Settling Accounts: The Grapple [Hardcover]

Plot: Volume umpteen of Harry Turtledove's seemingly endless in his South-won-the Civil-War alternate WWII series. Story picks up after the Pittsburg-Stalingrad defeat for the Confederacy and follows as the USA grinds the CSA down by a relentless drive into Kentucky, Tennessee, and North Georgia. Usual side plots galore on the seas, in Utah, and in Texas, with less on Canada this time.

General weaknesses of breadth: Again, the wider world war is only barely, tantalizingly mentioned.

Biggest strength: Hard to say except it's good to see all one's well-known characters back. Also, one senses that there will (hopefully) just be one more book to wind the series up.

I at least enjoyed some of the little snide didja-catch-that one obscure historic references and real characters in odd places. Castro snuck into this book for a cameo, and Oswald Mosley got another mention. Also, the North's main successful general, Irving Morrel is obviously not Sherman as some speculated but Irwin Rommel.

Biggest flaw: As others have noted-- the endless repetition is one nominee. For instance, I counted over a HUNDRED references to how great CSA cigarettes were and how sucky USA ones were. As if the hundred or so times the last two books mentioned this were not enough. There are also barely changing sequences for many of the main characters, not only Dr. O'Doull, but also Sam Carstens, George Enos, and esp. Chester Martin.

But my nominee for the absolute worst aspect is that the fractured plotline meant the first hundred pages or so were little but reintroducing all the characters and reminding us where we left off with them (necessary since, sadly, HT has scattered his writing efforts so much that this series rates but a book a year). The scattered subplots also make it hard to have a really dramatic, riveting thread anywhere. We are switching channels so fast that no one episode of anything is long enough to be well-developed or hold out interest.

Overall: Yes, readers of the series will want to press on. Although formulaic and predictable and slow, the book does progress and it is better than some of the frankly-nothing-happens earlier books.

Harry Turtledove was once a writer of creativity and imagination. Well, that's history. What's left is endless repetition and recycling of earlier material. Has anyone else noticed that he has now TWICE used the Stalingrad concept in his fiction? (Okay in two separate series, but come on.) Most of this book, as in much of his work these days, is simple filler. I have seriously wondered if its all done by some writing program, or student interns, and if he "oversees" the work and signs his name to it....Look, I used to LOVE his work. NOW he could actually be dead, and still churn out work of the same creativity and originality. I don't know what's worse, if he IS still doing the writing, or if he ISN'T. Sorry...

I've been reading this series by checking it out of the library. I'm pretty glad because I'd hate to be spending money on this series. It really began to lose momentum several books ago. This volume is very repetitive and very predictable. Too little that's really interesting ever happens. Much like in the Great War, the result just seems inevitable. There's no way the South can do anything but lose this war without a real "deus ex machina" turnabout. Every possible movement that could make things interesting -- a Japanese landing on Pearl Harbor for instance, gets easily written out. Instead the two key USA generals simply do no wrong. It is likely that a government run by a maniac is going to have trouble fighting a war, but the matchup here should be closer than it is.

Turtledove has really degenerated into extreme repitition. How many times do I need to hear that the blackout masking tape over headlights only gives off as much light as a cigarette? Someone should be editing this book. It isn't happening and it's at least 150 pages too long (and that's just to tell the same story).

How Few Remain created an interesting alternate timeline, but the promise of that has mostly petered out. I'll plug this out to finish it because I'm stubborn, but if you are thinking of starting this series, don't do it with your own money.