This book represents the third book in the Stars and Stripes trilogy, but I didn’t know that when I threw it in my box at the St. Charles Book Fair. All I knew is what the front cover told me (A Novel of Alternate History, Harry Harrison, and the title), and that was enough for me. I’ve done a Turtledove in the recent past (Ruled Britannia, reviewed here) and another Harrison novel earlier this year (The Stainless Steel Rat for President, reviewed here), so of course I picked this one up, even though it’s an ex-library copy and I would later realize it cost $2.00
The premise of the series: At the onset of the Civil War, Great Britain seizes a Confederate diplomat and unites the Union and the Confederacy into a war against Britain. Apparently the books deal with the initial conflict, subsequent conflict, and finally (this book) an invasion of Britain itself. It’s a quick read and stood well enough apart from the others in the series that I was not lost in it.
Unlike Turtledove, this book is pretty straight-ahead action without a lot of reflection or repetitious, almost extraneous character development. On the other hand, it does skip a bit on actual drama and conflict, since the technology and the battle-hardened nature of the American side and its brilliant strategy pretty much ensures that events unfold as planned without significant hinderance from the British.
That simple, almost logical progression not only plays to my jingoist American sensibilities, but also acts as fast forward buttons on the reading.
So I liked the book and wouldn’t mind reading the others in the series, but let’s face it: I’ll try not to pay $2.00 for ex-library editons in the future. Unless the book fair bug strikes again.
Harry Harrison is a prolific writer, albeit not a very good one.
In this book, the premise is that the Union navy intercepted a British mail ship, bound from Cuba to the U.K., and seized a cn=onfederate diplomat.
The British were incensed at the interception of one of Her Majesty’s ships and incited Queen Victoria (whose husband, Prince Albert, had just died) to call for a war.
A British Army, making a landing in the United States, confuses the Stars and Bars for the Stars and Stripes, and attacks thei presumed Confederate allies. The Confederates and the Union make common cause, fight off the British and then rejoins the story as you told it.
I’ve always found Harry Harrison to be a serviceable writer. That is, I’ve enjoyed his plots and his pacing enough to keep reading more, but I’ll grant that sometimes his characters are thin and the stories themselves lacking in meaningful opposition to the protagonists.
But I enjoy them anyway.