This was a far more intelligent book than I was anticipating. The whole summary is "time-traveling racists give the confederacy ak-47's to win the war" sounds like a dumb story but it did a really good job telling a compelling story while also giving an impression on perceptions from that time period. And based on the Praise of and Historical notes section it seems like the author put in a lot of research to get the story as accurately based as possible. ( )

Good time travel story about the Civil War and changing history. ( )

Gave up on this about halfway through. The first part was good -- battle scenes where the Confederates were using AK-47s, and the course of the war dramatically changed. But then the story got into post-war politics, and that just got too boring for me to continue. ( )

Mix sold knowledge of Civil War history with a time travel twist and you've got a wonderful read. Central characters include a rebel infantryman and Robert E. Lee. Lee seems imminently believable as a character although I personally think Robert E. Lee was more firmly Jeffersonian in his attitude towards slavery than given credit by the author...seeing it as a dying practice he nevertheless did not plan to impede. Everything else seems very plausible and the story is immensely entertaining. Highhly recommended. ( )

If you like historical fiction with a dash of science fiction yet mostly a history of what the South would be like without losing to the Union, then this book is for you.

What I appreciated about Turtledove is how he did not make a big issue about 21st century politics from the white racists who stole a time machine and traveled to the waning days of the US Civil War.

Not only was there a lot of emphasis on life in the trenches, military strategy of Grant and Lee, but also what the parties at Jeff Davis’s house were like, what the slaves thought (not enough on this view) and following the life of Nate Claudell and Molly Bean (a woman who dresses as a man to fight in the war, and parttime “whore”) and what they go through in all this.

The Afrikaans want a white racist state that will ally itself with Nazi Germany in the future. They settle in to a town called Rivington (fictional) and immediately begin their reign of terror not only on the Union, but their manipulation of the men and women of the South. Pretty intense story here.

The Afrikaans though are a bit cardboard characters; Turtledove does not build them up to any great degree. There are funny moments as when he introduces the Confederate soldiers to instant coffee and freeze-dried meals.

The discovery of 20th century books, the way General Lee uses the information of the future to help not only his own political ends but the ends of his country are fascinating. The Afrikaans really shoot their own foot – if they were trying to create a slave state, why were they treating the Black man so badly – worse so than the Confederates were!

Final Note: Some may bristle a bit in making the South the good guys in this story, but frankly they were really coming of age as a nation, realizing what they were doing not only with demanding slave rights but also state rights, and realizing they were part of a global economy (pretty radical in 1868!).

The fates of Lincoln, Grant, and even Hayes are revealed. Check it out, not a bad read.


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