American Empire:
The Victorious Opposition

In the Confederate States of America, the worst has come to pass—and the days of peace are numbered

	American Empire: The Victorious Opposition
	By Harry Turtledove
	Ballantine Books
	Hardcover, August 2003
	512 pages
	ISBN 0-345-44423-X
	MSRP: $27.95/$41.95 Can.

Review by A.M. Dellamonica

fter years of building the power base of the fascist Freedom Party, Jake Featherstone has ascended to the presidency of the Confederate States of America. Preaching revenge against the United States and black citizens alike for the losses of the Great War, and promising to rebuild the Depression-ravaged economy of his nation, Jake has the electorate eating out of his hand. The few exceptions are gleefully dealt with: Dissidents are jailed in newly constructed prison camps, and the Supreme Court is dismantled. Ducking assassins and preaching hatred over the national airwaves, Jake even takes on the constitution of his country, repealing a law that limits presidents to one term in office.

The effects of repression are felt most violently, of course, by the black citizens of the C.S.A. Blacks' neighborhoods are burned, and their attempts at self-defense lead to greater slaughters. The hope of outside assistance is minimal, because the North has troubles of its own. The pacifist Socialists are in power, and U.S. hands are occupied with occupying Canada and holding rebellious states formerly belonging to the Confederacy. Unwilling to take in more African-Americans (who are the scapegoats for the original breakup of the Union in Lincoln's time) the United States have closed their border to refugees, while turning a blind eye to the Confederate military buildup.

Soon Featherstone is demanding the return of the lost territories and behaving in a more and more provocative fashion, while the U.S. continues to appease him. By the time it stands firm, the United States may well have lost all military advantage over its ruthless and revenge-bent enemy.

Loose ends wrap up while new stories unfold

With American Empire: The Victorious Opposition, Harry Turtledove continues his account of the between-wars period of relations between the C.S.A. and the U.S.A. Like its predecessors in the American Empire trilogy, the novel covers a goodly number of years. Its pace is much faster, however—with Featherstone in power at long last, the movement of both countries toward the inevitable next crisis has the momentum of a cattle stampede.

The Victorious Opposition also mostly completes the author's carefully handled process of passing his narrative down to a younger generation, moving the point of view from the characters who fought in Turtledove's alternate Great War to those who will be in the trenches of the new conflict. Some of the most appealing and complex characters of the previous series meet their ends in this book, some in tragic ways, other in ironic or even remarkably funny ones. Readers will be sorry to see these old friends go ... but as they vanish from the stage they impart a richness and sense of context to the children and grandchildren taking over the story.

This has been a tense and unremittingly grim series, but, paradoxically, readers may feel some relief as its awful promises start to finally play out. The dread so masterfully produced by the author is over, the transition complete. If there is no more hope of avoiding the terrible Confederate destiny Featherstone has been dreaming about since the beginning, there is at least the sense that the U.S.A.—unprepared and unwilling though it may be—will eventually put things to rights.

Turtledove's universe and world-building are so real in this series that it is a relief when one remembers that this history exists only in the realm of things imagined. — A.M.D.

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Also in this issue: Tangled Strings, by Adam-Troy Castro

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