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Title: Alternative history novel has bad case of the bloats
Review: Harry Turtledove can write gripping alternative histories. Look at "Guns of the South" and the first volume of the "Worldwar" series for examples. "How Few Remain" has many sins, it is ponderous and cliche ridden but it's greatest sin is that it is boring. In the end I was left with the feeling that not only is the idea of editorial supervision dead and buried but, even worse, that I had devoted precious reading time to a novel that is only a prequel to his next one. It's one thing to imagine how history might have turned out differently but to imagine how people might have turned out (J.E.B. Stuart survives the Civil War) is merely alternative psychology. If I was Turtledove I would have had the blowhard Custer get slaughtered by Indians in exactly the same way as at Little Big Horn. That would show us that history often doesn't change all that much.
