well... having just finished RE, I say I was glad I bought it, but I have mixed feelings about some of it.
First of all, give HT credit for not slavishly copying an OTL campaign, as he is wont to do in other books. The strategies followed by the two sides don't seem to be taken from any real WW2 campaign... or if it is, I haven't recognized it. That said, there are still plenty of OTL counterparts. The South went from shooting it's racial enemy to gassing them in trucks and is now building it's Auschwitz in an isolated area... eerily reminiscent of the first stages of the OTL Holocaust. The CSA style of war is exactly the same as the Nazis: fast moving, air/armor/infantry combined arms attacks, a general lack of naval warfare on their part, etc.
I was skeptical of the CSA reaching Lake Eerie.. until I looked at the map in the book. It doesn't look like that much of a distance, and considering that the CSA had total surprise and way better tactics than the US, I'd say that they would indeed have a shot at it. The US also had the bulk of it's forces over in the east, as they thought the CSA would attack towards Philadelphia.
OK, now the parts I disagree with:
Patton?! For God's sake, Patton?! With all the butterflies in this ATL, just what the hell are the odds there would even be a Patton, or that he would be just like his OTL counterpart?
Japan. Why the hell are they jumping in the war against the US? Is Hawaii really that valuable? Eveything they wanted to get in OTL, they already have here....
Still, I enjoyed the book overall. Now, I'm off to read "Dies the Fire"..
First of all, give HT credit for not slavishly copying an OTL campaign, as he is wont to do in other books. The strategies followed by the two sides don't seem to be taken from any real WW2 campaign... or if it is, I haven't recognized it. That said, there are still plenty of OTL counterparts. The South went from shooting it's racial enemy to gassing them in trucks and is now building it's Auschwitz in an isolated area... eerily reminiscent of the first stages of the OTL Holocaust. The CSA style of war is exactly the same as the Nazis: fast moving, air/armor/infantry combined arms attacks, a general lack of naval warfare on their part, etc.
I was skeptical of the CSA reaching Lake Eerie.. until I looked at the map in the book. It doesn't look like that much of a distance, and considering that the CSA had total surprise and way better tactics than the US, I'd say that they would indeed have a shot at it. The US also had the bulk of it's forces over in the east, as they thought the CSA would attack towards Philadelphia.
OK, now the parts I disagree with:
Patton?! For God's sake, Patton?! With all the butterflies in this ATL, just what the hell are the odds there would even be a Patton, or that he would be just like his OTL counterpart?
Japan. Why the hell are they jumping in the war against the US? Is Hawaii really that valuable? Eveything they wanted to get in OTL, they already have here....
Still, I enjoyed the book overall. Now, I'm off to read "Dies the Fire"..