Stars and Stripes Triumphant - Hardcover

Harrison, Harry

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0340689218 ISBN 13: 9780340689219

Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton, 2002

Synopsis

In England, Irish-born citizens are being herded into prison camps. On the high seas, a furious British Navy is seizing American cargo ships bound for Europe. And on the Thames, a new weapon of unparalleled destructive force is sailing toward an impregnable city–spearheaded by a daring act of espionage. For U.S. president Abraham Lincoln, Britain’s Queen Victoria, Lord Palmerston, and a loyal opposition, a day of reckoning is at hand . . . and so is history’s most astounding battle.

Harry Harrison’s series of alternate history, based on the U.S. Civil War, stands as a provocative work of imagination, drama, and brilliant historical insight. Now in the thrilling finale, Harrison tells a stunning, action-packed story of America’s rapidly growing military might being locked, loaded, and aimed at the heart of England itself.

For the two countries that share a language and a heritage, the conflict began at the dawn of the U.S. Civil War. Just as America was about to tear itself to pieces, Britain itself committed an act of war by seizing a U.S. packet ship. In retaliation, the Confederate States rejoined the Union and took up arms against England. Repulsing a British invasion, and defeating her majesty’s army first in Canada, then in Mexico, then in Ireland, American pride and power swelled. Britain, like a wounded lion, howled in shame and anger. Now, Queen Victoria’s empire is more dangerous than ever before, turning against the Irish on her own soil, flexing her naval might, and all but forcing a weary President Lincoln to authorize the next step in a headlong journey toward war.

A tale of daring and strategy, Stars and Stripes Triumphant explores how arrogance turns superpowers into victims, how regional conflicts can explode into world wars, and how the personalities of a few men and women can change the course of history itself–for better or for worse.

About this title

Product Description

In "Stars and Stripes Forever", Harry Harrison began the story of the war that never was, but might so easily have happened: the war of the 1860s between the United States of America and the British Empire. It began with an ill-considered seizure of a British ship, escalated with an ill-considered letter to Abraham Lincoln, and continued with an ill-starred invasion of the territory of the USA by an incensed British government. The first modern war - with iron-clad ships, rapid-firing guns, trenches, mass armies and massive casualties, was taking place, not between the industrial northern states and the agricultural southern ones, but between the two great English-speaking nations, who happened also to be the two most powerful nations on the planet. In the stunning conclusion to this series, the Irish become involved and a most surprising ending is the culmination of the ill-fated war.

From the Back Cover

“VERY PATRIOTIC READING . . . STARS AND STRIPES TRIUMPHANT FORGES ITS OWN DISTINCTIVE PATH.”
–Locus

“This insightful series shows how the elements of modern warfare could have combined much earlier, and just how little the U.S. and the U.K. had in common in the 1860s.”
–Publishers Weekly

“THE TRILOGY . . . IS CLEVER AND ENTERTAINING.”
–Science Fiction Chronicle


PRAISE FOR HARRY HARRISON

“One of science fiction’s most prolific and accomplished craftsmen.”
The New York Times Book Review

Stars and Stripes Forever
Chosen by Science Fiction Chronicle
as One of the Best SF Novels of the Year

“Highly entertaining . . . Harrison does a masterful job of demonstrating how this became the first modern war and changed forever the way nations conducted their affairs.”
Science Fiction Chronicle

“A well-crafted alternate history epic.”
Science Fiction Age
Stars and Stripes in Peril

“Lovers of novels of alternate history hold Harry Harrison in high regard and [this book] can only enhance that esteem.”
–Abilene Reporter-News
From the Paperback edition.

About this edition

• Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 0340689218
• ISBN 13: 9780340689219
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 249