The Guns of the South: A Novel

Good imagination. Fairly accurate history and a memorable portrait of Robert E. Lee who is featured throughout. The pacing was a bit off due to over-description of the battle scenes and weaponry, but that may be a plus to any Civil war re-enactors!

This is the book that established Turtledove's style, so in some ways going back and re-reading it places a certain burden it wasn't meant to bear: It reads like most of his stuff that came after.

The good: It's an interesting premise, executed in a way that feels as realistic as you could want given that this is historic fantasy.

The bad: Some suggestions of sexual violence where the author lingers over a character's physical appearance in a way that's deeply uncomfortable. Some descriptions of slave behavior that cross a line.

The meta: Reading into where Turtledove puts his thumb on the scales in the debate about what the Civil War was about, and wondering about a book where the redemption of Nathan Bedford Forrest in its alternate timeline suggests that the racist moral distortion of the South into the 20th century was sort of the North's fault.

So far, this is an interesting read. However, Mr. Turtledove breaks the knowledgeable reader's suspension of disbelief early on, when the Southern troops are firing their AK-47's for the first time, when Turtledove states; "...the men drew back their charging handles, and each soldier chambered a round. "Fire!". [However] not every repeater [AK-47] spat flame. "Check [that] your change lever [is not on Safe]." [The] Soldiers checked. Some of them swore at themselves. The next volley was fuller..." Well, considering it is quite impossible to "chamber a round" in the AK-47 when the "change lever" [i.e., the selector switch] is on safe, then this entire paragraph shows Turtledove's lack of research into the exact weapon THAT THE ENTIRE BOOK IS BASED ON. This is not a good thing, because it immediately yanks you right out of the story...

A few "continuity" issues [like I don't care what route they took, it is impossible to make the trip from Scottsville to Thompkinsville KY in a few hours on horseback. Round trip takes all day in the car] Then again, we much allow for temporary suspension of disbelief. Otherwise, a very enjoyable read.

Turtledove has to spell out every detail of his alternate world. When I say spell, I mean S P E L L it out. Did I mention he goes on and on and on...
If you get this book, I recommend reading the first 100 pages, then skipping to the last 50 pages. Without spoiling anything, here's all you will miss:
The bad guys are B A D, but some are worse than others.
The good guys have to fight against prejudice and greed.
The wheels of change turn S L O W L Y, especially in a Turtledove novel.

I loved this authors past books. I just could not read this one. Maybe because it had modern weapons in the Civil War. Maybe I will try to read it again later. Too many other great books out there now.

I trust you got enough information about the actual writing from the hundreds of other reviews.

The Kindle edition is absolutely riddled with the sloppiest typos and errors I've yet seen on this store. I'm not just complaining about spelling errors, (which abound). Entire sentences are missing, dialogue is garbled, and towards the end it looks like a page gets repeated, appearing in the text twice in place of an entire other page that's supposed to be there. The free "community classics" are done with more professionalism than this. The publisher destroyed a good book and should be ashamed. This reads like someone fed a paper copy of the book through a "Rainbows End"-style book shredder and never bothered to proofread the result.

I discovered “The Guns of the South” reading an the store blog about the the store Original Series, “The Man in the High Castle.” Both are fiction and fall into the genre of altered historical accounts. This book begins accurately enough depicting the Civil War. One does not know the author intends to alter the course of history until the AK-47 weapon is introduced. Still, one might believe the book is just fiction. Once though the character that introduced the AK-47s explains where he came from, it is clear this book is a bit sci fi + historical fiction. This aspect of the book is kept to a minimum though and mostly explains parts of the new history.

“The Man in the High Castle” picks up the story after the course of history has already been changed (Hitler won the war - already). “The Guns of the South” starts the story off where the verdict could still go either way. Even after the introduction of the AK-47 the war's result could go either way. I liked seeing this part of the story and was pleased that the story started earlier on.

There are detailed accounts of war and battle which at times grew a bit lengthy in their recount. However the book overall was a good paced read and well balanced with political and romance sub stories.

Overall I recommend this book for a wide range of audiences. There is something in here for many people I think.

When James M. McPherson praises any book about the Civil War, I pay close attention, even if it is fiction. His praise of Turtledove's Guns of the South is wholly justified, but as a work of counter-factual history, it falls short of what it could have been. HT knows history well, which he amply demonstrates here, but his point of departure from what actually happened requires too much willing suspension. There are many points in the war when history could have tipped the other way, providing very plausible scenarios for Confederate victory. Lee's Lost Order is one, Stonewall Jackson's death before Gettysburg is another, the 1864 election is yet another. But here HT pulls an historical turning point from science fiction when it really wasn't necessary, and this weakens his plot structure in my view. (I took off one point for that.) Otherwise, I found his depiction of well-known figures intriguing and well-considered. (Too bad he couldn't have found a bigger role for Grant, and Sherman was nowhere to be found - pity.) Nevertheless, this is enjoyable and well worth the reader's time, especially if one has at least a basic understanding of the war.

If you like historical fiction with a dash of science fiction yet mostly a history of what the South would be like without losing to the Union, then this book is for you.

What I appreciated about Turtledove is how he did not make a big issue about 21st century politics from the white racists who stole a time machine and traveled to the waning days of the US Civil War.

Not only was there a lot of emphasis on life in the trenches, military strategy of Grant and Lee, but also what the parties at Jeff Davis’s house were like, what the slaves thought (not enough on this view) and following the life of Nate Claudell and Molly Bean (a woman who dresses as a man to fight in the war, and parttime “whore”) and what they go through in all this.

