The Man With The Iron Heart is one of Harry Turtledove’s latest ventures into the world of alternate World War II history. Here, we start with the premise that Reinhard Heydrich, one of Hitler’s most loyal deputies, survived the assassination attempt that killed him in Prague in 1943 and went on to spend the last two years of the war organizing a resistance that would continue the Third Reich’s fight after Germany herself had been defeated.

After a brief introduction, the story proceeds immediately to May 1945 and the aftermath of the Nazi Surrender. Soon after the war seems to end, though, American, British, French, and Russian forces come under attack from guerilla forces using techniques that would be very familiar to anyone who read the headlines out of Iraq from 2003 to today.

And that, I think, is where Turtledove fails.

It becomes rather obvious rather quickly that he has drawn inspiration for his story from the Iraq War and it’s aftermath and the techniques utilized by the various groups that were resisting the American occupation during that time. In fact, it becomes too obvious.

Everytime the story shifted to one of the characters in Germany, you just knew that the scene was going to end in an attack of one kind or another, no matter how implausible they might seem given the circumstances of the time. Yes, the Japanese engaged in Kamikaze attacks during the final months of World War II, but is it really reasonable to believe that Germans would do the same, and would utilize tactics invented by groups like Hamas and Hezbollah, after the nation they had fought for had been ground into the dust ?

Yea, I didn’t think so either.

The sign that Turtledove was taking his Iraq analogy way too far came when he felt it necessary to bring his own Cindy Sheehan-like character into the story. Early in the book, a young soldier is killed in post-war Germany, resulting in his mother turning into an anti-war “bring the boys home” activist who meets with Congressman, leads protests in D.C. and Indiana, and even meets Harry Truman in a totally implausible scene in front of the White House.

The biggest weakness of the book, though, is it’s predictability. As I noted above, it become very easy early on to figure out when a scene leading up to a terror attack — thus removing any sense of suspense or shock from the outcome, of course. This was confirmed when I decided last night that I couldn’t put the effort into finishing the last 250+ pages of the book and decided to skip ahead randomly. There were more attacks, of course, all predictable in the context of the story and all of them inspired by Middle Eastern terrorists rather than a realistic expectation of what a serious post-WW2 German partisan movement might have been like.

This was, without a doubt, the most disappointing of all the Turtledove novels I’ve read.

• Book Review: The Great War: Walk In Hell
• Book Review: The Great War: Walk In Hell
• American Empire: Blood & Iron
• American Empire: Blood & Iron
• Book Review: The Great War – American Front

After spending two volumes, stretching over nine years, building up to a confrontation between Norman Arminger’s Portland Protective Association and the loose alliance between Clan Mackenzie, the Bearkillers, and the monks of Mt. Abbott, Stirling doesn’t disappoint this time and gives his readers not one, but two epic confrontations that will decide the future of the characters that we’ve come to know, and perhaps the new post-Change world itself.

For the first time, he spends considerable time in the territory of the PPA where people are under the thumb of a man that they rallied behind when their lives seemed near an end, only to find themselves in a bondage unseen since serfdom ruled Russia. We also see the conflict about to come from the perspective of the people living in PPA and, while it doesn’t really change the moral calculus of good vs. evil, it does paint a broader picture and give depth to characters who otherwise would’ve been little more than cardboard cutouts.

More importantly, though, this final volume of the trilogy shows why Stirling really is such a good writer. Not only does he take care to humanize his characters, he makes you feel like you’re right there in their world with them, which makes the things that happen to them, both good and bad, all the more personal.

Stirling has started a new series based on the world of the Change. The Sunrise Lands takes place about ten years after the events of Corvallis and looks to introduce new characters, new challenges, and at some point perhaps an explanation for what happened to the world back on March 17, 1998. I look forward to continuing the adventure.

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This second volume starts eight years after an event, as yet unexplained, that renders in operable all modern technology and reduces humanity to a level roughly comparable to the European Middle Ages. And, appropriately enough, it starts in Europe itself where we get a small glimpse of how the Change has impacted the rest of the world.

Suffice it to say it isn’t pretty. With small exception pretty much all that’s left of Europe is in an England ruled by King Charles III who, and this for some reason doesn’t seem too far a stretch, seems to have gone mad with power. Form there we follow Nigel Loring, a former SAS officer, on a trip around what’s left of the world that eventually leads him to the central stage of the story in the Pacific Northwest.

