 First edition | |
| Author | Harry Turtledove |
|---|---|
| Illustrator | David Mattingly |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Series | War Between the Provinces |
| Genre | Fantasy |
| Publisher | Baen Books |
Publication date | November 1, 2001 |
| Media type | Print (Paperback) |
| Preceded by | Sentry Peak |
| Followed by | Advance and Retreat |
Marching Through Peachtree is the second novel in The War Between the Provinces series, a fantasy version of the American Civil War by Harry Turtledove. [1]
A civil war is tearing apart the kingdom of Detina. When Avram became the new King of Detina, he announced his intent to abolish serfdom for the blond serfs upon which the northern provinces depended, Detina was torn in two, and the rebellious north took Avram's cousin, Grand Duke Geoffrey, as their king.
Neither side could expect an easy victory. While the south was larger and wealthier, the north had better soldiers and more powerful wizards. Led by officers riding unicorns, supplied by flying carpets, both sides clash for three years when Count Thraxton, a conceited wizard-general whose opinions of his spell-casting ability far outstripped the reality, bungled a spell which backfired disastrously against his own side, giving the Unionists a decisive victory.
But the war was far from over: Thraxton is relieved of his command; which means that the south faces a far more competent general: Joseph the Gamecock. And Joseph and his troops were determined to hold Peachtree Province against the loyalist troops. They had occupied Rockface Rise, which offered only two narrow places where the Unionists could come at them, and had further fortified it with trenches and catapults. When the southern army attacked, they would face formidable obstacles both natural and manmade, as well as the repeating crossbows of the troops and the deadly sorcerous storm and lightning wielded by the northern wizards.
CNN considered the novel to have "very little in the way of new insights about the War Between the States", "prose [that] is functional at best [and] logy at worst", and "four hundred pages of puns", concluding that although Turtledove "probably had a blast" writing the novel, it is not "fun to read". [2] James Nicoll called it "dismal". [3]
Steven H Silver found that the puns and wordplay "enlivened" what was otherwise "a pretty straight-forward retelling of a major campaign in the Civil War", and observed that it "suffers from following history a little too closely" and does not sufficiently explore the effects of the presence of magic; ultimately, Silver concluded that although the book is an improvement over Sentry Peak (to which it is a sequel), and has "quality" writing, it nonetheless "fails to live up to its potential." [4]
Harry Norman Turtledove is an American author who is best known for his work in the genres of alternate history, historical fiction, fantasy, science fiction, and mystery fiction. He is a student of history and completed his PhD in Byzantine history. His dissertation was on the period AD 565–582. He lives in Southern California.
Baen Books is an American publishing house for science fiction and fantasy. In science fiction, it emphasizes space opera, hard science fiction, and military science fiction. The company was established in 1983 by science fiction publisher and editor Jim Baen. After his death in 2006, he was succeeded as publisher by long-time executive editor Toni Weisskopf.
The Guns of the South is an alternate history novel set during the American Civil War by Harry Turtledove. It was released in the United States on September 22, 1992.
Drive to the East is the second book in Harry Turtledove's Settling Accounts series of alternate history novels.
The Southern Victory series or Timeline-191 is a series of eleven alternate history novels by author Harry Turtledove, beginning with How Few Remain (1997) and published over a decade. The period addressed in the series begins during the Civil War and spans nine decades, up to the mid-1940s. In the series, the Confederate States defeats the United States of America in 1862, therefore making good its attempt at secession and becoming an independent nation. Subsequent books are built on imagining events based on this alternate timeline.
Agent of Byzantium is a 1987 collection of short stories by Harry Turtledove, centered on the exploits of Basil Argyros, a Byzantine secret agent. The stories are set in an alternate 14th century, where Islam never existed and the great ancient empires of Byzantium and Sassanid Persia survive.
Darkness, also known as World at War, is a series of six fantasy novels by Harry Turtledove.
"The Road Not Taken" is a science fiction short story by American writer Harry Turtledove, in which he presents a fictitious account of a first encounter between humanity and an alien race, the Roxolani. It is a prequel to another Turtledove short story entitled "Herbig-Haro".
