American Empire:
Blood & Iron

One war ends in Turtledove's masterful alternate-history series, but another is already brewing

	American Empire: Blood & Iron
	By Harry Turtledove
	Del Rey Books
	Hardcover, July 2001
	544 pages
	MSRP: $27.95/$39.95 Canada
	ISBN 0-345-40565-X

Review by A.M. Dellamonica

he Great War is over, and the Confederate States of America have suffered their first defeat. The United States and her German allies have crushed the South, occupied English Canada and turned Quebec and Ireland into free nations. The C.S.A., Britain and France are obliged to pay massive war reparations to the victors, while the North pauses to savor the victory it has wanted for so long.

Harry Turtledove opens a new chapter in the alternate history of the United States and its hostile southern neighbor by drawing a portrait of the uneasy peace settling over Europe and the Americas. In the United States, ordinary workers--who made great sacrifices during the war and are seeing few dividends--elect a Socialist president to protect them from the union-busting capitalist class. For the first time since the War of Secession, military concerns take a backseat to domestic, and the government focuses on healing the wounds left by the conflict.

But how long can the good times last? As a Canadian partisan dreams of assassinating Gen. George Custer, patriots in the new U.S. state of Kentucky chafe under occupation, agitating to get back into the Confederate fold. Worse, runaway inflation is devastating the Confederate economy. The financial hardship is giving rise to an ugly political movement originating in Richmond, Va., one which preaches hate and more war even as the United States cuts its military budget to the bone.

A moving meditation on revenge

Harry Turtledove's novels are never as tense as when war looms on the horizon, threatening to break out but not yet arrived. American Empire: Blood & Iron is a masterpiece of this type of suspense. In it, the author puts paid to the notion that a war is something that can end cleanly. Even in peace, the characters readers have followed through the entire Great War series are still struggling with troubles large and small. Sylvia Enos must cope with life as a war widow, and Scipio will be a fugitive from the Southern authorities for the rest of his life. On the lighter side, Jonathan Moss is in love with a Canadian woman who wants nothing to do with a Yankee invader of her nation.

The inevitable result of these fractured lives is an upwelling in the desire for revenge. A few characters--most of them on the victorious U.S. side--are willing to keep their heads down and enjoy the peace. The vast majority, though, are out for blood. Whether they have lost a loved one, an arm or leg, or their economic security, the desire to strike back is all-consuming. Readers will see that the battle is not over. The combatants have merely paused to catch their breath and tally the score.

Despite the wide divergence between this fictional universe and the real one, the terrible events of World War II loom visibly in the story's future. Turtledove pulls no punches as he sketches the growth of the Freedom Party in the South. It is not only the more villainous stripe of Confederate who races to join the fascist parade; ordinary and once-likable characters are on the bandwagon too. This book covers some of the most treacherous ground of recent history, and it rarely puts a foot wrong. As a result, readers are left with an almost lethal dose of suspense, made breathless by the Freedom Party's few setbacks and hoping--without much hope--that somehow everything will come out differently.

If you have been reading this series since How Few Remain, this is sure to both please and terrify you. -- A.M.

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Also in this issue: The King of Dreams, by Robert Silverberg

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