Ingeniously, Stirling is able to unravel dual plot, occurring months apart, and then weave them together at the point when the protagonists finally meet. Done differently, the whole plot would have fallen apart half way through the novel, but Stirling weaves everything together in a way that makes complete sense.

There are, as with the first volume, annoyances in this volume of the trilogy, most of which center around Stirling’s fascination with the Wiccanism of Juniper Mackenzie, but those are minor compared to the things that make this a great part of a great story.

On the whole, this was a worthy continuation of the trilogy

• What Would Happen If Technology Stopped Working ?
• What Would Happen If Technology Stopped Working ?
• Book Review: The Great War: Walk In Hell
• Book Review: The Great War: Walk In Hell
• Book Review: The Great War – American Front

What kind of world would result, what kind of people would it produce ?

That, essentially is the question that S.M. Stirling sets out to answer in Dies The Fire. In a split second on a day in March, 1998, with the flash of a blinding light, everything that man has developed in the past 500 or so years simply ceases to function.

Left behind to try to survive is the mass of humanity, most of whom, to be quite blunt about it, will not survive. It’s easy to imagine what would happen to people living in urban areas who didn’t try to get out in time, but Stirling doesn’t dwell on the doom-and-gloom that would might expect from a novel with such an apocalyptic premise. Instead, he focuses on the efforts of isolated groups, located primary in the Williamette Valley in Oregon, to first survive and then, to the extent possible rebuild.

I’d never read anything Stirling had written before this, but the writing here is so well put together it makes me eager to discover his other works. The characters, big and small, are handled with care, are his painstaking descriptions of a natural environment that, slowly but surely, reclaiming areas once dominated by a now largely depleted human population.

The story follows two principle groups — the Bearkillers and the Mackenzies — as they pull together to survive, fight off enemies who have taken it upon themselves to take all they can see, and grow as their success attracts others in what, by the end of the novel, are clans that one can clearly see evolving into nations, or kingdoms.

There is brief discussion, mostly though speculation, about what the nature of the Change might be, but that’s not really the focus of the story (perhaps Stirling will get to this in a later novel). Instead, Stirling’s focus is on the people and their story, and that’s what makes it entertaining.

There are some nitpicks — Juniper Mackenzie, one of the main characters, is a Wiccan and Stirling seems intent on reminding us of this fact every single time she appears in the plot. Now, I can understand that people might become more religious when faced with something as momentous as the Change, but there are parts of the Wicca-related stuff that probably could have been left out because they don’t seem to add anything to the plot.

On the whole, though, this is a great start to a tale I look forward to seeing unfold in future novels.

• The Protector’s War: A Book Review
• The Protector’s War: A Book Review
• The Man In The High Castle: A Book Review
• The Man In The High Castle: A Book Review
• The Man With The Iron Heart — An Early Book Review

With contributions from some of the best-known and most highly regarded historians, political writers, and military historians, there’s almost nothing that the book doesn’t touch on.

From the ancient world :

What if the Persian Empire had defeated the Athenians ? What if Alexander The Great had died before achieving greatness ? What if the Mongol hordes had run wild through Western Europe, as they certainly seemed ready to do before their Khan died ? What if Socrates had died during one of Athens’ many wars ?

In each of these situations, it’s striking to realize how even a minor change in events might have prevented what we know as Western Civilization from even existing.

In addition to these scenarios there is, of course, plenty of material on more modern crises, such as the entirely unfortunate and, it turns out, entirely avoidable, at least in the way it unfolded in our world, First World War. Even here though, there are small events that could have had major ramifications — but for a few inches, Winston Churchill was nearly run down by a cab in New York City in the 1930s, for example.

If you’re interested in history and the question of who things might have been, this is the collection to get.

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In Never Call Retreat. Gingrich & Forstchen bring their Civil War trilogy to a close with a tale of the clash of two titans — Lee and Grant — in a battle that will decide the fate of the Union, and end the war, in September 1863 rather than April 1865.

Everything that made the first two volumes of this trilogy so good are here in the final volume as well. The historical research is impeccable, and the writing once again makes you feel like you’re reading accounts of an actual battle, rather than a story about one that never took place.

The ending, which I won’t reveal, may strike some as implausible, but I don’t think it is. Even in 1863, the enmities that the Civil War created had not grown deep. All of the main players — Lincoln, Grant, and Lee — said more than once in their own words how much they hated war in particular, and the death and destruction of that war specifically. Given the chance to end it earlier, on terms that might not have caused such divisiveness in the post-war era, I think they all would have jumped at it.

