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A review by knightofswords
Bring the Jubilee by Ward Moore
4.0
As someone who has a soft spot for alternate history books, it is a bit disheartening to find out that the majority of the books written in the genre (especially by Americans) fall into two categories, namely:
1) "WHAT IF AMERICAN CIVIL WAR WAS DIFFERENT BECAUSE OF THING THAT HAPPENS AT GETTYSBURG/ANTIETAM/BULL RUN?" (almost always by authors who handwave away the horrors of Slavery)
2) "HITLER...VICTORIOUS?" which, far too often, feature authors claiming that Nazi Germany and occupied Europe would be super-advanced and prosperous with colonies on the Moon/Mars/Venus and not a carnival of horrors being overseen by incredibly stupid and dangerous fascists)
However, if you're going to read books in the genre that fall into those two (extremely broad) categories, well "Bring the Jubilee" is probably the best of the "WHAT IF CIVIL WAR DIFFERENT" genre - and it was probably the first of them all to it well - read this instead of whatever dreck Harry Turtledove grimly churns out each year. For what its worth, "Man in the High Castle" is probably the best of the second "genre".
1) "WHAT IF AMERICAN CIVIL WAR WAS DIFFERENT BECAUSE OF THING THAT HAPPENS AT GETTYSBURG/ANTIETAM/BULL RUN?" (almost always by authors who handwave away the horrors of Slavery)
2) "HITLER...VICTORIOUS?" which, far too often, feature authors claiming that Nazi Germany and occupied Europe would be super-advanced and prosperous with colonies on the Moon/Mars/Venus and not a carnival of horrors being overseen by incredibly stupid and dangerous fascists)
However, if you're going to read books in the genre that fall into those two (extremely broad) categories, well "Bring the Jubilee" is probably the best of the "WHAT IF CIVIL WAR DIFFERENT" genre - and it was probably the first of them all to it well - read this instead of whatever dreck Harry Turtledove grimly churns out each year. For what its worth, "Man in the High Castle" is probably the best of the second "genre".