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Drive to the East (Settling Accounts Trilogy, Book 2) | 
 enlarge | Author: Harry Turtledove
Category: Book
List Price: $26.95
Buy New: $9.28
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Avg. Customer Rating:  59 reviews
Sales Rank: 401920
Format: Bargain Price
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 608
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.4
Dimensions (in): 8.4 x 5.5 x 1.9
ASIN: B000HWXZIK
Publication Date: August 9, 2005
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
Harry Turtledove–the master of alternate history–has recast the tumultuous twentieth century and created an epic that is powerful, bold, and as convincing as it is provocative. In Drive to the East he continues his saga of warfare that has divided a nation and now threatens the entire world.
In 1914, the First World War ignited a brutal conflict in North America, with the United States finally defeating the Confederate States. In 1917, The Great War ended and an era of simmering hatred began, fueled by the despotism of a few and the sacrifice of many. Now it’s 1942. The USA and CSA are locked in a tangle of jagged, blood-soaked battle lines, modern weaponry, desperate strategies, and the kind of violence that only the damned could conjure up–for their enemies and themselves.
In Richmond, Confederate president and dictator Jake Featherston is shocked by what his own aircraft have done in Philadelphia–killing U.S. president Al Smith in a barrage of bombs. Featherston presses ahead with a secret plan carried out on the dusty plains of Texas, where a so-called detention camp hides a far more evil purpose.
As the untested U.S. vice president takes over for Smith, the United States face a furious thrust by the Confederate army, pressing inexorably into Pennsylvania. But with the industrial heartland under siege, Canada in revolt, and U.S. naval ships fighting against the Japanese in the Sandwich Islands, the most dangerous place in the world may be overlooked.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 54 more reviews...
 Turtledove Scores Again!!!!!! June 11, 2008
I have read every Turtledove book I can get my hands on. He is the master of alternate history.
The way he weaves actual historical figures into his tales makes his story all the more fascinating.
Imagine the South winning the Civil War and both World Wars being fought in North America. Turtledove uses his fertile imagination to do just that.
The Settling Accounts series takes the reader into a world struggle pitting the USA and Germany against the CSA, Britain and France; with a Pacific Theater against Japan thrown in. A Mormon revolt in Utah and Canadians uprising against the hated Yankee conquerers, just adds spice.
Drive to the East is the second book of this account.
Turtledove ties all his stories together by using characters introduced in his previous tales, as they continued with their lives after "The Great War (WW1)". For those who haven't read the previous series, the author gives just enough background to make the reader comfortable about the events in the characters past.
All in all the book is just a great read. I would recommend it to all those readers who enjoy alternate history, and to anyone who would enjoy a different slant on history.
I can hardly wait to get my hands on book 4 to see who wins!!!!
Book 2 Drive to the East August 23, 2007
Another awesome sequel to the first book by Harry Turtledove "settling accounts return engagement. Great story in recreating a different outcome for World War II.
A Great Read !!! July 21, 2007
I find this book a truly great read. The story line is good, and the outcome is believeable. I just hope Turtledove continues in this trend, and shows the U.S.A. how they get their just deserts from the Confederacy as they continue to beat the hell out of them.
 The trouble with a multi-volume saga... November 11, 2006
0 out of 3 found this review helpful
...is that there's always the risk that your wellspring of ideas is going to dry up and you wind up recycling. The "Settling Accounts" series isn't so much as series in its own right as it is a continuation of Turtledove's "American Empire" saga. And now it looks like he's falling into the trap of a lot of alternate reality storytellers and taking events from this reality and just changing the players around like in volleyball. For the Confederacy to be led by a disgruntled bigoted enlisted veteran of The Great War should have been a tipoff, but there are so many other things. Like Utah's Mormons sending out suicide bombers. Plus an all-American Holocaust using the same sort of death camps, the same sort of industrial approach, even the same type of chemicals. And I've got real problems with the American Confederacy becoming that much like the Third Reich in spirit. Like any other Yankee schoolkid, I was taught about what big meanies the South were, and the news media reinforced that indoctrination during the 1960s Civil Rights struggles; Wallace, Bull Connor, you name it. Then, later in life, I learned about New England's Legion Of White Decency and their similarity to the Klan, including a visual resemblance, white robes and all. Which made my own region's demonization of the "Rebs" all the more hypocritical. So Turtledove has made this series allegorical, but about as biased an allegory as you can get.
The war gets uglier November 2, 2006
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
It is the winter of 1942. Six months have passed since Jake Featherston -- President of the Confederate States of America and "the Sarge" of the ruling Freedom Party -- gave the order for the surprise attack on the United States of America, but the Confederacy has failed in its mission to quickly knock the USA out of the Second World War and restore Confederate hegemony in the Western Hemisphere. The Confederacy's grip on Ohio still has the USA cut in half, while C.S. bombers kill the President of the United States, Al Smith, in his bunker. But his successor vows to continue the war, and for each day that the war drags on, the USA gets stronger, while the CSA's borrowed time slowly runs out. Featherston and his chief of staff, Nathan Bedford Forrest III, devise a new plan that will deliver the coup de grace to the crippled USA -- but will it work? Will Operation Coal-scuttle bring total victory to the Confederate States of America and its madman leader? The blacks in the CSA hope otherwise -- Featherston's henchmen have already cleared several cities of their presence, and the construction of an enormous camp in the empty Texas prairie brings a terrifying new dimension to that mysterious slang-term: "population reduction."
I thought this was a good book. After the bangs and thrills of the first few pages, the book takes a while to get started, but once the operation on which the title of the book is based begins, the action picks up. I also liked the parallels to the Civil War -- General MacArthur's misguided attacks on Fredericksburg, Virginia, mimics Ambrose Burnside's assault oo December 13, 1862, while Jonathan Moss gets used to life in a prison camp in the middle of Georgia called Andersonville.
We also see some new characters -- which means other characters die. One of them was well deserved; the death could not have happened to a nicer person, even if the death comes at an inconvenient time plot-wise.
All in all, a good read for the middle of a series. If you're just getting started with these books, then you'll do better to begin with How Few Remain and work your way from there, but for veterans this book picks up right where Return Engagement ended and doesn't stop.
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