The Disunited States of America (Crosstime Traffic, #4)

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The Disunited States of America (Crosstime Traffic #4)

3.35 of 5 stars 3.35 · rating details · 336 ratings · 39 reviews

Time travel doesn't work. You can't go backward or forward; you're stuck at "now". What you can do is travel sideways, to the same "now" in another timeline where history turned out differently.

So far, only our home timeline has figured out how to do that. We use Crosstime Traffic to conduct discreet trading operations in less advanced timelines, selling goods just a littl...more

Hardcover, 288 pages

Published September 5th 2006 by Tor Books

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Nov 22, 2012 Stephanie rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Précis A teenage boy and his mother travel to an alternate timeline via Crosstime Traffic, a provider of this service to anyone willing to pay for the unusual vacation of sorts. They are going to Virginia and in this alternate slavery is still the norm as the Constitution was never accepted and the sates are independent countries.

The boy, Justin Monroe, meets Beckie Royer who is visiting an aunt, who lives in Virginia, with her grandmother who is every granddaughter's worst nightmare. They are...more Précis A teenage boy and his mother travel to an alternate timeline via Crosstime Traffic, a provider of this service to anyone willing to pay for the unusual vacation of sorts. They are going to Virginia and in this alternate slavery is still the norm as the Constitution was never accepted and the sates are independent countries.

The boy, Justin Monroe, meets Beckie Royer who is visiting an aunt, who lives in Virginia, with her grandmother who is every granddaughter's worst nightmare. They are from California which, in this timeline, is a powerhouse nation and like many other states has outlawed slavery. Justin and Beckie become good friends and because Justin is supposed to be from the Virginia in this timeline he has difficulties with his attitudes toward slavery being against what the people of this timeline are. Beckie notices that there is something different about Justin and that is why she likes him.

While they are there a war breaks out between Virginia and Ohio. Ohio uses a biological agent which prevents Justin and his Mom from going back to their timeline even if he can find a way back to the town he came in to. Justin does come up with a plan that gets him back to Charleston and he comes up with a plan to return that is acceptable to Crosstime. He leaves a hint of who he is for Beckie but she never knows for sure.

Protagonist Justin Moore
Antagonist The alternate timeline

What I liked The timeline changes were interesting and the clue Justin leaves at the end is interesting.

What I didn’t like The story was very thin, the characters under-developed, the tension never came across and the pace was so-so.

Final Comments This is the first Harry Turtledove I've read and I am disappointed. Granted this is the fourth book in the 'Crosstime Traffic' series - seven books have been published so far - which could account for a mediocre effort since I found the story lackluster and plain. The main problem was the preachy nature of the slavery issue. It, not the story of Justin and Beckie was the driving force for the book. I understand the need to speak out against slavery and racial injustice, but I don't want it to dominate the novel.
Turtledove is a prolific writer and he has won a Hugo for a novella some years back. He is popular and frankly is the best known alternate history writer currently, so this cannot be his best effort. I have a few of his books on the shelf so I will have to pull one down and read it soon to compare. I hope and expect it will be better.
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Sep 07, 2012 Catherine Fitzsimmons rated it 2 of 5 stars

In a future in which travel between alternate realities is possible – in which changes in historical events make a very different present – two travelers become stranded in an America where the Constitution was never ratified, resulting in fractured city-states and a Georgia where politically mandated racism is alive and well.

I thought this was an interesting idea, though the writing failed to impress. It tried a little too hard at times to be clever and tongue-in-cheek, and some character react...more

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Aug 05, 2011 Diane Ferbrache rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: adventure, future, sci-fi, time-travel, war, washyarg, young-adult

Beckie is on a trip with her grandmother to visit old friends in Virginia. Justin is on a trip to Virginia to gain information he can parlay into a college scholarship. When Ohio unleashes a mutated virus that begins a race war in Virginia, the two teenagers are trapped in small town Virginia, longing to be back home.

