Marching Through Peachtree is the second novel in The

War Between the Provinces The War Between the Provinces is a series of fantasy novels by Harry Turtledove. The novels are a retelling of the American Civil War in a high fantasy setting called the Kingdom of Detina. The series focuses on the Eastern theater of the War B ...

series, a fantasy version of the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states th ...

by Harry Turtledove.

Plot

A civil war is tearing apart the kingdom of Detina. When Avram became the new King of Detina, he announced his intent to abolish

serfdom Serfdom was the status of many peasants under feudalism, specifically relating to manorialism, and similar systems. It was a condition of debt bondage and indentured servitude with similarities to and differences from slavery, which develop ...

for the blond serfs upon which the northern provinces depended, Detina was torn in two, and the rebellious north took Avram's cousin, Grand Duke Geoffrey, as their king. Neither side could expect an easy victory. While the south was larger and wealthier, the north had better soldiers and more powerful wizards. Led by officers riding

unicorn The unicorn is a legendary creature that has been described since antiquity as a beast with a single large, pointed, spiraling horn projecting from its forehead. In European literature and art, the unicorn has for the last thousand years o ...

s, supplied by flying carpets, both sides clash for three years when Count Thraxton, a conceited wizard-general whose opinions of his spell-casting ability far outstripped the reality, bungled a spell which backfired disastrously against his own side, giving the Unionists a decisive victory. But the war was far from over: Thraxton is relieved of his command; which means that the south faces a far more competent general: Joseph the Gamecock. And Joseph and his troops were determined to hold Peachtree Province against the loyalist troops. They had occupied Rockface Rise, which offered only two narrow places where the Unionists could come at them, and had further fortified it with trenches and

catapult A catapult is a ballistic device used to launch a projectile a great distance without the aid of gunpowder or other propellants – particularly various types of ancient and medieval siege engines. A catapult uses the sudden release of stored p ...

s. When the southern army attacked, they would face formidable obstacles both natural and manmade, as well as the repeating crossbows of the troops and the deadly sorcerous storm and lightning wielded by the northern wizards.

Reception

CNN CNN (Cable News Network) is a multinational cable news channel headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable news channel, and presently owned by the M ...

'' considered the novel to have "very little in the way of new insights about the War Between the States", "prose hatis functional at best ndlogy at worst", and "four hundred pages of puns", concluding that although Turtledove "probably had a blast" writing the novel, it is not "fun to read".Review: Turtledove's 'Peachtree' a bad joke
by L.D. Meagher, at

CNN.com CNN (Cable News Network) is a multinational cable news channel headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable news channel, and presently owned by the M ...

; published January 24, 2002; retrieved April 22, 2022

James Nicoll James Davis Nicoll (born March 18, 1961) is a Canadian freelance game and speculative fiction reviewer, former security guard and role-playing game store owner, and also works as a first reader for the Science Fiction Book Club. As a Usene ...

called it "dismal".Back to Bilalistan
by

, at JamesDavisNicoll.com; published March 3, 2016; retrieved April 22, 2022

Steven H Silver Steven H Silver (born April 19, 1967) is an American science fiction fan and bibliographer, publisher, author, and editor. He has been nominated for the Hugo Award for Best Fan Writer twelve times and Best Fanzine seven times without winni ...

found that the puns and wordplay "enlivened" what was otherwise "a pretty straight-forward retelling of a major campaign in the Civil War", and observed that it "suffers from following history a little too closely" and does not sufficiently explore the effects of the presence of magic; ultimately, Silver concluded that although the book is an improvement over ''Sentry Peak'' (to which it is a sequel), and has "quality" writing, it nonetheless "fails to live up to its potential."MARCHING THROUGH PEACHTREE by Harry Turtledove
reviewed by

, at StevenHSilver.com; published October 2001; retrieved April 22, 2022

References

American fantasy novels War Between the Provinces Novels by Harry Turtledove Sherman's March to the Sea 2001 American novels {{2000s-fantasy-novel-stub