Harry Turtledove's second multivolume saga of 20th-century "alternative history," How Few Remain, takes place in a world in which the Confederate States win the Civil War and in 1914, allied with England and France, go to war against the United States once more. All the horrors of World War I, such as trench warfare and mustard gas, are present, only this time they're situated in a North American theater of operations where the U.S. fights enemies on both its northern and southern borders while Confederate blacks, studying up on left-wing radicals Karl Marx and Abe Lincoln, prepare for the revolution. As in Turtledove's earlier Worldwar series, the majority of attention is paid to an assortment of people at the battlefields and home fronts, their stories unfolding in gradual increments that, at least so far, only intermittently connect with each other. And there's not as much in the way of "real" historical figures popping up in this first volume of The Great War series, save for cameo appearances by U.S. president Theodore Roosevelt, Confederate president Woodrow Wilson, an aging General Custer, and a handful of others. It remains to be seen whether future entries in the series will feature such obvious candidates for inclusion as the young Ernest Hemingway, and how they'll appear in this strange new world. --Ron Hogan


From Publishers Weekly
This masterpiece of alternate history takes place in the same world as Turtledove's How Few Remain and begins a projected tetralogy of a First World War fought with Germany and the U.S. allied against Britain, France and the Confederacy. The reader is drawn in at once as a German cruiser approaches Boston and Jeb Stuart III trains his artillery on the Capitol Dome, and Turtledove sustains high interest throughout the lengthy narrative. As in How Few Remain, the author gives full recognition to social and economic factors (e.g., how conscription impacts politics; how labor shortages affect the position of barely emancipated blacks in the Confederacy). He also plausibly depicts the opening stages of race war. In addition, he unleashes the horrors of trench warfare on American soil and shows how an American army of occupation might look from the point of view of the occupied Canadians. With shocking vividness, Turtledove demonstrates the extreme fragility of our modern world, and how much of it has depended on a United States of America. This is state-of-the-art alternate history, nothing less. Author tour. Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From School Library Journal
YA-Turtledove's love of history has been evident in many of his SF novels, and especially intriguing are his "alternative histories," in which he takes a pivotal event and twists it. In this sequel to How Few Remain (Del Rey, 1997), in which the Confederate States of America won the Civil War and established its independence, the author moves the action into the 20th century. With the outbreak of World War I, the U.S., led by Theodore Roosevelt, joins forces with an aggressive Germany and the C.S.A., led by Woodrow Wilson, aligns with France and Great Britain. Through well-developed military and civilian characters, Turtledove shows the horrors and the life of trench warfare reimagined here on North American soil with its mustard gas and advanced weaponry, and the lives of everyday people caught up in events beyond their control. A great choice for libraries needing superior materials for SF collections or for history discussion.John Lawson, Fairfax County Public Library, VACopyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Library Journal
Turtledove, whose "Worldwar" saga presented an alternate look at World War II, turns his attention to World War I in his latest projected series, set along the same timeline as How Few Remain (LJ 8/97). The outbreak of war in Europe in 1914 brings about a corresponding declaration of war in North America as the rival United and Confederate states side with their respective allies. Vignettes of trench warfare in Kentucky, Marxist uprisings among the second-class black population of the Confederate States of America, and daily life in "occupied" Canada (an ally of the Confederates) provide the author with various viewpoints from which to examine the cost of the war to end all wars. Fans of alternate history and military fiction buffs will demand this well-thought-out series opener. Recommended for most libraries. Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Kirkus Reviews
The master of alternate history returns with this sequel to How Few Remain (1997), wherein the Confederate States of America, with the help of backing from the French and British, won its independence. Later, its true, the CSA was forced to free its slaves, but otherwise little changed. Now, in 1914, President Teddy Roosevelt has allied with Germany, while the CSA and Woodrow Wilson are backed by Britain and France. Abraham Lincoln's brand of communism, however, has taken root, and even while WWI rages on American as well as European soil, the CSAs oppressed blacks prepare for the inevitable revolution. A workmanlike yarn whose connection to reality, insecure at the outset, grows more tenuous with every turning page. Expect another sequel. -- Copyright ©1998, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.


