Walk in Hell

Great War #2

by Harry Turtledove

This is second part of the Great War
trilogy (after American Front) and the 4th volume
in Harry Turtledove's epic alternative history of the USA, in which the
South is victorious in the American Civil War. It
began with The Guns of the South, continues
How Few Remain and goes on in Turtledove's
American Empire and Settling Accounts
sequences.

It's 1915, the Great War is intensifying, and the time of darkness has
come. The slaves of the south have risen against their masters, taken on
the creed of Bolshevism and are attacking the Confederacy from within.
But the United States remains pinned between their weakened southern
rival, and their other bitter enemy, Canada. But both Presidents -
Theodore Roosevelt of the Union and staunch Confederate Woodrow Wilson -
are stubbornly determined to lead their nations to victory, at any
cost. Meanwhile the new and poisonous weapons of tanks, gas and planes
are starting to make their presence felt at the front. It's total war
for the first time in human history and it's ordinary people on both
sides who are the ones to begin suffer . . . 'The wizard of If.'
Chicago Sun-Times 'The standard-bearer for
alternate history.'USA Today

Genres: Alternate History, Fiction, Historical Fiction, Science Fiction, War, Fantasy, Audiobook

642 pages, Kindle Edition

First published August 3, 1999

About the author

Dr Harry Norman Turtledove is an American novelist, who has produced a sizeable number of works in several genres including alternate history, historical fiction, fantasy and science fiction.

Harry Turtledove attended UCLA, where he received a Ph.D. in Byzantine history in 1977.

Turtledove has been dubbed "The Master of Alternate History". Within this genre he is known both for creating original scenarios: such as survival of the Byzantine Empire; an alien invasion in the middle of the World War II; and for giving a fresh and original treatment to themes previously dealt with by other authors, such as the victory of the South in the American Civil War; and of Nazi Germany in the Second World War.

His novels have been credited with bringing alternate history into the mainstream. His style of alternate history has a strong military theme.

Reviews

[Nadienne Williams · Rating 5 out of 5]

I absolutely love the "Southern Victory" / Timeline-191 timeline of Mr. Turtledove here. If this portrayal is in any way, shape, or form accurate, then the United States which emerges from this event is a better nation, with actual Socialists in office.

I will have to expand on this more later.

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the third book in Harry Turtledove's TIMELINE-191 series and it was just as enjoyable as the first two. A "Walk in Hell" is placed in the middle years of the TIMELINE-191 World War and continues to follow a number of interesting characters. I'm looking forward to starting the next book in this series.

[Carol Storm · Rating 1 out of 5]

Absolute dreck! Not one likable character, not one interesting situation, and some of the "alternate" history of racism in the Deep South is downright offensive. I keep wondering why Harry Turtledove's books keep turning up in the junk pile outside the library where I work -- and I keep finding out!

[Nathan Wilson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good but the slow pace was a slog. Really felt like a middle book.

[Conor Brandt · Rating 3 out of 5]

It’s like 2.5.

I dunno why I keep punishing myself with these books as the quality varies widely.

This alternate history book features some cool ideas - a Confederate Black Communist Revolution! But it doesn’t build on them. I think Harry hates communism because he is determined not to talk about anything Revolutionary about the coolest part of the book.

Besides that it’s mostly a retread of ground from the last book, but one plotline about a Socialist in the US was fun. The audiobook makes many of these issues better as the narrator is good at his job.

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

Second of the Great War trilogy, and third overall of the eleven-book Southern Victory series - I have so many mixed emotions about the series at this point and just am not sure if I have the patience to continue.

There are many things I like here. Harry Turtledove, first of all, knows his history. He also does a great job on so many counts of anticipating how changing one event would change so many others, such as Custer not dying in Little Big Horn because he was too busy doing other things like invading the CSA. He also shows how a South winning the war and fighting globally and against the US creates opportunities for socialism to gain more of a foothold and for the Black Revolution to come with violence and about five decades early.

My problem is with Turtledove's lack of restraint on how he frames his narrative. After failing to keep up with who was who in the previous Great War book, I made a decision to write down a list of characters as I went, and even put them in neat columns of confederate, union, English Canadian, French Canadian, Negro Uprisers, Socialists, etc. It worked for a very short while because, while in chapter 3 of 20 and surpassing the 60th character and he kept adding more and more and more...I gave up on the list, and once again got confused with who was who, only maybe slightly less than the previous book.

Turtledove obviously plans his structure carefully. Each book has 20 chapters. Each scene seems to be within a few sentences of being 2000 words long, all throughout the book. There are about 8 scenes in each chapter. The problem is that this is confining and predictable.

I wish the author would take an approach similar to Jeff Shaara, and choose three or four major characters at most as anchors with long sections and a means of introducing the minor characters, instead of having at least a dozen groups with about three pages of reading before it goes somewhere else.

As concepts, I think these books are incredible. They would be the basis for great essays. But Turtledove's style of long fiction is grating on me. I may end up continuing, but can't dart from one book to another as I'd originally planned.

