Rating: 
Summary: Best Of The "Stars And Stripes" Trilogy
Review: Admittedly Harry Harrison has written far more compelling science fiction, but here he succeeds in this admirable conclusion to his "Stars and Stripes" trilogy. Harrison tells a gripping yarn about a blitzkrieg war waged against Queen Victoria's Britain on the streets of London and Liverpool by a United States armed with the world's most advanced weapons from the factories of Swedish-American inventor John Ericsson (in real life, the designer of the USS Monitor). The first half of the book is a compelling cloak and daggar saga featuring General William Tecumseh Sherman as he probes Great Britain's military defenses with the aid of an unusual ally, an Anglophillic Russian nobleman and naval officer. The second half is somewhat less so, but there are memorable battle scenes featuring Generals Robert E. Lee and Ulysses S. Grant. This is unquestionably a fascinating terse future history which Harry Harrison has wrought and one I strongly recommend to those interested in the American Civil War as well as science fiction.
Rating: 
Summary: ANTI BRITISH RUBBISH
Review: HAVING READ HARRY TURTLEDOVE I THOUGHT THAT I WOULD SEE IF THIS BOOK WAS UP TO THE SAME STANDARD.I WAS WRONG .THIS BOOK IS,WITHOUT DOUBT,THE WORST THING THAT I HAVE EVER READ.I STILL CANNOT BELIEVE OR PUT ACROSS HOW CRAP THIS BOOK IS.I CANNOT BELIEVE,FOR INSTANCE,HOW HE MAKES OUT THAT THE WARRIOR CLASS OF BRITISH BATTLESHIP WAS SO INFERIOR TO WHATEVER THE AMERICANS USED.IN FACT, THIS CLASS OF BATTLESHIP WAS SUPERIOR TO NEARLY ALL THAT THE AMERICANS HAD AT THIS TIME IN HISTORY.I ALSO FIND IT OFFENSIVE THAT HE TRIES TO MAKE OUT THAT THE BRITISH SOLDIER IS SOMEHOW INFERIOR TO HIS WONDERFUL AMERICAN SOLDIER.PLEASE,DONT BUY THIS BOOK IT IS TRULY AWFUL.INSTEAD BUY SOMETHING BY HARRY TURTLEDOVE INSTEAD,HE IS THE TRUE MASTER OF ALTERNATE HISTORY EPICS.TO END,I FOUND THIS BOOK SO OFFENSIVE AND INSULTING ABOUT THE BRITISH THAT I TORE UP MY COPY AND THREW IT AWAY,IT IS TOTAL RUBBISH
Rating:
Summary: Imperialist in denial: love Harry, hated the plot
Review: I have read and enjoyed Mr Harrison's SF for nigh on thirty years. "Deathworld" took me through adolescence. The "Stainless Steel Rat" through youth, and the increasingly Carry-On style of the "Bill, the Galactic Hero" series even further.But I just cannot stomach this triumvirate: it seems like an old man venting his spleen against the injustices done to his ancestors. I can only presume that Mr Harrison has an Irish background that still calls for vengeance against the English oppressors. It's rather like he wrote an SF novel in which the Croats exterminate the Serbs in a wierdo WW 2 alternative history. You're sitting there thinking: Was this really necessary? I love alternative history, but PUH-lease make it credible and without the sound of axes furiously grinding in the background. The writing is wooden, but what irks me is the scenario and the politics. As an Aussie, I consider myself neither Anglo-, not Amero, -phobic or -philliac. Previous reviewers have mentioned the technological problems with his scenario, and Mr Harrison's general presumption that all Americans are combinations of Rambo and Thomas Edison, whereas all Brits are like the guys from "Dumb and Dumber". I am surprised that no one has mentioned Mr Harrison's idiotic presumptions that: * Forty years (I'm no American scholar.. correct me if I'm wrong) of the deepest tensions and social schisms in the USA concerning slavery suddenly vaporise instantly when a few Brits get off course; * An American invasion of Ireland suddenly reconciles 800 years of Protestant-Catholic discord and hatred; * Americans bring democracy to the UK. In the late 1860s, American senators were no more elected than the House of Lords, and the aristocracy Mr Harrison professes to despise: senators where chosen by state legislatures. All this is about Mr Harrison's scenario. You may well think all three potboilers a grand read. I just think that Mr Harrison is an imperialist in denial.