In the end, Gingrich & Forstchen have created a work of historical fiction that deserves to be read, and re-read, for a long time to come.

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When the last volume ended, the Army of the Potomac had been decimated at Union Mills, Maryland and it’s Commanding General, George Meade, was dead. While remnants of the Union’s primary Army in the East snuck behind the wide waters of the Susquehanna River, President Lincoln summoned Ulysses S. Grant, fresh from the conquest of the Confederate fort at Vicksburg, to come East, with his Army of the Tennessee, and save the Union.

Everything that made Gettysburg great continues in this novel.

On the Confederate side, the writers spend much time inside the head of it’s commander, Robert E. Lee, who comes across as a man repulsed by the horrors of war, and even by much of what his newly formed nation stands for, but willing to use it’s instruments to bring about an end to a war that becomes more horrible by the day.

On the Union side, there’s much more time spent in Washington as seen from the perspective of President Lincoln. Partly, that’s because Lee, fresh off his victory at Union Mills, turns his attention to an attempt to break through the fortifications around Washington, D.C. In a particularly memorable and moving chapter, the third wave of Confederate troops does break through into Fort Stevens only to be repulsed by the just-arrived troops of the 54th Massachusetts, the nation’s first regiment of black soldiers.

And this is where things start to change from the first volume in the series. Then, it seemed like Lee and the Army of Northern Virginia could do virtually no wrong, while the Army of the Potomac, and the Union it defended, seemed doomed. The attack on Fort Stevens, though, was clearly a mistake, and even Lee admits his error in sending his troops in to a garrison defended by upwards of 40,000 fresh troops.

And that’s when politics starts to enter the picture.

Just as Lee is withdrawing from the outskirts of Washington, a convoy carrying Jefferson Davis arrives. Clearly, Davis had expected to enter the capital as a conqueror and is bitterly disappointed by the result. Unmoved, he convinces Lee to set his sights on Baltimore with the hope of bringing Maryland into the Confederacy.

Baltimore is conquered, but not before a riot that nearly destroys the city and sickens Lee and his staff. It’s also in Baltimore that a most interesting exchange takes place between Lee, Judah Benjamin the Confederate Secretary of State, and a Rabbi. The Rabbi argues forcefully that, notwithstanding it’s recent victories, the South will lose the war unless it regains the moral high ground. His suggestion — emancipate the slaves and allow colored troops to serve in the Confederate Army. Both Lee and Benjamin are sympathetic to the suggestion — a reaction consistent with their attitudes in real life — but they both know that President Davis and the slavocracy that supports him will never allow it.

And there are politics in Washington as well. After giving Grant complete command of all Union forces in the field, Lincoln is forced to accept the appointment of General Dan Sickles, fresh from his suppression of draft riots in New York City that were even worse than what occurred in our world, to command of the remnants of the Army of the Potomac. Sickles is a War Democrat, and the support of his cronies is crucial to preserve the fragile political stability of the Union.

Sickles appointment will prove to be a disaster, as Lee uses his skills to trick the politician-turned-warrior into advancing into a trap that results in the Army of the Potomac being finally, officially destroyed.

But, the war isn’t over. As the novel ends, Grant and his newly named Army of the Susquehanna are crossing the river and heading south. The final battle of the Civil War is approaching, two years earlier than it occurred in our world.

Once again, there’s almost nothing wrong with this book. There are a few small factual errors. At the beginning of the book, Lincoln’s Vice-President, Maine’s Hannibal Hamlin, is referred to as “Vice-President Blaine” — a reference to another Maine politician, James G. Blaine, who would not make his mark on the national scene for another decade or two. It was an obvious editor’s mistake, but it pales in comparison to what makes this book, and the story it tells, so great.

There was obviously a formidable amount of research that went into this book, even to the point of a pretty accurate description of the topography and geography of Maryland and Pennsylvania, and it shows. More importantly, though, these characters, even though they are real people that have been written about countless times, come to life in a new, and entirely plausible way.

I can’t wait to get through Volume Three.

