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9781990860904

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"AMAZING STORIES ONLINE MAGAZINE (ABRIDGED) R. Graeme Cameron Review: You might think, aha! An alternate history novel! Yes and no, or, not exactly. There are scenes straight out of a typical novel, complete with dialogue and description. The opening scene where Minister Velasco and Colonel Alba of Ecuador meet with Hitler, Himmler, Goebbels and Goring in Berlin is a masterpiece of its kind, fully revealing the cynical and manipulative nature of all the characters and setting up the reader's expectations for what follows. However, such scenes are rare and interspersed among long passages which amount to the contents of a history text book packed with concise detail and explanation of situation and events. Since this book begins with genuine history going as far back as the wars of independence from Spain and subsequent squabbling among newly emergent nations, and only gradually slips into alternate history mode, subtly and imperceptibly, some readers, expecting a wham-bam military adventure novel, may find the text way too dry overall and somewhat incomprehensible and definitely not their cup of tea. Valdron's alternate history is packed with credible variations of actual events which add quirky interest to the fictional trends he extrapolates from the historical infrastructure. .... I mention this as illustrative of Valdron's grasp of appropriate history to fashion telling details which bring his alternate history to plausible life. At no time does his fiction seem improbable or unlikely. It all seems to make sense. Internal consistency is one of the great strengths of this book. Another strength is the occasional novel-like interludes where politicians debate events and military observers witness battles. Here the stress is on incompetence and failure despite personal courage and conviction, or to put it another way, on hubris and tragedy. This, after all, is pretty much what war is all about. Is Valdron's message or lesson fundamentally depressing? Only if you let it be. It is a tour de force alternate history offering many examples of assumptions and mistakes to avoid. A study of what not to do. An eye-opener, really. To read this book is to gain, first, an understanding of the intricacies of South American history up to the 1930s, and then, second, an understanding of the kind of fatal flaws politicians are prone to and what ordinary people need to pay attention to as their political favourites blunder along in same-old, same-old fashion. Reading this book will give you a better understanding of what is happening anywhere and everywhere. I wouldn't be at all surprised if it results in an epiphany or two for the majority of readers. It's that good an historical essay. CONCLUSION: I found Axis of Andes utterly fascinating. But then, I love history so much that this book's incredible depth of detail is immensely appealing. Given that it's nature is primarily a text book in some alternate universe, it may not be for everybody, but for such as I it is a ""must read."""

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D.G. Valdron is a Canadian speculative fiction writer living on the Canadian Prairies. He likes interesting people and boring food.

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