Harry Turtledove, The Guns Of The SouthEarns his alternate history reputationI've been interested in the alternate history genre, and finally picked up some Turtledove. (The local library had a copy, and this is a standalone book, as opposed to starting one of his big series in the middle)The story offers an interesting point of divergence and series of events following from it. The analogues to and aspects from real history are meticulously well-detailed. I sensed that throughout the book, and was impressed with the thorough research, but was still surprised by the endnote which said that the characters of the 44th North Carolina were based on actual military records.The book also does a great job illustrating issues related to the American Civil War. Since a Southern victory was so unlikely in real life, perhaps the science-fiction help was necessary to illuminate those issues. There seem to be too many examples of that to go into here.I liked the style of two POV characters where one was an average soldier, and one a general and later politician, since overall this offered a wider perspective on the story. An educated man and noncommissioned officer like Nate kept the commoner viewpoint from being too narrow. The parts about his teaching and his relationship with Mollie were great as something universal, or a touch of normalcy amongst the chaosIt makes sense that Lee would end up involved in politics in a world where the South won, like how Grant ended up as US President in real life. Davis serving in Lee's Cabinet reminded me of how John Quincy Adams ran for the US House Of Representatives after his presidency.I realized early on the the AWB were neo-Nazis or somesuch and the letters really stood for something besides 'America Will Break'. However, I was still surprised that they were South African racists, their gold being in Kruggerand form being the first obvious clue. It was striking how they were even more racist than the Confederates. Overall, Turtledove handles the in-character reveal/explanation/investigation of their nature very well, so the ending involving the AWB explaining their technology/history/etc seems particularly fitting.It seemed convenient that the 44th North Carolina was the group called back for the combat at the end of the book, but that seemed excusable as a way to use characters we were already familiar with.Turtledove uses the N-word a lot, but it seems to fit the setting, as opposed to using it gratuitously. It's interesting how many of the characters who are relatively reasonable on racial issues still use that word sometimes. Frankly, I was amused when Turtledove made a pun with the unrelated word meaning 'stingy'.I read through it again pretty much right after finishing it; I rarely do that even with books I like.
The Premise: White nationalist Afrikaaners travel back in time and equip Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia with fully automatic AK-47 rifles on the eve of the Battle for the Wilderness in 1864. Hijinks ensue.That's it, really. Guns of the South is simply that premise followed to one possible conclusion. Though the premise is fantastical, it is slyly subversive: in following the most popular general "what if" of alternate history (South Wins the Civil War), Turtledove is able to prey on the vanity and insecurity of the modern day "Lost Cause" sympathizer by juxtaposing those ostensibly racist Southerners with those even more racist late 20th Century South Africans. We see the triumphant Confederates chastened and cognizant of the error of their ways (slavery), so much so that they join up with their Union foes to vanquish the schemes of the two-dimensionally evil Afrikaaners. What's puzzling is that, for someone who is so notoriously conspicuous with his various reminders to the reader that he's Done His Research, Harry Turtledove refuses to recognize the historic reality that a) caused the Civil War, and b) made many of his historical characters (particularly the Southerners) so unsympathetic. Even Nathan Bedford Forrest, the butcher of Fort Pillow and founder of the Ku Klux Klan, is rehabilitated under the magic of Turtledove's prose. Forrest is Not Bad After All, once Saint Robert E. Lee's beatific influence is felt. One might say "Hey, it's fiction, what's the big deal?" The big deal is that the author is by design using the allure of a well known historical era, with its well known cast of historical characters, to get people to read his book. Playing around with "what if"s can be fun and useful in fiction (cf. Ward Moore's Bring the Jubilee). But some counterfactuals are simply nonsensical, illogical, and offer prime examples of begging the question. "What If Hitler Didn't Invade the Soviet Union?" is a good example: anyone with a grasp of the primary sources understands that the only way for that to have been avoided was for Hitler (and by extension, the Nazis) to have never come into power in Germany in the first place, and so posing the question makes no sense. "What if the Civil War Wasn't About Slavery/Race/etc?" is the proposition underlying the more superficial counterfactual in Guns of the South involving South Africans and AK-47s. That underlying proposition is necessary, because without it, there's no way to make many of Turtledove's protagonists as likable and sympathetic as he demands. To pose that question is silly, and renders moot the era to which Turtledove would have us journey.
