I’ve been reading this book for well over five years.
Yes, Five Years. It was so slow reading for me, it was miserable, so miserable, I picked up other books to entertain me (See previous Book Reviews). But I was adamant to finish it, and last night I was able to.

The Guns of the South by Harry Turtledove.

The book had a great and interesting premise, but beyond that, it was a miserable read for me.

————–Spoilers Below———–

I think I’m biased, being a damnyankee from birth, and having read such a powerful portrayal of the Civil War through April 1865: The Month That Saved America by Jay Winik.

The book is pretty much divided into two major acts:

• The Second American Revolution

• The Aftermath of the Second American Revolution.

In the first act, we see Lee and the Army of Northern Virginia in serious trouble. Its 1864, and Grant and his army are having their way with Lee’s troops after the Battle of Gettysburg. Then a mysterious man appears, by the name of Rhoodie. He’s from the future, and he’s got a stockpile of AK-47s for Lee and his men.

The rest of the act is the training of the men, with the new rifle, and the overpowering of the Army of the Patomic and the eventual capture and seige of Washington D.C., finalized by the surrender of Lincoln the the freedom of the Confederate States of America.

My issue with the first act was the fact that I wanted to read more about Lee, and less about the men in the 47th Reginent of North Carolina. (Nate Caudell, Molly (Melvin) Bean, etc.) I was frustrated whenever the narration cut away from Lee and Rhoodie, and focused on the men of the army.

The second act was the reconstruction of the south, after the war’s end in 1864. We see Lincoln’s defeat in the North, and its clear that history is now on a different tangent then what we know today.

Rhoodie and his men remain in the past and station themselves in Rivington North Carolina, complete with their 21st century technology.

Now, the focus changes to Caudell, as he unravels the mystery of the Rivington Men, and the election of Lee to the Presidency of the Confederate States of America. (He defeats Nathanial Bedford Forrest). Caudell and Bean report their findings of the Rivington Men to Lee, at the same time Lee falls out of favor with the Rivington men.

Lee is behind a movement to emancipate the slaves in the south (as the north recently did). And the Rivington Men show their true colors, they are not benefactors from the future, they are racists from South Africa, who have thier own agenda, and now Lee is opposed to them. They attack Lee, and inspire the Confederate States of America to fight back (against the Rivington Men) and the conclusion of the novel.

The book was miserably slow to read. It was clogged with details I was not interested in. Relationships, and the repititon of mundane ideas. (The fact that Mary Custus Lee is in poor health was rehashed over and over, I got the hint the first time.) This is one example.

And as in the first act, the focus of the narration was on the wrong subject. During the reconstruction, I wanted to concentrate on Caudell and his compatriots, not Lee and his befuddled political career.

Overall, the book gets 2 stars.
Lots of people suggested I would like this book, (even while I was reading it). I hate to say that I disagree with them. I was curious to read Turtledove’s simmiar alternative history to World War II, but I fear I will avoid that trillogy now.