We are in the 1930's and thus the southern fanatic Jake is doing his Hitler imitation wrapping himself in the Stars and Bars. He's getting good response from the expected Rednecks, and WWII will have a North American episode. ( )

This book, Turtledove's seventh in this particular universe, is hardly the place to jump into this series. But, if you've read the whole series up to now, you'll want to stick with it.

Yes, some of Turtledove's characteristic flaws are here, notably replaying events from our history in a different geopolitical context rather than inventing a whole new sequence of events. Thus, we get European history between the World Wars reset in a variant North America of the same time rather than postulating, say, no wars or of more limited extent. I suspect Turtledove wanted WWI and WWII taking place in North America and built his alternate timeline to justify that. Another flaw is frequent repetition, as if they were Homeric epithets, of characters' descriptions. And, in this book, he's taken to parenthetically highlighting the moral blindness of some of his characters as if we wouldn't notice otherwise.

Yet, this series continues to hold my interest as the Confederate States of America stand-in for an aggreived Germany and Jake Featherston for Adolf Hitler. Watching several characters being co-opted into supporting the evil, "victorious opposition" of Featherston's regime is the main interest here.

The moral corruption of several of the viewpoint characters as they are co-opted by Jake Featherston is disturbingly plausible. Others, far from the South, clash violently. Some die to be replaced in their viewpoint duties by family members. There are a couple of unnamed historical cameos, and a suicidal Ernie aka Ernest Hemingway shows up again.

One story line seems a bit contrived just to get its character into trouble, and Lucien Galtier and his familial bantering still seem to have little function beyond showing us a man who has largely benefited from the Great War.

But the plight of Scipio, a black man trapped in Featherston's CSA, doesn't seem at all contrived, and his story is the most frightening as his past, his race, and his country threaten his life and his family's

As you would expect, the novel ends with the beginning of war and, no doubt, some unpleasant times ahead for all ... in the next book. ( )

Another excellent book by Harry Turtledove. I think that this trilogy of books has been my favorite in the series. I like to see how things are set up for Confederate States, or fall apart for the USA in the lead up to World War 2. I can see how he has turned real world actions and applied them to different countries to get the desired result within this version of North America. I am looking forward to reading the remaining 4 books in the Timeline-191 series. ( )

I have really enjoyed the series and this one gets you ready for the next Great War. I can see a lot of similarities with the CSA that Germany went thru after WWI. Can’t wait to read the next three books in the series to see how it turns out. ( )

This, the seventh book of Mr. Turtledove's Timeline-191 series is essentially the chronicles of the first Featherston administration, starting in 1934. As the book opens, Jake Featherston--this reality's version of Adolf Hitler--has just been sworn in as the President of the Confederate States of America. All through the proceeding volumes, he's been holding grudges and remembering those who slighted him. Now he gets a chance for payback. There's no real surprises in how that particular storyline plays out. (Actually, there is one, now that I think of it, but you'll have to read the book to discover it.) But that's only one of the plot threads running through the series. Life goes on in North America, from the State of Sonora in the Confederate southwest to the Republic of Quebec, that puppet nation carved out of Canada during the Great War. All in all, it's a good read. My only real complaint is that, as part of a lenghty storyline, Mr. Turtledove finds it necessary to pull in a number of recaps from the previous novels for those readers who may not have read them. I wish he could have used footnotes or something, so I could blip over them and continue on with the action. Oh, well. When I get around to writing an 11 volume story, I suppose I can do it whatever way I want.
--J. ( )