Return Engagement

Settling Accounts #1

by Harry Turtledove

From Book 1: “[Harry Turtledove] handles his huge cast with admirable skill. The insights into racial politics elevate this novel to a status above mere entertainment, although it provides that aplenty.”—Publishers Weekly

It’s 1941, and an alliance of peace holds in check the most powerful nations of the world—but it is an uneasy peace. Japan dominates the Pacific, the Russian tsar rules Alaska, and England, under Winston Churchill, chafes for a return to its former glory.

Behind this façade of world order, America is a bomb waiting to explode. Jake Featherston, the megalomaniacal leader of the Confederate States of America, is just the man to light the fuse. Opposite him is Al Smith, a Socialist U.S. president in the Philadelphia White House. Smith is a living symbol of hope for a nation that has been through the hell of war and depression.

Featherston and his Freedom Party are determined to conquer their Northern neighbor at any cost. After crushing a Negro rebellion in his own nation, Featherston sends Confederate army planes to attack Philadelphia. In the aftermath of the CSA blitzkrieg, the war machine spins a vortex of destruction, betrayal, and fury that no one—not even Jake Featherston himself—can control.

“Turtledove plays heady games with actual history, scattering object lessons and bitter ironies along the way. [Return Engagement features] strong, complex characters against a sweeping alt-historical background.”—Kirkus Reviews

“Another absorbing installment of [Turtledove’s] character-centered alternate-history saga.”—Booklist

Genres: Alternate History, Fiction, Science Fiction, Historical Fiction, War, Fantasy, Military Fiction

657 pages, Paperback

First published August 3, 2004

About the author

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 scenarios: such as survival of the Byzantine Empire; an alien invasion in the middle of the World War II; and for giving a fresh and original treatment to themes previously dealt with by other authors, such as the victory of the South in the American Civil War; and of Nazi Germany in the Second World War.

His novels have been credited with bringing alternate history into the mainstream. His style of alternate history has a strong military theme.

Reviews

[Tomislav · Rating 3 out of 5]

20 April 2009 - These comments are for Return Engagement, Settling Accounts #1, Southern Victory #8.

But first, here is a taxonomy of Harry Turtledove’s 11-volume alternate history sequence, known as Southern Victory or Timeline-191. Book #1 is a singleton, titled How Few Remain. Books #2-4 are The Great War trilogy (American Front, Walk in Hell, Breakthroughs). Books #5-7 are The American Empire trilogy (Blood and Iron, The Center Cannot Hold, The Victorious Opposition). Books #8-11 are The Settling Accounts tetralogy (Return Engagement, Drive to the East, The Grapple, In at the Death. All 11 should be read in strict order; there is historical and character continuity across the entire sequence. I read them in clusters by trilogy/tetralogy.

I have become addicted to the Southern Victory sequence. I've been following the characters, and the characters' children, and the characters' children's children through their lives in this alternate history soap opera since I read the first one about eight years ago. The concept began with the Confederate States achieving independence in the civil war of the 1860s. The "Settling Accounts" tetralogy is set in the 1940s where a war remarkably parallel to World War II is being fought in North America. In this volume, USA President Al Smith has been duped into giving up Kentucky in a naive land-for-peace deal with the CSA. But then the CSA launches a blitzkrieg into Ohio complete with dive-bombers, tank-supported infantry, and genocidal extermination camps. The dialog is shallow, and the character descriptions are repetitive, but I just can't quit it now. Even though we all know how WW2 ends, I am just fascinated by the re-telling with North American landmarks and characters.

[Wayne · Rating 4 out of 5]

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 was bad at repeating herself. Turtledove spends so much time switching from character to character that he doesn't seem to realize that he's said the same thing twenty times. How many times to I have to hear about Sam Carsten's fair skin and hatred of sun burns? We got in the first six books Harry. I think if anyone is reading this book they are already a fan. You don't have to repeat yourself over and over again for each character.
After all of that ranting you'll notice I still gave it 4 stars. Still a good read.

[Nadienne Williams · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another absolutely wonderful entry into this series, the continuing saga of the Southern Victory.