The Afrikaans want a white racist state that will ally itself with Nazi Germany in the future. They settle in to a town called Rivington (fictional) and immediately begin their reign of terror not only on the Union, but their manipulation of the men and women of the South. Pretty intense story here.

The Afrikaans though are a bit cardboard characters; Turtledove does not build them up to any great degree. There are funny moments as when he introduces the Confederate soldiers to instant coffee and freeze-dried meals.

The discovery of 20th century books, the way General Lee uses the information of the future to help not only his own political ends but the ends of his country are fascinating. The Afrikaans really shoot their own foot – if they were trying to create a slave state, why were they treating the Black man so badly – worse so than the Confederates were!

Final Note: Some may bristle a bit in making the South the good guys in this story, but frankly they were really coming of age as a nation, realizing what they were doing not only with demanding slave rights but also state rights, and realizing they were part of a global economy (pretty radical in 1868!).

The fates of Lincoln, Grant, and even Hayes are revealed. Check it out, not a bad read.

I've been interested in the alternate history genre, and finally picked up some Turtledove. (The local library had a copy, and this is a standalone book, as opposed to starting one of his big series in the middle)

The story offers an interesting point of divergence and series of events following from it. The analogues to and aspects from real history are meticulously well-detailed. I sensed that throughout the book, and was impressed with the thorough research, but was still surprised by the endnote which said that the characters of the 44th North Carolina were based on actual military records.

The book also does a great job illustrating issues related to the American Civil War. Since a Southern victory was so unlikely in real life, perhaps the science-fiction help was necessary to illuminate those issues. There seem to be too many examples of that to go into here.

I liked the style of two POV characters where one was an average soldier, and one a general and later politician, since overall this offered a wider perspective on the story. An educated man and noncommissioned officer like Nate kept the commoner viewpoint from being too narrow. The parts about his teaching and his relationship with Mollie were great as something universal, or a touch of normalcy amongst the chaos

It makes sense that Lee would end up involved in politics in a world where the South won, like how Grant ended up as US President in real life. Davis serving in Lee's Cabinet reminded me of how John Quincy Adams ran for the US House Of Representatives after his presidency.

I realized early on the the AWB were neo-Nazis or somesuch and the letters really stood for something besides 'America Will Break'. However, I was still surprised that they were South African racists, their gold being in Kruggerand form being the first obvious clue. It was striking how they were even more racist than the Confederates. Overall, Turtledove handles the in-character reveal/explanation/investigation of their nature very well, so the ending involving the AWB explaining their technology/history/etc seems particularly fitting.

It seemed convenient that the 44th North Carolina was the group called back for the combat at the end of the book, but that seemed excusable as a way to use characters we were already familiar with.

Turtledove uses the N-word a lot, but it seems to fit the setting, as opposed to using it gratuitously. It's interesting how many of the characters who are relatively reasonable on racial issues still use that word sometimes. Frankly, I was amused when Turtledove made a pun with the unrelated word meaning 'stingy'.

I read through it again pretty much right after finishing it; I rarely do that even with books I like.

I read this above-average alternate history novel when it was first published and I was impressed. I knew who the author was via his several earlier Byzantine-themed stories, which I thought were pretty good (possibly because I had some background in the history of that period), but this was his first novel in a comparatively modern setting. It was also, I believe, his first real commercial success. Unfortunately, it kind of went to his head. He began cranking out interminable series about an alternate World War II combined with an alien invasion, plus semi-juveniles about time travel to ancient Rome, and so one -- and even though I keep trying them, and hoping, I find all his later stuff to be totally unreadable garbage.

Anyway. The set-up here is that it's January 1864 and Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia has begun its long, slow slide to defeat at the hands of a North that could out-man, out-manufacture, and out-transport him. Then a man with a strange vaguely German-sounding accent, wearing a camouflage-print uniform, shows up and demonstrates for Lee a repeating rifle that can fire thirty rounds without reloading, either singly or in full auto, that can be reloaded by snapping out the empty magazine and snapping in a new one, that produces almost no smoke, and that weighs far less than the Southern army's Springfield copies. He calls it an "AK-47." The stranger and his colleagues wantonly to help the South gain its independence and will supply -- from somewhere -- all the rifles and ammo the rebels need. The Battle of the Wilderness, Grant's first confrontation with lee, and which was inconclusive in the real world, turns out to be an overwhelming victory for the South. Suddenly, Lee has another shot at capturing Washington. And the story progresses from there, following the new fork in the history of the United States.

We see the war not only from the vantage point of Lee but from the ranks, in the person of First Sergeant Nate Caudell, Company D, 47th North Carolina Infantry, most of whose members come from Nash Company -- the same county where the strangers with the amazing new weapons come from. Nate is as much a borderline-poor country boy as the men under him but because he's a schoolteacher in civilian life, he's more thoughtful and reflective about the world he's seeing for the first time. Nate accepts slavery as a natural thing as much as anyone he knows, but he's willing to change his opinions based on experience.

Turtledove goes to considerable lengths to demonstrate what ordinary Southerners thought about slavery, and why, and how they reacted to condemnation of their peculiar institution by the European nations whose recognition of independence they needed so badly. Lee's attitudes toward slavery were mostly negative, as well -- but he was less concerned with defending the institution than with defending each state's right to decide the issue for itself. He's got a good grip on his history, as one would expect of a professional historian. He's especially good at the military sequences and nearly as good at detailing events in the postwar world. His abilities as a writer of fiction are somewhat more problematical. The plotting is very detailed and entirely convincing in its causes and effects, and the characters he develops are entirely believable -- especially that of Nathan Bedford Forrest. His prose style, though, tends toward the clunky and the stilted. In trying to cast Sgt. Caudell's thoughts, or Gen. Lee's, he attempts to hew to a 19th century way of speaking, and he's successful at this only about half the time. The rest of the time he overdoes it. Still, it's quite a fascinating and enjoyable novel, both as an exploration of the way history might have gone had Lee suddenly acquired (by whatever means) an overwhelming advantage, and as a straightforward military adventure.