Review
"The definitive alternate history saga of its time."
--Booklist (starred review)

"THIS IS STATE-OF-THE-ART ALTERNATE HISTORY,
NOTHING LESS."
--Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"Harry Turtledove has established himself as the grand master of the alternative history form."
--Poul Anderson

"Harry Turtledove is, quite simply, the best . . . and he is getting even better."
--S. M. Stirling
   Author of Island in the Sea of Time


Review
"The definitive alternate history saga of its time."
--Booklist (starred review)

"THIS IS STATE-OF-THE-ART ALTERNATE HISTORY,
NOTHING LESS."
--Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"Harry Turtledove has established himself as the grand master of the alternative history form."
--Poul Anderson

"Harry Turtledove is, quite simply, the best . . . and he is getting even better."
--S. M. Stirling
   Author of Island in the Sea of Time


Book Description

When the Great War engulfed Europe in 1914, the United States and the Confederate States of America, bitter enemies for five decades, entered the fray on opposite sides: the United States aligned with the newly strong Germany, while the Confederacy joined forces with their longtime allies, Britain and France. But it soon became clear to both sides that this fight would be different--that war itself would never be the same again. For this was to be a protracted, global conflict waged with new and chillingly efficient innovations--the machine gun, the airplane, poison gas, and trench warfare.

Across the Americas, the fighting raged like wildfire on multiple and far-flung fronts. As President Theodore Roosevelt rallied the diverse ethnic groups of the northern states--Irish and Italians, Mormons and Jews--Confederate President Woodrow Wilson struggled to hold together a Confederacy still beset by ignorance, prejudice, and class divisions. And as the war thundered on, southern blacks, oppressed for generations, found themselves fatefully drawn into a climactic confrontation . . .


From the Publisher
Prof. Jack Hammersmith taught college history as though it was an adventure. People and places sprang alive, wars swept across the land, nations rose and fell. For the first time I really got the picture: this was adventure--and action, and excitement. All I could do was pity the folks who didn't get it.

When I began to work with Harry Turtledove, I arrived at another wonderful realization. The raw material of history can be fashioned into the adventure of a lifetime. HOW FEW REMAIN set a stage that had me drooling: the South, allied with Britain and France; the North, developing ties with Germany. All I could think of was, what about 1911.

You see, World War I really was "over there." Here in the USA, no one really saw the suffering, the death. But in THE GREAT WAR: AMERICAN FRONT, the action does bloody our land: the barbed wire, the mustard gas, the brand-spanking-new war in the sky. The North is in a really bad spot: Canada and the Confederacy are Allies. The USA is surrounded. War is over here. And in the course this four-book epic, people and places will once again spring to life (and die), war will sweep across the land, and the adventure will come alive.

                        --Steve Saffel, Senior Editor


From the Inside Flap
When the Great War engulfed Europe in 1914, the United States and the Confederate States of America, bitter enemies for five decades, entered the fray on opposite sides: the United States aligned with the newly strong Germany, while the Confederacy joined forces with their longtime allies, Britain and France. But it soon became clear to both sides that this fight would be different--that war itself would never be the same again. For this was to be a protracted, global conflict waged with new and chillingly efficient innovations--the machine gun, the airplane, poison gas, and trench warfare.

Across the Americas, the fighting raged like wildfire on multiple and far-flung fronts. As President Theodore Roosevelt rallied the diverse ethnic groups of the northern states--Irish and Italians, Mormons and Jews--Confederate President Woodrow Wilson struggled to hold together a Confederacy still beset by ignorance, prejudice, and class divisions. And as the war thundered on, southern blacks, oppressed for generations, found themselves fatefully drawn into a climactic confrontation . . .


