This is an extremely accessible history of the late Roman Republic, from approximately the time of the brothThe decline and fall of the Roman Republic
This is an extremely accessible history of the late Roman Republic, from approximately the time of the brothers Gracchi to the ascension of Augustus Caesar. Holland provides a lucid description of the workings of the Roman Republic and its peculiarities - the prominent but often surprising class system, the extremely competitive and cut-throat (often literally!) electoral politics, and the Republic's many "defensive" wars of conquest. This is the tale of a political system that placed so much pressure on itself that no one other than an all-powerful dictator could make it work.
Highly recommended, with interesting parallels (and warnings) to modern political systems....more
The conclusion to the series doesn't exactly break any new territory. It simply finishes the already-obvious direction that the previous book has set The conclusion to the series doesn't exactly break any new territory. It simply finishes the already-obvious direction that the previous book has set in motion. There are a couple of surprising character deaths, but otherwise nothing needs to be said about this book that hasn't already been said about the others in the series.
The end of this war, just like with real history's WWI, leaves an opening for the defeated side to harbour a "stabbed in the back" mentality. This leads to the next series in Turtledove's universe....more
This is the second book in Harry Turtledove's Great War series, following "American Front", telling the story of an alternate World War I, where in NoThis is the second book in Harry Turtledove's Great War series, following "American Front", telling the story of an alternate World War I, where in North America the United States is entangled in total war against the Confederate States and Canada.
The book follows the same characters from the previous one, but now as the war has dragged on longer than expected, with far more brutality and destruction than originally imagined, many of them are experiencing increasingly greater hardship, and some characters die.
The face of the war has changed with the use of new weapons such as the airplane and the barrel (the original ridiculous British name of "tank" never becomes popular in North America). The new weapons are used only imperfectly at this point in the war, but there are plenty of hints that they will be significant in the future. This is especially true of barrels, as the normally hide-bound General Custer has taken a liking to them and wishes to use them aggressively, against existing US doctrine.
The Confederacy is reeling under continued US pressure and at the same time facing a Marxist uprising by oppressed black labourers, which started at the end of the previous book. Large sections of Canada are occupied by US troops, although their advance has been stopped by trench warfare. In general, the second book is a sort of turning point, where the Entente powers are slowly getting ground down, and the US is more and more likely to be victorious.
Both the strengths and weaknesses of the previous book continue in this one. The typical Turtledove attention to detail brings the myriad of characters, technologies, and politics to life. At the same time, too slavish a devotion to real history creates many situations that are implausible in North America - e.g. the population density of Manitoba (in 1915!) is not going to support trench warfare of the sort that happened in real WWI Europe.
This book is a strong continuation of a good series, but at the same time, I can't help but think a great opportunity has been missed....more
There's not much to be said for this one, other than "can't wait for the next book!"There's not much to be said for this one, other than "can't wait for the next book!"...more
This is the second book in the TL-191 series and the first in the American Front trilogy.
The world of "How Few Remain" is now experiencing its equivalThis is the second book in the TL-191 series and the first in the American Front trilogy.
The world of "How Few Remain" is now experiencing its equivalent of World War I. The tensions in Europe played out in the same way as in our world, and the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand in Serbia triggered war on an unprecedented scale. However, in North America things are completely different. The fourth member of the Quadruple Entente, the Confederate States of America (the other three being England, France, and Russia), along with its ally, the British dominion of Canada, face off against the United States of America, a close ally of Germany and Austria-Hungary. The new methods of modern warfare are now ravaging both North America and Europe.
In this book, the points of view have shifted completely from "How Few Remain". In the earlier book, most of the viewpoint characters were famous historical figures such as Samuel Clemens and Theodore Roosevelt. Here they are all regular people caught up in the war. Even when some of the same characters appear, such as US president Teddy Roosevelt and an elderly, hide-bound General Custer, they are only seen through the eyes of other, lower-ranking figures. This plays out quite well in showing how regular people are affected by war, especially such a new and devastatingly different one.
However, in trying to follow our history too closely, Turtledove seems to ignore the differences North America would make in a WWI-style conflict. While mention is made of the western part of North America not following the stalemate of trench warfare due to its size, the eastern portion of the continent is under the same sort of deadlock as in Europe. In reality, this would be very unlikely due to the lower population density. Even with machine guns and artillery, North America is simply too big to allow the the sort of stalemate that happened in Western Europe. The only way to do flanking maneuvers in Europe was the famous "race to the sea". In North America however, there's simply too much space, and there's no way either the USA or the CSA could have locked up the entire front with trenches and barbed wire, let alone find enough men to defend it all. In the book, this is all ignored, and most of the time it reads like war in Europe being reenacted exactly in North America.
However, there are other interesting social factors at play that Turtledove portrays quite well. The socialist movement in the USA is very strong, thanks to Lincoln's leftward turn back in "How Few Remain", and socialist agitation risks destabilizing the country. The country itself is much closer to real history's Germany, with the US having learned a lot of administrative techniques from its ally. In the CSA, Marxism runs rampant among the oppressed black labourers, threatening a revolution. The country is much more aristocratic, with the recently-freed blacks constituting the lowest rung of society. It feels like that either country can lose the war due to that sort of revolt and generate a "stabbed in the back" legend like in real history's post-WWI Germany. This is especially acute in the USA, where most of the intelligentsia supporting socialism seem to be Jewish.