Oddly enough, as a long-time genealogist, I have reason to know that Harry has hewn closely to his sources. My ex-wife's family comes, in part, from Nash County and several of the named members of Company D actually are cousins of hers by several removes.

In 1864, the south is in desperate straits as the north finally selects active generals and begins to push its final offensive. But strange merchants arrive with a deal for the Confederacy. They offer a new gun, the AK-47, for a price of only $50 Confederate, and can make hundreds of thousands available. Automatic weaponry can hardly help making a huge difference and Grant's Wilderness campaign, far from a costly stalemate, becomes a huge Confederate victory with Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia smashing straight through to Washington D.C. The merchants have an ulterior motive, however. They are an extremist racist group of Afrikaners (the AWB) from our own near-future who intend to use the south as a launch pad for their own war against rights for the African American and for blacks everywhere.

Once the Confederacy's existance is confirmed, the south becomes convulsed between Robert E. Lee who fears the Afrikaners, and General Forest, who buys into their racist doctrine. With South-African gold, modern weapons, and modern political methods, the AWB intends to ensure that the nation they preserved takes their path--no matter what they need to do.

Author Harry Turtledove narrates this fascinating alternate history through the eyes of Robert E. Lee and Sergeant Nate Caudell of the 47th North Carolina. Caudell seems caught up in most of the action--from Wilderness to Washington D.C. to the battle against AWB in their heartland, giving a close-up look at how a rapid-fire weapon could have transformed war (as indeed it has). Turtledove's Lee is a gentleman, but also a thinker who sees that the southern stand on race is wrong and destructive to the nation he has adopted, but who still carries the casual racism of his time.

THE GUNS OF THE SOUTH makes for fascinating reading. Many of Turtledove's later works adapt devices he develops here, in a setting of interest to most U.S. readers. The explicit racism of many of the characters will make some readers uncomfortable, but it is certainly an accurate reflection of the times. Some readers may also question whether AWB would do so much for the Confederacy without a more explicit promise to support its causes in the future, and wonder why it chose the southern states rather than the Boer colonies for their support, but this doesn't detract from the reader's enjoyment.

Turtledove's Guns of the South, provides a rollicking good read as well as a great deal of insight into some of the common causes cited for the Civil War and why so many factors contributed to the Confederacy's defeat.

A fair criticism can be made that this book is not alternative history in the purest sense of the word. A more common scenario in such tales might more practically be derived from something like having the South win at Gettysburg. However, the adding of an element of time travel using both racism as it survived into the 21st century as well as the introduction of technology that helps the south to overcome the overwhelming odds it faced proves effective in the author's ability to highlight the points being made. The South was fighting in many regards not only the Union but also world opinion and trends that argue poignantly that even if the South had been successful militarily, it arguably would not have been able to preserve its preexisting society.

Clearly this book helps to illustrate that Slavery was a driving force in the causes of the Civil War but that it was once cause intertwined with many issues that in the end, would have resulted in change even with another military and political outcome.

The writing is well paced, plausable with a large dose of credulity, and most of all, entertaining and well researched.

5 Stars.

I recommend it.

The basis for the story is an intriguing idea: What if the South would've won the Civil War? It raises a LOT of questions and paints a lot of scenarios. Mr. Turtledove tackled that question, but could've done better. While the novel is interesting, it is a very long-winded, too overly-detailed read. I'm enjoying it, but now at halfway through, I'm thinking, "Can this just move along so I can finish it?" It just TOO detailed and TOO descriptive, which is hurting the enjoyment factor of this novel.

If you have plenty of time and like a lot of details, then this is for you. If you prefer dialogue and less detail, then pass this over because it will bore and frustrate you.

Don't get me wrong ... I thoroughly enjoyed "Guns of the South". Few things fascinate me more than the prospect of time travel and it's impact on historical events. And this book makes a solid case for what could happen IF it were possible to transport modern weapons back in time and distribute them according to your own agenda.

What kept nagging me all the way through the book was the idea that while armament advantages could have certainly turned the tide in the Civil War, a much less complicated and probably more effective advantage could have been provided by bringing Lee's army 1980's communication equipment instead of modern guns.

As a student of the Civil War, I could cite dozens and dozens of instances in which orders were botched, directions were misinterpreted and battles lost simply because of lack of proper communication.

Give Robert E. Lee a walkie-talkie and he wins all his major battles decisively using only the contemporary weapons at hand.

Still ... I guess AK-47s do make a lot more noise and provide a lot more excitement than hearing Lee saying ... "Can you hear me now??".

"Guns of the South" is a fun read and I highly recommend it.

