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Title: Return Engagement (Settling Accounts | Book 1) |
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Review of Return Engagement (Settling Accounts, Book 1)
- Harry Turtledoveās remarkable alternative history novels brilliantly remind us of how fragile the thread of time can be, and offer us a world of āwhat if.ā 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 tellāthe 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 faƧade 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.
Featherstonās 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.
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Comments for Return Engagement (Settling Accounts | Book 1)
- Posted on 2007-08-23
Return Engagements Settling Accounts
Harry Turtledove does an awesome job in recreating an alternate history. A must for the Science fiction fan who can read a story under "What if this really happened?"
Score: 4
- Posted on 2007-07-21
This is a great read !!!
It's about time Turtledove sent the Confederacy into the U.S.A. to exact some much needed retribution for the unlikely defeat they put on them in the Great War books that he wrote. Now lets see how far the Southerners will take their punnishment to the U.S.
Score: 5
- Posted on 2006-11-02
Featherston's Vengeance
It's June 22, 1941 -- the day Jake Featherston had waited almost 25 years for. His hatred and loathing for the United States of America ran so strong, he didn't bother to issue a declaration of war, but instead let his bombers and artillery do the announcing for him. His armored forces and air force push north toward the Great Lakes as if they had the hosts of hell behind them, shooting or blowing up every U.S. soldier and barrel in their path. The Confederate States of America will put the Yankees in their place, so help them God -- or so Featherston declares. And even while General Patton leads the Confederates through Ohio, dark events occur in the swamps of the Deep South. For Jake Featherston is carrying out a different sort of revenge on a different foe -- an entire race of people. When a concentration camp commandant comes up with a radical idea, Featherston is obscenely delighted over this final solution to the Confederacy's problem with its black population...
A great beginning to Turtledove's alternate Second World War tetralogy. The War begins on page one (well, the very last page of the preceding volume, to be precise) and gets worse and worse with each passing page. When chemical weapon attacks and mass murders are already happening in book one, who can guess what will be happening in the final book. And Turtledove brings it off convincingly in an American setting.
The only problem I had was that the war seemed to slow down quite a bit during the middle third of the book -- between Al Smith's radio reply to Featherston's speech and MacArthur's Virginia offensive. But that was a minor annoyance, and not enough to greatly disturb my attitude toward this book. A definite set-up to a different World War II, for sure.
Score: 5 - Posted on 2006-07-15
"Flabbling" Waste of Time
Being a fan of another alt-hist writer I thought I'd give Harry Turtledove a try. Maybe I should have started with an earlier novel, but I went for a more recent work assuming the author would have developed his writing skill.
Unfortunately, I was disappointed. I thought "Settling Accounts" was a humorless bore with stilted plot development and empty characterizations. Even the cliffhanger ending sputtered out with a yawn. The in-your-face constant use of the "n" word,especially in combination with Turtledove's idiotic, parallel universe bending concept of "population reduction," is a straight up insult to every American, black or white, who lives in the South. Perhaps the author hoped those sentiments would stimulate thought and provoke discussion of the subject of racial inequality in the United States, but I found the novel far too juvenile to consider this within the realm of literary exploration. It was simply ugly.
Darn, I was hoping to have a new author to follow.
Score: 1
- Posted on 2006-07-01
Paid by the word?
I really enjoy the story Turtledove is telling in this series, but it seems a little bit as though he is getting paid by the word. No, it seems more than a little bit like he is getting paid by the word. In fact, it seems a lot like he is getting paid by the word.(getting the picture?) And how many times does he need to go on (and on and on) about a character who sunburns easily smearing zinc oxide on his nose, or what each character was doing two novels ago every time he brings them back into the story. Turtledove does a geat job with the alternate history part and the "if this happened this way then this would be like this", I just think it could be a much faster(and better) read if it wasn't weighted down with so much repitition and unnecessary dialogue.
Score: 4