Pros: The history is more "alternate" and interesting. Better characterization than the first book.
Cons: Writing is still stilted, disjointed narrative due to time span covered
The Bottom Line: If you're a fan of alternate history, you'll like this book. If you have no interest in that, avoid it. The writing will bore you silly. A tentative recommendation.
hist's Full Review: Harry Turtledove - American Empire: The Victorious...
Warning: The "Background Information" section contains spoilers for previous books in the series. Read it at your own risk.
American Empire: The Center Cannot Hold, by Harry Turtledove, is the second book in the American Empire series. It is also much better than the first one, even though it has many of the same faults. I didn't find myself rolling my eyes as much as I did in the first one, and it was a much more interesting read. If you're a fan of alternate history, this series is a definite must-read.
Background Information
American Empire takes place in an alternate history from the one we know. The Confederacy won the American Civil War and the two countries have been separate ever since. In the 1880s, the Confederates and the United States fought a war to prevent the Confederacy from gaining territory that would give them a Pacific Ocean coastline. The Confederates trounced the US. Then, in 1914, World War I began, and the two sides faced off against each other again. The United States, allied with the German Kaiser, fought against the Confederacy, the British, French, and Japanese. Much as in Western Europe, the fight in the Eastern North America turned into trench warfare, while in the western part, it was more free-flowing. The United States also invaded Canada, fighting the Canadians and the British there. They "liberated" Quebec and turned it into a country of its own, a puppet state. The Confederates and their allies fell to crushing defeat in 1917.
This all happened in How Few Remain and the Great War series. The first book of the American Empire series covered the years from 1917 to 1924, and detailed the post-war events in Canada, the United States and the Confederate States.
The Story
That brings us to this book. The book starts in 1924 and continues the events that took place in the first book. In the Confederate States, the Freedom Party is down at its lowest ebb. A radical member of the party has killed the current president, and public opinion of the party is in the basement. Life has returned to a more normal state in the country, with inflation back down to a manageable level and relations with the United States at a much higher level then they were at the end of the war. In the United States, the Socialist party has led the country into great prosperity. The stock market is booming, there's plenty of work, and everybody seems happy. Everybody, that is, except for the Mormons in the renegade territory of Utah, where American occupation still rankles after the rebellion was put down in 1916. The other area of unrest is occupied Canada, where the Yanks are looked on as oppressors.
Things are too good to last, however. The stock market plunges, a depression sets in, and unemployment skyrockets. Both countries sink deeper and deeper. The ruling parties are now looked upon as ineffective and useless. In the United States, the Democrats are primed to take over. However, in the South, the Depression is just what the Freedom Party needs. With their anti-black and anti-United States views gaining prominence, can anything stop them from coming to power? And what does this mean for the rest of the world if it does happen? The United States had gutted its military after the war, but now sees the threat. Is it too late?
What did I think?
The improvement between this book and the first in the series is very noticeable. However, it is difficult to quantify. One of my main complaints against the first book was that the "alternate" part of this history was too reminiscent of real history: the Freedom Party was a poor man's Nazi Party, the massive inflation that hit the Confederacy was exactly the way it happened in real-world Germany after the First World War. The Center Cannot Hold does a much better job of making things different and interesting. There is a rebellion in Canada, tensions start flaring up between the Japanese and the United States. A civil war erupts in Mexico. All of this is wonderful news to the alternate history fan. This is what we like. Sure, some events are still the same (the Freedom Party is still the Nazi party, the Depression happens just like it did in reality), but there are enough differences this time to make it harder to guess what's going to happen.
This is the main improvement in the series, but I will briefly mention the other thing and then leave it at that. There is only one graphically described sex scene in the entire book. Thank you, Harry. After your previous attempts to write them, we really appreciate that. 'Nuff said.
With all that being said, there are still numerous faults in this book, which makes it so that I have to qualify my recommendation. The writing is still very bland and boring at times. Turtledove still has an annoying habit of emphasizing things by repeating them. Every time we see Nellie Jacobs, there is some reference to her having killed the father or her oldest daughter in the previous series. There is always a reference to how she really distrusts men, with the occasional reference to how this isn't quite always the case with her current husband, but still is most of the time. It gets really old, really fast. It gets even older if you've been reading the series since the beginning and getting this every time Nellie appears in the book. The constant re-introduction of Turtledove's characters is his main writing fault, I believe. I know that there are a lot of characters to keep track of, but either he should trust the reader to be able to keep track or lessen the number of characters in the book.
Secondly, some of the characters are still beyond useless and very uninteresting in the bargain. I'll go back to Nellie again. I have no idea where her storyline is going, but her entire family has to be the most annoying and boring characters around. Their story doesn't seem to have anything to do with the ongoing story in the book. This wouldn't be so bad if they were intriguing in some way, but they aren't. They're just there, and they bring the book to a screeching halt every time they appear. There is some sign at the end of the book that they may finally play some small part in the next book. I hope that's true, as maybe they might finally get interesting.
Thankfully, most of the other characters have developed some sort of interesting story. The intention seems to be to illustrate various aspects of life during this time period, and a reaction to the national events that happen. Chester Martin, for example, is the everyman who has to deal with the Depression on the ground. There are a couple of black characters who seem to be in the book mainly to give a black perspective to the rise of the Freedom Party. At least they are interesting characters as well. Turtledove is not afraid to kill some of his characters off, so you're never sure exactly what's going to happen to them. One of the deaths, in fact, is so out of the blue that I initially wondered if Turtledove just couldn't find anything to do with him. I then realized that it illustrated something about what was going on, and I admired Turtledove a lot more for it. While he kills some of his characters off, he also introduces some new ones. So far, these seem better then some of his original characters.
The final problem, and I have a feeling it's going to be a problem in the next book as well (it was a big one in the previous book) is that it covers such a long period of time that it seems very disjointed. This book covers events from 1924 to 1933. A lot of events happen offstage and we only see a reaction to them in hindsight. Thus, there is no real flow to the book. A clear indication of this is the last few chapters. These chapters all take place in 1932-33 and talk about the coming election in the Confederacy, and the United States' reaction to it. These chapters are gripping, even as you know what's going to happen. There's a pace to them, a tension that makes you want to finish them. This is missing from the earlier chapters, and definitely indicates the problem.
Thus, I must qualify my recommendation for this book. It's much better than the first. However, if you don't have an interest in alternate history (or even history in general, as I think this series would be of interest to the historian), then the writing of this book will really turn you off. As it is, you have to almost ignore it because you want to know what's going to happen next. This series seems to be doing almost nothing but setting up the coming Second World War. Thus, you go through it feeling almost like you're running in place, waiting for something to happen. I feel that I like this series a lot more than I should just because I like where the destination is. Unfortunately, the journey is kind of a long, dry one, almost an endurance test. Keep that in mind if you pick up this series.
This first novel in a new alternate history trilogy begins after World War I. An uneasy peace reigns, but hatred continues to simmer between Canadian ...More at Buy.com Marketplaces
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