If I had the tools, if I knew how, would I make bombs and keep fighting the Americans? Mary nodded without a moment’s hesitation, despite the thought that followed hard on the heels of the other: if they caught you, they’d shoot you. More than most children her age, she knew and understood how very permanent death was. Losing Alexander and her father had agonizingly driven home that lesson.
“I don’t care,” she said, as if someone had said she did. “It would be worth it. We have to hit back. We have to.” One of these days, I’ll learn how. It won’t take so long, either. I promise it won’t, Father. She picked up the basket of eggs from the old wagon wheel and, however little she wanted to, went back out into winter.
Praise for
American Empire: Blood and Iron
“The shocks of seeing history and current events in radically altered perspectives are perfect examples of the mind-blowing, mind-expanding capabilities of science fiction…. Harry Turtledove is obviously a master of the form.”
—Science Fiction Chronicle
“Anyone who loves a good story with surprising plot twists and vivid characters will love this book. Anyone who loves history will love what Harry Turtledove can do with it.”
—LARRY BOND
New York Times bestselling author of Red Phoenix
“Blood and Iron is what alternative history should be, where not only people, places, and events are changed, but ideas, too.”
—Cinescape.com
“For sustaining a consistently high level of literary quality, for boldness of imagination, range of exploration, brilliant but totally unpainful subliminal education (his books never fail to get you thinking!), and above all for providing grateful readers with hour upon hour of slam-bang, really first-rate entertainment, Harry Turtledove has no real challenger for [his] title. He has earned it…. I, for one, can hardly wait until book two of [American Empire].”
—Realms of Fantasy
“As always with Turtledove, there are no clear heroes or villains, just a broad assortment of proud, flawed, skillfully detailed personalities.”
—Kirkus Reviews
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A Del Rey® Book
Published by The Random House Publishing Group
Copyright © 2001 by Harry Turtledove
Excerpt from American Empire: The Center Cannot Hold copyright © 2002 by Harry Turtledove
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eISBN: 978-0-345-49428-3
v3.0
Blood and Iron Page 76