1920: America's Great War


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I finished Robert Conroy's latest, 1920: America's Great War a few days ago.

For those who haven't heard of it, it's another Invasion America book. It has Germany winning WWI early, then deciding to humiliate their last potential rival on the world stage, the USA. Germany puppets Mexico by intervening in their Civil War and ships an army over, which is soon invading California while their Mexican allies move into Texas.

The novel does have it's issues, the biggest one being that Conroy seems to have simply re-used the first few pages of outline for his superior 1901. Germany launches a surprise attack, check. War fought for limited, reasonably plausible objectives (Germany humiliates U.S. and annexes California), check. Pacifistic American President (an even more incompetent than IRL Wilson) dies, check. Square jawed American (and Mexican) men and women fighting the evil, pillaging, raping German's (and Nationalist Mexicans), check. Etc....

Another problem are all the Alien Space Bats zooming all over the place. Now, I'm more than willing to ignore some bats in my battles, but 1920 just takes itself a bit too seriously, and lacks the pulpy goodness of something like Harrison's Stars and Stripes Forever that would allow me to just sit back and enjoy the ride despite the blant historical absurdities.

Despite these issues, the novel is generally entertaining and worth a read, Conroy does write excellent battle scenes and, as far as my limited knowledge can tell, uses all the historical characters well. It's not worth paying full hardcover price for though, so wait for the paperback.

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