What an interesting concept, i must admit.
I read the hardcover, which is about 512 pages.
Others have explaoned the premise well so ill leave their telling as is, but add a few things i liked/disliked.
I thought the book was about 200 pages to long. The story could easily fit in 250-350 pages, as the author goes into great detail about mundane things such as, General lee discussing peace terms, the main character caudell doing all sorts from teaching a slave to conversing with various people that dont add anything to the story (in my opinion)
I did like that the author used the n*word, which actually made sense because it was slavery, and in the south. Also how he used actual people and places instead of made up malarkee
I disliked that the "riverton men" didnt get more time in the book.
****Spoliers dont read past, or do***
I hated how after combat caudell decided blacks were now worthy men, even though he wasnt a staunch proslavery person.
I hated general lee, as he seemed like a traitor to the cause he fought for, and i actually rooted.for forest in the elections (sad to say he lost, even though he was the true southern warrior)
To many things about the riverton men vexed me, like why only 150 years to travel back, and why having the time machine in the 1880s (end of book when they traveled forward or past) didnt they travel back 150 years? Or why didnt they bring books on electricity to "invent" that and various other stuff to amass a fortune and go settle elsewhere.
If the riverton men hated kaffirs so much why not being back movies of ghetto fools rioting, gang footage, etc and show it to General Lee?
**overall**
Book is long, tendious, and you can easily skip page after page (i did skip probably 5-10 and hated doing so) because tendious things get boring
Get concept overall, but the book went in a direction i didnt want it to, and mad me wonder about to lany unanswered things.
I recommend for a civil war buff, and a fantasy reader. If you love those, youll like this book

"Modern Classic" is an overused phrase, not least by me. Guns of the South, however, really deserves it. It is Turtledove's most famous book, and one of his best.
Being that Turtledove is best known for his AH, it is somewhat strange that his most famous novel starts out with a science fiction theme. To make a short story a little shorter, a band of South African white supremacists travel back in time and arm Robert E. Lee's forces with AK-47s and an abundant supply of ammo.
Despite this bizarre premise, however, The Guns of the South is also a very interesting work of alternate history. Using their new weapon, the Confederates force a peace settlement, thus securing their independence. But that's only the first part of the book. The rest is a fascinating tale of alternate politics. Now that the Southerners have secured their nationhood, what will happen next? Who will succeed Jefferson Davis to the presidency? What about slavery? All of these questions are asked and answered in a satisfactory fashion.
Another selling point is the portrayal of Robert E. Lee. As one of the viewpoint characters, he is constantly in the literary spotlight. His portrayal is well-balanced and highly detailed, obviously the product of a great deal of research.
And there's plenty more of Turtledove's trademark military action later in the book. I won't elaborate too much, but suffice to say that Lee's South African saviors are not quite what they seem.
This may not be Turtledove's very best novel, but it's up there. A great read!

This is a truly enjoyable and thought provoking text in which Harry Turtledove blends the two seemingly incongruous genres of Science Fiction and Historical Fiction. Turtledove does a superb job of using the Science Fiction as an aid to alter history and describe people and reasoning behind the behavior of the South, during the Civil War, in very human terms. By providing the mechanism (the AK47) by which Robert E. Lee and his army is able to rebuff the Northern invasion, Turtledove provides a unique perspective on the social, political and economic mores of the Southern United States in the 1860's. In a pure historical telling, the facts of the story would bury the color and texture of the human drama. In a pure historical fiction, our understanding of the history of the time would block our ability to see the strengths and weaknesses of the people and organizations. The use of Science Fiction allows us to suspend our knowledge and makes the reader open to a very different view of motivations and
reactions than history attributes to the South as an attempt at Nation and Southerners as individuals. The tale is told so believably that this is definitely one of the best science or historical fiction books I have ever read.

I just finished this book last night. I do believe that Harry Turtledove has a great novel and researched the Civil War extensively. He portrays people such as Robert E. Lee with great accuracy and develops the character well in the events. For some who believe that for book that lets the Confederacy win is radical, and White-supremesist, I would think again. The author gives great reasons why slavery is obsolete, unjust, and immoral. I myself am Black and I found it one of the most anti-slavery work of fiction ever.
However, I am displeased about how Harry Turtledove portrays the Confederate Cavalry Lieutinet General Nathan Bedford Forrest. Forrest is nothing short of a military genius. It is folklore that he is the racist that founded the radical Ku Klux Klan. This is totally untrue. Nathan Bedford Forrest spoke under oath before a Congressional Commitee about this rumor. The commitee found Nathan Bedford Forrest had no involvement with the Ku Klux Klan. Nathan Bedford Forrest isn't much of a racist either.
I Really give this book 4&1/2 stars for the above inaccuracy, but this book is such an adventure, I think I'll round it to five.

After three weeks I finally finished it! The Guns of the South is an enjoyable book, which thoroughly entertained me throughout those three weeks. It successfully combines science-fiction with history, what with the whole time travelling thing and all. The novel was not really about just the South winning the Civil War, but more about what the first few years after the war would have been like had the South indeed won the Civil War. The controversy brought about by Robert E. Lee's plans to manumit the slaves was particularly good, as was the final battle in Rivington, where Rhoodie's men's means of travel to the nineteenth century is discovered. The inclusion of the 47th North Carolina was interesting, as well, and Mr. Turtledove must have gone through a hell of a lot of research to include the various privates and such serving in the regiment. I did a little research of my own, and I happily recognized several names of the 47th's roster, including George Lewis, Ben Drake, and Wren Tisdale among others. And I was pleased that Turtledove didn't go and make the North out to be a bunch of bumbling nitwits like in his other alternate Civil War novel, How Few Remain. Relations between the USA and CSA actually remain pretty good by the end of the Guns of the South, unlike the aforementioned How Few Remain, and its sequel, The American Front. Guns of the South was not perfect, though, the story could have been just as easily told without some of the Nate Caudell scenes. Other than some occasional lags like that, the Guns of the South was a highly enjoyable novel, and if you like reading about the Civil War (like me), then you might like this book, too.

