The Great War: Breakthroughs

By: Harry Turtledove

Narrated by: George Guidall

Length: 23 hrs and 34 mins

Publisher's summary

A Main Selection of the Science Fiction Book Club, Breakthroughs is the third installment of best-selling author Harry Turtledove’s The Great War series of remarkable alternate histories.

Is it the war to end all wars - or war without end? What began as a conflict in Europe, when Germany unleashed a lightning assault on its enemies, soon spreads to North America, as a long-simmering hatred between two independent nations explodes in bloody combat. Twice in 50 years the Confederate States of America had humiliated their northern neighbor. Now revenge may at last be at hand.

Into this vast, seething cauldron plunges a new generation of weaponry changing the shape of war and the balance of power. While the Confederate States are distracted by an insurgency of African Americans who dream of establishing their own socialist republic, the United States are free to bring their military and industrial might directly to bear - and to unleash the most horrific armored assault the world has ever seen. Victory is at hand. But at a price that may be worse than war itself.

©2000 Harry Turtledove (P)2003 Recorded Books, LLC

Critic reviews

"Alternate history's grand master displays his acute knowledge of American history as well as his keen imagination as he paints a vivid portrait of a past that could have been." ( Library Journal)

really good with two personal complaints

this is a good book from a good series. it truly showed the brutality of war and the bonds that are made in the worst of conditions. my only two complaints about this book were, I felt that the sex scenes were sometimes over the top and brought me out of the immersion of the story. the other complaint is that some of the jumps from story to story were rather jarring, hurting the overall pacing , for example one second people are fighting for there lives in the trenches and the next a mother is dropping her kids off so she can go to work.

A captivating story

I enjoyed this book as much as the others in the series too far, however the sex scenes are too graphic and close together. I wish he would have stuck to fade to black scenes like he did in several situations. Nonetheless, it's a great read, just be prepared to skip a head a bit every so often.

The very best of performances and source material.

The voice actor has a breadth of believable and distinct voices for each extremely detailed character from Turtledoves novel. I challenge anyone to find a better combination.

The End of a War is still just another Beginning

Needless to say that this is the installment where someone loses this war, and someone wins the war. Harry does very little to Romanticize that victory in any way. I give this man major credit because this is not an epic Final Battle this is the end of the war, People Died, some People Lost everything, People are not satisfied. And I honestly appreciate that. Because That was WORLD WAR I at its core. Some people might not love the lack of closer however that kinda puts us alongside the characters.
War is not fun, it may at time be necessary but it is never good. because you know and everyone Knows that this is not really the war to end all wars.

Granted this book has a few problems but they are easily forgotten in the grander context. Some things are set up and kinda thrown away despite a lot of build up.
A criticism of the other two books is that they had too many POV characters. Quite a few POV characters just Die here. Harry is really trimming away a lot of the fat with this one, that could upset some people but I kinda like it.

I really loved this one overall because as the name suggests it is a "BREAKTHROUGH" a whole lot happens but its still all very digestible.

Also I Noticed something here. Every book in the Great War Saga Ends on the same plot-line. How Poetic.

Turtledove does it again.

Where does The Great War: Breakthroughs rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

One of the best alternate history books I've read.

What did you like best about this story?

The narration and plotline.

What about George Guidall’s performance did you like?

Everything. He's excellent with accents.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

Afraid I can't think of one at the moment.

Any additional comments?

A must-have for any Harry Turtledove fans.

Took off a star for some frustrating aspects

Good book, if you liked the last few you'll like this one. Only downside is a few of the characters are so unlikable that going through their chapters is a slog. To me POV characters can do horrible things if they have redeeming qualities a la Game of thrones or such but in Breakthrough there are no redeemable qualities to some of these people and it is just so miserable to listen to at times. Still recommend this book as a whole.

Good read

If you like alt history you need to read this. This is a great series of books.

I love the flower girl!!!

narrative was good. good book for fans of Harry Turtledove. I like this book. yea

Another solid entry in The Southern Victory series

Can't give it five stars because af an unneccessary and tedious subplot about a sunburn prone sailor and Turtledove's unfortunate habit of repeating certain details over and over and over and over. More butternut, anyone? Still highly recommended to alt-history and WWI fans. Not all happy endings. Billed as last book in a trilogy but so many loose ends that I assume Blood and Iron will continue many of the subplots. Fave character: Gordon McSweeney!

The Alternate American Saga Continues

The author is a master of alternate reality with a military twist. This novel continues the US beat down of the CSA. If you happen to be a confederate sympathizer, this novel and the entire three book series will leave you disappointed.

My two criticisms of Mr. Turtledove are that there are just way too many characters to follow and he should leave the sex scenes out because.... well, they are kind of creepy, like reading about your grandma or something.

I have gone through 4 straight novels in the series (thats over 100 hours of Turtledove) so I am going to take a break and move to the 5th book in the excellent Destroyermen series.