Set in an alternate universe of the late 21st Century North America, this is a love story/coming of age drama masking as a time travel adventure. In this North America, there are ma...more

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May 06, 2011 Bath Book Shop rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: chelsea, fantasy, youngadult

Well, I can't really say this book was bad, but it wasn't very good.

The premise had so much promise, and then... it was really boring. I mean, I finished it, but I wasn't particularly happy about it.

The only things I actually liked about it were 1) Justin, the main character, uses the term "stephenkinging" to describe his (possibly justified) paranoia about being a stranger in a small town during a war, and 2) when discussing George Herman, the best rounders player who ever lived (in the "altern...more

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Jul 23, 2011 Aedan Lake rated it 3 of 5 stars

In a neat concept for a series, "Crosstime Traffic" is the story of travellers in alternate realities - a logical development for Turtledove, who has built his career around novels set in worlds removed from ours only by one small historical change (or in a couple of cases, by honking great SF twists such as invading aliens or time-travelling South African white supremacists).

Most of my knowledge of Turtledove comes from his fantastic series "Worldwar" (aliens invade in World War 2) and "Great W...more In a neat concept for a series, "Crosstime Traffic" is the story of travellers in alternate realities - a logical development for Turtledove, who has built his career around novels set in worlds removed from ours only by one small historical change (or in a couple of cases, by honking great SF twists such as invading aliens or time-travelling South African white supremacists).

Most of my knowledge of Turtledove comes from his fantastic series "Worldwar" (aliens invade in World War 2) and "Great War" (World War 1 in a reality where the South won the American Civil War). Both are sprawling multi-book epics with loads and loads of characters from a variety of races and species. "The Disunited States of America" is a slightly different beast. Revisiting one of Turtledove's favourite alternate history tropes, we get to see an America in which the USA has been broken into smaller parts. *Much* smaller parts in this case: rather than reusing the "South Wins" scenario, we instead see states that never managed to stay together and, by the late 21st Century, have been warring with each other for hundreds of years.

The action largely stays in Virginia (which is at war with Ohio) and follows just two protagonists - a bewildered Californian visiting her Grandmother's relatives, and an American from our reality who must avoid revealing his true identity. This makes for a mostly tight, slick story which restricts Turtledove's unfortunate tendency to ramble and repeat himself, apart from in a few instances (notably, we are continually reminded that white oppression of blacks persists in the Southern States, except in Mississippi where it is reversed. Considering that the plot never visits Mississippi, this becomes annoying). The worldbuilding in the Disunited States varies - much of the slightly-different slang in convincing enough, and rounders and association football being the sports of choice makes sense, but some of the hints about the outside world are a bit questionable and there's a Babe Ruth pun at one point that, while smartly set up, just frickin' hurts.

All in all, I'm not in any particular hurry to check out the rest of the series but it does make for an enjoyable brisk read and I'll probably drop back in at some point. (less)

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May 06, 2011 Deborah Ideiosepius rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: fantasy-sci-fi, urban-fantasy

I did enjoy this story, but not so much that I couldn't put it down. In fact I took a bit break and read another book before finishing it.

There are times when the reading experience becomes ‘work’ because of a certain unwieldy feeling to the writing style. Most of the characters also have a superficiality to them that leaves one uninvolved with their experiences.

Perhaps this reflects how the author felt while writing it; I did not realise until I logged on to goodreads that it was one in a ser...more

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Aug 21, 2012 Sarah rated it 3 of 5 stars

I had borrowed Rebecca's E-reader to read A Feast for Crows and A Dance With Dragons. After I was finished with those tomes I went poking around and stumbled upon The Disunited States of America. I start reading and it's semi-interesting. Then I begin to find familiar towns and places: Parkersburg, Wirt County, Elizabeth, Prunty. This is a dystopian alternative future set in West Virginia. I was hooked. The plot moves at a steady pace and it is easy to follow the concurrent story lines until the...more

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Apr 30, 2012 Donna rated it 2 of 5 stars