• Gettysburg: A Book Review
• Gettysburg: A Book Review
• Book Review: How Few Remain
• Book Review: How Few Remain
• Settling Accounts: The Grapple

The Civil War itself, and the Battle of Gettysburg in particular, have been the subject of countless historical books, novels, and films. The war has also been the subject of more than one “what-if” scenario; imagining how history might have changed if a decision had been made differently, or if a crucial battle had gone to the other side.

In the Timeline-191 series, for example, Harry Turtledove, using Antietam has his point of departure, created a grim vision of a North American continent bitterly divided between nations and condemned to fight not just one, but four wars across much the same territory over the span of 80 years.

In Gettysburg, Gingrich and Fortschen start with what was arguably the last gasp of real victory of the Army of Northern Virginia, the Battle of Gettysburg.

In our world, it was a battle that lasted three days and resulted in a nearly decisive Union victory. In the novel, however, there is only one day of battle, no charges up the Round Tops, and no suicidal Pickett’s Charge. Instead, Robert E. Lee, taking charge of his Army in a way he hadn’t before, moves the battle onto more favorable ground in Maryland and, aided in no small part by the incompetence of General George Meade, fights a decisive battle near Westminster, Maryland.

What makes this book so great is the detail that the authors go into in describing not only the battles fought over three days in July, 1863, but also the characters that witness those battles, from Robert E. Lee, to Longstreet, Henry Hunt, Artillery Commander of the Army of the Potomac, and Herman Haupt, who ran the railroads for the Army of the Potomac.

There are historical allusions galore throughout the book. Joshua Chamberlin, a hero at Little Round Top, makes an appearance, as does James Longstreet, and George Pickett even gets to lead a charge just as glorious, and far more effective, than the one that occurred in reality.

And here’s one piece of advice. If you do read the book, save enough time to read the final five chapters all at once. The climactic battle at Union Mills, Maryland isn’t something that can be digested just a chapter at a time, and it’s the primary example of just how well this book is written.

As the book ends, the Army of the Potomac is decimated and scattering across the Susquehanna River, but the Union is not defeated and Lee turns his sights on Washington for what he hope will be one final blow to end a war that he wished he didn’t have to fight.

But there’s a wind blowing from the West. Just as Lee was winning in Maryland, Vicksburg was falling and a man named Ulysses S. Grant is heading east.

• Grant Comes East: A Book Review
• Grant Comes East: A Book Review
• Book Review: How Few Remain
• Book Review: How Few Remain
• Blogging History

It’s a world in which the Confederacy won the Civil War in 1862 thanks to a twist in history. In our world, just prior to the Battle of Antietam, a Union solider found a copy of General Robert E. Lee’s General Order 191, which revealed the deployment plans of the Army of Northern Virginia as it moved into Maryland and Pennsylvania. Though some historians would argue the point, the discovery of those plans allowed the Union, then commanded by (the generally incompetent) George McClellan to force the Confederates into a battle at Antietam Creek that they weren’t ready for. A battle which the Union won, and which became the military victory upon which Lincoln based the Emancipation Proclamation, which changed the entire character of the Civil War, especially in Europe, from an internal American dispute, to a war against slavery.

In Turtledove’s universe, that never happened. Instead, the Confederates scored decisive victories in Pennsylvania and, with the help of British diplomatic intervention, gained their independence.

Through ten novels, Turtledove has weaved the story of what a North America dominated by two powerful and antagonistic countries might be like. And it hasn’t been a pretty story. A Second Civil War in 1880, which led both countries to seek alliances in Europe. And, when those allies went to war in the early 20th Century, the USA and CSA fought each other in a brutal war that resulted in the CSA being ground down much in the way Germany was after World War I.

In what is apparently the final volume of the series, Turtledove lays bare the consequences of the choices that his characters have made. The destruction of the Confederacy that was anticipated in the last volume becomes inevitable long before the book is over. But that’s only part of the story.

The far more interesting question, which many of the characters that we’ve come to know only start to deal with as the book ends, is what happens next. Will the United States be forced to occupy the former CSA for decades until it finally submits ? Will the people of the CSA ever really accept responsibility for the fact that they supported a man who murdered at least eight million people ? What ever happened to the Canadian rebels ? Or the Mormons for that matter ?

Even though the book stretches more than 600 pages,many of these questions are left unanswered, leading, of course, to the obvious conclusion that there might be at least one more book in the works.

It would be nice to see those loose ends wrapped up, but, in the end, this was a satisfying end to a series resulted from, and has created, more than a few interesting alternative history scenarios.

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I’m already at Chapter III.

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