The Great War: American Front
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| Author | Harry Turtledove |
|---|---|
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | Alternate history novel |
| Publisher | Ballantine |
| Released | 1998 |
| Media type | Print (Hardcover & Paperback) |
| Pages | 503 pp |
| ISBN | ISBN 034540615X |
| Preceded by | How Few Remain |
| Followed by | The Great War: Walk in Hell |
The Great War: American Front is the first alternate history novel in the Great War trilogy by Harry Turtledove. It is part of Turtledove's Timeline-191 series of novels.
[edit] Plot summary
After a prologue with Robert E. Lee smashing the Army of the Potomac at the Battle of Camp Hill, Pennsylvania, in October 1862, and the subsequent Anglo-French diplomatic recognition of the Confederate States of America, the novel begins on June 28, 1914, the same day Archduke Franz Ferdinand was assassinated in Sarajevo.
World War I breaks out and spreads to North America, where the pro-German United States under Theodore Roosevelt declares war on Woodrow Wilson's CSA, which is allied with Great Britain and France. After initial US invasions of Kentucky, British-run Canada, and western Virginia, and CS invasions of Maryland and Pennsylvania, the conflict bogs down into trench warfare. Across the Mississippi River, in the western part of the continent, the conflict is a war of movement.
The novel carries on to the autumn of 1915, with the beginning of a Marxist black rebellion against the racist whites of the CSA.
Most of the characters in the book are small-time folks being caught up in the bigger world of a global war. One main character in the book whose destiny will be intertwined with the twentieth century's destiny in the whole Timeline-191 world is an artillery sergeant named Jake Featherston.
This book is followed by The Great War: Walk in Hell, and then The Great War: Breakthroughs.
