Reset

It’s 2026, and George Aronson is the president of the Confederate States of America. Society is divided into two classes: the ruling class made up solely of whites, and the subclass made up of every other race, most of whom work in some kind of indentured servitude. Within that subclass, however, is a group of people who believe the Confederacy should never have won the Civil War and who are devoted to bringing about the America that should have been. Just as readers have gotten used to this alternate future of America, everything changes. It’s still 2026, but the president is now Andrew Stevenson, and the states he presides over bear the title United. From there, Reset tells how one of these futures changed to the other. (Short answer: It involves time travel.)

While one of the more prominent questions to pop up when considering alternate history is “What would have happened if the South had won the Civil War?” I’ve never before seen a book that casts aside speculations revolving around the past in order to consider what might have happened if time travelers had specifically tried to change the course of the war. It might sound far-fetched, but the premise provides a fascinating plot that kept me hooked from the very first chapter. It isn’t entirely about the big picture, either; there are dozens of little moments throughout the book that speak to the humanity of the characters, making them feel like more than just devices to move the story forward to a preordained conclusion.

As much as I enjoyed the plot, there were a few little details that detracted from my experience with the book. Aside from those little moments, the characters felt flat and two-dimensional, and the typos and somewhat sloppy formatting distracted me from the story at times. However, for those readers who care more about a riveting “what if?”, Reset is an enjoyable piece of science fiction.