Rating: 
Summary: Easily the worst of the series
Review: Harry Turtledove's Great War-American Empire series is a masterwork of alternate history, and although I was only moderately impressed with Blood and Iron, I still rushed to buy The Center Cannot Hold. Although the timeline is fascinating, the novel itself is uneven. Certain sections are a great read, such as Jake Featherston's reemergence as a political force in Confederate politics, and Chester Martin's continuing portrayal of the Yankee proletarian. However, now that the war is over, most of the book's length is devoted to each character from the Great War going to work, getting married, having babies, or dropping dead. The way the books jump around from character to character, combined with this book's tendency to jump from year to year, makes each person's life a blur of non-importance that the reader cannot associate with. The reader's past involvement with these characters in life-and-death situations contributes further to the grinding mundanity of the characters' post-war lives.Turtledove rushes through the politics of each election to the point where nothing at all surprises the reader. The U.S.-Japanese war comes across as a half-assed scheme to knock some Great War-style excitement into the book halfway through, but the chronological mandate of the story compels Turtledove to zip through any combat between the two powers in order to fit in more and more elections. A few bright spots: Turtledove does go into further detail regarding the worldwide effect of the German-U.S. victory in Europe and Asia. The demise of one of my favorite Confederates at the hands of some Freedom Party yokels was really touching. Without giving too much away, let me just say it makes a powerful statement about life and death. I was very glad to see Hiplito Rodriguez return, this time as a full-fledged character and not a Latino stereotype. In the same vain, I was glad to learn more about the social and political situation in Sonora and Chihuahua. One more minor note: I was very impressed by Turtledove's ability to make a reference to one of his own previous books from an entirely different series. I will leave it to the hardcore Turtledove fans to discover, but let me hint by saying that Mutt Daniels from the Worldwar series and Irving Morrell in this book have the exact same reaction to hearing the same bad news about two different men with the same last name. Hopefully what I just said will make sense when you read the books. In summation, this book is very disappointing for fans of the series and is worthwhile to read only if you have read all the previous books and are looking forward to the eventual re-match between the U.S.A. and the C.S.A. It definitely has its bright spots, but the nature of the interwar period makes telling its story pretty boring. I wish Turtledove would have followed in his own footsteps, jumping to the late 1930's just as the Worldwar-Colonization series jumped from the 1940's to the 1960's, and The Great War series picked up with the war itself, and back-filled the story between the Second Mexican War and the Great War. Hopefully Settling Accounts will have more meat to it. Despite the uneven performance of this book, I'm still looking forward to seeing what happens next.
Rating: 
Summary: Aftermath of WWI, with the South as defeated Germany
Review: he United States's victory during the great war has not led to the utopia many had hoped for. A nazi-like movement has sprung up in the (truncated) Confederate States of America led by Jake Featherston. Featherston blames the south's defeat on the black uprising and seeks to make the south strong--and to repay the U.S. for its sins. Rebellion simmers in occupied Canada and Utah where disaffected Mormons continue to resist incorporation into the U.S. Meanwhile, the boom of the 1920s ends abruptly with the crash of 1929. Even the great alliance between Imperial Germany and the U.S. is stretched thin with both sides eying the other for advantage. Author Harry Turtledove delivers an intriguing alternate history novel with extremely close parallels to the actual history we experienced. When the U.S. lost the civil war (thanks largely to intervention by France and Britain), it joined the emerging imperial power of Germany. As a result, World War I ended with a victory for Germany and the U.S., but the results are largely identical. The defeated countries seek revenge, secretly arm, and train in foreign nation adventures (here a Mexican civil war replaces the historic Spanish civil war). Turtledove's great strength as a writer is to select a group of characters who he follows through the novel and through the series. Some are killed and others added, but he gives the reader a sense of what it is like to be a defeated southerner, a Yankee elated by victory after decades of defeat, or a Canadian, occupied by Americans who care little about native traditions and are happy to dispense with niceties of the rule of law. A mix of historical and fictional characters, with the historical characters altered by the events of the story, adds to the interest and gives Turtledove's wry sense of humor an opportunity to flourish. The fundamental story of THE CENTER CANNOT HOLD is that of Jake Featherston's rise to power in the South (paralleling Hitler's rise to power). The sections of the novel that concentrate on Featherston, and on the members of the Freedom (Nazi) Party in the defeated south, are the highlights of the novel. Unfortunately, too much of the page count is taken up developing strories that do not go anywhere in this novel and that involve people who don't promise to be very interesting in the future (so little Mary McGregor wants to be a terrorist like her father before her--who cares). Perhaps because of the large number of characters whom Turtledove follows, we seem to get introduced to them over and over again--learning repeatedly that Ann Colleton doesn't like blacks because she lost her brother in their rebellion, that McGregor hates Americans because they killed her terrorist father, and that Nellie Jacobs will keep the murder she committed to her grave and doesn't like sex. This isn't among Turtledove's best alternative history novels, but it does deal with an important period. Setting the events of Germany and Europe in the U.S. and the south gives history an immediacy and lets us feel the appeal of the dictator in a way that is sometimes difficult when he addresses only foreign concerns and foreign fears. Although THE CENTER CANNOT HOLD was not my favorite Turtledove novel, I look forward to the next as the buildup to a new second world war begins.