The premise of 'The Guns of the South' is simple. In the war's final months the beaten but not defeated Confederate army is presented with weapons that will alter the course of the conflict- a substantial number of AK-47's. General Robert E. Lee uses these new weapons to great affect against the superior northern armies and eventually wins the Civil War. However the bearer of these super weapons, a mysterious group of men with strange accents, clothes, and customs, demand a heavy price. 'The Guns of the South' is one of the greatest alternate history novels that Turtledove has written, if not the best. Although the time travel aspects of this book do tend to stretch the story's believability, Turtledove nevertheless produces an amazingly thought provoking novel of a triumphant Confederacy. Turtledove's interpretation of Robert E. Lee and other historical figures make this novel worth reading alone. This novel along with Turtledove's other work of Civil War alternate history fiction, 'How Few Remain,' should be read not only by fans of science fiction, but by anyone interested in the people, events, and politics that made up this pivotal time in American history.

This book is probably still Harry Turtledove's finest piece of "alternate history"; it is ,I believe,the standard by which other works in this genre must be compared.
The basic plot of this alternate history is that at the South's darkest hour help arrives from some mysterious strangers speaking with a strange accent. The help arrives in the form of the AK 47 Kalashnikov assault rifle! The introduction of this new wonder weapon to the troops of Lee's Army of Northern Virginia turns the tide of the war in favor of the South. I don't want to spoil the book for new readers by belaboring the plot line in a review, but there is a price to pay for the victory. The new weapons bring with them a new conflict unforseen at the inception of the novel,and in the course of the book the origins and thus the motives of the strangers are revealed. The story is carried not only by the principals ofthe time--Lincoln,Grant,Lee,Nathan Bedford Forrest--but by several fictional characters in the form of common soldiers, Nate Caudill and "Melvin" Bean are especially noteworthy. All in all a very satisfying little book;Turtledove's masterpiece. Not perfect but as good as it gets!

I purchased "Guns of the South" recently while on tour at Gettysburg. I was there for almost a week, and came away fresh with information provided by the park rangers and tour guides - much of it information you don't always get from history books.

Harry Turtledove definitely did his research for this book. He weaves a tale that describes people and situations much as described in officially sanctioned park tours and lessons. Turtledove spins a tale with feasible situations (if you believe that time travel is possible) and believable characters.

Having been in the military, I can relate to the soldiers in Turtledove's world. He presents them without the masks of romanticism, and their actions come across as real given what information we have on big players (Lincoln, Lee, Grant, etc.).

The scenario the soldiers on both sides of the Civil War find themselves in is how to react to the sudden presence of the "Rivington men," men we find come from the future year of 1997. These men are South Afrikaaners dedicated to the establishment of a free and independent Confederate States of America - a free and independent nation dedicated to the institution of slavery. What develops from all this cannot be read just once to be fully understood. The possibilities challenge the intellect.

I did find the time paradox issues confusing - for instance, why the history books brought back by the "Rivington men" did not change as they altered history. Some people speculate that such changes would create the "Back to the Future" photo change scenario, while others believe that objects removed from their normal timestream would remain unchanged.

Whatever the case, such explanations are held back to maintain that air of mystery, and the story avoids oversimplification of such science concerns, and focuses more on strong character development.

All in all, a great read - just try putting it down once you start!

This was a very well done alternate history story about time travellers who go back and rearm the South with AK-47's to suit their own agenda. That little description does not even come close to describing how good this book is. The author obviously knows his Civil War history and it was very interesting to be reading a story involving Lincoln, Grant and Lee among other real life characters in a fiction story.

I also really liked the Sci-fi angle the book took and most of the time you can't go wrong with a What If? story involving time travellers. I hope he does a book in this flavor again as in this one he didn't go into detail about how the travellers got the time machine or how it works but he just went with the flow of the story. Along those lines, there are a million other scenarios he could do and if they are written as well as this one I will be sure to enjoy them.

Anyways, I recommend this book highly to anyone who likes Alternate History, Sci-Fi, and Civil War literature.

Originally I was not even going to pick this up. Then someone actually gave me a copy as a gift. Well, I was then obligated to read it. Glad I did! Of all of the alternate universe stories that I have read (i.e. L. Sprague de Camp, Harry Harrison) this one did not disappoint. Turtledove does a great job of making his characters believable. I especially enjoyed General Lee. The author, I felt, was very true to the historical man. I found the ending to be a little weak, a bit pat, and very quickly wrapped up (i.e. all-in-all disappointing). The Rivington Men, men out of time, had gone back 150 years to change the outcome of the Civil war for mysterious purposes. They brought with them many weapons from the future which they presented to Lee's army. At first with no strings attached, but later...things change. Among the weapons were thousands of AK-47's complete with ammunition and training by the men from the future. With weapons like these, Lee could reverse the fortunes of war to the South's favor. I wish that the author had spent as much time on the ending as he did developing his characters, giving them depth and believability only to rush to the finish. However, if you are looking for a good alternate universe/timeline book. This is a good read and well worth the purchase price.

This was the first Harry Turtledove I read, like many other first reads at the suggestion of a friend. The story revolves around how South Africans discover time travel, and go back to the American Civil War to offer Lee a supply of AK47s. The South of course turns the tide of the war, and South Africa expects to have a new allie in their future world. And that is where the twist comes in that I will not give away. Turtledove is a master of Alternative Fiction. It says so right on his book blurbs, and I have found it to be true. One of his few stand alone novels with no sequels, I recommend this to anyone who would like to discover this writer without being pulled into a series.

This was my first Harry Turtledove book. The dust jacket says it all. Mysterious strangers arrive when things look bleakest for the South and hand over a bunch of AK-47s. Instantly, the war turns. There are lots of great scenes including the fall of Washington and Lee's inauguration as 2nd president of the Confederate States.
There is little science in the science fictoin but it doesn't matter. The main thing is the "what if" the South were to prevail. I found Lee to be an especially well drawn character, even if his thoughts and actions seemed contrary to what I remember being taught in my damnyankee education.
The book ends shortly after the end of the war, and I found myself wanting a sequel that would tell me what happened in the subsequent years. But apparently this is not to be, at least from Turtledove. All in all, a great and quick read that I highly recommend.