This story, the product of Mr. Turtledove's prolific and well-informed imagination takes us through the opening phases of a very different World War II. The players are the United States of America aligned with the German, Austro-Hungarian, and Ottoman Empires against the Confederate States of America, France, the United Kingdom, Japan, and the Russian Empire. However, this time around, the fascists are in control of the latter grouping...more or less.

Without an ocean to protect us, the United States is taking quite a pounding from the Confederate States, who are equally pounded in return. One can only wonder what a 2020 United States would look like when most of the Eastern States would carry the scars of war after war after war.

I found this one to be a very entertaining read, with lots of interesting character development. However, the plight of African-Americans in the Confederacy is both disgusting and despicable...no doubt as its meant to be - and a mirror on what occurred in our own time. I find it somewhat darkly comical that one of the characters makes mention that she is stunned by these events and that even the Germans aren't this evil...oh, irony...

[Ryan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Looking for nostalgia - got it. I never finished this series as a teenager so going back as an adult is fun, and I got exactly what I thought I'd be getting but ...

a) I'm embarrassed at not catching the obvious references (Irving Morrell = Erwin Rommel, Anne Colleton = Anne Coulter, Don Partridge = Dan Quayle), and

b) it's too damn long. Like I love all the different viewpoints and getting a mix of higher-up and in-the-trenches folks but I started asking myself at the end of each section "how did this advance the plot?". Then I stopped doing that very quickly because in most cases it didn't feel like it did really. You could keep all the viewpoint characters, but chop like 40% of each of their chapters, and I think still have a very serviceable book.

Onwards and upwards.

[Bobby Phillips · Rating 2 out of 5]

From about 2001 to 2008, when I was still in high school and undergraduate studies, I was a voracious fan of Mr. Turtledove’s works. I completely finished his Worldwar saga, read all the way up through the American Empire trilogy, and devoured not a few of his single-shot novels. Now, after a hiatus on reading-for-fun during grad school, I’ve finally come back to finish Turtledove’s epic Southern Victory saga, but the charms are finally beginning to wear thin.

Most of the problems with Turtledove’s Settling Accounts: Return Engagment are the very same problems he’s always had. For instance, there are 15+ perspective characters, but I’m hard pressed to care about any of them, because they’re all cookie-cutter cross-sections of society who generally share the exact same habits of thinking (the sole exception being Nazi-esque characters, who are constantly in a bipolar rage and never have any more depth than the average YouTube comment). And we follow up on each character exactly every three chapters for exactly 5 pages, even if nothing interesting is going on in their piece of the cross-section (which is the majority of the time). Maybe I’ve just grown spoiled by the character development in George R.R. Martin’s fiction. Maybe I’m expecting too much from the modern-day equivalent of a pulp fiction story. But I’ve grown to expect more from the “master” of alternate history, and he doesn’t deliver.

But the especial fault with Return Engagement is a sort of intensification of an old one of Turtledove’s: lazy worldbuilding. Turtledove’s strategy with this installment is the same tired formula of cutting and pasting different names and nationalities onto existing history. It’s only that here, the Elmer’s glue is practically soaking the pages. To put it bluntly, the entire Settling Accounts tetralogy is a not-too-clever smear of American neo-conservatism. The Confederate States of America’s bumbling vice president is named “Don Partridge” (i.e. Dan Quayle), the vindictive former plantation owner-turned-agitator is named "Anne Colleton" (i.e. Ann Coulter), George H.W. Bush is a Confederate pilot despite his family coming from Ohio in real history, and General Patton’s neocon-like foreign policy is shoehorned into the Confederacy despite his mother hailing from California in real history. The sheer offensiveness of this (and I’m not speaking from any love of neocons) would be tolerable if only it were offset by suspense over the outcomes. But because I know how real history played out, I already know that the C.S.A. loses in Book 4, that the secret weapon F.D.R. is developing is the atomic bomb, and that Jefferson Pinkard’s political prisoner camps are going to evolve into a parallel Holocaust, but with Blacks. Turtledove’s storytelling imagination seems limited to the initial idea for the story.

