Rating: 
Summary: A great series revived
Review: This is a very interesting story of post-war America: winners (North) and losers (South, Canada). The book captures the reality of post-WW1 Europe, the feeling that the old order was slain on the battlefield, the "half generation" guilt of the survivors, hyperinflation, social and political - all of it happening the America of Turtledove's Great-War universe.Those of his heroes who survived the slaughter are trying to find and keep peace, but some are seeking revenge. Anyway Turtledove does a great job of capturing the Weimar republic's state of mind and Britain's lost generation blues and making it available to today's reader. One reason I don't rate this fife stars is that you can only appreciate the character's development if one has read the entire Great War series. It was a good decision to finish it with the third book, even if the sudden change of pace made the third book somewhat look like a Reader's Digest novel. But maybe this book would be even better if new characters were its heroes. „How Few Remain" is a good example. One reviewer has criticised that we learn hardly anything about the state of the rest of the world, I concur. What is also missing so far are prohibition and organised crime - those ingredients would make the further developments very interesting indeed. But we'll see.
Rating:
Summary: A Good Work
Review: American Empire: Blood and Iron was a good, enjoyable read. I read it without putting it down, except to sleep. The same characters you know and love from the Greatwar Series are well shown in their postwar experiences. The same excellent detail has been shown as previously. The only criticism I can offer is that it did get a little predictable and the "Xena-type" females get a little tiresome after awhile. The struggle of Morrell and other patriotic military men under a socialist regime to struggle on and to defend the nation with a shrinking budget is reminiscent of our own military's struggle today. Overall an excellent work!
Rating: 
Summary: A saga of "The Weimar-Confederacy"
Review: I looked forward to Turtledove's latest opus with my usual impatient enthusiasm. In this case I was sadly disappointed. Other reviewers have already summarized the plot and time line of events and made their (favorable?!) comments. In some cases I wondered if we were all reading the same book. Dr. Turtledove has a marvelous gift for bringing average and not-so-average people to life through his writing style with his anecdotal/cameo approach. In this particular installment of the Great War series , that is about all we get--cameo after cameo. The plot seems to be very shallow and the emphasis is centered on the rather mundane doings of alot of the central characters introduced in the earlier novels. In the earlier books in the series there was some electricity to the plot and some real excitement that is totally lacking in the "Blood and Iron" novel. I found this to be rather tedious and a less than easy book to finish. I did't stay up 'till the wee hours reading as I normally do with a new novel. I wouldn't go to the extent of saying "don't bother" but it comes pretty close. If you are intending to continue reading the series , it is a must read just to keep track of the major players. I rated it 2 stars , but just barely. Sorry , Harry , but you need to speed it up or you'll lose me as a reader!
Rating: 
Summary: He's Done it again!
Review: I personally am a big fan of alternate history, and there is no one better then Harry Turtledove. Blood & Iron is a great start to his next series which will most likely lead up to WWII. It took me a week to finish this because I COULD NOT PUT IT DOWN! Turtledove creates great settings and continues the lives of the characters we were familiar with in the Great War Trilogy. From Occupied Manitoba to the halls of Congress in Philadelphia to a bitter and angry Confederate Sates, Turtledove masterfully weaves people and places together to create a book that will be the cause of you being late to appointments for however long it takes you to finish it. I can't wait for his next book in the series and I look forward to reading more of his work in the near future.
Rating:
Summary: A hard book to finish.
Review: The other reader-reviewers have adequately summarized the plot of this book, so I needn't. What I did find interesting was that out of the four reviews excerpted on the back cover of this book, only one (and that only in part) was of the book itself; the others were of the "isn't the author wonderful" school. i have been thinking for several days just why I disliked this book, especially since I had thought I would like it. It's not that I disagree or wish to argue, for example, that the Confederacy would or would not have a Weimar-like collapse or that Oliver Wendell Holmes would or would not be Chief Justice of the United States in 1921 (the one in the "real" world would certainly not have been available because he was a native Louisianan). Nor is it because I feel some of the military details are somewhat dubious. There are really three reasons that this book did not strike a greater chord with me. The first related to the fact that part of the fun of alternate history is speculating along with the author about what certain changes might have wrought. However, the impact of any change expands over time. In plot time, we are now over 50 years beyond the event that triggered this particular alternate world and it's gettng harder and harder to care what happens in a world that by now is so radically different or argue intelligently about what would happen. Second, there is very little in the plot of this book that is really original. While not the direct retelling of events that characterizes the author's"Sentry Peak" or his "Darkness" series, the plot is a close enough allegory of the events in Europe of 1919-1924 so that there were no surprises for me. Like J.R.R. Tolkien, I detest allegory in all its forms. Finally--perhaps due to the fact that a good deal of the story is about unpleasant people exercising their unpleasantness--there seemed to be a lot less of the author's usual puckish humor and inventive use of puns and near-puns. I miss them.
