I found myself getting into it, and reading it over several sessions rather than just scanning it. It reads like I'd imagine Harry Turtledove's notes would read. Which means that, if read as a story, it was dull as dirt, but the ideas it was playing with were interesting.

As a history, it seemed like Preston was shuffling the deck of OTL, but didn't stray far from it in the overall story arc. You can't judge alternate history like ordinary fiction--shuffling a given set of events would be considered unimaginative in most fiction. But in AH, it means he's of the schools of thought of the inevitability of the grand forces of history, and the Great Man school. For them, shuffling the deck is an expression of their beliefs, and I could see he took pride sometimes in making the two lines congruent.

I mean, "Lorenz of Arabia"????? That one's odd because it's another individual, which would mean that the forces of history acted to produce a similar Great Man in the same place at another time.

I can see why you liked it, Frank. The guy's outlines could be turned into an interesting saga. Controversial or offensive? I dunno...part of shuffling the deck is that you redistribute the fixed amount of general shittiness. Maybe a Texan would take offense at the episodes of ethnic cleansing. Nothing in it bothered me, anyway.

Thanks for recommending it.

Edited the phrasing of my comparison to Turtledove's notes. It originally sounded like I was saying that his writing is as dull as dirt. No, I love his work!