Guns of the South is an alternative history fantasy set in the American Civil War. Evil South Africans from the year 2014 time travel back to Robert E. Lee's winter camp in 1864 and supply the Army of Northern Virginia with AK-47 assault rifles. The Soviet and Yugoslav marked-rifles come complete with all the ammunition the Southerners can shoot. Absurd but entertaining. Lee puts the rifles to good use and overwhelms the Army of Potomac during the spring 1864 Wilderness Campaign. His forces overrun Washington and President Lincoln is forced to surrender on terms favorable to the Confederacy
The novel bogs down in the middle. After this victory there is a drawn out middle section describing the early peace in the first few years after war's end. Turtledove must have been paid by the word for this book; that's the only way I can explain two hundred fifty pages of padding. Turtledove details such things as Lee's thoughts about the future of the Confederate States of America, day to day life in rural North Carolina and a secession referendum in Kentucky.
The last part of the book is about the Confederacy's war against the South African after they try to assassinate newly elected President Lee. In Turtledove's book Lee has become a politically correct abolitionist who campaigns and wins the Confederate Presidency on a plan to quickly outlaw slavery in gradual stages. The South Africans apparently wish to colonize the past, holding slaves and living on grand plantations. A book stolen from the library of the one of the South Africans from the future is purportedly what compels most of the Confederate leaders to change their minds about slavery. They see that in the future (the book they look at is published in 1997) slavery has come to be seen as abhorrent and they are ashamed.
This is the part of the book that I had the greatest problem with. Even if you can accept the time travel paradox scenario, the fact that the opinions expressed in a book from the future will cause Confederates in the 1860's to change their worldview is simply wrong. I'm sure the Romans or the French under Napoleon wouldn't have changed core beliefs simply because of concern over the opinions of future generations. It is also curious that, on the one hand, Turtledove presents the slave-owning Confederate leaders as basically good men, on the other hand, he presents the South Africans from the future as racist caricatures. The White South Africans did after all give up power to the majority and dismantle their nuclear weapons even before Guns of the South was written. It would be difficult for a sane person to argue that apartheid was worse than slavery. It may be that this reviewer is giving too much thought to what is best regarded as a richly detailed but harmless fantasy story.

I first encountered GOTS on a public radio reading broadcast while waiting for my daughter after basketball practice. Following the second week's program, I decided to quit listening and to get the book instead. This was my first encounter with Turtledove and I was intrigued by the juxtaposition of realistically accurate, historical action, with the fantastic aspects of the science fiction and alternate history. But most of all, I love a good story.

I was first recommended to read this, by a fellow Civil War enthusiast, and I wasn't dissapointed. Harry Turtledove does an excellent job in twisting the tail of history by allowing time travellers of the future to go back into U.S. History and show up in the middle of the Civil War. It is interesting to read how Turtledove lets these time travellers affect history by allowing the introduction of the AK-47 to Confederate troops, knowing how the Union Army will react in a certain battle due to knowing the outcome. Turtledove also writes about what could happen to the south if they had won the Civil War, and he did a pretty good job of events.
The main characters in this novel are interesting and his portrayal of historical figures are fairly accurate. In the novel, the time travellers definitely have a ulterior motive and it is really captivating to see who they actually are and what they want. Overall this is an excellent read.

I generally prefer straight alternate history -- that is, alt. hist. without any SF or other dues ex machina. However, The Guns of the South (which uses the artiface of 21st Century Afrikaners with a time machine bringing Gen. Lee 100,000 AK-47s in 1864) is THE classic of this genre, SF or not. Turtledove so masterfully demonstrates his understanding of military maneuver and equipment in the first third of the book that it simply blows you away: the descriptions of battles following the arrival of the AK-47s is both intricate and utterly engrossing. THEN, as if that weren't enough (and it better not be, since that was only 1/3 of the book), he shows a grasp of the politics and culture of this alternate post-bellum South that simply astonishes. Oh, and by the way, it's a heck of a story. Buy it now, and when you're done, go get all his other stuff; but be warned that you'll never find better than this.

I was first recommended to read this, by a fellow Civil War enthusiast, and I wasn't dissapointed. Harry Turtledove does an excellent job in twisting the tail of history by allowing time travellers of the future to go back into U.S. History and show up in the middle of the Civil War. It is interesting to read how Turtledove lets these time travellers affect history by allowing the introduction of the AK-47 to Confederate troops, knowing how the Union Army will react in a certain battle due to knowing the outcome. Turtledove also writes about what could happen to the south if they had won the Civil War, and he did a pretty good job of events.
The main characters in this novel are interesting and his portrayal of historical figures are fairly accurate. In the novel, the time travellers definitely have a ulterior motive and it is really captivating to see who they actually are and what they want. Overall this is an excellent read.

I generally prefer straight alternate history -- that is, alt. hist. without any SF or other dues ex machina. However, The Guns of the South (which uses the artiface of 21st Century Afrikaners with a time machine bringing Gen. Lee 100,000 AK-47s in 1864) is THE classic of this genre, SF or not. Turtledove so masterfully demonstrates his understanding of military maneuver and equipment in the first third of the book that it simply blows you away: the descriptions of battles following the arrival of the AK-47s is both intricate and utterly engrossing. THEN, as if that weren't enough (and it better not be, since that was only 1/3 of the book), he shows a grasp of the politics and culture of this alternate post-bellum South that simply astonishes. Oh, and by the way, it's a heck of a story. Buy it now, and when you're done, go get all his other stuff; but be warned that you'll never find better than this.