What do You think about The Guns Of The South (1997)?
The difficult thing about alternate history is that one must know the original history to recognize the departures therefrom. The wonderful thing about alternate history is it challenges you to become more informed about the original history, which I have done as I read this slow-moving but ultimately satisfying Civil War tale of the 19th century Confederacy gaining access to 20th century weapons: AK-47 machine guns. The only drawback is the author's clear 20th century POV: slavery is so wrong, and the proponents thereof (time-traveling Nazis!) are so distasteful, that the anti-slavery argument is too heavy-handed, though the historical aspects, especially the battles, are handled with aplomb and subtlety. Ahh: the problem with time-traveling authors is they take their modern sensibilities with them, just as the Nazis did. It would have been more interesting to have the divide between the bigoted Nazis and the honorable R.E. Lee be a bit narrower. Overall, a worthy effort. I intend to check out more of Turtledove's alternate history efforts.
—Kenny
Harry Turtledove, Guns of the South (Del Rey, 1992)Time to make shish kebab out of another sacred cow. Guns of the South is considered THE alternate history novel by many, the one alternate history novel that should be required reading in history classes and on just about every historian's list of must-read Civil War books. And to be fair, it's almost that good. Really.As with most fiction of the speculative type, especially alternate-history speculative fiction, the plot can be summed up by asking one simple question. In that case, "what if the South won the American Civil War?" The book is essentially divided into two halves; the first half takes place during the war, and the second half afterwards. And when Turtledove is writing battle scenes, he shines. The first half of the book flies by. It's a page-turner to end all page-turners.Unfortunately, when Robert E. Lee moves from military command to political life, the story bogs down. Badly.It does pick up again, a hundred or so pages later, but there are a few places in the book where the pace gets so glacial I started to think I'd accidentally picked up Frank Herbert's Children of Dune instead. Yes, it gets that slow. It all wraps up pretty nicely, but the journey to get from point A to point B can sure be hard sometimes. ** 1/2
—Robert Beveridge
Time-traveling future racists give past racists advanced weaponry so that racism may prosper. Racism ensues."What if the Confederacy won?" is an interesting thought experiment, or possibly a term paper for History class, but the act of basing a novel on it is a whole different can of worms. It involves vivid scenes of wholesale slaughter of troops being mowed down by automatic weapons. Horrific details on the fates of slaves freed by the Union and recaptured by a victorious South. A darker world as the former US reels from loss and a Confederacy fueled with advanced technology rises.Story has two protagonists, Robert E Lee and some Confederate grunt foot soldier. The foot soldier's story gives you the "common man's" view of events. Highlights include the moment he realizes maybe "n*ggers can learn things as well as white folk". (How progressive of him!) Lee's story covers the politico-social big picture events, as he transitions from general to president of the CSA. The bright moment for him was when he found a history book dated 1990 and learned how the future would come to view his beloved Second American Revolution (Civil War). For a moment, he wondered if perhaps they'd made a bit mistake. Then he says, "Nah". It tries to pitch these guys as sympathetic heroes, but never could I shake the notion that they were villains. (For non-Americans, imagine a book about Arnold Keselring, based around the idea of Nazi Germany winning the war. "Smiling Arnold" grins for photos while Hitler blithely pursues his global genocide. Fun times!)The US Civil War was bloody and ugly enough. There is no reason for this book to exist. This was a low, mean, ugly story. I disliked just about every moment of reading it.
—John Lawson
