Sentry Peak
Sentry Peak is a 2000 fantasy novel written by Harry Turtledove.[1] It is also the first novel in the War Between the Provinces series, a fantasy version retelling of the American Civil War.[2]
 First edition | |
| Author | Harry Turtledove |
|---|---|
| Cover artist | Carol Heyer |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Series | War Between the Provinces |
| Genre | Fantasy |
| Publisher | Baen Books |
Publication date | September 1, 2000 |
| Media type | Print (Paperback) |
| Followed by | Marching Through Peachtree |
Plot
When Avram (= Abraham Lincoln) becomes King of Detina (Detinu is "United" spelled backwards - a parody of the USA) after the death of his father King Buchan (= James Buchanan), he declares he intends to liberate the blond serfs from their ties to the land. The northern provinces (= Southern United States), where most of the serfs live, do not accept his lordship. The hot north is a land of broad estates, whose noble overlords take the serfs' labor and give back next to nothing. Those provinces secede from Detina, choosing Avram's cousin, Grand Duke Geoffrey (= Jefferson Davis), as their king in his place.
Avram refuses to let Geoffrey rule the north without a challenge. The southern provinces (= the Union), full of merchants and smallholders stand solidly behind him. So he sends armies clad in gray against the north. Geoffrey raises his own army, and arrays his men in blue made from the indigo much raised on northern estates to distinguish them from the southrons. This begins the Detinan Civil War.
In Sentry Peak, the story begins with Detina General Guildenstern (= Union General William Rosecrans; Shakespeare's Hamlet has minor characters Rosencrantz and Guildenstern) going on his war unicorn to meet Thraxton the Braggart (= Confederate General Braxton Bragg) of the northern provinces, for a clash at Sentry Peak (a parody of Lookout Mountain) near Rising Rock (= Chattanooga, Tennessee - whose name supposedly means "rock rising to a point" in the Creek language). Guildenstern is accompanied by Lieutenant General George, nicknamed "doubting George" (= Major General George Henry Thomas, commander of the Union XIV Corps). Everything else in the story is a parody in a vein similar to these examples.