Sentry Peak
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- $6.99
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- $6.99
Publisher Description
THE STRANGEST CIVIL WAR
NOVEL YOU EVER READ!
When Avram became King of Detina, he declared he intended to liberate the blond serfs from their ties to the land. The northern provinces, where most of the serfs lived, would not accept his lordship. The hot north was a land of broad estates, whose noble overlords took the serfs' labor and gave back next to nothing. Those provinces left Detina, choosing Avram's cousin, Grand Duke Geoffrey, as their king in his place.
Avram said he had inherited all of the kingdom, not just a part. He refused to let Geoffrey rule the north without a challenge. And the southron provinces, full of merchants and smallholders stood solidly behind him. So he sent armies clad in gray against the north. Geoffrey raised his own army, and arrayed his men in blue made from the indigo much raised on northern estates to distinguish them from the southrons.
Avram held the larger part of the kingdom, and the wealthier part, too. But Geoffrey's men were bolder soldiers. And the north, taken all in all, had better wizards than the southrons did. The war raged for almost three years, until Avram's General named Guildenstern and his great lieutenant, Doubting George, moved against the northern army under Count Thraxton the Braggart and his commander of unicorn-riders, Ned of the Forest, which held the town of Rising Rock, close by Sentry Peak. . . .
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PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Readers who remember General Rosenkrantz from Turtledove's Civil War- inspired How Few Remain (1997) have been waiting for the appearance of a General Guildenstern. Here he is--not incompetent but overconfident, lecherous and fond of the bottle, leading the gray-clad armies of southern Detina on behalf of King Avram, whose plans to free the fair-haired serfs of northern Detina led the northerners to secede and to field blue-clad armies in defense of their King Geoffrey. Opposing Guildenstern is Thraxton the Braggart (and even translated into an alternate and fantastical universe, Braxton Bragg is still odious), ably assisted by the natural genius of Ned of the Forest. This funhouse mirror of a book proceeds the rest of the way through the Chickamauga campaign of 1863, ending in the "southron" victory of General Bart (Grant's middle name was "Simpson") and Doubting George (Thomas). Readers who resist the temptation to fling the book down will find more than a treasure trove of japes and wordplays here. They will also discover some serious and cogent thinking on the position of minorities, the art of command (as practiced both well and badly) and the Civil War, on which this author is perhaps the outstanding expert in the SF and fantasy field. And they will find some exacting tests of their cultural literacy--it helps in identifying the Battle of Essoville to know that J. Paul Getty is an oil billionaire, and that one can identify "Roast Beef William" either by his having written a tactical manual or by knowing of the fast-food chain by the name of Hardee's.