A Different Flesh is a collection of alternate history short stories by American writer Harry Turtledove. The stories are set in a world in which Homo erectus, along with various megafauna, survived to the modern times in the Americas as the Native Americans along with any other human cultures.
"The Wheels of If" is an alternate history science fiction story by American writer L. Sprague de Camp. It was first published in the magazine Unknown Fantasy Fiction for October, 1940, and first appeared in book form in de Camp's collection The Wheels of If and Other Science Fiction. It later appeared in the paperback edition of the collection published by Berkley Books in 1970, in de Camp's subsequent collections The Virgin & the Wheels and Years in the Making: the Time-Travel Stories of L. Sprague de Camp, and in the anthology Unknown Worlds: Tales from Beyond. It also appeared, together with a sequel by Harry Turtledove, in The Pugnacious Peacemaker/The Wheels of If and Down in the Bottomlands and Other Places. The story has also been translated into German.
The Sacred Band of Stepsons is a fictional ancient cavalry unit created by Janet Morris and based on the historical Sacred Band of Thebes, an elite strike force of paired lovers and friends that flourished during the fourth century BC in ancient Greece. The Sacred Band of Stepsons series of fantasy novels and stories take place in a myth-like milieu that mixes historical places such as Nisibis, Mygdonia and Chaeronea; warriors such as Theagenes ; gods such as Enlil, Maat and Harmonia; philosophers such as Heraclitus and Thales; cavalry tactics and customs such as homosexuality in the militaries of ancient Greece with those that exist only in fantasy. The exploits of the Stepsons are chronicled in eleven short stories and nine novels. In a fantasy context, this series explores the difficulties facing war-fighters in personal relationships and the enduring questions surrounding the military's historical mixing of homosexuals and heterosexuals in combat.
American Civil War alternate histories are alternate history fiction that focuses on the Civil War ending differently or not occurring. The American Civil War is a popular point of divergence in English-language alternate history fiction. The most common variants detail the victory and survival of the Confederate States. Less common variants include a Union victory under different circumstances from actual history, resulting in a different postwar situation; black American slaves freeing themselves by revolt without waiting for Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation; a direct British and/or French intervention in the war; the survival of Lincoln during John Wilkes Booth's assassination attempt; a retelling of historical events with fantasy elements inserted; the Civil War never breaking out and a peaceful compromise being reached; and secret history tales. The point of divergence in such a story can be a "natural, realistic" event, such as one general making a different decision, or one sentry detecting an enemy invasion unlike in reality. It can also be an "unnatural" fantasy/science fiction plot device such as time travel, which usually takes the form of someone bringing modern weapons or hindsight knowledge into the past. Still another related variant is a scenario of a Civil War that breaks out at a different time from 1861 and under different circumstances.
The Case of the Toxic Spell Dump is a fantasy novel by American writer Harry Turtledove, published by Baen Books in 1993.
The War Between the Provinces is a series of fantasy novels by Harry Turtledove.
"Liberating Alaska" is an alternate history short story by Harry Turtledove, published in the July/August 2018 issue of the Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine.
"Zigeuner" is a science fiction short story by Harry Turtledove, first published in the September/October issue of Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine in August, 2017. It was reprinted in The Year's Best Science Fiction: Thirty-Fifth Annual Collection, Gardner Dozois, ed. St. Martin's, 2018. It won the Sidewise Award for Alternate History for best short form work in 2017. It would also be reprinted in Turtledove's short-story collection The Best of Harry Turtledove in 2021.
Sentry Peak is a 2000 fantasy novel written by Harry Turtledove. It is the first novel in the War Between the Provinces series, a fantasy version retelling of the American Civil War.
Advance and Retreat is the third and final novel in The War Between the Provinces series, a fantasy version of the American Civil War by Harry Turtledove.
Bibliography of science fiction, fantasy, historical fiction and nonfiction writer Harry Turtledove:
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