Turtledove: The Great War a Review by Doug Eigsti

Harry Turtledove, The Great War: American Front, A Walk in Hell, Breakthroughs. This is a three volume series, but is really one long novel. It is set in the same alternate universe as Turtledove's novel How Few Remain (which I consider his best) in which the South won the Civil War. The characters continue from one volume to the next, as does the plot. The scope is large: the entire theater of World War I on North American soil. This scale is typical Turtledove. The story here is more vast than a few carefully crafted characters could contain. As a novel reader, one is tempted to wish for a tighter focus. One may want to delve deeper into the tender psyches of several of the more interesting characters, such as Jonathan Moss the flying Ace, or Jake Featherston the artillery Sergeant, or Anne Colleton the Mistress of pillaged Mosslands Plantation, but the theater of WWI in America requires a broad cross-section of humanity; and as such, necessarily, we must be content with the briefest snippets of each character’s adventure as part of the grander scheme of the entire drama. So, going beyond the perceived missing characterization, this novel succeeds at what it attempts. It purports to be an alternate history novel of WWI fought right here in America.

Reading The Great War gives one a great feel for the war that never was. The mindsets of the principles are ably represented. The people may be shallow but they are realistic portrayals of early twentieth century people, and over time we see them in several situations that help fill in their personalities. We get to experience the war from the point of view of people on, and behind, many lines of battle, and on both sides of the conflict.

The theme here is that people, though from many a varied background, are very much alike. The reader can easily empathize with most of the characters. The entire affair has an air of plausibility due largely to the fact that Turtledove never deviates far from actual historical events. The war in Europe continues as before, and the technological advancements of the weapons of war progress at a pace coinciding with those of the real war. We see the first use of tanks to breakthrough the stalemate of trench warfare, and airplane advances promise to alter the war’s outcome as planes become more than just aerial reconnaissance devices.

The characters, while necessarily stereotypes, with their racial biases, and vengeful tendencies toward the enemy, are consistent with the period. Our personal contemporary experiences, with the persistent prevailing animosity between the North and the South, lend credibility to the feelings the characters express toward such political antagonists as depicted in this book, the U.S. and the C.S.A., who have fought not just one civil war, but now are engaged in their third period of hot aggression. A consistent theme throughout all of Turtledove’s Great War books, and The Guns of the South for that matter, is unjustified racial discrimination. More often are whites depicted as people of dubious substance than are blacks. Turtledove does a commendable job of giving reasons for this discrimination in the minds of the white characters, both North and South, and some characters are seen to grow in their empathy for the plight of the Black man. The experienced Turtledove reader will be immediately engaged in the scope of this series, enjoying the shifting perspective between the various character vignettes that comprise the structure of the book. Turtledove unfolds his story chronologically even thought told through the eyes of many diverse characters. This chronological structure helps the reader keep track of the grand progress of the war throughout the novel despite following the action through many characters on many different fronts. This diffusion of focus can be unsettling unless one grasps the broader panorama of the world Turtledove is trying to convey. Once that broad panorama is understood the experience of letting it unveil before you is quite enjoyable.

This is a very plot driven series despite the diffuse focus on many different characters, the plot being the slow plodding of a war. This series is recommended to those who can hold a complicated story firm in their heads while gaining only glimpses of the lives of characters. The Great War series is Alternate History in the truest sense; affecting people from all walks of life and in wildly different ways. History is what happened to all the people at a certain time and place. Historians can choose to focus their study on one person, or on a small influential group. Others choose to try to represent, in a sort of anthropological way, the grand sweep of humanity at a given time. Turtledove is such an Alternate Historian in The Great War series. Turtledove so often sets his stories in times of war because such times are the most tumultuous and provide the broadest canvas in which to explore the impact of events upon all the classes of people in a given moment in time.

Portions of this review were previously posted in my review on the previous volume, A Walk in Hell. The third and final volume is so closely aligned in theme and content to the first and second that one review can suffice for all three.

OPTCS – 77866 High marks for thought-provokability, and plot.

Doug Eigsti 09/10/2004