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Good story. Its always fun to "see" how things might have gone under other circumstances.
The battles are anticlimactic and almost seem like an afterthought. Very little really happens in this book.
The problem for me is this is an alternate history, i.e. For a book under 300 pages, this moved incredibly slow, mostly because of the unnecessary, extensive backstory with every minor character.
And speaking of the plot, there's not a lot to it. fiction, so you don't need to know, for every character, where they were born, grew up, what events and tragedies made up their life to this point.
This would be useful in a real history, but in this book I just assume everything is made up, so it's pointless and just takes away from the plot. Most of it is talking about the problem, building up to the final battle, troop movements, folksy conversations between Davy Crockett and Andrew Jackson and political maneuvering.
It's hard to recommend this one.
Redcoats Revenge: An Alternate History of the War of 1812 takes the reader through a colorful and often overlooked chapter in our nation's history in a uniquely entertaining way. It is full of wonderful details and draws you into the intricate mosaics of life, warfare, equipment, travel, and especially the character of men, such as Davy Crockett, Sam Houston, The Duke of Wellington, and most most intimately, Andrew Jackson. The iconic names and dates that we've all studied in history class become "real" -- even in this bend-of-fate exploration. If events had followed this similar path we might, today, be sipping Twinings Tea instead of Coca-Cola.
In the actual War of 1812 the Northern states came precariously close to seceding from the Union nearly fifty years before the Southern states did and (in truth) with far better reasons. Of course, the story jumps around, as the "reviewer" mentions, but never in a confusing disjointed manner. Of course, Benedict Arnold is the most notorious example (though he could never return; Washington had a rope waiting for him). The "reviewer" first objects to the surprise conclusion,*SPOILER ALERT*but the Revolutionary War was full of incidents of soldiers (Patriots, Loyalists, Hessians) deserting from one side to the other (and sometimes back again). After reading this book, I must add my voice to the one reviewer who obviously just didn't get it.REDCOATS' REVENGE is a fantastic alterniative history about a period that has too often been ignored in favor of Confederate victories and Nazi triumphs. Fitz-Enz found the time and commitment to learn to write so well.An unforgettable and surprisingly moving (and human) alternative history. and that of some English banks themselves (rather like today's corporations making donations to both political parties, so whoever wins, they win).The narrative is well structured. Equally brilliant is how the Americans finance their war with a strong dose of Irish support (don't cross the Irish).
Perhaps the "reviewer" suffers from ADD and finds it hard to focus. Fitz-Enz delves deeply into the characters (both the main and minor ones), but never loses sight of the pacing and action. Fitz-Enz is not only an astute, nuanced historian but a damn good writer. This is, after all, an epic international event and Fitz-Enz conveys that very well. (Madison really was a disaster as a wartime president, a nineteenth-century intellectual version of our last "commander in chief.")Rather than "turgid," I found the writing vivid and compelling. And there is quite a bit of action, even early in the story.Also a boon for war buffs is his intricate understanding and clear explanation of areas of logistics that most other writers would avoid as potentially "too dull." Instead, Fitz-Enz brings them to life: the politics, egoes, and obstacles of mounting a major invasion, the functioning of England's War Board, the nearly impossible task of transporting horses across the Atlantic, etc. That's my only explanation for his "critique."My only real question is just how----between paratrooping in Vietnam, being a combat photographer, and overseeing the red phone for much of the Cold War----Col. Perhaps, more importantly, it's a feat of powerful storytelling.
It certainly worked for me. Far too often, alternate histories devolve into heroic or technological fantasies whose plots are decided by who has the newest, shiniest toys. I was very glad to see that Redcoats' Revenge bucks the trend.The story is a simple one: What if Field Marshal the Duke Wellington had accepted command of the Army of Canada in the War of 1812. From the start, we're given excellent backstories of the two generals involved and the historical courses they're set upon.An author's note at the end of the book states that Fitz-Enz' goal was to use the story to encourage readers to delve into the actual history of events. There isn't a neat and definite resolution to events, as so often happens in alternate histories.Overall, I'd strongly recommend this book to any alternate history reader who is tired of the normal course of the genre, or to any reader of history with an interest in the War of 1812. The chain of events that follow result in Andrew Jackson being appointed commander of an American army thrown together to stop Wellington and their climactic meeting in a battle at Saratoga, New York.Rather than tell his story in a novel form, following the story of a handful of characters deeply involved in events, Fitz-Enz tells his story as if it were presented in a history book.
I won't spoil any of the surprises in the book -- and there are some, since Fitz-Enz uses political machinations and individual characters to influence events, rather than calling upon mechanical dei ex machina to advance the plot. Even more respectable alternate histories like Britannia's Fist: From Civil War to World War: --An Alternate History devote far too much attention to the machines of the time period in question instead of the people involved. Although there aren't footnotes, he includes a nice bibliography at the end that gives a starting point for more reading. And the detail and backstory of the events involved are so terrific that it can be used as a history. In many ways, the book follows the style of Macksey's Invasion : the German invasion of England, July 1940 / Kenneth Macksey, but focusing more on the characters involved. The ending is an interesting one, as events are brought to a conclusion while still leaving room for the reader to speculate about what happens next.
I sincerely hope that Fitz-Enz continues to write alternate histories, as he's shown a real talent for them here, and it'd be a shame to see him give up after just one book.
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