|
|
|
American Empire: |
||||||||||||||||||
|
|
temporary peace reigns in North America after the Great War. The defeated Confederate States of America continue to slowly rebuild their nation and morale. Up north, the United States, victorious at last, swaggers across the world stage, casting about for legitimate rivals and finding them thin on the ground. American Empire: The Center Cannot Hold continues the story of the between-wars period, taking both countries through the economically robust '20s and into the Great Depression.
One of the most profound historical divergences in this divided-America universe is in the course of the national governments. The Socialist Party is a big player in the United States, and the period of prosperity following the war is overseen by a two-term leftist president, Upton Sinclair. As the years roll past and depression takes hold of both the southern and northern economies, both countries swing to the right. In the C.S.A., the once-disgraced Freedom Party surges onto the national stage. Led by a violent racist named Jake Featherstone, the Freedom Party's coming to power can augur nothing but fearful oppression for the black residents of the South. But with people out of work and looking for scapegoats, it is all too clear that nothing can stand between Featherstone and the power he craves.
The home lives of the novel's many characters lie at the heart of this book. Veterans of the world war have a chance to relax, and they take advantage of it spectacularly. Single characters marry, while married characters embark on having families. There is a sense of the old guard giving away, an uneasy knowledge that the newborns of this novel will be cannon fodder in the inevitable next clash between the two American powers.
A century filled with a sense of fear
Watching Jake Featherstone's rise to power in American Empire: The Center Cannot Hold is gripping, but it is also something of a painful exercise. There is always a sense, in this novel, of wanting something—anything!—to go wrong for Jake. Readers familiar with Turtledove's work will know he is not going to shy away from bringing the horrors of fascism to his altered American landscape. Even so, it is impossible not to hope that the worst can be avoided.
Given that its story is set in what is nominally peacetime, this chapter of the series moves at a more sedate pace than wartime entries. Ironically, though, it covers a much longer period of time, moving through a series of elections on both sides of the U.S.A./C.S.A. border even as its characters pursue the lives that were interrupted by warfare. Readers who follow alternate history because of its emphasis on combat may find Turtledove's approach—the careful preparation of battlefields to come—to be less gripping than the fights themselves.
In fact, though, the preparation illuminates the genuine history of the 20th century as much as it does the alternate one. The author shows how full of side-conflicts and maneuvering supposed peacetime eras really are. People go off to fight in smaller skirmishes as the two governments struggle to decide who their true friends are and how strongly they should arm themselves against each other. By now, the two countries are traditional enemies—there is no going back. In remaking the history of two world wars without deviating radically from some of their main events, Turtledove continues to succeed at the delicate balancing act which makes this series so incredibly compelling.
I want to bundle up all the sympathetic characters in the C.S.A. and move them somewhere very far from The Freedom Party's reach. Turtledove has made me feel genuine fear for their welfare. — A.M.D.
Also in this issue: Spider Island: The Collected Stories of Jack Williamson, Volume Four, by Jack Williamson
|
 |
|
| Home |
Copyright © 1998-2006, Science Fiction Weekly (TM). All rights reserved. Reproduction in any medium strictly prohibited. Maintained by scifiweekly@scifi.com. |
