Return Engagement (Settling Accounts, #1)

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Return Engagement (Settling Accounts #1)

3.84 of 5 stars 3.84 · rating details · 1,069 ratings · 33 reviews

Harry Turtledove’s remarkable alternative history novels brilliantly remind us of how fragile the thread of time can be, and offer us a world of “what if.” Drawing on a magnificent cast of characters that includes soldiers, generals, lovers, spies, and demagogues, Turtledove returns to an epic tale that only he could tell–the story of a North American continent, separated...more Harry Turtledove’s remarkable alternative history novels brilliantly remind us of how fragile the thread of time can be, and offer us a world of “what if.” Drawing on a magnificent cast of characters that includes soldiers, generals, lovers, spies, and demagogues, Turtledove returns to an epic tale that only he could tell–the story of a North American continent, separated into two bitterly opposed nations, that stands on the verge of exploding once again.

In 1914 they called it The Great War, and few could imagine anything worse. For nearly three decades a peace forged in blood and fatigue has held sway in North America. Now, Japan dominates the Pacific, the Russian Tsar rules Alaska, and England, under Winston Churchill, chafes for a return to its former glory. But behind the façade of world order, America is a bomb waiting to go off. Jake Featherston, the megalomaniacal leader of the Confederate States of America, is just the man to light the fuse.

In the White House in Philadelphia, Socialist President Al Smith is a living symbol of hope for a nation that has been through the fires of war and the flood tides of depression. In the South, Featherston and his ruling Freedom Party have put down a Negro rebellion with a bloody fist and have interned them in concentration camps. Now they are determined to crush their Northern neighbor at any cost.

Featherston’s planes attack Philadelphia without warning. The U.S.A. lashes back blindly at Charleston. And a terrible second coming is at hand. When the CSA blitzkrieg is launched, the U.S.A. is caught flat-footed. Before long, the gray Army reaches Lake Erie. But in its wake the war machine is spinning a vortex of destruction, betrayal, and fury that no one, not even Jake Featherston himself, can control.

Now, President Smith faces a Herculean task, while an obscure assistant secretary of war named Roosevelt rises in his ranks. For the U.S.A., the darkest days still lay ahead. Across the globe, a new era of war has just begun. And in the hands of the incomparable Harry Turtledove, readers are treated to a masterful vision of what might have been. An enduring portrait of history, nations, and human nature in its many manifestations, Return Engagement is a monumental journey into the second half of the twentieth century.

From the Hardcover edition.(less)

Hardcover, 640 pages

Published August 3rd 2004 by Del Rey

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Apr 05, 2009 Kallierose rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

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May 06, 2012 Wayne rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction

Good to get back into the Timeline-191 books. I like the general storyline and there are enough differences that it is interesting to see where Turtledove is going to divert from history's real timeline and where the same stuff happens regardless.
I'm sorry to see that he isn't writing in any characters that are actually objecting to Featherston's Final Solution. Lot's of people object to Featherston, but noone seems to care that he is slaughtering millions of Negroes. And I thought Jean M. Auel ...more

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Jun 14, 2011 Chris rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I wish I could give 1/2 star ratings for books, because this is more of a 3.5-star than a flat 3 star.

I enjoy this series not because it's especially wonderful writing (it's not bland, but it's not exactly riveting either), but because I find the setting and motion of history so interesting. And, with Turtledove, there is always the intellectual exercise of trying to spot which actual historical figures in our timeline are parallels for his characters. Sometimes this is almost criminally easy (I...more

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Jun 18, 2009 Meg rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2009books

Harry Turtledove has some interesting propositions in this book. I think I would have been better served to read his Great War series before picking this one up, but the library didn't have the first in the series, so I started with this. The book is very engaging, easy to read... gives you a lot to think about. My only complaints are the number of characters (there are so many that it took me about 350 pages in to get them all straight, and even then missed 2 important connections that I should...more

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Feb 02, 2012 Eric Bauman rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: read-in-2012

This book is the first of a new four-book series but it is also a continuation of the mammoth story and alternate history that Turtledove has written about in the book “How Few Remain,” the trilogy called “The Great War” and the trilogy called “American Empire”. This mega-series starts with the assumption that the Confederacy won the Civil War (War of Secession, War of Northern Aggression, whatever you want to call it). In the 1880s, the United States and the CSA have another war—again the Confe...more This book is the first of a new four-book series but it is also a continuation of the mammoth story and alternate history that Turtledove has written about in the book “How Few Remain,” the trilogy called “The Great War” and the trilogy called “American Empire”. This mega-series starts with the assumption that the Confederacy won the Civil War (War of Secession, War of Northern Aggression, whatever you want to call it). In the 1880s, the United States and the CSA have another war—again the Confederacy wins—but this time, the CSA annexes a couple of Mexican states to be part of their nation.

“The Great War", as the name implies, is an alternate World War I, where the US is allied with Germany and the CSA is allied with Britain and France. USA and Germany are triumphant in their respective battles and an uneasy peace settles in North America.

“American Empire” details the 1920s and 1930s in America. The Confederacy are drowning trying to pay reparations and the world economy collapses. A radical leader becomes head of a fringe party and becomes President of the CSA and is yearning for a fight.