Rating: 
Summary: An Anglophobe's wet-dream: a polemical review
Review: I have read and enjoyed Mr Harrison's SF for nigh on thirty years. "Deathworld" took me through adolescence. The "Stainless Steel Rat" through youth, and the increasingly Carry-On style of the "Bill, the Galactic Hero" series even further. But I just cannot stomach this triumvirate. The writing is wooden, but what irks me is the scenario and the politics. Please feel free to stop reading now if you are simply looking for a read. As an Aussie, I consider myself neither Anglo-, not Amero, -phobic or -philliac. Previous reviewers have mentioned the technological problems, and Mr Harrison's general presumption that all Americans are combinations of Rambo and Thomas Edison, whereas all Brits are like the guys from "Dumb and Dumber". I am surprised that no one has mentioned Mr Harrison's presumptions that: * Forty years (I'm no American scholar.. correct me if I'm wrong) of the deepest tensions and social schisms in the USA concerning slavery suddenly vaporise instantly when a few Brits get off course; * An American invasion of Ireland suddenly reconciles 800 years of Protestant-Catholic discord and hatred; * Americans bring democracy to the UK. In the late 1860s, American senators were no more elected than the House of Lords and the aristocracy Mr Harrison professes to despise: senators where chosen by state legislatures.
Rating:
Summary: Fizzles out
Review: If you can imagine a Great Britain in 1865 where the Queen's petulant childlike behavior dominates day-to-day politics, where the British Navy and Army are totally unaware of massive troop and ship movements from North America east accross the Atlantic, where the Imperial administration and Military in London are taken completely unaware by gasoline powered (Carnot) engines moving very very heavy armored guns and vehicles and these machines are coming off of immensely heavy iron warships then you are probably ready for John Ericsson and William Parrott to invent all of the parts of the gasoline engine powered tank (engine, transmission, axles, wheels, and FUEL! while they are at the same time building staem powered warships carrying massive mortars protected by solid iron armor. I'll bet the USA ran quite a budget deficit building this invasion fleet and supplying the troops. Did I mention that there are green ELECTRIC lights on the American warships? Add to this wooden characterizations of Sherman, Grant, Lincoln, Fox, Palmerston, Russell, and Disraeli and you have a novel that just fizzles out with America bringing "Democracy" to Great Britain. The Irish in the story are brutally mistreated and the non-titled English are either crude or cowardly. All Americans of course are just great guys who only want to right the wrongs of the world. I suppose that editors don't question the story telling ability of long established authors, but why was this one published?
Rating:
Summary: How Not to Write Alternate History
Review: If you ever wanted to read a jingoistic story when the "good guys" could do no wrong, this book is for you. It's not for me. This is the third book of a terrible trilogy in which, during the American Civil War, a diplomatic incident involving the American seizure of a British ship flares up, with the British declaring war on the USA, invading the wrong country (the CSA), and the Confederate generals ask for help, and both sides team together to beat off English forces, and in the process, liberate Canada, Ireland, Mexico, and destroy the British monarchy. The author uses a ridiculous premise to get the best generals in the ACW on the same side, then gives them Gatling guns, the equivalent of dreadnaughts, and then in this book, armored cars. If he changed the writing a bit, you would almost think it a satire of the Civil War. My recommendation is that if you really think you want to read this, get it from the library, and then you'll only have wasted your time, instead of both your time and your money.
Rating:
Summary: How Not to Write Alternate History
Review: If you ever wanted to read a jingoistic story when the "good guys" could do no wrong, this book is for you. It's not for me. This is the third book of a terrible trilogy in which, during the American Civil War, a diplomatic incident involving the American seizure of a British ship flares up, with the British declaring war on the USA, invading the wrong country (the CSA), and the Confederate generals ask for help, and both sides team together to beat off English forces, and in the process, liberate Canada, Ireland, Mexico, and destroy the British monarchy. The author uses a ridiculous premise to get the best generals in the ACW on the same side, then gives them Gatling guns, the equivalent of dreadnaughts, and then in this book, armored cars. If he changed the writing a bit, you would almost think it a satire of the Civil War. My recommendation is that if you really think you want to read this, get it from the library, and then you'll only have wasted your time, instead of both your time and your money.
Rating:
Summary: England A Democracy?