But if you know all that going in and just want to see a really general picture of what WWII might have looked like on American soil, the Settling Accounts series is a fair read. And if you are willing to wade through pages and pages of being reminded for the 100th time in idiotically blunt terms that Joshua Blackford is a cocksure preteen, that Leonard O'Doull curses in Quebecois French, and that Sam Carsten religiously applies zinc oxide to his skin every time he's not north of the Arctic Circle, Return Engagement is at least a mildly entertaining introduction to real history.

[Conor Brandt · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 ⭐️

It’s really good. The best alternate history I’ve read. The South is an evil dictatorship, as it would’ve been. They utilize the fear of african americans to unite their disparate nation behind Southern Hitler’s ideas.

The North isn’t perfect, but they are the good guys. They are surprise attacked and you can’t help but root for them.

Really quite good.

[Chris · Rating 3 out of 5]

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 (Irvin Morrel = Erwin Rommel), and sometimes you have to kind of convince yourself on the similarities (Clarence Potter = Wilhelm Canaris).

I find I care for some characters more than others. Well, I guess that's misleading. It'd be better to say, "I find I care for a few characters and just don't give a damn about anyone else." But Turtledove organizes these stories almost like an oral history -- he tells the story of his new timeline through the experiences of two dozen average (or not-so-average) people that lived during this time. Instead of forcing "The Confederates took Columbus, Ohio!" down our throats, we actually see the effects of the military offensive in Ohio from every viewpoint - generals, regular soldiers, civilians near and far. It's neat.

Anyway, I'm going to read the next one (I have to finish the series), but I'm gonna wait awhile.

[Daniel A. · Rating 4 out of 5]

There was a time, fifteen-odd years ago when Settling Accounts: Return Engagement originally came out, that I was reading almost no fiction—and not much of anything else—other than Harry Turtledove's so-called Timeline-191 series; as such, I burned out on the series at about this point, and haven't picked it up since 2004 or thereabouts. However, as I've necessarily learned how to pace myself with my reading, I started Return Engagement again, and I'm glad it holds up from my twentysomething memory.

The opening salvo (play on terminology intended) in the final tetralogy of the series, Return Engagement essentially tells about the start of the Confederacy's Blitzkrieg against the United States in an analog of the Second World War in a world in which the Confederacy won the Civil War after the Battle of Antietam. As with the actual history, Settling Accounts allies Germany, Austria-Hungary, and the Ottoman Empire on one side and Great Britain, France, Russia, and Japan on the other; it features some of the same historical characters, such as Gen. George Patton (as a general for the Confederacy, no less!), Franklin D. Roosevelt (as an Assistant Secretary of the Navy for the United States), Louis Armstrong (as "Satchmo/Sennacherib", a Black musician from the Confederacy who defects to the United States), and other famous (and [much, much] less famous) names; and, sadly, it contains an analog to the Shoah, in which Confederate President Jake Featherston and his collaborators seek to exterminate all Black folks in the Confederacy, in a progression much the same as the Nazis did in the actual Second World War, to the exclusion of all other military considerations. Turtledove does an adept job both at original storytelling and at conveying this analog to actual history; he all-too-familiarly treads the path of racial politics, such that not merely Black folks in the U.S.A. and C.S.A., but also Jewish and non-Northern and Western European people, are viewed significantly differently by all in this world, and decidedly not for the better. Turtledove makes the unspoken but compelling case—pretty much obvious in the real world as well—that it was the United States' victory in the Civil War that enabled racial politics to transcend slavery even to the shitty extent we have accomplished in 2021; sadly, all too many aspects of Turtledove's WWII seem all too possible in modern 'Murica. (It's also interesting to see the two main political parties in the United States as the Socialists [as the leftist party, along with the rump Republican Party that remains after the disastrous Second Mexican War] and the Democrats [as the right-wing, more "reactionary" party, in the words of Cong. Flora Hamburger and other Socialists]; to that end, Franklin Roosevelt and Pres. Al Smith are Socialists, whereas Pres. Theodore Roosevelt, Herbert Hoover, and Calvin Coolidge are/were Democrats—which says all one needs to know about the world of Timeline-191, as does the fact that known white supremacist Woodrow Wilson was President of the Confederacy at one point.)

