Interesting novel. I've wanted to read this science fiction classic for some time. The beginning of the book paints a quite dreary picture of a New York and environs in a world where the Confederacy won the American Civil War and the north essentially fell into ruin and decay and back into a colonial state. The novel appeared in 1953, having been expanded from a renowned novella from 1952. This is a world where the combustion engine was never invented. Nor the telephone and many other inventions. The descriptive storytelling is great, and the setting fairly steampunkish in truth. Clockwork mechanisms, a few steam powered cars (minibiles) and balloon transport. Everyone communicates via telegraph or pneumatic tubes. Lots of horse power is used as well. This is an alternate history and a time travel story. The time travel doesn't happen until near the very end of the book. Almost the entire story takes place in the 1930's and 1940's of an alternate timeline up until 1952, the year the original story was published. A lot of setup here we have to take for granted. We aren't told and can't really see why the southern states became a world power. They abolished slavery (making negroes and all other non-whites subjects and non-citizens). We are told bits of why the north decayed but still, one just has to accept that the north lost and collapsed and the south rose and prospered. Moore works under the assumption that the loser of a war is doomed I think - The South goes on to conquer Mexico and then South America. History was very different in Europe as well. The main part of our story begins in the 1930's with a young man, our protagonist Hodge, leaving home at 17 and journeying to New York 4 days walk away (about 80 miles). He has dreams of being a scholar and attending college. After some years in New York, Hodge manages to find a haven in the dreary world, in Pennsylvania, where he lives and loves and slowly becomes a well regarded Civil War historian. So we have a coming of age tale. I thought the book dragged a bit in several parts of the middle but the last quarter and endgame of the novel was very good and rewards the journey to it. This book really seems to stand up near the higher end of science fiction novels of the 50's, certainly in the quality of the writing. The book has aged fairly well, and one can see many parallels between then and now.
An alternate history tale in which the South won the Civil War. The main part of the story takes place some 60 years after the war and the United States (just the North) has fallen into disarray after its disastrous loss to the South. I found this part of the book fascinating, with interesting speculation on how the state of the world changes if the United States breaks up (if a bit outlandish at times). (view spoiler)[However, the book starts to lose its appeal when the author tries to reconcile this alternate timeline with our own through the use of science fiction and the invention of a time machine. The section on the building of the time machine and its design was quite awful; just a bunch of jargon tied together and "equations to be worked out." I have a prejudice against time traveling in fiction - either you're too simplistic and introduce too many logical inconsistencies or you attempt to deal with the paradoxes and the book becomes a joyless pain to read. This book takes the first path and when the narrator inadvertently helps the North to win the alternate timeline just disappears. If you must attempt to reconcile both timelines, don't do it at the end and leave a bad taste in my mouth. Do it in the beginning, such as in "Lest Darkness Fall" and give me the rest of the book to forget about your lazy and ill-conceived solution.In summary, I loved the alternate history portion of the book, but hated the attempted timeline reconciliation at the end. Just tell the alternate history - there's no need to introduce time travel and muck up the book. (hide spoiler)]
Alternative history story, about how the world might have turned out if the Confederates has won the American Civil War. The answer is that the USA would have been arrested at 26 states in a condition of poverty and chronic underdevelopment. The CSA would have expanded southwards to take control of Mexico and emerge as a world power.Hodge Backmaker escapes rural poverty to travel to a New York which, in the 1920, though the biggest city in the USA, is a cultural and economic backwater with gaslight, rutted streets dominated by crime and poverty. He survives for a period running errands for the anti-foreigner terrorist Grand Army, but has a vocation as a self-taught scholar to pursue, which he eventually achieves in eccentric, idealistic settlement of Haggershaven.It's not the greatest of this genre - more successful by far are Keith Robert's Pavane, P.K. Dick's Man in the High Castle, and Gregory Benfold's Timescape. But it has its charms. The discussion of the racial politics of the American world is interesting, bearing in mind it was first published in 1952 - years before the consciousness-raising of the Civil Rights period in the 1960s.
—Don
This book is quite good. While it is dated and the characters are rather flat, the setting was just awesome. Granted, I don’t really believe the Northern states would have been the ones suffering had the South separated – the North had far more industrialization and most trade ports; the South only had a few major exports and a lower population. And had they continued with slavery, major trade countries such as a Britain would have eventually stopped trading with them entirely. The North also borders Canada, which, as we know, is a major trading partner too, without having the pay to ship the items by boat across an ocean. But, aside from that, the detail that was provided regarding the major and minor differences was fantastic. Things like not having cars (because, presumably, Ford’s assembly line wasn’t invented) as well as various facets of psychology and human rights made sense the way Moore described them in the alternate reality. The time travel part of it was kind of dumb though, because it didn’t really make sense. Then again, this book was written in the mid-50s, so the fact that it included time travel at all was pretty fun. And while the characters were rather flat, at least the female characters weren’t fragile things there simply to sleep with the main character (well, they kind of did, actually, haha). Barbara was a little insane, granted, and the other two weren’t too far from being stereotypes, but at least they had a voice and something of a personality. Overall, a neat little book if you a) enjoy/don’t mind pre-postmodern literature b) enjoy time travel c) like American History d) wanted to cram in one more book before the end of the year to meet your Books Read goal :)
—Tina
5.0 stars. THE BEST ALTERNATIVE HISTORY/TIME TRAVEL STORY I HAVE EVER READ!!!! This book has been on my "to be read" pile for years and I did not have overly high expectations when I finally opened the book. Well, I was blown away by both the writing and the story. In brief, the plot concerns an alternate history in which the South won the Battle of Gettysburg and, eventually, the Civil War. Thus the story takes place in a world where the Confederate States of America is a separate, prosperous country and the United States of Ameirca is a poor, declining one.I was very impressed by Ward Moore's style of writing and I thought his characterization was superb. Reading the book was a pleasure and I was actually sorry when I came to the end as I wanted the story to continue. If you are a fan of alternative history (or just of fan of great stories) pick this book up. You will not be disappointed. HIGHEST POSSIBLE RECOMMENDATION!!!
—Stephen
