How Few Remain

Rating:
Summary: solid, dependable alternative history
Review: This is among the best alternative history novels written. Unlike Turtledove's earlier Civil War alternative history, "Guns of the South," this does not turn on a deus ex machina. There's no real science fiction gimmick in this novel, just an honest to God what-if, and a good one. What if Lee's attack on Washington DC HAD succeeded. Lee's battle plans being discovered wrapped around cigars after being dropped by a courier has always seemed like a bad plot device anyway. "Correcting" that error makes for a solid novel.

Turtledove portrays the South honestly and effectively. He is clearly against slavery, but he also understands that much of the South was fighting for what they saw as honorable intentions. He also makes some solid points about "wage-slavery" in the North. Turtledove's continued use of the Mormon uprisings in Utah works as a bit of a plot device, but it's also historically accurate.

As an English teacher with both English and history degrees, I find this sort of mind-play fascinating. The follow-up series based on a completely different World War I coming out of the consequences of this book also gets my highest recommendation.

Rating:
Summary: One of Turtledove's best
Review: Harry Turtledove writes many different types of alternate history, some mixed with science fiction (Worldwar series, The Guns of the South), some with a fantasy element (Darkness series, Detina series). How Few Remain is straight alternative history; Turtledove changed one event, and then from this "branching point" a different world emerges. In this book, the Confederate States of America defeated the USA because a courier did not drop secret battle plans (as happened in our timeline). The CSA is a nation in its own right. 20 years later, the USA still seethes from their crushing defeat and economic downturn, and attempts to remake the Union again.

Using multiple viewpoints in short vignettes, similar to John Brunner's novels or John de los Passos' USA, Turtledove evokes the moods of different groups and geographies. And as in Worldwar, Turtledove introduces famous people whose lives have changed because their history diverged. Thus Abraham Lincoln lives past 1865 (our 4-year Civil war ended sooner in this timeline, with a different victor), but is disgraced for losing the war, and finds himself extolling the virtues of socialism. Teddy Roosevelt finds an opportunity to drum up a volunteer army at age 21, fighting the Brits in Western Canada.

Political intrigue and diplomatic tangles abound. The CSA aligns with England and France, while the USA forms a partnership with Germany. But the US is surrounded by enemies, with British Canada to the North, and the CSA with its new Pacific ports (having purchased two provinces from the Empire of Mexico). The USA is spoiling for a rematch, and President James G. Blaine, the first Republican elected since Lincoln, intends to avenge the loss of the Southern States.

How Few Remain is the springboard for Turtledove's Great War series, with a USA/CSA version of World War I thirty years later. These are followed by the American Empire series of the 1920s and 1930s, with the CSA playing the role of Germany in our timeline. While these books are enjoyable, none of them compares with the freshness and the fullness of HFR.

Several critics of Turtledove's novels, such as the six books in the two series mentioned above, note they are painted with too broad a brush, and painted by the numbers. This novel transcends the others' failings, though, by evoking a haunting sense of defeat and despair in his descriptions of the defeated North.

Rating:
Summary: An oldie but a goodie.
Review: This is one of HT's earlier books, telling the story of the "Second war between the states," as the tagline goes. There's a brief preface telling why the CSA won it's independance in this timeline, then the story goes into the era of the war, and it really takes off. The characters are well-done, the story is textured, and this book in particular is far superior to his later works, in which he follows our history too closely. That's a different matter, however. Multiple viewpoints cover most aspects of this world, and a foreign viewpoint gives a unique view that is lacking again in his later stuff. He also doesn't fall into the normal authorial trap of not killing off characters, and he's not afraid to have the "good guys" lose. All in all, this is one of his better books, and a good one to introduce someone into the genre.

Rating:
Summary: solid, dependable alternative history
Review: This is among the best alternative history novels written. Unlike Turtledove's earlier Civil War alternative history, "Guns of the South," this does not turn on a deus ex machina. There's no real science fiction gimmick in this novel, just an honest to God what-if, and a good one. What if Lee's attack on Washington DC HAD succeeded. Lee's battle plans being discovered wrapped around cigars after being dropped by a courier has always seemed like a bad plot device anyway. "Correcting" that error makes for a solid novel.