Where Return Engagement mostly fails for me, is the actual usage of racial slurs and other hateful language in the book. I fully recognize that in 2004 it wasn't as widely accepted to redact these words, even if their fictional/historical usage is entirely accurate, but I still find it troubling at the very least and a serious mar on the otherwise well-executed story, particularly as Turtledove presents as a cis-het white male. Not having read a significant amount of more recent works by Turtledove, I don't know whether he would do differently, but given his well-established progressivism, if he doesn't in fact do so, it's seriously disappointing. (That Turtledove might use antisemitic slurs, both in Settling Accounts and in more recent works, is, if not more acceptable, less hurtful, if only because Turtledove also is openly and identifiably Jewish, along the lines that it feels less hurtful to me, at least as a Jewish person myself, to see a Jewish person use antisemitic language solely in the milieu of pure fiction.) All that being said, Turtledove's Black folks largely have agency and actual and different personalities between themselves, as do most, if not all, other "perspective" characters, so at least that's a comfort amidst the racism endemic to the world of Return Engagement.

On some level, while I wish writers of alternate history wouldn't continually default to writing about "What if [the Civil War/World War II] came out differently?", among other absurdly common tropes in the subgenre, I feel as if that was less pronounced in an era more than a decade and a half ago when the Internet was less ubiquitous than it is today, even if only slightly. Add to that that Turtledove is a maestro at alternate history of any era (for example, his breakthrough, Agent of Byzantium, deals with a world in which the Prophet Muhammad became a Christian monk, and in which the Byzantine Empire subsequently never fell to the Ottomans, which is decidedly a less common theme for alternate history), and Return Engagement mostly succeeds, and succeeds well.

[Christopher · Rating 3 out of 5]

Turtledove's most compelling and grounded alt-history series enters WWII.

I've written before that good alt-history remains familiar without just replacing people and place names. Good alt-history remains grounded but still posits interesting and plausible "what-if" scenarios. Turtledove's "Timeline 191" series (of which this is the 9th volume) begins with the Confederates winning the Civil War which destroys the Republican Party (the novel "How Few Remain") and leads to the dominance of Socialists in what remains of the United States and a mild resurgence of the Whigs. While slavery technically ends in the CSA, the black population becomes a perennially oppressed underclass in the CSA.

The next volumes take us through a WWI between the CSA and USA (the "Great War" series) that sees the Confederates on the losing side but shows the rise of "barrels" (tanks) and their increasing employment as well as the introduction of a Confederate artillery officer "Jake Featherstone" who blames the black population of the CSA for the loss.

The next trilogy ("American Empire") shows the rise of the "Freedom Party" within the CSA led by the demagogic Featherstone who continues his harangues against those that "stabbed us in the back" in the first war with the USA -- including writing his own memoir "Over Open Sights." Featherstone becomes President of the CSA and begins reestablishing the CSA's military power through the production of more and more "barrels."

See where we're going here? It's an engaging and plausible timeline that leads into the Freedom Party's blitzkrieg attack into the USA and the development of the CSA's version of the Final Solution. The characters in this series run the gamut from junior soldiers to rebellious blacks in the CSA to camp guards to Hispanic citizens of the CSA and Mormon separatists in the USA. The characters themselves aren't deep but they represent a wide enough cross-section of elements to keep the story interesting.

[Andrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

The scope of this book is a bit staggering. At more than 600 pages, it is a bit daunting to realize that this is just the first of four books that detail this latest war between the USA and the CSA in Turtledove's alternate history of North America. However, like all of the previous books in this alternate history series, it is well paced, and a surprisingly fast read, considering the number of characters and locations included in this sweeping epic of a book.