[Nancy · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Walk in Hell" opens with a poem from noted WWI poet Wilfred Owen, who died on the French front 11/4/1918. The poem quoted is from "Mental Case" and sets the mood for the book. One of the horrors of the First World War was so bad that using gas in warfare is considered heinous today. Another is that no one uses trench warfare either.

Just like in any war, WWI brought innovation. Harry Turtledove incorporated them into the story naturally. I especially like how he has shown the development of aircraft.
airplanes in war (balloons were used in the civil war)
aerial photography
interrupter gear
aircraft carriers
u-boats were a proven part of the navy (also first used in the civil war)
hydrophone (for locating subs)
depth charges, tanks
flamethrowers
tracer bullets
gas
trench warfare
wristwatches

A reoccurring theme is Country and race count for more than class. During the previous era, class counted, now there is a sea-change to race counting for more. As more black and brown people have money or even the right to vote, white people still want to be higher than them. Black and brown people are set on vengeance for wrongs they have suffered or thought to have suffered for years.

It is a long book with many characters, not all of which get a lot of ink. Just like the war it depicts, the book drags on. I hope that the next in the series spends some more time on all the characters.

[Bill · Rating 4 out of 5]

Still fun to read the third time through.

You can tell that the publisher was spending more on cover art back when this was written, with a painting of an exhausted American soldier, with helmet, rifle and gas mask; sitting by a roadpost marking the distance to Montreal. By the time we get to the final book of the series, we're just getting stock World War II images photoshopped to fit the Confederacy.

Being a father now, I have a lot more sympathy for the plight of Arthur MacGregor, and I expect I'd have made the same decisions. Turtledove is also always good with the little changes in his alternate timelines, "wireless" instead of "radio", "barrel" instead of "tank", "Sandwich Islands" for Hawaii, etc.

[Bryce · Rating 3 out of 5]

The next in the USA/CSA time line. The concept is fascinating, but the story gets bogged down by endless descriptions of battles. Many times, I get confused as to who is who. I'll stick with the series, though.

[Wade · Rating 2 out of 5]

Just like WW1, long, slog, with periodic episodes of excitement and brilliance and humanity. You more or less feel like you've earned a medal making it through but you feel compelled to make it through.

[Derek · Rating 5 out of 5]

as a sequel this book was just as good if not better than American Front i love Captin Moss and SGT. Mcsweeny

[Kevin Phyland · Rating 4 out of 5]

The second book in Harry Turtledove’s series about The Great War, an alternate history where the Confederates won the War of Secession, and the United Sates and the Confederate States have aligned themselves on opposite sides of the first World War. The USA has sided with the Kaiser’s Germany, while the CSA has taken up with the Anglo-French-Russian alliance. The foreign powers have little direct influence and are backdrops used as oceanic supply lines. The USA has been forced to fight on two fronts, the North against Canada and the South against the CSA, and this has reduced the effectiveness of their numerical and technological superiority. The book looks at the conflict from numerous points of view. From the pioneering Navy submersibles, used both in rivers and in the ocean, to the frontline Army soldiers, using trench warfare imported from Europe. Against this background there is the incipient and ultimately doomed Red uprising of disaffected workers, predominantly Negro. The wealthy Southern gentry are represented by a beutiful but stony hard cotton plantation owner, whose dominance as a female is hard-earned. The new technology of the Air Force is also examined through the point of view of early flying men (some almost boys). The pitiless inhumanity and brutality of war is examined starkly, with the full panoply of new technological horrors: mustard gas, barrels (tank warfare), backpack flamethrowers, and the seemingly endless supply of cannon fodder. News that negroes might be conscripted by the CSA has divided the Rebs but the treatment of blacks has not changed much. Can be read standalone but I recommend reading the first book prior.

[Anton Hammarstedt · Rating 3 out of 5]

(This review concerns Walk In Hell, by Harry Turtledove, in case Goodreads does this stupid thing where it collapses multiple entries into some type of anthology edition)

General impressions
Synopsis: How would WW1 have looked if the CSA had won the US Civil War?: Part 2: Electric Boogaloo
NB: This book is part of a series. I may or may not have focused my efforts in reviewing the last part of the series.
Rating (Intuitive*): 3
Rating (Weighted**): 3.83
RMSE***(Intuitive,Weighted): 0.447
Mean error***(Intuitive,Weighted): -0.056
Format: Audiobook
Language: English

Setting and premise
Aesthetic: 4/5 [w:2.5]
Verisimillitude: 5/5 [w:2.5]
Originality: 3/5 [w:1]

Plot
Design: 3/5 [w:2]
Verimillitude: 5/5 [w:2.5]
Originality: 3/5 [w:0.5]

Characters
Design: 4/5 [w:1]
Verimillitude: 5/5 [w:2.5]
Development: 4/5 [w:2]
Sympatheticness: 4/5 [w:2]

Presentation
Prose: 4/5 [w:1.5]

Additional modifiers
Page turner factor: 3/5 [w:3.5]
Mind blown factor: 2/5 [w:2.5]

*The rating I felt this deserved before thinking about it too much.
**Weights displayed next to each applicable scoring criterion. (Weights version 3.1)
***Root mean squared error and mean error calculated for all reviews using this format for books read from 2020-07-12 up until this book (40 reviews).