Rating: 
Summary: Repetitive and Boring
Review: I - like many other Turtledove fans - are reading the continuations in his various series strictly on the basis of completing what we started. He uses 500+ pages to barely advance the story. Where he does advance the story, it is entirely predictable. One chapter a character is in some situation, and in the next its 4 or 5 years later! He repeats character traits or sitations ad nauseum. If it wasn't for the fact that I picked this book up - and previous books in the series.... Time to take a break Harry. Even Stephen King can see the writing on the wall.
Rating:
Summary: A good read
Review: I am a big fan of Harry Turtledove. I love his Great War/American Empire Series. The Center Cannot Hold is the second book of the American Empire trilogy. The book does suffer from a few things. As I've always felt, this series has too many main characters. You spend so much time hoping from one to another, you may feel as though you don't get to know your favorite character as well as you would like to. Also, he tends to repeat himself, a lot! It's nice at the beginning of the book, it helps you to get back into the story.However, it gets old hearing about how Anne Colleton used to be very rich over and over again. All that aside, this is a good book. If you know your history, you won't be too surprised about how this book ends. But it raises an interesting point? Are certain things (movements, ideas) bound to happen? Or can we change them? If you like Harry Turtledove, you'll like this book as well.
Rating: 
Summary: Weimar Republic North American Style
Review: I began the American Empire sub-series somewhat reluctantly. Mr. Turtledove did such an outstanding job describing the horrors and
generally stupid leadership of the First World War, that I was concerned he would not be able to carry the story through the peace. I was very suprised at the content and concept of the new sub-series. Without giving away anything important, I will say that Mr. Turtledove has done an excellent job of "filing off the serial numbers" of history and turning the world upside down in a very realistic manner. He shows how often in history, a insignificant person or event can influence the broad flow of history. I enjoyed The Center Cannot Hold, and will have a hard time waiting for the third episode in the sub-series.
Rating:
Summary: Perhaps Turtledove's Worse
Review: I consider myself a mega fan of Harry Turtledove and I will continue to eagerly buy future books despite this very flawed addition to this one series. I am also a retired history teacher and author of several books, three history textbooks in the total. I have great respect for the author, however I have a major concern about this book in addition to my agreement with other reviewers who criticized this addition to the So Few Remain series. Call me sensitive, however it is interesting that practically every Northern and Canadian main chraracter has something to like about them. There are only three in the South, one who is killed, one who is African American (and probably the best developed in the series), and a Mexican American. Everyone else is either scum or supporting scum. I was born in the North so this isn't regional pride. However, I know the South, I have studied the South. The great majority of Southerners I know from Virginia to Florida and West to Texas do not resemble the type of people sprinkled within this book. Sure, George Wallace did well, however during the height of his power his state collected more welfare for African Americans than any other and he had a fair amount of Black support. (Something that bothered many White Southerners like myself who opposed him.) Not all the South backed this man and he was ultimately rejected. I must add that the South may have been bitter after losing the Civil War, but there was never a wide spread movement to go back to war against the North. Not even during the Depression. The biggest problem of course I tend to ignore. As much as I love alternate history it is something most authors gloss over. (I would.) If you have a world in which the South wins the Civil War it is doubtful that a single person born after that war will exist in that world that exists in our world today. Such a war with the South victorious, and its aftermath, would greatly change our environment. We know genetically that conceiving a child either a few minutes before or after will cause an entirely different human to be born no matter the DNA and names you plan to give them. Plus the loss of young lives in a Southern victory and a second war futher changes the gene pool available. That's not even counting how someone, say a guy, who might have met someone at a certain moment in real time, a girl, won't in an alternate time. Hence, no Ernie Hemingway, FDR, Herbert Hoover or 99.99% of the others we see sprinkled in this book. Something similiar would also have happened in Europe with the winning by the German Empire. Naturally we like those names emerging as it makes things interesting. Alternate history is not easy to write and Harry can do better than most with this exception.