Turtledove portrays the South honestly and effectively. He is clearly against slavery, but he also understands that much of the South was fighting for what they saw as honorable intentions. He also makes some solid points about "wage-slavery" in the North. Turtledove's continued use of the Mormon uprisings in Utah works as a bit of a plot device, but it's also historically accurate.

As an English teacher with both English and history degrees, I find this sort of mind-play fascinating. The follow-up series based on a completely different World War I coming out of the consequences of this book also gets my highest recommendation.

Rating:
Summary: An oldie but a goodie.
Review: This is one of HT's earlier books, telling the story of the "Second war between the states," as the tagline goes. There's a brief preface telling why the CSA won it's independance in this timeline, then the story goes into the era of the war, and it really takes off. The characters are well-done, the story is textured, and this book in particular is far superior to his later works, in which he follows our history too closely. That's a different matter, however. Multiple viewpoints cover most aspects of this world, and a foreign viewpoint gives a unique view that is lacking again in his later stuff. He also doesn't fall into the normal authorial trap of not killing off characters, and he's not afraid to have the "good guys" lose. All in all, this is one of his better books, and a good one to introduce someone into the genre.

Rating:
Summary: this book is interesting
Review: I read this book about 3 years ago so I don't remember everything about it but it explains how the world could have been if the south had won the civil war it basically sets the stage for the next series the great war

Rating:
Summary: A Southern Victory in 1862
Review: How Few Remain is a science fiction novel about a timeline where the South won the Civil War. A courier lost a copy of General Robert E. Lee's Special Order 191, showing the entire disposition of his forces, in the Confederate camp in Frederick, Maryland, but a Rebel infantryman noticed his dropped message and returned it to him. The Southern forces went on to win the battle at Hagerstown and the war.

In this novel, two decades later, Colonel George Armstrong Custer is chasing Kiowas to the south of Fort Dodge, Kansas. The indians are making for the Indian Territory border, where they will be off limits to the Union forces. However, Custer decides that they are not going to stop this time, but continue to pursue the savages across the border, but encounters a Confederate cavalry squadron at the border. Custer exchanges several pleasantries with the Confederate Captain, including a few "You started it" remarks from each side, and returns to Fort Dodge.

Elsewhere, Abraham Lincoln is presenting a speech in Denver with a Marxist theme. Samuel Langhorne Clemens is writing editorials about Maximillian selling the provinces of Chihuahua and Sonora to the Confederacy for three million dollars. Theodore Roosevelt is running a ranch in Montana Territory.

The conflicts between the USA and the CSA haven't disappeared, but have only been allowed to stew awhile. Mounting frustration in the North has brought a Black Republican back into office, the first since Lincoln, and he is talking tough. War seems inevitable.

The novel hinges on a historical event that allowed McClellan to defeat Lee at Antietam. Without prior knowledge of Lee's dispositions, however, McClellan probably would not have maneuvered the Confederate forces into the pocket between Antietam creek and the Potomac. Lee had planned on passing through Hagerstown into Pennsylvania and then hitting the railroad bridge across the Susquehanna, as he actually did a year later. With the disposition of McClellan's troops at that time, and with Jeb Stuart at hand, Lee may well have defeated McClellan as he had so many times before. This time, however, the loss could have been a disaster for the North, for Lee was poised to cut off the Union troops in the field and threaten Washington, thereby forcing the Union into a cease fire and, if nothing else, a defacto truce.

This story sets the stage for the author's subsequent novels in this timeline: the Great War series and the American Empire series. While none can really determine the exact path that a timeline will follow at a divergence point, the author has used existing political trends and personalities to shape a new and different future. Such alternate histories provide a new look at the way history actually happened, separating the ephemeral trends from the fundamental movements in social affairs. This author is one of the very best at such works.

Recommended for Turtledove fans and anyone else who enjoys playing "what if" with American history.

Rating:
Summary: It begins
Review: In 1863, the Confederacy successfully seceded from the Union. This book tells of a new war between the USA and the CSA, taking place in the 1880s. Warfare has changed a lot in twenty years, and the military leaders of both sides must come to bloody terms with Gatling guns, fast-firing artillery, and trench warfare. The viewpoint characters are amusing and interesting portrayals of real people. Sam Clemens (Mark Twain), for example, is working as an editor in San Francisco, while the aging Abraham Lincoln wanders the country spreading Marxist ideology. Such individuals give the book a great sense of period. There is also Fredrick Douglas and numorous other cameos by other famous people of this period

Overall-While it may not be th ebest of Harry's books it does provide good background for the rest of the "World War" serise

Rating:
Summary: In The Beginning...
Review: I stumbled across Harry Turtledove by the front cover of "Walk In Hell", the second book of the Great War trilogy. I picked the book up and started reading. Within no time I was hooked on the intriuging story line.