This is actually the fourth book in the CROSSTIME TRAFFIC series but I didn't know that when I took the book on for review. No worries though since it read pretty much as a standalone. I'm going to take a leaping guess here and assume that book one actually explains the whole concept of crosstime traffic and why Justin's home timeline thinks they're the only ones special enough to be able to travel across time. That whole concept just read really wrong to me. That only Justin's timeline had thos...more This is actually the fourth book in the CROSSTIME TRAFFIC series but I didn't know that when I took the book on for review. No worries though since it read pretty much as a standalone. I'm going to take a leaping guess here and assume that book one actually explains the whole concept of crosstime traffic and why Justin's home timeline thinks they're the only ones special enough to be able to travel across time. That whole concept just read really wrong to me. That only Justin's timeline had those capabilities and they kept altering other timelines for the "good" of that timeline, and to prevent them from traveling across time, again for the "greater good." Talk about playing god. This is where I might be missing something from other books and since the whys aren't explained in THE DISUNITED STATES OF AMERICA I'm kind of left wanting in that area. But my bad for picking up a series at book four.

As for the story within the greater CROSSTIME TRAFFIC story, it was, meh, okay. The voice did little for me as it was more omniscient and a bit schizophrenic at times. Becky's voice especially, in my opinion, kept changing and she would say things, like little sayings, that just didn't seem genuine to her character. It was kind of jarring. Justin was pretty constant in voice and development which leads me to believe that the author might have had a better time writing in either limited third or first via Justin as opposed to omniscient third. It just didn't really work out too well when he was in Becky's voice. The phrases were a little too kitschy and a lot of the times she sounded like what the author probably thought a teenage girl from California sounded like, in 1966. She was just really artificial in her structure to me.

The story itself passed by in a blur and I found myself skimming a lot. There was a lot of thinly veiled moralizing going on about inequality and "what if's" that I was kind of over it. I'm really not into fiction for morals so when I have one pressed at me I tend to zone out. The author also seemed to be really pushing the backstory of this particular timeline just as much as he was trying to push the story forward. There were a lot of info burps going on that were creating the cornerstone for this particular world and they always seemed to happen when there was a lull in the plot, which was often.

Not much really happened to the characters until the end of the story. The invasion itself didn't happen until at least two thirds of the way through and up until then it was a lot of talks in the back yard (seriously, every time Justin and Becky got together it was clunky storytelling in the backyard with fizzes, aka soda) and stuff happening on TV and the radio but nowhere near. And it doesn't play out like what the blurb, I think, insinuates. Or even by what the cover would intone. Once the fecal matter smacks against the rotating device Justin and Becky's paths deviate and they get where they need to go on their own. So the package was a bit deceptive because there wasn't much of a collaborative effort on their part.

All the blurbs in the book were raving about how awesome of an alt-history writer Turtledove is but what I saw was a really scattered plot, a piecemeal world and awkward writing, more often than not telling instead of showing. I felt relatively little for any of the characters and really the only redeeming part for me was when Justin had to step into the shoes of a soldier in order to get to his destination. That was really the only instance of suspense and true action I felt in the entire book. That was the only place where I actually got to SEE Justin as more than the author's puppet. Everything else was just yak, yak, yak and complain and coins. It felt empty.

I do like how it's a different take on the whole dystopian front. You know, instead of being an actual dystopian it's an alt-history that thus alters the present and future. It's a breath of fresh air in that regard. But outside of that I was unimpressed. Maybe if I'd started the series from the beginning I'd feel differently, with more background information on the home timeline and Justin's world but I'm really not sure how good that would do. I seem to have the most problems with the author's writing style. A bit harder to change.

Read THE DISUNITED STATES OF AMERICA if you're looking for something different than the standard dystopians out there. It really is a good break in that regard. Just be cognizant of the writing. It's not all that phenomenal.(less)

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Jun 30, 2011 Magan Vernon rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: arcs

Justin and his mother work for the Crosstime Traffic Corporation and spend their time traveling to different alternate universes from the home timeline of the late 21st century. In this fourth installment of Turtledove’s Crosstime novels, Justin and his mother travel to an alternate timeline in which the Constitution is never written and the Articles of Confederation failed to work. Each North American state has become like their own country and not all of the states are so friendly with each ot...more

