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Book Review By Crimson Kid (CK)
Return Engagement: Settling Accounts 1 by Harry Turtledove

   This book describes the opening stages of World War II in Harry Turtledove's alternate history series SETTLING ACCOUNTS. Jake Featherston, ruthless dictator of the Confederate States and leader of its ruling Freedom Party, has launched a surprise attack on the United States (June 22, 1941), seeking to avenge his country's defeat in the Great War (1914-17).
   Using "blitzkreig" tactics combining superior barrels (tanks) with tactical air support and mobile infantry formatives, the Confederate forces strike northward across Ohio and effectively cut the United States in half by reaching Lake Erie. Featherston expects that the United States will sue for peace, but President Al Smith continues the fight.
   This conflict is fought more brutally than the Great War, with leading officers on both sides targeted for assassination. The leading American barrel expert, Irving Morell, barely survives such an attempt on his life while his Confederate counterpart, George S. Patton Jr.,is dominating the battlefields of Ohio.
   New weapons are in the development stage, with the United States setting up a secret research facility in the Pacific Northwest. On land, sea and air, however, the Americans and their allies (Germany and Austria-Hungary) are on the hard-pressed defensive against a multitude of enemies (Confederate States, Great Britain, France, Japan, Mexico and Russia). The air war becomes increasingly destructive of both sides' cities, culminating in Smith's death during a Confederate bombing of Philadelphia.


Plot & Themes
Tone of book - suspenseful (sophisticated fear)
FANTASY or SCIENCE FICTION? - alternate history
Political power play Yes
Political plotlets - preventing/managing clash/war between govts/kingdoms
War or Invasion Yes
Major kinds of combat: - guns
Is this an adult or child's book? - Adult or Young Adult Book
Descript. of chases or violence - 40 %
planning/preparing, gather info, debate puzzles/motives - 20 %
Feelings, relationships, character bio/development - 20 %
Descript. of society, phenomena (tech), places - 20 %

Main Character
Identity: - Male
Profession/status:
Age: - 40's-50's

Main Adversary
Identity: - Male
Age: - 40's-50's
Profession/status:
Eccentric: Yes
How much of work is main antagonist actually present in: - an average amount
How sensitive is this character?
Sense of humor - Mostly serious with occasional humor
Intelligence - Smarter than most other characters

Setting
Terrain
Earth setting: - 20th century
Takes place on Earth? Yes

Writing Style
Accounts of torture and death? - explicit references to deaths
Sex in book? Yes
What kind of sex: - impregnation/reproduction - actual description of sex
How much dialogue? - roughly even amounts of descript and dialog
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