Rating:
Summary: An ominous ending, and a beginning
Review: This book was originally advertised to be the final volume of a tetralogy alternate history of World War I. While it certainly does serve as a fine coda to this Great War, it also is an intriguing beginning to waht promises to be an even more exciting alternate history of the between war period and World War II. Turtledove has tied up some lose ends and brought a few of his far flung characters together in some surprising ways. He has also given us hints about what is happening in the world outside of North America. Britain has been humbled but not crushed, France and Russia are in chaos (but Russia is apparently not Bolshevik, at least not entirely), and Germany rides supreme. In the Western Hemisphere the United States has defeated the Confederacy and holds northern Virginia, Kentucky, Sequoyah (our Oklahoma) and part of Texas. The US also has occupied all of Canada except for a semi-independent Quebec. Triumphant in war, the US has turned to democratic socialism by electing Upton Sinclair President in 1920. The CSA is in economic collapse, struggling with hyperinflation and huge reparation payments. Thus far the Confederates have preserved their governmental system, but an ominous political movement has begun, centered around a charismatic leader who claims to speak for the defeated and to be the enemy of those who stabbed the South in the back. Anyone familiar with twentieth century history can tell where things are likely to go in future volumes of Turtledove's alternate history, but that should not stop them from waiting with keen anticipation for the next installments. It certainly won't stop me!
Rating:
Summary: Turtledoves first real disappointment
Review: Harry Turtledove's works have been a great source of enjoyment for me, the WorldWar series, The Great War series and the current effort begun with HOW FEW REMAIN. BLOOD & IRON is the first of his many books I have read that becomes almost ponderous in the style of jumping from character to character with little tie-in to the big picture. He has become boring by being so redundant with flashback information on the characters that the "zip" he has always shown in his previous works is sadly missed. The storyline itself as mentioned by previous reviewers has become so obvious, Jake/Hitler, CSA/Weimar Republic and has virtually none of the twists and turns so brilliantly displayed in the WorldWar series or GUNS of the SOUTH that has always gotten one thinking. The book has too much of the author's politically correct views and less of his imagination to be the effective mind candy his stories have previously been. Here's hoping the next installment (which I will still probably buy) comes back up to his usual high standards.
Rating:
Summary: Like the others....
Review: I started reading the series of Great War books because I believed the concept to be intersesting. Blood & Iron moves along like the previous books, but at a much more brisk pace... However, without the action of war, the book seems a little lost. On the positive side, Turtledove keeps the idea of the series interesting by delving into the effects of the war on the characters. In the end, however, the negatives outweighed the positives. I've listed the problems I had with Blood & Iron below. (Most of these points apply to the whole series as well.) 1. I felt as though the entire book was a setup for the next few books, which will lead up to the alternate WWII. 2. Most of the time Turtledove is anything but subtle in his foreshadowing. The best example is the Featherston/Hitler subplot. 3. Blood & Iron, like the books in the Great War series, plays like a porn movie. Nearly every character comes to a point in the story when they're just minding their own business, and WHAM, they have sex. Turtledove not only places random, pointless sex scenes in the book that have NOTHING to do with the story; but he does it graphically... Scenes like this seemed to be scattered like seeds in the wind in this book...
Rating:
Summary: Like the others....
Review: I started reading the series of Great War books because I believed the concept to be intersesting. Blood & Iron moves along like the previous books, but at a much more brisk pace (like "How Few Remain"). However, without the action of war, the book seems a little lost. On the positive side, Turtledove keeps the idea of the series interesting by delving into the effects of the war on the characters. In the end, however, the negatives outweighed the positives. I've listed the problems I had with Blood & Iron below. (Most of these points apply to the whole series as well.) 1. I felt as though the entire book was a setup for the next few books, which will lead up to the alternate WWII. 2. Most of the time Turtledove is anything but subtle in his foreshadowing. The best example is the Featherston/Hitler subplot. If the reader couldn't figure out that Jake Featherston will become a CSA Hitler from his actions and rantings, every single white Southerner spends their time sitting around saying, "Gee, I wish we had someone like Hitler to pull us up out of our dire straights!" 3. Blood & Iron, like the books in the Great War series, plays like a porn movie. Nearly every character comes to a point in the story when they're just minding their own business, and WHAM, they have sex. Turtledove not only places random, pointless sex scenes in the book that have NOTHING to do with the story; but he does it graphically. For example, in an excerpt from the Jeff Pinkard plot.... "Later, in the bedroom, she wimpered in a different way, and gasped and moaned and thrashed and clawed. Sated, sinking toward sleep, Jeff slowly nodded. She wanted him, all right-no doubt of that. " Scenes like this seemed to be scattered like seeds in the wind in this book. Is this an alternate history fiction or a trashy supermarket romance novel?
Rating:
Summary: Another Winner from Turtledove
Review: I was disappointed in Turtledove's "Sentry Peak," where his magical take on the Civil War seemed contrived and not too interesting. But this series just keeps going. The characterization is excellent, the plotting is excellent (I figured out in the previous volume where Jake Featherston was heading, and was happy to see I was right) and, well, there's just nothing to complain about here: it's classic Turtledove at the top of his game. In a word, superb. Like the others in this series, it's worth the hardcover price. If you're a Turtledove fan, you won't be disappointed. If you're not a Turtledove fan, it's because you haven't read this series.
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