“For the want of a nail…”  So many times in history one seemingly insignificant event can change the course of everything.  In Harry Turtledove’s How Few Remain, the history altering event is the fact that a military courier carrying Gen. Robert E. Lee’s battle plan for the Second Battle of Manassas recovers the pouch he had lost on his way to “Stonewall” Jackson’s encampment.  If these plans had fallen into enemy hands, then the North would have won the battle, Gen. Jackson would have been killed accidentally by his own troops, and the Confederacy would have subsequently lost the War of Succession.  Well, that is what happened in our history.  By changing this one event, Harry Turtledove is able to create an alternate world where the North American continent is home to two separate nations.  How Few Remain begins a series of books that cover the history of the Second Civil War.  The Confederate States of America make a deal with the Emperor of Mexico to add more territory to their nation.  The USA declares war…and loses.  How Few Remain features a wide and varied cast of historical characters including Gen. Jeb Stuart, President Robert E. Lee, Teddy Roosevelt, Gen. George Armstrong Custer, and a disgraced, socialist Abraham Lincoln.

Mr. Turtledove’s next trilogy is called The Great War.  These three books cover the First World War.  Archduke Ferdinand is assassinated in Sarajevo and war is declared.  The British Crown calls upon their allies France and the CSA to fight Germany and Austria.  The Kaiser makes an alliance with the previously twice-defeated United States.  The War to End All Wars erupts in the North American homeland.  Confronted by a determined Yankee army to the north and a Red Revolution by the manumitted former slaves at home, the Confederacy and their allies are defeated.  The Great War introduces us to Confederate President Woodrow Wilson, a black truck driver named Cincinnatus, and a host of Yankees and Rebs from the mighty to the meek.

The American Empire trilogy begins with the end of WWI.  In the North, the Yankees, under the leadership of President Teddy Roosevelt and Gen. Custer, have become a colonial power after conquering Canada, dealing with the rebellious Mormons in Utah with an iron fist, and placing an economic boot on the throat of the South.  A Great Depression follows the administration of U.S. Socialist President Upton Sinclair and the rise of a fanatical leader in the subjugated CSA.  Jake Featherston, a retired sergeant with an intense hatred for the aristocracy of the old South and African-Americans, forms the Freedom Party with other like-thinking Confederates and begins his own putsch and a rise to power. The American Empire concludes with President Jake Featherston invading the USA and the beginning of World War II.

Harry Turtledove continues with the Settling Accounts series.  The war is on and the Confederates are thirsty for revenge.  Jake Featherston has begun his own version of the Final Solution.  Currently there are two books available with at least one if not two more in the works.

Imagine it is 1944. The world is embroiled in a conflict that threatens all of mankind.  Britain and Germany have been at war for several years.  The US has been fighting in Asia and Europe for three years when the unthinkable happens…Huge flying ships appear in the skies over every continent on the planet. Strange reptilian creatures are invading earth and mankind must put aside all differences and band together against a common foe. This is the premise of Harry Turtledove’s Worldwar tetralogy.  The US, Britain, the Third Reich and Japan must combine forces to battle the Race who are bent on nothing less than world domination.  Over the course of four books, the humans must fight the “lizards” to an uneasy compromise.

The next trilogy in this world created by the “Master of Alternate History” is Colonization. Twenty years have passed and the Lizards have established themselves in the southern hemisphere. The Colonization fleet has arrived. The Race has been influencing mankind, but we have been corrupting them as well.  Apparently the spice ginger acts a lot like heroin and PCP on them.  And the concept of individual rights? Unheard of!

Turtledove has taken this world into the next century with his book Homeward Bound. Humankind has developed inter-stellar space travel and is now knocking on the door of the Race’s home world.

I have thoroughly enjoyed all of the Harry Turtledove books that I have read. He is truly the Master of Alternate History! He is a very prolific writer, with over thirty books to his credit.  Whether it is an alien invasion during WW II; the Spanish Armada escaping a disastrous storm and  conquering the English; the Japanese fleet invading Hawaii following the Pearl Harbor sneak attack; or a world where magic works, he has a brilliant writing style that uses such verbal visual imagery that you may find yourself going outside to count the stars on the flag! I would highly recommend any of Harry Turtledove’s work to anyone who likes to wonder “what if”?
            “…So the kingdom was lost for the want of a nail.”

Rob Grayson is the father of three sons, who has lived in Mason City for over 18 years. He is a registered nurse. He has always enjoyed stories that ask “What if?” He began reading Harry Turtledove when he noticed the cover of “Guns of the South” showed Robert E. Lee holding an AK-47 assault rifle!