The Grapple

Written by Harry Turtledove

Narrated by Paul Costanzo

It is 1943, the third summer of the new war between the Confederate States of America and the United States, a war that will turn on the deeds of ordinary soldiers, extraordinary heroes, and a colorful cast of spies, politicians, rebels, and everyday citizens. The C.S.A. president, Jake Featherston, seems to have greatly miscalculated the North's resilience. But as new demonic tools of killing are unleashed, secret wars are unfolding. The U.S. government in Philadelphia has proof that the tyrannical Featherston is murdering African Americans by the tens of thousands in a Texas gulag called Determination. And the leaders of both sides know full well that the world's next great power will not be the one with the biggest army but the nation that wins the race against nature and science-and smashes open the power of the atom.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Tantor Media, Inc
• Release date: Aug 16, 2016
• ISBN: 9781515976981

Harry Turtledove

Harry Turtledove is an American novelist of science fiction, historical fiction, and fantasy. Publishers Weekly has called him the “master of alternate history,” and he is best known for his work in that genre. Some of his most popular titles include The Guns of the South, the novels of the Worldwar series, and the books in the Great War trilogy. In addition to many other honors and nominations, Turtledove has received the Hugo Award, the Sidewise Award for Alternate History, and the Prometheus Award. He attended the University of California, Los Angeles, earning a PhD in Byzantine history. Turtledove is married to mystery writer Laura Frankos, and together they have three daughters. The family lives in Southern California.

Reviews for The Grapple

[macdad-236140 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

In the latest volume of his ongoing alternative history series, Harry Turtledove moves beyond the battle of Pittsburgh, the turning point in the war between the U.S. and the Confederate States with which he concluded the previous installment. The Confederacy, which had enjoyed dramatic success at the start of the war, now finds itself on the defensive as the U.S. drives them back. Increasingly the Confederate president, Jake Featherston, grasps onto the slim hope of secret weapons to turn the tide against the superior numbers and resources of the United States, which is bearing down upon the South in a campaign with echoes of the American Civil War.

Fans of the series will find much to satisfy them here. Once more he chronicles events the course of the war through the experiences of over a dozen characters scattered on both sides, though by this point the diversity of experience is much reduced as nearly everybody he chronicles is at the front; home front interludes are virtually nonexistent. The tactics of present-day wars are even more apparent in this installment they were before, as combatants use suicide bombers, car bombs, and even truck-mounted machine guns in ways more familiar to soldiers of today than those of sixty years ago.

Yet while readers will find many of the same strengths that engaged them in the previous volumes, the weaknesses are there as well While the plot moves forward nicely, the individual episodes themselves have a rote and repetitive feel to them. Characters find themselves repeating the same actions from scene to scene, and even their dialogue is largely the same as before. The increasing confinement of the narrative to the battlefield only enhances this, as characters do the same things over and over because they find themselves stuck in the same situations – something that Turtledove successfully avoided in his far more diverse coverage of the alternative First World War in the earlier volumes.

In short, readers of the earlier volumes will find much the is familiar here, as events move down well-work paths towards an inevitable conclusion. About the greatest surprise contained within these pages is that Turtledove doesn’t wrap up the war, but instead plans at least one more installment of his “Settling Accounts” series. Fans will probably be rewarded with more of the same as before, as the whole series finds a groove that is both comfortable and predictable.

[dinadansfriend · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

I sometimes confuse HT's WWII Alternates and get some characters from the Flying Dragon set, The the Invading Lizard set, and the Confederacy wins, are mentally wandering through the wrong landscapes. I suspect others do as well. It is quite a familiar trope in HT's works, and i was a little tired when I got to this volume in the "Confederacy Wins" set. We are a long way from the very good "How Few Remain", and deep into formula fiction here. But I think it's 1944, for this series.

[randystafford · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

While not an entry point, this is actually one of the better novels in this series. Rather than a static - and sometimes unconvincing - recreation of European WWI trench warfare on America soil, a Fuehrer rearming the Confederate States of America in the interwar years, and the Battle of Stalingrad retold as the Battle of Pittsburgh, this novel has a lot of mobile warfare as the USA drives into the heart of the Confederacy. Turtledove continues, from earlier novels in the series, bringing in tactical innovations not seen in our version of WWII. There is also more attention to the other theatres of war outside of North America. And, in this harsher alternate to our world, a lot of thought is expended on what to do with various rebels be they Canadian, Mormon, or the soon to be vanquished Confederates. Genocide is irrefutably exposed in Camp Determination where one characters meets an unexpected end and another one meets an all too expected end. In short, this novel feels more like an alternate history - and not just a retelling of history with changed names and places - than any other book in this series apart from its stellar start, How Few Remain.

[hamburgerclan · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Ah, the penultimate volume of the Timeline-191 series! I am such an addict! By this time, I have to admit that these alternate history books about the ongoing conflict of the United States and Confederate States have devolved into hackwork. You get the same ideas swirling around and around throughout the tale. Highly competent soldiers on the front lines can (and should) get away with mouthing off to their superiors. Confederate tobacco is much superior than the crap the USA produces. The superior numbers and manufacturing capability of the USA can win the war if it's drawn out... unless the CSA manages to split the atom first. So why do I keep reading? Well, I've come this far. 10 volumes as of this book. I want to see how it ends. Who lives? Who dies? And will Jake Featherston get the nasty death that he truly deserves? Guess I'll just have to get the next one to find out. (And pray that Mr. Turtledove hasn't decided to embark on an alternate Cold War epic....)--J.