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Carregando... Settling Accounts: Return Engagementde Harry Turtledove
   Nenhum(a) Ainda não há conversas na Discussão sobre este livro.   ) DinadansFriend | May 2, 2014 |  It exhibits all the usual, unfortunate features of Turtledove's padded novels. The Homeric character epithets are frequently repeated. There's very little onstage battle action for a series about war, and all the important battles are given a worm's eye view. There are frequent puns and ironic turns of phrases -- here German Nazi phrases find their way in to the conversations of Freedom Party people. Unlike his Worldwar series which featured many historical characters, the only ones of note here are General Patton leading the Confederate blitzkrieg which takes him to Lake Erie, General McArthur (who seems to be doing this world's version of Inchon by landing at the mouth of the James River), Louis Armstrong (who, after being forced to entertain frontline troops, makes a break with his band to USA lines), and President Al Smith who dies and is replaced by LaFollette. The war outside the American theater is interesting but only briefly covered with Russia's Czar battling, with the British, the USA's ally Germany and Japan's empire building in the Pacific. But there's precious little alternate history speculation in a book, however fast reading, that's 623 pages long. The relationship between the USA and its troublesome Utah Mormons is the most interesting feature of this series. But this book adds new annoyances. Several of the characters say things which are not that insightful but are hailed as such by fellow characters. Their "insights" just come off as clumsy ways for Turtledove to foreshadow and explicate via dialogue. And not only do we get the usual long interior monologues. We get references to the thoughts the characters don't entertain. This is a way to highlight the most striking feature of the book: the vicious racism or casual indifference of the characters, with the exception of USA Congresswoman Flora Blackford, to blacks. Hipolito Rodriguez, a character we've come to like, has disturbingly little problem committing genocide. And that, the psychology of genocide, is the main theme of this book. (  ) RandyStafford | Dec 29, 2011 |  ) irunsjh | Sep 22, 2010 | --J. (  ) Hamburgerclan | Sep 29, 2009 |  ) elimatta | Jul 16, 2009 | sem resenhas | adicionar uma resenha
Harry Turtledove’s remarkable alternative history novels brilliantly remind us of how fragile the thread of time can be, and offer us a world of “what if.” Drawing on a magnificent cast of characters that includes soldiers, generals, lovers, spies, and demagogues, Turtledove returns to an epic tale that only he could tell–the story of a North American continent, separated into two bitterly opposed nations, that stands on the verge of exploding once again. In 1914 they called it The Great War, and few could imagine anything worse. For nearly three decades a peace forged in blood and fatigue has held sway in North America. Now, Japan dominates the Pacific, the Russian Tsar rules Alaska, and England, under Winston Churchill, chafes for a return to its former glory. But behind the façade of world order, America is a bomb waiting to go off. Jake Featherston, the megalomaniacal leader of the Confederate States of America, is just the man to light the fuse. In the White House in Philadelphia, Socialist President Al Smith is a living symbol of hope for a nation that has been through the fires of war and the flood tides of depression. In the South, Featherston and his ruling Freedom Party have put down a Negro rebellion with a bloody fist and have interned them in concentration camps. Now they are determined to crush their Northern neighbor at any cost. Featherston’s planes attack Philadelphia without warning. The U.S.A. lashes back blindly at Charleston. And a terrible second coming is at hand. When the CSA blitzkrieg is launched, the U.S.A. is caught flat-footed. Before long, the gray Army reaches Lake Erie. But in its wake the war machine is spinning a vortex of destruction, betrayal, and fury that no one, not even Jake Featherston himself, can control. Now, President Smith faces a Herculean task, while an obscure assistant secretary of war named Roosevelt rises in his ranks. For the U.S.A., the darkest days still lay ahead. Across the globe, a new era of war has just begun. And in the hands of the incomparable Harry Turtledove, readers are treated to a masterful vision of what might have been. An enduring portrait of history, nations, and human nature in its many manifestations,Return Engagementis a monumental journey into the second half of the twentieth century. Não foram encontradas descrições de bibliotecas. |
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 Google Books — Carregando...GênerosClassificação decimal de Dewey (CDD)813.54Literature English (North America) American fiction 20th Century 1945-1999Classificação da Biblioteca do Congresso dos E.U.A. (LCC)AvaliaçãoMédia: (3.55)
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