[Michael · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the second book in a trilogy that takes place during World War 1 in a world where the Confederacy won the Civil War. This series has been mixed for me so far, so I'm just going to break down the good and the bad.
Good: Harry Turtledove clearly knows history and thinks about history. His books show that he thinks about the consequences of events and how that one change can effect everything else. This makes it seem like his world is real and lived in.
Bad: These are long, detail heavy books (almost 600 pages or over 23 hours audio). This can make them a slog to get through and they can become a major time investment. His characters also seem to be there more to talk about the differences in their history and our history. Yes, they all have different personalities and their own story lines but because of the length of the chapters none of them are given the time they deserve. As a result none of them ever stood out to me and none of them have ever become interesting despite me investing over 46 hours in the series so far.
Conclusion: These are not bad books but they're more for people who like thinking about history and wondering what if things went differently. They more realistic in they're planning then others I've read but if you're looking for memorable characters rather than something that reads like a history book, this series isn't for you.

[Patti · Rating 4 out of 5]

If there’s one definite sentiment in this book, no matter who’s side you’re looking at it from, it’s that war is hell.

This is the second novel in Harry Turtledove’s alternate history series about the first world war. The series itself was set up in his novel How Few Remain where he gives us his version of what would have happened had the Confederacy won the Civil War. Turtledove’s The Great War series sets up the sides for the first World War somewhat differently than what history has actually given us.

The Confederacy is aligned with France, Great Britain, Canada, Russia, and the Japanese against the United States, Austria, and Germany. We hear a great deal about Teddy Roosevelt, who is now the President of the United States, but quite a bit less about his counterpart in the Confederacy.

To read my full review, please visit: https://thoughtsfromthemountaintop.co...

[Christopher Lutz · Rating 4 out of 5]

The War to End All Wars continues to grind on across North America, as the US’s larger population and greater access to war material starts to make a difference in the struggle against the CSA and Canada. In the south things are not faring well for the Confederates as a socialist revolution occurs and a manpower shortage begins to reverse any early gains they made. As new wartime technologies are employed and the death toll climbs ever higher, both sides are desperate for a decisive victory.

The Southern Victory series continues and book two slightly edges out part one of the Great War trilogy as we explore character threads in more depth while adding new stories and new fronts to the conflict. It’s good to finally be seeing the US actually winning a war for a change in this alternate timeline, being 0-2 so far.

[Charles · Rating 2 out of 5]

This novel probably deserves 3 stars, but despite Harry T's amazing vision and detailed development of the facets of the Great War (alt version), I still often felt (as I did with the previous novel) that some of these details could have been shortened or eliminated altogether. For example, the two fronts in Canada, west and Quebec, as important know about, just bored me more and more. However, at least some extraordinary progress occurred in the different fronts, and the finale is a great set-up for the third volume of this particular series which, despite my criticism, I am eager to read.

[CASPER HILEMAN · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Great War American front between the Confederacy and the United States continues to drag on as both sides with the Confederacy trying to maintain gains in Pennsylvania and the United States trying to control areas of Kentucky. Insurrection has begun to happen in both countries with African Americans beginning to rise against their Confederate masters and Mormon insurrectionists raising havoc in Utah.

[Scott Gardner · Rating 3 out of 5]

The war moves on , the confederate states start to feel the pressure building.

My only problem with this book was how the tanks got introduced. now I know it';s alternative , but it was the British who first used the tank , so it stands to reason it should be the confederate's who got them first , but turtledove gave the usa them first , didn't make sense

[George · Rating 1 out of 5]

In this alternate history series and Turtledove’s Worldwar series. The thesis of a confederate civil war win extended to WWI was interesting. However, the slow pace by minute detail was a slog and I gave up on it about six hours into the 26 hour listen. Since I gave the first book of the series one star also, I see no reason to begin book 3 of the trilogy.

[Colin · Rating 4 out of 5]

A solid continuation of the series. Given just how many perspectives he follows it can get a little confusing where you are sometimes but he does an excellent job of reorienting you quickly and making all the disparate perspectives flow nice. Excited to see where we go from here

[eric quinn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Continuing with the How few remain timeline.....great...interesting twists.

[George Flannary · Rating 5 out of 5]

Need more about Europe

Still no mention of the Ottomans. There needs to be more about the European eastern and western fronts. Otherwise great book

[Dave · Rating 3 out of 5]

scattered plot line and hard to keep track of story. did not read entire series however.

[Tony · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’ve been a big fan of Turtledove’s alternate reality books for a long time. He never disappoints.

[Ellen Broadhurst · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read because my son was reading the series. Not really my preferred genre, but overall an interesting work of fiction.

[Bob · Rating 2 out of 5]

Reading this was as much of a slog as the hopeless fighting in the book. It's not a good sign when I want 80% of the characters to catch a bullet or a shell and spare me their bs

[Kasey Kapler · Rating 5 out of 5]

Epic Games

[Alex · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another solid entry in Turtledove's alternate-history series.

[Gary Mcfarlane · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fiction but does show how war might be "biased" against some people and give privilege to others.