The war (and the book) open with a surprise attack by the Confederate States upon the United States. The resulting offensive splits the United States in half, and Jake Featherston, fascist president of the CSA believes the USA will concede defeat. When they vow to fight on, it becomes clear that the war will drag on for some time to come.

Meanwhile, Featherston is not only following up on his promises to get revenge on the USA for its defeat of the CSA in the Great War, a generation earlier, but he is also setting in motion plans to bring his plans to address the problems of the black population of the CSA in ways that parallel the Nazi's "Final Solution".

For those who are already immersed in Turtledove's richly detailed alternate reality, this book gets the reader to the war that has been brewing through the last couple of books. Turtledove's vision for how history unfurls from his initial point is interesting, and shows certain parallels to our actual history that help shed light on the hows and whys of what really happened. I'm looking forward to the next book in the series.

[Patti · Rating 4 out of 5]

At the point that I began reading Settling Account: Return Engagement by Harry Turtledove, I was well invested in the series. There were seven books to the series before this one. I was looking forward to reading this since Turtledove seems to write much better about wartime than he does about the peace in between.

Settling Account: Return Engagement takes place in an alternate timeline where the Confederacy managed to win the Civil War. They fought with the United States twice since then. The first time they were victorious, the second time they weren’t. This laid the ground for the Nazi-like Freedom Party to rise up and gain control of the Confederacy, headed by the self-righteous lunatic Jake Featherston.

Al Smith is the Socialist President of the United States. He’s tried to maintain a peace, but that’s not what Featherston wants. The two nations clash once again in a vicious battle.

The Confederacy has attacked the United States. Featherston was on the front lines to see what went wrong last time, so here he’s shrewder than the military elite in the Great War (World War I) was. He also doesn’t mind going against some of the “rules of war” by trying to assassinate specific military personnel on the U.S. side who he knows are the biggest threats to him.

To read my full review, please go to: https://thoughtsfromthemountaintop.co...

[Rose · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's fascinating to consider the different geopolitical relationships that could exist in the 1940's if the USA North and South and had become 2 different countries after the American Civil War. During WWII -- who would be the ally of Britain, the USA or the CSA? What would the relationship of Canada or Mexico be to each? These considerations are the strength of the book. The characters and characterizations of the politics are very stereotypical, and I did find it difficult to keep track of the various characters because the author continually rotated the point of view through multiple characters representing different geopolitical areas. Most certainly this is one to read because of some of the novel concepts. It is a book that is best enjoyed when the reader has time to read multiple chapters in one sitting.

[Spenser · Rating 1 out of 5]

Abandoned any desire to finish this drivel after 30%. too may moving parts and just plain boring.
********************

I'm 25% done with Return Engagement: Not sure I'll waste much more time on this dud. I long ago unsuccessfully attempted to read a Turtledove book from a different series. 2nd chance / different series and this is shaping up to be another snooze-fest. Too many characters, too many boring characters & a disjointed story line w/ little pizzazz. I would certainly advise any Turtledove risk takers to only try him via the library / free.

[Dkolacinski · Rating 4 out of 5]

No one writes alternate history like Harry Turtledove and this first book in a sequence is no exception. The US and the Confederacy is at war again and characters appearing in previous novels return. What makes Turtledove so great is his ability to drawn in fine and intimate detail the lives of all affected by the historical events from the leaders and those on high to the simplest of humans. We are all people he continually reminds us, and we are all affected and harmed by war, bigotry, hatred and human both compassion and stupidity.

[Reza Amiri Praramadhan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Finally, it is war once again! After being downtrodden for so long, CSA finally hit USA, and it hits hard, putting USA into trouble. However, after the initial push, things slowly turned into a stalemate like usual. Meanwhile, Featherston put his plans on negroes on full speed. Unexpectedly, there were not so many important deaths in this book, except for one, which made me truly shocked. Be expecting more deaths of Point-of-View characters on the next book.

[David Potocnik · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another great installment in a genre that I was only beginning to learn was actually out there for us history geeks: counter-factual/what - if . I really like this series, and thank Harry Turtledove a million times over for keeping me so entertained!

