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10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A really good story, 11 Dec 2000
By A Customer
How Few Remain is an Alternative History novel, about what would have happened if the South had won the Civil War. The American Civil War is the second most popular alternative History SF setting (the first is WWII) and a particular interest of Harry Turtledove cf the Guns of the South. This one has a far more credible reason for the South winning, the failure of McLellan to intercept Lee's battle plans during the Antietam campaign and Lee's victory there followed by foriegn recognition of the CSA. All of this is dealt with in the first few pages and is credible enough. But it's 1881, 20 years later, that is the focus of the book. At this point the CSA looks likely to acquire two Mexican provinces and thus gain a Pacific coastline. In order to stop this the USA goes to war.Like most of Turtledove's books, the story unfolds from the viewpoint of a number of characters, in this case they're all historical characters. What's more we have George Armstrong Custer, JEB Stuart, Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson and Abraham Lincoln as viewpoint characters, all of whom died during the war or, in Custer and Lincoln's case, as a result of it. It's sort of fun to see them in 1881 meeting such people as Theodore Roosevelt and Albert Schlieffen (two more of the viewpoint characters.) It's also fun to see how Turtledove deals with how they would have coped in the world of 1881. This is the major difference between this book and other alternative Southern Victory books. 1881 is the cusp of the modern world, a world with weapons of mass slaughter, industrial unrest, etc. The war the CSA fights in 1881 is very different to the war of 1861, which was bloody enough, because now every soldier on both sides has a repeating rifle. As such it resembles WWI more than the ACW. This is a foretelling of what is to come and indeed Harry Turtledove has written a series of sequels covering WWI wherein both the CSA and USA get involved. This is more than just a prequel to the Great War series though. The book is well written, grabs your attention from the beginning and unfolds a story that is all too credible. This book is worth reading on its own merits and I reccomend it to anyone interested in the ACW, WWI, Turtledove's writing or just a really good story.
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Every element of great alternative history, 28 July 2004
This book is an example of alternative history at its best. To me, there are two elements to great alternative history. The first and most obvious is that the writer gets the history "right" - not accurate, of course, but believable. "Pure" alternative history is about what might have been; as such it should be reasonably plausible, with people and developments that must ring true to their times. Here Turtledove excels, demonstrating both imagination and a familiarity with the period. His sequence of events in developing a "second War Between the States" is logical, and he captures famous personalities - such as Abraham Lincoln, "Stonewall" Jackson, and Samuel Clemens - with considerable accuracy, portraying figures that are recognizably the same people that we know from our past.Yet the people he depicts are more than just caricatures of historical reputations. This gets to the other component of first-rate works from the genre - strong character development. Within the context of a second conflict between the two halves of the former United States (over the acquisition of Mexican territory by the Confederacy), the reader sees them as they react to the circumstances of the war and how the war, in turn changes them. It is this aspect which makes the book riveting from beginning to end and essential reading for anyone interested in exploring how things might have turned out differently.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Probably Turtledove's Best, 21 Sep 2006
I was introduced to Turtledove by a friend who was a colleague of his when he was still teaching history at UCLA. That was with the "World War" series, which is a lot of fun, if a bit silly. "How Few Remain" has the downside of having started the interminable Great War/American Empire/Return Engagement series, with their dismal characterization and mindless parallels of the historical 20th century, but taken on its own, How Few Remain is the best thing of Turtledove's I've ever read. In particular, his treatment of Abraham Lincoln is superb - much of what he has Lincoln say in the 1880s was in fact lifted from speeches and letters from before he became president, so they ring perfectly true to character, and at the same time illuminate how far ahead of his time Lincoln was as a social thinker. If only Turtledove would use this sort of technique more often, instead of just churning out repetitive prose!
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