Rating: 
Summary: simply amazing
Review: i started reading this series out of order .but when i got to this one i realized that even though i was not in the correct order this was still an amazing book.for one thing this has kindled an interest in the civil war(i had no idea who longstreet was)and what if has always intriqued me ,but ive never had the patience to read novels.well not only has this book and the series grabbed me its so well written that i insist my friends read them too.the book sets up the series .i love the imagining of the growth of the CSA as an independant country .my point is simple-i hate reading either because i am lazy or impatient.this book and the rest in the series-ive been reading them at about one a week.they are that good . do yourself the favor.
Rating:
Summary: Contains every element of great alternative history
Review: This book is an example of alternative history at its best. To me, there are two elements to great alternative history. The first and most obvious is that the writer gets the history "right" - not accurate, of course, but believable. "Pure" alternative history is about what might have been; as such it should be reasonably plausible, with people and developments that must ring true to their times. Here Turtledove excels, demonstrating both imagination and a familiarity with the period. His sequence of events in developing a "second War Between the States" is logical, and he captures famous personalities - such as Abraham Lincoln, "Stonewall" Jackson, and Samuel Clemens - with considerable accuracy, portraying figures that are recognizably the same people that we know from our past.
Yet the people he depicts are more than just caricatures of historical reputations. This gets to the other component of first-rate works from the genre - strong character development. Within the context of a second conflict between the two halves of the former United States (over the acquisition of Mexican territory by the Confederacy), the reader sees them as they react to the circumstances of the war and how the war, in turn changes them. It is this aspect which makes the book riveting from beginning to end and essential reading for anyone interested in exploring how things might have turned out differently.
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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: 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 *****
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