I've always been interested in alternate history and what-if type stories, so I thought I'd give this book a read. I really wanted to love it, but couldn't. It's not that it's a bad book, it's just ponderous and slow. And like others before me have said, the author tends to rehash some of the stuff he already said. There was even one paragraph about the Canadian postmaster that was practically a cut and paste job, and they were chapters apart! But I've heard his other books are really good, so I'll probably give him another chance.

For many years most computers have been able to read text for people who have problems reading for whatever reason. The Kindle2 has text to speech enabled as a computer does. This isn't wonderful or anything comparable to audio books read by a talented reader. This is a robotic voice for use by people with no option. Random House and the Authors Guild are planning to block Text to Speech on there books. For this reason I and many other people will not purchase books from their authors. Not even free books

These books are sort of infuriating. If you get pulled into the narrative, then they become hard to put down - sort of like a bag of pistachios.

Turtledove is a formula writer. Take a war, make up a dozen or so characters, each representative of a particular group. Start from the premise that something is different about the war from actual historical events, such as it is between the US and Confederacy instead of US and Germany. Give each character an identifying characteristic, such as Jewish exclamations, propensity to sunburn. Lay out the time line, turn on the word processor and start stringing together the time line by writing ten pages or so about each of the characters.

The writing cries for an editor. This is not so much a series of novels, but one long novel that is two and a half times as long as War and Peace; each volume ends after approximately 640 pages. Turtledove makes up words, "barrel" for tank, "flabble" for complain (loosely). This can be jarring, especially his use of the word "flabble" which occurs several hundred times in this series (I counted them on my Kindle).Only the first of these books has any kind of a story arc or sense of a conclusion at the end.

Still there is something wierdly compelling if you are prone to this kind of thing. Turtledove has some real talent as a writer, and badly written as this series is, it still has some narrative force. He also has quite a bit of imagination and intelligence, every now and then he has some intriguing ideas.

If Turtledove were to take the time to read what he wrote and cut it down to a second draft, he'd probably be a good writer. If he were to spend some time polishing in addition, he'd be a very good writer. And, if he had a decent editor on top of that he could be an excellent writer. Alas, he is a writer with intelligence, talent, good ideas and a lot of energy, but his books are poorly written and overly long.

I downloaded this book to Kindle because it was one of the free offers for the month, and I thought I'd try a new author. I'm afraid I didn't enjoy it much. I normally compulsively finish books I begin, but I deleted this one from Content Manager after the first two chapters.

The storyline is that the South is fighting the North again, but this time, it is in the 1940's and the North has a Socialist President. And at least one female, single-mom, Socialist congresswoman. The story is written from the congresswoman's POV, and very much emphases intelligence and understanding over physical strength, so you'd think it would appeal to a woman, but it didn't hold my attention. I always felt as though I were reading a book, rather than slipping into another world.

I did enjoy the free download of Charlie Huston's book (Caught Stealing) and am looking forward to reading more of Huston's books.

I just finished this book this past night. I got it for the Kindle for free.

Overall I liked the book. The author has a different way of narrating the story. He has maybe 10 or 15 different characters that are involved in the conflict. He dedicates few pages to each one in turns. I believe this is an interesting idea. This allows him to write hundreds (or maybe even thousands) of pages without getting too boring. If you get bored with one of the characters you have to hang on only for a few pages and you will have the opportunity to read from another character.

He uses different characters with different objectives and backgrounds. There is a doctor, an aviator, some politicians, few spys, a mexican, some generals, some navy men, etc. Each one has a different perspective on the war.

The story seems pretty straightforward. Not a lot of surprises. For example, at one point some of the characters decide it would be a good idea to kill an specific officer fighting for the other country. Few chapters later the author has a snipper shoot at the officer. You kind of expect that this will happen. So when it does happen there is not a lot of surprise.

In addition some of the characters are not very well developed. For example, there is a general that seems like a charicature. You know he is going to fail the first time he is introduced.

And some of the dialogue seems very unlikely. The doctor character seems to be always having the same dialogue with one of his subordinates. Over and over again.

My overall assessment for this book would be somewhere between 3 and 4 stars. I decided to go with 4 because of the novelty of the approach - I liked the idea of narrating the story from several different characters. I also decided for the 4 stars because I want to read the second book in the series.

Many people don't like these kinds of books. Harry turns history into a classic bookseller.

I have spent the last week reading this book. Mind you, I am not done. I have been trying very hard to be interested because I got it as a free download on my kindle. I thought I at least owed it to the author/publisher to read this. I can't anymore. It is putting me to sleep. I keep wanting it to be over... I read to be entertained or to be educated, this serves neither purpose.

The concept of an alternative history of the United States is a plausable background for a novel and I love historical novels but this is giving me a brain freeze.
I think it is time for me to hit that delete key on my kindle and move on to Eat Shoots and Leaves.

Return Engagement is the first of the Settling Accounts trilogy, which is the latest in the Great War series. The series started back in 1998 with the publication of How Few Remain, which is by far the best of the whole series. Then followed the Great War series (American Front, Walk in Hell, and Breakthroughs) from 1998-2000, detailing a very different First World War. THEN we had the American Empire trilogy (Blood and Iron,The Center Cannot Hold, and The Victorious Opposition) in 2001-2003.

Now it's time for the Settling Accounts trilogy. Return Engagement starts with the death of a character I had long hoped would just die, so I was happy. Another character I had wondered about survived. I'm still not sure whether to be happy for this one or not.

The book starts with the attack everyone (except the US government, apparently) saw coming. Jake Featherston, the Hitler-character in this reality, invades Ohio from newly-Confederate Kentucky-blitzkreig-style. Things progress fairly predictably after that-the Confederacy gains territory, the US is in a panic, characters who were in the army in the last series consider re-enlisting to fight the Confederacy. Each aspect of World War II in our time-line is duplicated somehow in this alternate history-which is annoying.

I stopped reading Turtledove's Darkness series because it was obviously World War 2 with magic. Now he's shifted World War II to North America, replacing Nazi Germany with the CSA, and the Jewish Holocaust with... well, some might consider that telling, though anyone who has read the previous offerings (or even thinks about the history of the Confederacy in our own history) could figure it out.

The characterizations are the same. We read about the same sailor who is perpetually sunburnt (and we're always reminded of this whenever the poor guy has to go somewhere hot-I started wishing he'd spend time in the North Atlantic, just to get a change of exposition!), the same saboteur in Canada, the same American lawyer-turned-fighter pilot. Morrel (guess who HE represents in our time line!) is still an under-appreciated tank commander whose ideas are ignored by those in charge. Dowling is still living in Custer's shadow, years after the latter's death. Nothing has changed.

The only reason I keep reading these books is that I want to see the series through. I've spent so much time with these characters that I want to find out how Turtledove translates what happened in our own Second World War to their history. I also enjoy the jokes Turtledove throws in, and the oblique references to our own history. The plot moves in this book, better than in previous offerings, but it's a bit predictable if you have studied World War II at all.

I own a lot of Turtledove. Worldwar, Colonization, Great War, American Empire-I have them all, most in hardback. But I think I'll be reading this series from the library, and save my money for the next coveted stand-alone novel, or the sequel to Days of Infamy.