Review: Stars & Stripes Triumphant is the third novel in a trilogy about a Civil War that didn't quite happen, following Stars & Stripes in Peril. In the previous volume, the US Navy has established local naval superiority in Irish waters and the US Army has defeated the British troops ashore. Ireland is now free and the Americans help her set up a democratic republican government. This really torques Queen Victoria. In this story, the British have started conducting raids against Ireland and they have gathered up all Irish nationals within English borders and placed them in camps. They have also resumed the practice of impressing American sailors from ships on the high seas. Moreover, they are searching ships at sea for so-called contraband -- American cotton -- destined for Europe, confiscating the ships and imprisoning their crews. The British really cannot believe that they have lost the war. At a European peace conference in Brussels, the President, Abraham Lincoln, is shot at by an angry southern sympathizer, the actor John Wilkes Booth, and General Grant is wounded in the arm. General Sherman meets an interesting Polish count serving in the Russian navy while in Brussels and takes a sea voyage to England on the count's steam yacht, with himself, Gus Fox, and a US Naval officer disguised as Russians. Although they have a couple of close calls, Sherman and Fox return to Washington with some interesting strategic observations. With the help of Ericcson, the shipwright and inventor, and others in the defense industries, General Sherman upgrades the tools of war and devises an innovative plan for the invasion of England. There will be no holding back this time. Another reviewer has mentioned that the author postulated a series of occurrences that did not happen in this timeline rather than a single discrete event. I am not really sure why this is a problem, since any single event MUST significantly effect subsequent events in order to cause any noticeable change in the timeline. Otherwise, the changed event would be buried in the clutter of everyday life and forgotten by posterity. Other reviewers find it hard to believe that the Americans could develop so much new equipment is such a brief time. All right, I acknowledge that the light bulb is unlikely, but the ships are just about dead on. It is little advertised, but the US claimed reparations from England after the Civil War because of the support that country supplied to the Confederacy. England demurred, the US Navy send a squadron of iron ships, with turrets, to English waters as a gentle hint, the English had nothing that could stand against them, and England paid the US claims. If I remember the date correctly, that was in 1879, but it could have been even earlier if the US was forced to fight a naval war with England. All the pieces were there, but nobody had a need for them in 1865. Recommended for Harrison fans and anyone who enjoys well-crafted tales of alternate wars.
Rating: 
Summary: strong alternate history
Review: The American Civil War is cut short when England invaded the split United States causing the South to rejoin with the North into one nation again to successfully repel the enemy. England attacks again, this time through Mexico. To get the British troops off American soil, the United States invades Ireland, forcing the English troops to return home and fight in Ireland. The British troops were no match for the Americans and Ireland became a free nation, independent of Great Britain once and for all. England is now a brooding giant harassing American shipping that sell cotton to Germany and France. The Irish in England, men, women and children are rounded up and put in concentration camps. Through intelligence reports, it becomes apparent that it is only matter of time before hostilities strike up again. Generals Sherman and Grant devise a first strike invasion force to invade and conquer England, something that hasn't happened since 1066. The risks are great but the rewards are a permanent peace. Harry Harrison, the master storyteller of alternate history will stir the fervor of readers as a fictitious United States manages to triumph over its most powerful enemy. In a series of detailed battle scenes, the author shows how a struggling nation can defeat a superpower (a message for modern times?). STARS & STRIPES TRIUMPHANT features real leaders of the nineteenth century including a very much alive President Lincoln. Harriet Klausner
Rating:
Summary: Good what-if scenario, weak military
Review: The uneasy peace between the United States, reunited after England foolishly attacked both parties during the American Civil War, seems destined to be shortlived and Undersecretary Fox and General Sherman take advantage of a Russian aristocrat's offer to spy on the British. Sherman comes up with a plan for invasion--a plan made possible by several wonderful inventions by John Ericsson (inventor of the Monitor in our own history). When the British push too hard on America, trying to forbid cotton exports to France and Germany, and refuse to stop raiding the newly independent Irish, Abraham Lincoln unleashes the U.S. army under Generals Sherman, Lee, and Grant. The best alternate history takes a single decision and reverses it. In the STARS & STRIPES series, author Harry Harrison reverses the British decision not to intervene in the American Civil War, together with the monsterous mistake of attacking both sides. That the two sides could have come together if attacked by a common foe is not beyond conception and makes for an interesting historical alternative. The first half of this novel consists of Sherman's spying venture. Harrison's writing is tight and he throws in enough danger to keep the reader fascinated. The largely militaristic second half is somewhat less interesting depending as it does on Ericsson's invention of the internal combustion engine, the decision to use this engine to drive tanks through England, and on completely ineffectual resistance on the part of the British. Sadly, the British use of concentration camps to hold their possibly disloyal Irish workers sounds possible given the historic contempt that the English held for their Irish cousins. Am I the only one who finds disturbing parallels with current (2003) political discussions and decisions on going to war. Intentional or not, I think that STARS & STRIPES holds some interesting lessons and thoughts for today's world.
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