All in all, this is an engaging book that, strangely, seems to be marred by too much devotion to real history. I hope there's more creative vision in the rest of the trilogy to take things a bit farther away from real history's patterns. After all, North America has very different geography and demographics from Europe, and thing should not shake out in exactly the same way....more
This is the first book in Harry Turtledove's alternate history TL-191 (Timeline-191) series, which consists of this stand-alone volume, plus two furthThis is the first book in Harry Turtledove's alternate history TL-191 (Timeline-191) series, which consists of this stand-alone volume, plus two further trilogies, the American Front series and the American Empire series.
The premise is that Special Order 191 (thus TL-191) by General Robert Lee was not lost as in actual history, but was put into action and caused the defeat of Union forces. Ultimately this caused the recognition of the Confederacy by Great Britain and France, creating two major American powers in North America.
The main narrative of the novel takes place almost 20 years after the American Civil War and Southern independence. The Confederate purchase of two Mexican provinces (Mexico is an empire under emperor Maximilian in this timeline and has provinces rather than states), which breaks the US lock on access to the Pacific Ocean, causes another war between the USA and the CSA. Various characters from actual history appear in the story, from Sam Clemens (a reporter in San Francisco) to Teddy Roosevelt (an enthusiastic volunteer soldier) to a disgraced Abraham Lincoln (now a socialist agitator) to an unscalped George Custer (still a cavalry officer). As the story flows on, new technologies and new alliances change the face of war and the continent.
This book is fairly typical Harry Turtledove. His grasp of history allows detailed descriptions of (changed) events and places, and the narrative covers both high level strategic decisions and everyday lives of regular people. Unlike some of his other works, the number of viewpoint characters is large enough to provide variety, but not so large that they become unwieldy. All in all, this is a good start to a classic series....more
The series declined with the third book, but I guess it was inevitable. Being a simple YA series, the author never focused much on world-building. AsiThe series declined with the third book, but I guess it was inevitable. Being a simple YA series, the author never focused much on world-building. Aside from the arena action, the first and second books mostly focused on personal interaction and character development, the "meat and potatoes" of YA/Romance, so the problem never showed up. The third book got into a lot of detail on the rebellion against the Capitol, which required more description of the social/economic structure of Panem, as well as military action. The author did poorly on all of these. Panem, being a cobbled-together mix of the Roman Empire and reality TV, never did make much sense. Placing it in a rebellion and a war against the underground totalitarian District 13 made everything ridiculous. Aside from this, even the individual action became sillier and sillier - Katniss, who previously (especially in the first book) had been relatively realistic at fighting, was suddenly able to shoot down bombers (!) with her new-and-improved Rambo bow.
The exploration of Katniss' psychology was still fairly good though, and the toll everything took on her mind was handled quite well for a novel of this type.
Ultimately, the series has all the material to make very successful action movies, and that's what's happening now....more
This is a nice series so far, simple quick reads with a decent story. The world-building leaves a lot to be desired, but my expectations were not exacThis is a nice series so far, simple quick reads with a decent story. The world-building leaves a lot to be desired, but my expectations were not exactly at Larry Niven/Jerry Pournelle level in the first place. The series seems to be aimed at the Twilight youth demographic, but with more complex characters and a lot more action....more
This is the first volume of Gibbon's opus magnum, and it really demonstrates how the work became the standard measure of history-writing for centuriesThis is the first volume of Gibbon's opus magnum, and it really demonstrates how the work became the standard measure of history-writing for centuries afterwards. The detailed descriptions of Roman emperors and their works, taken from a variety of primary sources, along with some insightful (and often sarcastic or cynical, sometimes congratulatory) comments from the author, set the standard for all subsequent works. Of course, this work also popularized a lot of myths that are still around today, especially concerning Christianity and the end of the (Western) Roman Empire. Also, the later volumes denigrated the later Eastern Empire so much that it contributed to that field of study being minimized or even ignored in the English-speaking world - to this day English-speakers always mean "the fall of the Western Empire" when they say "the fall of the Roman Empire"....more
This is the last book in Flynn's Spiral Arm series, and it wrapped up the story of Donovan/The Scarred Man nicely. In four books, Flynn traversed 20-sThis is the last book in Flynn's Spiral Arm series, and it wrapped up the story of Donovan/The Scarred Man nicely. In four books, Flynn traversed 20-some years and the entire eponymous spiral arm of the galaxy, showing us mind-controlling aliens, future human technologies (with no science!), the progress of history, and most important of all, human cultures and relationships. While the story of Donovan (mostly) came to a satisfying closure, there's still so much more left unknown in this rich universe. For example, we need a more detailed treatment of exactly what happened between the Commonwealth, Tau Ceti, and the pre-human aliens, more on why Tau Ceti "betrayed" Earth, and generally more of the history of the Periphery. I eagerly await Flynn's next works set in this universe....more
This book is an excellent example of Neil Gaiman's modern "adult" fairy tales. The ending is quite different from the movie with Claire Danes, and it'This book is an excellent example of Neil Gaiman's modern "adult" fairy tales. The ending is quite different from the movie with Claire Danes, and it's all the better for it. For some reason movies always want to end with sword fights in throne rooms, but the book's ending is in many ways quite a bit more powerful....more
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