This left me with no choice but to "back track" to American Front which then told me to back track further to How Few Remain.

For me it was a prequil to Walk In Hell and I was impressed with the introduction of the reason why the CSA now existed. It showed us how close reality for our world came to changing. The North American map at the front is a great guide and will change dramatically over the next sixty odd years.

The what might have been scenario if the USA had've held together was well played out - a classic alternate history play on the actual.

Famous people of the times are thrown into a whole new world.
The central charcters of Armstrong Custer and Theodore Roosevelt and their bitter dislike for each other are established in the first of this epic story of the alternate world Turtledove has created, an upside down state of world affairs.

Prehaps a little more could've been focussed at the start on the final battle that would turn the tide in favour of the creation of the CSA and the role Great Britan and France would play.

Thankfully reality is the world we live in now, not perfect but look at the possible alternative.

It leaves you wondering if Great Britan would've become the enemy of the USA if secession had've succeeded. Personally I'd doubt it but we (thankfully) will never know that outside the world of Harry Turtledove...A great start with a twisted ending, the storyline flows along quite nicely and is an easy read (sadly the follow up editions post WW1 do tend to fail in this department).
Five stars *****

Rating:
Summary: Better than the sequel, an interesting read . . .
Review: Alternate history is a fun topic. Even people who are bored by history's "who", "what", "when", "where", "why" and "how" are intrigued by "what if" of history. It is a lot of fun to argue about what *might* have happened. What if America lost the Revolutionary War? What if Germany won World War II? (The subject of Robert Harris' outstanding "Fatherland".) What if JFK hadn't been assassinated? There are numerous scenarios that are possible. Alternate history/timelines are frequently the subject of movies and TV shows. The number of "Star Trek" episodes devoted to changes in the timeline are simply too numerous to count. Alternate history makes a fun parlor game.

Harry Turtledove is the master of Alternate History novels. His "Guns of the South" is a classic and his Worldwar series about aliens invading the Earth during World War II is well-read by fans. After reading his "The Great War: American Front", I picked up "How Few Remain" to read how the Great War series began. (I was introduced to Turtledove's work when I saw the cover of "The Great War: American Front", showing the U.S. Capitol Building shrouded in smoke while soldiers fought nearby. I was intrigued by the image, as I was working as an intern on Capitol Hill at the time.)

In a nutshell, "How Few Remain" and the corresponding Great War and American Empire series posit the same question: what if the South had won the Civil War in 1862? What would the world be like? The answer is intriguing to read.

As "How Few Remains" opens in 1881, the Confederacy is an independent state consisting of the eleven states that succeeded in 1861 as well as Kentucky and Cuba. Confederate President James Longstreet decides to buy two Mexican states, which prompts the United States, led by President James G. Blaine, to declare war. The two states would give the Confederacy a link to the Pacific Ocean. The war begins . . . While the Confederacy inflicts bloody defeats on the United States in the West and in the City of Louisville, the United States must put down a revolt in Mormon Utah and deal with attacks from British-controlled Canada . . .

In contrast to the book's sequel, Turtledove's "How Few Remain" has a much more unified and coherent story-line. The sequel reads too much as disjointed episodes. You never get a sense about what is actually going on. "How Few Remain" has a terrific story. The characters are well-written and the action crackles. In the ensuing war a number of figures from history make cameos: Theodore Roosevelt, Frederick Douglass, Stonewall Jackson, Abraham Lincoln, Jeb Stuart, etc. I found Turtledove's treatment of Col. George Armstrong Custer to be the best of the book. Custer really comes across as an interesting and entertaining character.

My sole criticism of the plot is Turtledove's explanatory prose. A character will say something and Turtledove must insert an explanation for why this is such an ironic comment or why it foreshadows a future event. It may make the book more readable, but it makes the narrative flow too unwieldy.

On the balance, "How Few Remain" is a terrific book. I can't wait to see where Turtledove takes his readers next in the saga.