Virtually every historian, amateur or professional, has asked the question --- What if ? What if Hannibal had not made it across the Alps ?

What if Germany had won the Battle of Britain ?

What if the South had won the Civil War ?

That's the question Harry Turtledove tries to answer in The Guns of The South.

The book begins in the winter camp of the Army of Northern Virginia. Robert E. Lee, only months from the defeat at Gettysburg, ponders yet another spring and summer of confrontation with the North when he is approached by a man offering him an unparallelled advantage in the war --- weaponry from the 20th Century in the form of the AK-47. As it turns out, this man is the leader of a group of South African whites who have traveled back in time to 1864 in an effort to change the course of history and create in the Confederate States of America a power center for the white race into the 21st Century.

The course of a Civil War changed by automatic weaponry is predictable. Instead of winning the Battle of the Wilderness, the Army of the Potomac suffers a horrible defeat at the hands of the Lee's men and begins a retreat back to Washington that never succeeds.

The first half of the book ends with the Confederate Army on the lawn of the White House as General Lee accepts the surrender of Abraham Lincoln. The description of battles that never took place --- in Bealton, Virginia and Rockville, Maryland --- is gripping and the vision created by the description of Lincoln and Lee standing on the White House Lawn amidst a sea of Confederate Gray made me wish the book had been made into a movie.

The second half of the book is where the interesting things happen. The South has won its independence and now, the question is, what will it do with it ? Reflected primarily through the character of Robert E. Lee and First Sgt. Nate Caudell, Turtledove paints a picture of a Confederacy not entirely at ease with the institution that sets it apart from its Northern neighbor -- slavery. As Lee begins his path toward the Presidency of the Confederacy, he begins to question whether slavery should continue and comes to a conclusion that puts him at odds with the foreign benefactors who gave the South the means to achieve its independence.

Ultimately, this book tries to answer the question of what the Civil War was really about. Was it about state's rights and federalism as modern-day Southern partisans would claim, or was it really about slavery and the domination of one race of men by another ? I'm not sure I agree that an independent South would have given up slavery as easily as the author suggests, but he presents a compelling case.

On some level, though, I found this book disappointing. It wasn't true alternate history. It was history manipulated by the deus ex machina of time traveling South African racists. I would much rather see a story that took history has it actually occurred and simply changed the outcome of one event. That, apparently, is what How Few Remain and the books that follow it is about. That is a story I look forward to seeing unfold.

When I first read about this book, I must confess the concept of time traveling white supremacists seemed a little far fetched for me. Having never read any works of Turtledove, I was skeptical this might turn out to be a corny Sci-Fi novel. How wrong I was! Turtledove weaves a gripping tale with rich historical insight. The alternate course he charts is fascinating to consider, and the story had me hooked right up until the very end. I look forward to going through the Southern Victory series.

If you love science fiction and time travel stuff like I do then you're going to love reading this book. Being a civil war buff I was unsure if this book would grab me, but just after a few pages in I was hooked. This premise would make a great movie. Harry Turtledove is an excellent writer. I am proud to have this book in my extensive civil war book collection.

If you enjoy period novels and find it fascinating to think about the history altering effects that the change in one event could have, alternative history is for you. Harry Turtledove is one of the best authors in this genre and "The Guns of the South" is no exception. This particular book throws in a little science fiction with time travelers from 2014 bringing the Confederates AK-47 assault rifles to aid in their struggle, so if you want a more realistic alternative history, this particular Turtledove novel may not be for you (try "The Great War" series instead). However, Turtledove obviously has an excellent grasp of Civil War history and it shows in the detail. His broad view of interaction between the Confederate people from various social classes as well as his well thought out comparison between modern day racism and 19th century ignorance are just two of the elements that make this a must read book.

I have tried to read several of this authors books. His World at War series, How few Remain, and his Great War Series. I have hated them all and stopped half way through. However, his plots keep intriguing me and I always find myself buying his latest books. Guns of the South was the one book of his I liked. I thought the idea of South Africans going back in time and arming the Confederacy with modern weapons and Robert E. Lee with heart medicine was fantastic. I also liked how he shows the now independent Confederacy dealing with the issue of slavery. So again, my review is one from someone who is not a fan of this author. However, this was a great book and one any fan of the civil war will enjoy.

The interesting part of this novel is Turtledove's explanation of how the victorious South deals with their freedom and, more importantly, the question of slavery. Passages on the time-traveling South Africans are kept to a minimum, so hard sci-fi'ers may be disappointed here. This book is more for history buffs.
Questions: Would Lee and the South have been as willing to change their slavery views had they not stumbled upon the trove of books that they did?
Why weren't the South Africans more subtle -- thus, more influential -- in their attempts to control Southern politics? With the power at their disposal, what they resorted to seemed outright silly.

This book works very well as alternate history, despite the far-fetched fantasy plot device used to create the scenario. Obviously the author studied the historical figures involved and put some effort into working out their behavior. The action and fantasy elements are very much secondary to the character study of Robert E. Lee in an independent Confederacy.
While Lee's story is the main focus, there is a fair amount of setup action before the author reaches the meat of the book. If the reader makes his way through the war scenes, he will be rewarded with much more interesting and original material.
Don't expect much action or time travel- this is a talky story. There isn't much discussion of the time travel or future either. If you are interested in the character of Robert E. Lee and wonder how he might have affected events had the Confederacy won the Civil War, then you will probably be fascinated by this work. If you're looking for a slam-bang sci-fi story! ! , you'd best look elsewhere.

