What Turtledove needs is an atomic explosion in his writing.
Written: Oct 11 '07
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Inventive plot, interesting situations...
Cons: but not told in an interesting manner.
The Bottom Line: "Settling Accounts" has come to an end. Not with a bang, but with a slow whimper as Turtledove does some interesting things, but the writing doesn't hold up.
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| hist's Full Review: Harry Turtledove - Settling Accounts in at the Dea... |
And the war is over! Hallelujah! Yes, Harry Turtledove’s seemingly never-ending saga of an alternate history where the Confederacy won the Civil War and World Wars I & II were fought between the two countries (as well as the different alliances in Europe) has finally ended. In at the Death has a finality to it which makes it feel like it’s the last book. Yes, he could do a Cold War twist with the United States and Germany, but that would miss the point of this entire series. The good thing about this book is that Turtledove doesn’t just end the war and then stop. He deals with the ramifications of the outcome. Unfortunately, his prose continues to get in the way and I could not wait for this book to end.
The Confederacy is on the ropes. Jake Featherston, the Hitler-substitute ruler of the Confederacy, is on the run as Richmond falls to US forces. The extermination camps where Featherston’s people were systematically murdering millions of blacks have been overrun, and the United States army is running roughshod over the demoralized Confederate army. The war will be ending soon, but the advent of “uranium bombs” may making the victory more costly than it should have been. Once the Confederacy is defeated (and did you really think Turtledove would allow the equivalent of Nazi Germany to actually win?), the US has to decide what to do. The Confederates were defeated once before and they came back. Do they stomp on the Confederate people until there are none left? Or do they remain an occupying force for years to come?
Turtledove spends a lot of time dealing with the aftermath of the war during In at the Death, with the war ending barely half-way through the book. I found that fascinating, because I was always wondering how he would end the entire series. The US and Confederates hate each other with such a passion that it doesn’t seem like there’s any way they can coexist once the violence has ended. Turtledove does have some interesting thoughts on that issue, and it was a treat to see them enacted.
However, the trick is once again Turtledove’s prose. For me, Turtledove’s plots are always what makes or breaks one of his books, as I love his ideas but I hate his writing. His ideas are what gets me through the books that I’m interested in, and that’s even more the case with this one. He plods along with the war’s aftermath, showcasing what the characters that we’ve followed for a while (and some who were only introduced in the last book) are doing, whether they’ll stay in the Army or go home, giving us a feel for how this war has changed them. He tells this using his usual wooden prose, and since there’s no longer any action (with a couple of exceptions), he’s unable to make these scenes interesting.
It’s a symptom of this type of epic series that there’s nowhere that you can just definitively end it. It just has to come to a stop naturally, and I don’t fault Turtledove for the way he ended the book. However, In at the Death has a bloated feel to it (it’s over 600 pages). The enormity of Turtledove’s plot seems to require that large of a book, so it’s definitely the actual content of those pages that makes it feel bloated. Editing of the typical Turtledove repetition could probably have trimmed some of these pages, but making the scenes more relevant and interesting would have helped as well.
Turtledove does avoid a few of his normal faults, however. Once again, while there is plenty of annoying repetition in the book, he avoids the most irritating one (Sam Carstens’ pale complexion and his near-constant sunburn). Also, he doesn’t have any sex scenes in the book, or at least no explicit ones. Since I cringed every time I read one of them in previous books, I had to cheer at that.
Once again, though, the inventiveness of the plot is what makes this book thoroughly readable if you like this sort of thing. With a couple of exceptions (the US has another parallel with real-world Britain regarding the war’s aftermath and its politics, for example), Turtledove manages to make the situation fairly unique. The series-wide similarities between the real world and this one are always going to be there (Featherston is Hitler, black people in the Confederacy are the Jews, etc.), he doesn’t have the outcome be exactly the same as the real world. Thus, while the reader has a general idea of how things will turn out, the details come as a surprise. Not only that, but we hear much more about the surrounding world as news bulletins from Europe frequently are mentioned. The situation on the other side of the world would probably make an interesting series in itself, and Turtledove goes off on a huge tangent from what really happened in World War II. Two atomic bombs in the real world? Small potatoes in Turtledove’s.
This plotting is what earns In at the Death every star I’m giving it, and it’s the reason I’m recommending it. If you love alternate history, and if you’re not tired of riffs on World War II, this series is an enjoyable read. You do have to work to get past Turtledove’s writing, but it was worth it for me. If Turtledove decides to do the Cold War series, I’m definitely there. I may be holding my nose, but it would be worth it.
Originally published on Curled Up With a Good Book at www.curledup.com. © David Roy, 2007
Other books in this series by Harry Turtledove
American Empire: Blood & Iron
American Empire: The Center Cannot Hold
American Empire: The Victorious Opposition
Settling Accounts: Return Engagement
Settling Accounts: Drive to the East
Settling Accounts: The Grapple
Settling Accounts: In at the Death
Other Harry Turtledove books
Days of Infamy
End of the Beginning
In the Presence of Mine Enemies
Recommended:
Yes
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hist
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Member: David Roy
Location: Vancouver, BC
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