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Sometime ago I read a book about time travelers from the future who went back in time in an attempt to change the outcome of the civil war. Can anyone tell me the title? Thanks
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There must be dozens of alternate history novels with this plot. However, depending on when you read it, I'm going to go out on a limb and say it was "The Guns of the South" by Harry Turtledove, as that seems to be one of the most well-known.
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The Ak-47 is generally used by third world nations because they're reliable accurate and cheap. So....uhhhh.....yeah. Ak-47s are a good fit for the south.
Maybe you can help me out. I once saw a book at Barnes & Nobels that I thought was interesting, but I didn't buy it. Like an idiot, I didn't bother to write down the name of the book either. It was one out of a series of books about an alternate history where rather than WW2 being all about us against the axis nations, we were all banding together to struggle against a hostile alien force that made their way to our liitle corner of the universe.
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Same author, Harry Turtledove. He's writing a "sequel" series set in the 60's -- the world is divided between humans and aliens, and the arrival of alient colonists threatens to upset the fragile balance of power.
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I've just looked at some reviews for his books. The general idea I got from the reviews is that the story is good, but Turtledove describes every aspect of everything in excruciating detail. Plus he has this bad habit of constantly "reminding" the reader of what has already been established through out all of the books.
Even if the story is good, I don't think I can stuggle through one of his books if he pays as much attention to detail as the reviews said. Some detail is good, but the point of fiction novels is to leave some of it to the imagination.
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Oh, I just thought of one: Harry Harrison's Rebel in Time, where they take the dchematics for the British Sten gun back, since its simple construction makes it easy to replicate given 19th-century industrial standards.
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My sister wrote a book about the battle of Scary Vreek, here in WV. In the story, a soldier travel to todays Scary Creek, and falls in love with a girl in this time. It turned out well, at least what I've read was good, but she has never tried to get it printed.
-------------------- Sparky:: Think! Question Authority, Authoritatively. “Believe nothing of what you hear, and only half of what you see.” EMSparks
His BEST alt-universe series is the one which is entirely feasable, but starts with an altered outcome to the Civil war (no time travel involved in this one, though)
"How Few Remain" is the first book, and tells the story of the Second Civil War, showing us a few familiar characters (Custer, T. Roosevelt), and introducing a slew of original characters.
He followed this up with the "Great War" Trilogy about the First World War, "American Front," "Walk in Hell," "Breakthroughs" with the CSA allied with the UK and France, and the USA allied with Germany.
Most recently, he's started a new trilogy in the same universe, hot on the heels of the first one (which was originally going to be a tetralogy, but he decided to continue it further), entitled "American Empire," the first volume of which is "Blood and Iron," which deals with the aftermath of the war and the rise (and apparent fall, fortunately) of a Naziesque political party in the CSA.
I don't think his details are 'excruciating,' anywhere near Clancy's, and his characters are quite human and the way the various story threads occasionally brush together is brilliant.
-------------------- "The best defense is not a good offense. The best defense is a terrifyingly accurate and devastatingly powerful offense, with multiply-overlapping kill zones and time-on-target artillery strikes." -- Laurence, Archangel of the Sword
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MIB, the ak-47 might be cheap and reliable, but it is NOT accurate. believe me, i've fired several ranging in quality from cheap chinese made ones taken from viet cong during 'nam to brand new high quality yugoslavian makes. NONE of them come close to an an m-16, hk g33, or FAL. the turtledove alien invasion series was a bit silly for my taste, so i never read his other stuff. i'm guessing that the civil war ones are ok?
That is the second Aliens stories. While the first series tells about the war fought between humans and the aliens, the second series focuses on relations between the two years in the 1960s when the wave of alien colonists arrives ...
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He's been doing it for years, over a wide variety of historical eras. There are two that I read a few years ago that i liked. The first, called "Agent Of Byzantium" (I think; its been a while), is set in a world where the Byzantine Empire never fell and Mohammed was a Christian saint. The second was called "A Different Flesh." In it, he postulated a world where the first Europeans to reach the New World found two continents populated by homo erectus instead of Native Americans.
-------------------- The difference between genius and idiocy? Genius has its limits.
Registered: Aug 2001
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Another time travel book based around the Civil War is "Bring The Jubilee" by Ward Moore. In that one, a time traveller from a world where the South won the war goes back to the Battle of Gettysburg. He proceeds to foul things up, and our world is the result.
[ December 18, 2001: Message edited by: Woodside Kid ]
-------------------- The difference between genius and idiocy? Genius has its limits.
Registered: Aug 2001
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