All Is Not Quiet On The Western Front

By Jean C.

The American Front, by Harry Turtledove, is a continuation of his alternate American history universe that began in How Few Remain. After winning the War of Succession and thrashing the United States in the Second Mexican War, the Confederate States of America have entered the Great War with their traditional allies, France and England. From their new capital of Philadelphia, the USA government has declared her intentions to stand by her German allies. Cannons rain havoc on Washington, American planes drop bomb after bomb on the St. Lawrence farm basin, and the coasts are painted red with the blood of sailors. The war to end all wars has come to America.

 

Harry Turtledove has a story telling method all his own. He introduces a veritable smorgasbord of characters, jumping from view to view as easily as other authors change scene. Turtledove balances this by ensuring that each character is unique. Personal favourites include Scripo, a butler torn between his southern belle mistress and the communist plot among his fellow Negroes, and Lucien Galtier, a farmer struggling to survive the Canadian winter and American occupation. While many authors would struggle with balancing a cast of this size, Turtledove finds the story's strength in its broad scope. He doesn't just tell us about the war from one spot, he takes us from the Confederate steel plants to the Quebec farms to the American warships attacking Pearl Harbour. By using so many limited points of view, Turtledove is able to give a complete picture of the war as it happens, instead of a more limited view offered by the traditional one character writing style.

I am a confessed huge fan of Turtledove's works, having devoured his Atlantis series with extreme relish and his Colonization series with the absurd amazement of watching British spitfires take down alien spaceships. The American Front may be a deviation from the fantasy overtones of his previous works, but it dives into a whole new question little explored by conventional fiction writers. What would the twentieth century look like if the South had won the Civil War?

The Great War: The American Front by Harry Turtledove. 576 pages.