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Dec 02, 2010 Scott Marlowe rated it 2 of 5 stars

The Disunited States of America by Harry Turtledove is an alternate history tale in which the Constitution of the United States was never written. The resulting fallout is that the "united states" become the "disunited states", with each state going down its own road. Advances in society, technology, etc. all occur at different rates within each state. Some still have slavery. Others have achieved the relative amount of equality we enjoy ourselves. Still others have reversed the white/black dich...more

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Jun 13, 2008 Garrett rated it 5 of 5 stars

Overall, I thought that the premise of the book was interesting and the science fiction parts cool. I also got lots of ideas for stories that I want to write.

But, that is about all the good I can say about this book. I found the rest pedantic and simplistic.

Setting: The alternate reality thing was cool. I would have liked to explore it more, but the author didn't do much elaborating and the characters were stuck in a small town for most of the book.

Plot: Again, interesting idea; not executed wel...more Overall, I thought that the premise of the book was interesting and the science fiction parts cool. I also got lots of ideas for stories that I want to write.

But, that is about all the good I can say about this book. I found the rest pedantic and simplistic.

Setting: The alternate reality thing was cool. I would have liked to explore it more, but the author didn't do much elaborating and the characters were stuck in a small town for most of the book.

Plot: Again, interesting idea; not executed well. It didn't really feel tied together. There did not seem to be any overarching reason to have this story except for the cool idea. It also didn't meet my expectations. It starts out with Becky as viewpoint character, but the story isn't ever really about her. Sure, it was a cool, attention-getting opening, but the author didn't deliver on the promise of what the story would be about, or of the importance of the character. On other big plot hole was the gift he gives to Becky at the end. How did he get it? With how careful the company seems to be with contaminating alternates and such, there is no way he'd have access to it. Sure, it's nice that he was able to give her that, and it puts some thoughts into her head - but that just points her down the road to discovering alternates too! How stupid was that, when he and the home timeline are so worried about it?

Conflict: Lots and lots of stuff going on. The author used false suspense a couple times (like when the boy gets his plan about getting back to the city, but the author skips telling us), and that really threw me out of the story.

Characters: The author did a pretty good job of creating characters that were somewhat complex, and creating conflicts between them. However, they kept having the same thoughts again and again throughout the story, showing that they weren't learning anything at all. And, while the characters had conflicts, nothing was ever really resolved between them. In fact, I expected Becky to be more important to the story and the alternate reality idea, but then it is basically dropped; no relationship is created.

Text: The author seems to be fond of including little aphorisms that supposedly come from the characters, but there are so many of them that they are rather distracting, and sometimes seem out of place.(less)

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Jan 23, 2008 Nick rated it 3 of 5 stars Recommends it for: People who liked Sliders

Shelves: alternate-history

The Crosstime series is intended for a young adult audience, generally featuring teens traveling between worlds. This fourth volume continues the story with yet another example of things going wrong. In this case, Justin is along for the ride when a war breaks out, in a world in which the United States...aren't united. The Constitution was never ratified, the Articles of Confederation were eventually seen as a toothless farce, and the country split apart. Historically, this is perhaps the most f...more

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Mar 01, 2013 Robert rated it 4 of 5 stars

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Jan 13, 2010 Linda rated it 2 of 5 stars

The idea is fantastic, the writing, not so much. The heroine is a twelve year old girl, something I am guessing the author has never been. I understand this is supposed to be for teens, although our library does not have it marked YA and I think even young adults would like more substance. Too bad.

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Jul 27, 2011 Mark Cheathem added it · review of another edition

Maybe it's because I read Turtledove's multi-volume series on what would have happened if the C.S.A. had won, but this book bored me to tears.

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Sep 08, 2011 Phil rated it 1 of 5 stars

Idea intrigued me but this is one of the most poorly written books I have ever read all the way through

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Aug 18, 2008 Eric rated it 1 of 5 stars

Shelves: ebooks, kindle, alt-history

This book was just too slow to start. The main characters have potential. However, they are both children in the company of adult guardians, and by halfway through the book, neither has really done anything. What action there is takes place "off-stage," and is just reported as news. The main characters just sit around and think about how different things are where they come from. I understand that the author wanted to get that point across, but he spent far too long (with too many repetitions) d...more

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Mar 26, 2011 Ann rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: child-hero, scifi

interesting idea, set in a many worlds multiverse, but really needed better editing.