[Scott Gardner · Rating 3 out of 5]

Second world war starts , The confederates spilt the USA in two , and the final solution starts.

Though the books follow real life events , they are very good in details for the uneducated , well worth the read

[Francis X DuFour · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another winner….

You’d think Turtldove would lose his edge after writing so many books. Guess again! His details of historical facts are amazing and his style remains gripping. On to the next in the series!

[Mattias Sandström · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good start of an impressive story from this author. Alternate History books have the benefit of copying real history and just twist it and while impressive so far, it feels a little too easy compared to my other favorite genre - Space Opera.
Will definitely read #2.

[Nick Morris · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thought provoking alternative history

This does not pretend to be history but highlights many aspects of American culture that can make uncomfortable reading. This still does not get in the way of a good story.

[eric quinn · Rating 4 out of 5]

The same timeline...WWI....the use of real historical figures in his account is genius.

[Joe Pickert · Rating 3 out of 5]

Originally read this book when I was 14, and remembered it being a lot better than it actually is. Very formulaic and repetitive. Interesting story concept though.

[Brian · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is 2-3 times longer than it needs to be, or so it seems from the first volume in the series. I will not be reading the others to find out if I'm wrong.

[Ellen Broadhurst · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read because my son was reading the series. Not really my preferred genre, but overall an interesting work of fiction.

[Nick · Rating 4 out of 5]

Solid alternate history.

[Bryan Bridges · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good. I feel like some of the points of view do nothing to drive the plot and are just there to fill space. Dowling, Morrell, Pinkard, and Potter all pull their own weight.

[Emma · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good story. Now I need to find the next in the series.

[Michael Toleno · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the 8th book of an 11-book series. Very entertaining and packed with interesting twists on history from after the American Civil War until the end of World War II. I'm saving the four- and five-star rating for weightier material.

[Joel Flank · Rating 5 out of 5]

Settling Accounts: Return Engagement by Harry Turtledove is the first book of the third series that Turtledove has written in his alternate history series that postulates what the world would be like if the South had won the American Civil War and successfully secceded from the United States of America. In this series, the timeline has advanced up to the 1940s and World War II. In previous books in this timeline, Turtledove has detailed a second American Civil War, World War I, the reconstruction period afterwards, and now WWII. The easiest way to describe the book is to say that it's similar to most other Harry Turtledove alternate history books. I you haven't read any Turtledove, then you might think this is criticism. Those of you who have read his work know that this simply means that he sticks to his successful formula of telling a gripping story using about a dozen primary point of view characters, and easily over a hundred characters overall to tell a complex story and delves into all aspects of the war and it's impact on society.

In this timeline, the USA won WWI and soundly defeated the Confederate States of America (CSA), and ever since they, they chafed at the harsh economic ruin imposed on them by their neighbor. This allowed the radical and hate filled Jake Featherson to rise to power and drive his country towards a looming confrontation with the USA. The previous series, American Empire, details this rise to power, and Settling Accounts starts right with the first unannounced attack on the USA. Turtledove does his always excellent job of using his characters to show a variety of points of view, on both sides of the conflict. He includes not only the ground war from both an infantry, armor, and general's point of view, but also views into the war at sea and in the air, the politics on both sides of the conflict, espionage, the home front, and also the harsh world that blacks are forced to live in under CSA rule. One of the central elements of the story is how Jake Featherson's personal vendetta against blacks drives him fully into the role that Adolf Hitler held in our real history, but replacing Hitler's hatred of Jews with Featherson's hate towards blacks. It's both fascinating and horrifying to read about the same kinds of atrocities happening on American soil that happened in Nazi Germany, and how easy Turtledove shows it could therefore happen anywhere, under the right circumstances.

I can't recommend this book enough. Even Turtledove's worst book is well worth reading, and this is one of his better ones. In addition to his signature multiple viewpoint characters, he does an excellent job of weaving real life historical figures into the lives of his fictional main characters, as well as showing how even small events can lead to large consequences or significant discoveries.

[Eric Bauman · Rating 4 out of 5]

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.