For "hard-core" civil war buffs, you may not like this book too much because there may be too many holes in the "history". Once you get over the "time travel" idea it's an interesting way to take a look at alternate history of the civil war; what if the South had won? How would the world be different? Race issues as addressed in this book are only one possible area that might have turned out quite differently. I found it a fast read with great characters. I have read some other alternate history novels and this is one of the better ones which I have read.
Definitely worth the time.

Harry Turtledove likes to relate the unlikely event that inspired GUNS OF THE SOUTH: a letter from fantasy writer Judith Tarr. Tarr complained to Turtledove that the proposed cover art for her latest book looked "as anachronistic as Robert E. Lee holding an Uzi." The rest, as they say is history - or an alternate version of it.

Turtledove has built a burgeoning career as an SF alternative history maven but so far he remains - rightly - best known for his 1992 best seller GUNS OF THE SOUTH, a work which has achieved a singular status in the growing alternate history genre. Even so noted a historian as James M. McPherson has lauded it as "without question the most fascinating Civil War novel I have ever read." GUNS OF THE SOUTH is regularly cited as the best work of its kind in counterfactual history - or certainly the best of recent vintage, and not without justification.

Instead of an Uzi, Robert E. Lee finds Confederate victory by another famous modern gun: the AK-47 so strikingly depicted on the cover of all editions of the book. One must admit that the very idea is a tremendously scintillating one: what adolescent (or grown up) Civil War buff hasn't wondered in some idle fancy what Lee could do with some modern military wizardry? In Turtledove's fantasy, the adolescents turn out to be a group of South African AWB white supremacists who manage to pilfer a time machine in 2013 - and proceed to use it to ship a massive arsenal (and themselves) back to Rivington, North Carolina in late 1863, in hopes of changing the outcome of the Civil War. Before long a mysterious man attired in a strange outfit of mottled green and brown, an unplaceable accent, and a truly marvelous rifle shows up to make a sales pitch at the winter headquarters of the Army of Northern Virginia. One can only imagine how an AK-47 equipped Confederate Army might wreak havoc on Grant's planned Overland Campaign of 1864, but Turtledove ensures that one doesn't have to. In vivid and well researched strokes, Turtledove unfolds Lee's bloody repulses of Grant and his eventual capture of Washington D.C., almost solely through the eyes of two protagonists: Lee himself, and (for a grunt's eye view) one 1st Sgt Nate Caudell of the 47th North Carolina. A captive Lincoln is forced to sue for peace: Union armies are withdrawn from the South in exchange for the return of the capital.

All of which makes for a fascinating tale yet only provides the first half of the book. It is in the second half that Turtledove takes what would otherwise be just another southron revanchist fantasy and turns it into a vehicle for examining the issues which brought on the Civil War: principally, the place of African Americans in American society, northern or southern. The AWB has its own plan for a free South, and it proves increasingly unpalatable even for many Confederate leaders. The mounting conflict comes to a head when a reluctant Lee agrees to run to succeed Jefferson Davis as Confederate president. In the balance lies not only the AWB's role in the Confederacy, but that of slavery as well.

The strengths of GUNS OF THE SOUTH are manifold: the research is impeccable. Civil War afficianadoes and historians will recognize many clever asides. Turtledove even goes so far as to append detailed results of the alternate history 1864 US presidential election and the Confederate presidential election of 1867, and a fair reasonable explanation of how Turtledove arrived at them. All of which is impressive enough that one is able forgive any nagging notions that Lee's growing opposition to slavery is stretched a bit to better wrestle with the issue, or the frequently labored prose and stilted dialogue which is usually a trademark of Turtledove's alternate history work (and, in fairness, that of most alternative history fiction), or the sluggish pacing of most of the second, postwar part of the book. Such weaknesses are forgiveable when one ponders how powerful a work Turtledove has managed to spin out of what is at first glance such a fantastical premise.

Turtledove has rolled out several (unrelated) works assuming a Confederate victory (HOW FEW REMAIN, the GREAT WAR and AMERICAN EMPIRE series), but none of them provide as crisp a tale as GUNS OF THE SOUTH even if their turning points are more pedestrian (and credible) than Andries Rhoodie and his time traveling terrorists. If you enjoy alternate history, or if you love Civil War history, make it a point to add GUNS OF THE SOUTH to your reading list. You won't regret it.

Harry Turtledove is a prolific witer of alternate history but this is my favorite of his many novels. The premise is at once both time tested and original--the South wins the Civil War but with the help of time travelling Afrikaners. He does not lay the irony on as thick as in some of his World War novels nor does the pacing suffer from the explosions of charaters that are such a notable feature of his later work.

The research is meticulous and the characters generally well drawn, though the conversion of Robert E. Lee into a full fledged abolitionist is a bit complete and convenient. Still Turtledove strives to place all the political and moral debates in context and makes many good points often missed by less detailed or more ideological histories.

Overall, I recommend the book strongly to all Turtledove fans and anyone interested in the American Civil War or alternate history. It's size and style make it much more accessible than the massive series that he has produced since while it still captures the feeling of the time very well.

Turtledove uses a low-grade sci-fi movie technique of white racists from South Africa travelling back in time to change the course of history by helping the South attain victory against the United States and achieving its independence by use of sophisticated weapons of the future, chiefly the AK-47. It is hoped by this band that victory for the slave-holding Confederacy would make the "white man's" cause of racial supremacy succeed and avoid such things as black-majority rule in South Africa. Yet this is a fascinating tale which tries to answer that fascinating question of "what if the South had won?", while successfully dealing with the central issues of the War. The sci-fi bit may be odd, but the author pulls it off quite cleverly and manages to present the problems facing the country at the time in an entertaining and educational way.