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Dec 16, 2012 John rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: 1fiction, box8

An OK Turtledove book 0 not the top of his game about cross time travel - just ok.

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Jun 30, 2010 Austin ReBrook rated it 4 of 5 stars

A fascinating look at what could have been had the South won the Civil War.

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Mar 23, 2009 Jen rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: ebooks, dystopia, alternate-history

Nice alternate history; a little heavy-handed. Yes, they didn't use the word "people". Got it.

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May 01, 2008 Lisa rated it 4 of 5 stars

I don't usually enjoy books of this style. This one is just so well-written I couldn't help it. Mr. Turtledove makes his point without becoming trite or or tedious. The characters are charming (well, some of them are obnoxious, but they are supposed to be, so they're charming too). I found the plot rather predictable, but without being tiresome.

I think the main message of the book is HOPE. There are a million and one reasons to despair, but just a little glimmer of hope, and it's by clinging to...more

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Sep 14, 2012 Russell Dixon rated it 5 of 5 stars

Easy read and nice look at what could have happened

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Dec 06, 2012 Aaron rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

A hard, gritty, but ultimately fun novel.

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Aug 03, 2011 Steve added it · review of another edition

yawn

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Aug 21, 2008 Mark rated it 4 of 5 stars

The series is a YA (young adult) mish-mash of time-travel & alternate history... and yet, it works really well. Disnuited States isn't as "deep" as In High Places but it still packs a whallop, imaging a North American continent where the Articles of Confederation stayed in place & the states devolved into hi-tech balzanized countries.

So far, this is the best character writing on the series, as well as one of the more tightly plotted entries from Turtledove. Two big thumbs up!

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May 20, 2008 T.J. rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: alternate-history

Of the six books for Harry Turtledove's Crosstime series for teenagers, Disunited States is the strongest, and one I'd consider actually teaching in my high school U.S. History class. The major conceit in this novel is the idea that the Articles of Confederation were left to stand and the states became their own feuding republics, a la Latin America. It's a strong and engaging stand-alone novel, although the grandmother in the book gets mighty irritating by page four.

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Nov 24, 2007 Geoff Spakes rated it 2 of 5 stars

This was a typical Turtledove read, light, quick and reasonably (is that a word?) enjoyable. The one big pet peeve I have about his writing is he'll tell you an in-story fact literally a dozen or more time. One or two times is fine to help the point sink in, but after the 5th or 6th it gets really old and just seems like filler. Like many of his books I've read I found myself skimming alot towards then end just to get finished and to the resolution.

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Aug 07, 2008 John rated it 3 of 5 stars

While I found the premise interesting, the characters and situation didn't quite grab me. I hesitate to us the word "formulaic" but the characters certainly felt cookie-cutter to me and I can't really think of a chapter or event that jumped out as memorable to me.

I've heard very good things about Turtledove's historical fiction so I'm willing to give it another try but based solely on this one, I'd probably pass on other works.

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Sep 29, 2012 Dani Ben rated it 1 of 5 stars

I'm not big on the South and books about the era of racial inequality. I think this might have been a good writing exercise, but it so didn't work as a novel. I only finished because I'd gotten so far in it before putting it down for 8 months. Mr. Turtledove, were you even trying here?

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About Harry Turtledove

Dr Harry Norman Turtledove is an American novelist, who has produced a sizeable number of works in several genres including alternate history, historical fiction, fantasy and science fiction.

Harry Turtledove attended UCLA, where he received a Ph.D. in Byzantine history in 1977.

Turtledove has been dubbed "The Master of Alternate History". Within this genre he is known both for creating original sce...more

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Books by Harry Turtledove

Worldwar: In the Balance (Worldwar, Book 1)

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