Rating:
Summary: Turtledove on form
Review: I enjoyed The Center Cannot Hold a great deal after feeling that Blood and Iron was treading water somewhat. The story moves on quickly with Jake Fetherstones rise parraelling that of the Nazi's in our universe. As a European my only complaint is that we don't get to hear too much about what is happening this side of the Atlantic, In Turtledoves universe will England and France become the fascist states threatening the rest of the world? I look forward to the next volumes in the series with hopefully the continuing rise of the CSA. The question is which side will invent the Atom bomb?
Rating:
Summary: 5-star premise... 3-star (or less) writing
Review: I gobble up the books in this series as soon as they come out. I love the alternative history genre, and Turtledove is the master at it. (Check out his stories about the Byzantine Empire, premised on Muhammed having become a Christian monk instead of founding Islam.) But the price you have to pay in awful writing!! Ack! So many tedious characters whose motivations and personal characteristics are restated so incredibly many times that you think you'll go crazy. Actually, some of the most anoying things about the previous installment in the series aren't nearly as bad this time around. The sex scenes are fewer in number and aren't embarrassingly awful. We only hear a couple times (rather than 15 times) that Dowling is fat. Even Lucien Galtier seems to be less annoying, for some reason. The cameos are a lot of fun, whether the people are specifically identified or not. (I didn't know at first whether "Ernie" was Hemingway or Pyle... I suppose it's Hemingway.) These "real" characters show up a lot more this time than in previous books in the series. A couple things that Turtledove's proofreader missed: In reporting election results for a U.S. presidential election, the returns from Tennessee were mentioned. But Tennessee is a Confederate state! Also Cincinnatus is described as wearing a "hap", instead of a cap or hat. A more general inconsistency is that Anne Colleton is supposed to be financially well-off. That's why she's an important person in the Confederacy! But it's always being described (again, ad nauseum) how her car is too old, her furniture is shabby, she lives in a small flat, etc. I like where the story is going. Featherston as Hitler; Pinkard as a concentration camp commander; Morrell as Rommel, etc. I also like that the rest of the world is getting more of a mention. (I wish it would get even more!) To me, it's worth putting up with the annoyances of the writing style to get the very interesting over-all picture of this alternative world.
Rating:
Summary: A tad too formulaic
Review: I have to admit that there are things that I really do like about the book, but the problem is that the things I dislike intertwine with them.
I have to admit that I am somewhat intruiged by Turtledoves supposition that the Depression would have happened and would have been severe regardless of who was president and the kinds of programs in place. I also like the continuance of Hipolito Rodriguez, he helps to show that not all that followed the madman leaders were bigots or madmen themselves, some wanted it to help improve their lives or because it was the first time they had been shown respect.
My problems with the book are almsot as volumnous unfortunately. I really wish that there was more telling us about Europe, to be honest sometimes I wish that Turtledove would release a big book giving historical details of his alternate history worlds, I'd see it as helpful, not to mention entertaining. My other problem is the almost slavish devotion to the historical timeclock, yes some things will follow but plenty of things would change. Part of what made the depression, and the roaring 20's before it, was all the loans taht were made to europe, used in the US, and thus the economy had a major boom. Maybe I wasn't looking at it properly but I really didn't see it. The other thing was the CSA recovery, Germany recovered due to US offering loans, with France and Britain broke I want to know who was backing the CSA.
Rating: 
Summary: Pretty soild
Review: I liked "The Center Cannot Hold", a bit better than "Blood and Iron", actually. The book was much faster paced, and the lack of war did not take away from it. I personally think that Turtledove could have went into more detail about the conflict with Japan and especally the bombing of LA when President Blackford was there. I enjoyed the characters, especally Chester Martin, and liked the path that Turtledove took Flora and Hosea down. I have begun "The Victorious Opposition", and can't wait for the World War 2 series to begin!
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