a hokey premise but Dr. Turtledove does so much with it the book shines for any who want to examine their beliefs of American military or political history, or the social differences between 19th Century American racism and 20th Century racism as practiced by the Nazis and South Afrikanner movement. The comparisons are startling. The scholarship done to keep the characters and alternate events true to the actual trends and influences in history is truly impressive. And the result is not one story, but three. I still wish Dr. Turtledove had used a more realistic premise, but I see no way to have explored American Racism vs. South African Racism as well any other way.
Rating: 
Summary: Go to the head of the class,Dr. Turtledove!
Review: This book is probably still Harry Turtledove's finest piece of "alternate history"; it is ,I believe,the standard by which other works in this genre must be compared.The basic plot of this alternate history is that at the South's darkest hour help arrives from some mysterious strangers speaking with a strange accent. The help arrives in the form of the AK 47 Kalashnikov assault rifle! The introduction of this new wonder weapon to the troops of Lee's Army of Northern Virginia turns the tide of the war in favor of the South. I don't want to spoil the book for new readers by belaboring the plot line in a review, but there is a price to pay for the victory. The new weapons bring with them a new conflict unforseen at the inception of the novel,and in the course of the book the origins and thus the motives of the strangers are revealed. The story is carried not only by the principals ofthe time--Lincoln,Grant,Lee,Nathan Bedford Forrest--but by several fictional characters in the form of common soldiers, Nate Caudill and "Melvin" Bean are especially noteworthy. All in all a very satisfying little book;Turtledove's masterpiece. Not perfect but as good as it gets!
Rating:
Summary: Independence in 1864
Review: The premise of this, probably Harry Turtledove's most entertaining work of alternate history, is that men from the future (2014) have brought AK-47s back to 1864 to supply the armies of the Confederate States of America. As other reviewers have noted, Turtledove provides a fairly-fast paced story, but manages to flesh out a few characters very well, and to give the reader a good feel for life in the South in the middle of the last century. It is possible that some of the reforms of the Confederate government late in the novel come too easily, and it might have been fun if Turtledove had focused on one or two more famous southerners, but I nonetheless found this a fascinating read, and one that I return to often.
Rating: 
Summary: Could've used a good editor
Review: 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
Rating:
Summary: Master of Alternative History
Review: This book is one of the best I've ever read. The story begins 1864 with General Robert E. Lee planning the spring campaign. Suddenly, a man offers the general a new weapon with power to change the nature of warfare... The AK-47. About half of te book tells us about the Campaign of 1864 and the rest is a story about America ib the 1860's and 1870's and how the CSA and USA develops. Turtledove is a superb master of alternate history. But he doesn't get 5 stars because the inclusion of the AK-47. I think he could have tried to change history without meddling in time travel!
Rating:
Summary: AK-47's for Everyone, Y'all!
Review: Turtledove begins this superb novel with the wildest "what if" imaginable: a victorious Confederate States in the Civil War. Turtledove obviously did his homework, as readers of his other alternative Civil War novel will readily admit. The story line and descriptions of the "Rivington men" (as the racist time travelers from South Africa circa 21014 are called by their Confederate allies) is told from the viewpoint of a Confederate First Sergeant. For me, the fun of the novel was how the 19th century descriptions of things found only in our modern times were described as someone from that era might describe them (hand held radios, martial arts, an air conditioned house). With my minimal knowledge of the south and its wartime leadership, I found the eventual parting of the confederates from their South African "benefactors" to be quite plausible. Lee's prison interrogation of one of the time travelers who was unable to escape back to the future was particularly entertaining to anyone with a knowledge of German scientists captured at the end of WW II. I can only envision this novel being made into a film. But given the "political incorrectness" of all things Confederate, that doesn't seem likely.
Rating:
Summary: Informative and Entertaining
Review: This is an "alternate history" book based on the premise that the South won the Civil War. Men from the future mysteriously appear right before the Battle of the Widlerness and bring with them AK-47s, which they supply to the Southern side. Of course the Union Army cannot stand up to the Confederates with these weapons, so the South goes on to win the war and establish a separate nation. The men from the future turn out to be from South Africa and are committed to having the South win in order to perpetuate white supremacy. The hero of the novel is Robert E. Lee, who is elected as Jefferson Davis' successor as president of the Confederate States of America. Lee becomes committed to the gradual abolition of slavery, which of course puts him at odds with the men from the future. This novel captures the spirit of what the Civil War was all about, and does so in a way that portrays sympathetically all parties except for the racists from South Africa. And it does so with a compelling story. An informative and entertaining read.
Rating:
Summary: Possibly the best alternative history book ever written!
Review: First of all I am a big fan of alternative history and the Civil War. Needless to say, it wasn't a big decision whether to pickup this book or not. Well boy am I glad, as this has turned out to be one of my favorite books. The premise is astonishly innovative and had me hooked from the very first pages. It basically revolves around a large band of South African white-supremecists who travel back in time to supply Robert E. Lee and the beleagured CSA with 100,000 AK-47s, complete with ammunition. The group calls itself AWB, which supposedly stands for America Will Break. Really though, the acronym AWB stands for Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging or Afrikaner Resistance Movement. The book mainly focuses on a CSA soldier and General Lee. This is my only complaint because I thought the Afrikaners were the highlight of the book and deserved more attention by Turtledove. I found myself supporting the AWB throughout the book and needless to say, I didn't really support the book's conclusion. But other than that, the book is nearly flawless and should be read by all alt-history fans and Civil War historians.
Rating:
Summary: Great!!!!!!!!!!!!
Review: This book was Great! Not just because the South won. But because it showed the real resons for the war. And why the war was lost. It explains what would have happend if the south had won. All in all I would say it was one of the best books I have ever read.
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