“Return Engagement” begins on the night of June 22, 1941, with Jake Featherston, the President of the CSA, sending bombers over Philadelphia and beginning an undeclared war. Within the first few months of the start of the war, he launches troops up through Ohio and essentially severs the Eastern US from the West. He has also formed prison camps which were started to hold political prisoners, but soon they are filled to overflowing with blacks.

The parallels between the history presented by Mr. Turtledove and real history are fascinating to watch. As with his other books, he has many stories going at the same time (probably between ten and fifteen), so the scope is huge and you really need to pay attention as you read. However, by having all of these different stories, you get a really good idea of what’s going on and how it is affecting various groups in various areas of North America.

My one quibble with Mr. Turtledove is that it seems as though in each book, he finds a word that he really likes and uses it throughout the book. In this one, it’s “flabble;” everybody flabbles, and many different people who probably shouldn’t know the work use it. He also tends to have many characters say the same phrases over and over like saying “I won’t say that you’re wrong” instead of “You’re right.” It is a minor quibble, though, as the ideas of the author are so interesting.
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May 13, 2009 Mikolaj Habryn rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Dreary. Like most of these types of book, there's a plethora of individual stories unfloding in different places at the same time. Unlike the better exemplars, there's very little co-ordination between them in timing or pace. Also, it's alternative history, which, as I may have mentioned a time or six, I generally have no truck with. Still, I did manage to get all the way through it, albeit rolling my eyes at the caricatured characters (can't risk any confusion between good and evil!), and I sus...more

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Mar 26, 2009 Andy rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: ebooks

This book was free (for the Kindle), and that's part of the reason I read it. The genre of alternative history has always been something that sounded interesting, but I'd never read any.

Well, the writing is absolutely terrible: Cliches abound; literary crutches that didn't work a first time reused several times, sometimes within a few pages; terrible representation of Southern dialect; lots of things that just annoy the heck out of me.

If I had realized this book was 640 pages long, I would have...more

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Feb 16, 2012 Holden Attradies rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: alternative-history, fiction

The action in this volume of the series is really steady and the war its self is fascinating. During this volume I felt I could guess where things were pretty much going, but by the end of the book I felt like what is going to happen next will not be so easy to predict.

One thing that seem to stand out in this volume was how for the first time in a while the narration seemed a little unbalanced between the sides of the wars. We get to see into both the highest and lowest parts of the Confederate...more The action in this volume of the series is really steady and the war its self is fascinating. During this volume I felt I could guess where things were pretty much going, but by the end of the book I felt like what is going to happen next will not be so easy to predict.

One thing that seem to stand out in this volume was how for the first time in a while the narration seemed a little unbalanced between the sides of the wars. We get to see into both the highest and lowest parts of the Confederate States as well as civilian, government, and military characters. On the U.S. side of the story you didn't get quite that grand of a view, there seemed little civilian point of view and you only got to see the bottom and middle parts of the government/military.

I'm not so sure this is a bad thing because at this point in the story most of the things I want to see in detail are happening in the C.S.A. Above all the most fascinating thing is the situation with the C.S.A.'s blacks. It's horrifying and mesmerizing at the same time, like a gory scary movie you know is going to scare and disgust you but you can't look away. Knowing what it parallels in real history, knowing where it's headed, makes it all that harder to look away from. It's so discomforting and I feel such fear and apprehension for these fictional characters stuck in that situation, which I as the reader know is only going to get worse. The worst part is thinking, "what would I do in that situation?" and knowing there really would be no good or safe choice other than to have not been in that situation.

This part of the series also had me pondering some of the ways that books as a story telling medium are so different as t.v. or movies. I don't see how this series could ever be turned into any kind of tv/movie, not just because of it's length but its content. By taking that one simple historical what if and extrapolating out as far as the author does I think it would make too many American's think too much about the American spirit and look at how close parts of us came to decisions that are so much worse than those we have made as a people.(less)

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Feb 04, 2011 Julie rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: kindle, historical-fiction

I really didn't like this book at first but it grew on me as I read on and got used to Mr. Turtledove's writing style. At first it seemed like he jumped to point of view to point of view without any connection and it was hard to follow who the character was, what side they were on and where they were located. As I got used to it the premise of the book caught me more than anything else. This is a "what-if" scenario, what-if the Civil War ended differently and the USA was split into the CSA (Conf...more

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Apr 18, 2008 The other John rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: alternate-history, borrowed

It occurred to me that this Timeline-191 series is like a big ol' soap opera. The books jump between dozens of characters, each caught up in their own little stories, which together make up a larger tale. I was impressed by the format in the first volume that I read of this series, now it seems like just another formula. There are times I get tired hearing that Scipio once served as the head butler for Anne Colleton, or that Mary Pomeroy's brother was unjustly executed by the occupying American...more

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Mar 01, 2008 Mike rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction

This book is the beginning of the end of a long-running series taking place in an alternate time line where the Confederacy won the Civil War. This book begins what we know as the Second World War. The twist is that since the South won the Civil War, they are a sovereign nation that has allied itself with several European powers against the North. The South opens the war with a blitzkreig of their own, attempting to cut the USA in half by driving through Ohio to the Great Lakes.