From the Back Cover

"The definitive alternate history saga of its time."
--Booklist (starred review)

"THIS IS STATE-OF-THE-ART ALTERNATE HISTORY,
NOTHING LESS."
--Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"Harry Turtledove has established himself as the grand master of the alternative history form."
--Poul Anderson

"Harry Turtledove is, quite simply, the best . . . and he is getting even better."
--S. M. Stirling
Author of Island in the Sea of Time

FROM THE PUBLISHER

In How Few Remain, Harry Turtledove set the stage for his alternate history of World War I. Now, with The Great War: American Front, he carries this epic into the early twentieth century in a re-imagining of the fateful war that hurtled humanity into the modern age. Envision a divided America - one camp led by Theodore Roosevelt, the other by Woodrow Wilson - in the most explosive conflict humankind has seen, where global war is waged with sophisticated weaponry on American soil for the first time in history. When the Great War engulfed Europe in 1914, the United States and the Confederate States of America, bitter enemies for five decades, entered the fray on opposite sides: the United States aligned with the newly strong Germany, while the Confederacy joined forces with their allies, Britain and France. But it soon became clear to both sides that this fight would be different - that war itself would never be the same again. As President Theodore Roosevelt rallied the diverse ethnic groups of the northern states - Irish and Italians, Mormons and Jews - Confederate President Woodrow Wilson struggled to hold together a nation still beset by ignorance, prejudice, and class divisions. And as the war raged on, southern blacks, oppressed for generations, found themselves fatefully drawn toward a climactic confrontation.

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly

This masterpiece of alternate history takes place in the same world as Turtledove's How Few Remain and begins a projected tetralogy of a First World War fought with Germany and the U.S. allied against Britain, France and the Confederacy. The reader is drawn in at once as a German cruiser approaches Boston and Jeb Stuart III trains his artillery on the Capitol Dome, and Turtledove sustains high interest throughout the lengthy narrative. As in How Few Remain, the author gives full recognition to social and economic factors (e.g., how conscription impacts politics; how labor shortages affect the position of barely emancipated blacks in the Confederacy). He also plausibly depicts the opening stages of race war. In addition, he unleashes the horrors of trench warfare on American soil and shows how an American army of occupation might look from the point of view of the occupied Canadians. With shocking vividness, Turtledove demonstrates the extreme fragility of our modern world, and how much of it has depended on a United States of America. This is state-of-the-art alternate history, nothing less. Author tour. (June) (PW best book of 1998)

VOYA - Tom Pearson

In his previous book titled How Few Remain (Del Rey, 1997), Turtledove set the stage for this alternate history of World War I. In this world, the South triumphed in the Civil War and became the Confederate States of America (CSA). Now the CSA and the United States of America (USA) enter World War I as bitter enemies. The USA is allied with Germany, while the CSA is allied with Britain, France, and Canada. The USA invades the Upper South and Canada, and the fierce fighting that results produces huge numbers of casualties due to the use of new weapons such as poison gas, the machine gun, and the airplane. Readers familiar with this author's work will not be fazed by the dizzying variety of characters, locales, and events depicted. Entirely fictional characters rub elbows with historical personages like Woodrow Wilson, Theodore Roosevelt, and George Armstrong Custer (who in this reality managed to avoid his date with destiny at the Little Big Horn). Locales include a fishing trawler, occupied Washington, D.C., and a CSA prison for captured USA soldiers. As a Turtledove fan, I truly enjoyed this book, and found it charming the way his alternate histories sidle through history like snakes in a room full of razor blades. The problem with this author's alternate histories, however, is that much of their wit and charm is entirely lost on persons with little knowledge of history (i.e., high school students). Therefore, purchase of this book is recommended only where alternate histories in general or Turtledove in particular have already proven popular. VOYA Codes: 4Q 2P S (Better than most, marred only by occasional lapses, For the YA with a special interest in the subject, Senior High-defined as grades 10 to 12).

Library Journal

Turtledove, whose "Worldwar" saga presented an alternate look at World War II, turns his attention to World War I in his latest projected series, set along the same timeline as How Few Remain (LJ 8/97). The outbreak of war in Europe in 1914 brings about a corresponding declaration of war in North America as the rival United and Confederate states side with their respective allies. Vignettes of trench warfare in Kentucky, Marxist uprisings among the second-class black population of the Confederate States of America, and daily life in "occupied" Canada (an ally of the Confederates) provide the author with various viewpoints from which to examine the cost of the war to end all wars. Fans of alternate history and military fiction buffs will demand this well-thought-out series opener. Recommended for most libraries. [Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 2/15/98; for another book by Turtledove, written under the pseudonym H.R. Turteltaub, see Justinian, reviewed above.--Ed.]

Library Journal

A master of alternative history pits the United States against the Confederate States during World War I.

School Library Journal