I was skeptical...more

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Sep 20, 2007 David Lee rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Personally, I'm a fan of alternate histories and the "what-if" scenarios that people can spend days dreaming up about. This series in particular goes on the "What-if" scenario of the Gettysburg campaign in the civil war. Naturally, there's more books preceding this particular one, but this book covers the path of the Confederate States of America successfully seceding (try saying THAT several times quickly!) and becoming its own nation, especially when pressure from France and the United Kingdom...more

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Apr 15, 2009 Robert rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: people who ask what if?

This book was a little long winded, and I didn't feel as though I could really get into the characters. Its seemed to spend the entire first half building, with nothing to enjoy. The scope and imagination that Harry Turtledove has is amazing though, and I really think his alternate history is plausible or disturbing even.

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Mar 30, 2009 James rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: action, character-studies, culture-and-politics, fantasy, military, period-fiction

The alternate history track begun with a change in the outcome of the Civil War is finally heading toward a conclusion - in some ways I don't want it to be over. World War II begins with the CSA, under a Nazi-like regime and leader, fighting the USA.

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Jun 29, 2010 Michael is currently reading it · review of another edition

Good alternate history series. Posits that the South won the Civil War and this story parallels the Second World War in our timeline. Previous novels in the series detailed the Civil War, the First World War, The '30s and the Great Depression.

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May 09, 2010 Cathy Hurt marked it as to-read · review of another edition

This is the first of a trilogy, but actually book 7 of a 9 book series. I'm about a third of the way through & keep feeling like I'd enjoy this more if I started at book 1. Although the author does a good job of filling in the back story.

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Mar 30, 2013 Kelli marked it as to-read

I registered a book at BookCrossing.com!
http://www.BookCrossing.com/journal/11799794

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May 29, 2009 Melanie rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Got this book free for my Kindle. So far, not impressed even though Harry Turtledove is a well-known science fiction author. It's an alternate history based on the South winning the US Civil War.

FINALLY finished this loser of a book. What is my problem? Why don't I stop when I know the book is bad? I had this weird feeling that the page after I stopped reading the book would totally turn around and I would miss something great. NEVER HAPPENED.

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Jun 01, 2012 Enzo rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I love the alternative Histories of Turtledove, these alternatives really make you think what would have happened, had not the north won?

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Mar 06, 2008 Jack Bell rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

One of my problems with the previous books in the Southern Victory series was the creeping pornography. Each book seemed to have more and more sex scenes than the last one. When you read a book where the main drive is war and politics, you don't want to be bothered with sex. After all, you probably picked up this book to read about Jake Featherston, Irwin Morrell, and the rest of the gang. Thankfully, Turtledove has revised his stance and has reduced these to mere sentence-long euphenisms, which...more

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Apr 16, 2013 Erik rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

More like a 3.5

Not bad, but some major characters get killed off for no better reason than to switch narrators...

At least they were killed off a bit more ceremoniously than Victorious Opposition.

There really isnt enough world building at this point. THe interwar novels were good at giving a sense of the culture/environment of the confederacy.

Airplanes/vehicles/etc need more description - otherwise im just htinking of like "B-27 but with confederate paint" or "junker dive bomber with confederate...more

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May 30, 2009 Hillary rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: kindle

Finally finished. Had a hard time with the last 15% or so of the book. Got kind of hard to follow.

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Jul 30, 2011 Jason rated it 4 of 5 stars

The first book in the last set of books started with "How Few Remain" in wich a Confederate victor happens in the Civil war placing North and South on opposite sides in world war two.

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Apr 25, 2010 Renato rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

just finished this book,i think i might do something a little more exciting now like washing my hair!

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Oct 02, 2009 Mush rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Good alternate history; about 1/3 of the way through. Reading Kindle format on iPod Touch.

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Jan 04, 2008 John rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Yet another in Turtledove's alternate history series. It's ... OK. I care enough about the series to keep reading, and some of the characters I also care about - but many of the characters are essentially plot points, and I have some quibbles about the way he's handled the story line. There is some value to pondering the "it CAN happen here", but that was done better in a short story of the same title years ago.

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Jan 27, 2011 Kb rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

After 8 installments, I'm still enjoying this series, and it's amazing to think of how far I've come. I started in the late 19th Century and am now in the middle of what is essentially WW2 on American soil. A friend of mine recently asked me about the "war novels" I've been reading. There's more to it than just the war, particularly the racial aspect of it.

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Jun 16, 2009 Doug Allen rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

free on amazon . . . we'll see.

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Mar 11, 2008 Rick rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: alternative-history

This was good. One of Turtledove's best series. Still, occasional cliches and over-used imagery detracts a little from this. That said, I look forward to the rest of the series and really like how this particular series plays with history and what might have been.

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Mar 30, 2013 Lee rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Good. Hard to read at times and hard to follow since it is Alternative history but worth the read if you like it and I will try the next one just going to take a break and read something else...

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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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Return Engagement (Settling Accounts #1)

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