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This book brings us to 1941, and the start of the Second Great War.
Two themes dominate this book--the consolidation of power in the South by the Freedom Party, and the preparation for war by each side (and also by the individual characters). This book is an improvement over the previous two inter-war books--perhaps because the material is more interesting, appalling as the Freedom Party's actions are, they make better reading than the Great Depression.
Turtledove has the sense not to stick too close to the historical script. While the 1936 Olympics in Richmond parallel the ones in Berlin, there is no Jesse Owens analogue (um, incidently, until after WWII, the IOC awarded BOTH Olympics in a given year to the same country routinely. Where were the Winter Olympics held? Miami?). There is no Munich Pact as such, and most of the aggressive moves by the historical Germans are combined into an effort to regain the U.S.'s Great War territorial gains (and not even all of them). There is no Kristallnacht, but no shortage of violence by the Freedom Party on blacks.
Some of our frustration at what seem to be Turtledove's annoying, invulnerable characters is relieved as more than one bite the dust, including one of the most irritating. Their roles as point-of-view characters are inherited by near relatives, alas.
Turtledove gets his characters set for conflict--two of the new characters will be our "typical GI" and "typical sailor" types. We see that we will have a fighter pilot, an intelligence officer, and others giving us viewpoint in war--including a concentration camp head.
The author's introduction of charactes from our own timeline as characters in this is often amusing ("Dutch" Reagan as commentator of a football game causes a character to think of him as a "great communicator"), sometimes obscure (Jerry Voorhis as US Ambassador to the CSA? Will we meet Nixon in the next book?), and sometimes annoying (a philandering Joe Kennedy). Since most of these were born 20-50+ years after the point at which Turtledove's timeline departs from our own, it could be wondered if Turtledove is not undermining his own logic.
There are other quibbles (if the entire black sharecropper class is being thrown off the land by Featherston's tractors, that is far more people than the token homeless we see), but on balance an improvement on previous books. One hopes Turtledove will let the story go its own way in the upcoming books, rather than a slavish retelling of World War II, but that already seems a false hope (with an aircraft carrier for the US getting radar, we seem to be headed rapidly towards a Battle of Midway).
A good effort, and hoping for even better.

This is long awaited book does not disappoint. Concluding the American Empire series started in Blood and Iron. Mr. Trutledove ends the lives of many main characters such as Sylvia Enos,Mrs.Moss, Nellie Semproches and others. However he does this in a fine fashion making they're deaths seem in the right place and replacing them with characters that compare but also differ. He also sets the stage for WWII and builds the suspense to the boiling point until in the last tantalizing paragraphs the second World War, the one that Turtledove has been marching towards during hte entire series explodes. I heartily recommend this book to anyone who has read the series and cannot wait for the next series, Return Engagement.

Some of the characters deaths were shocking but kept it interesting. Watching people change was very interesting too. I’m about to start the next book

I want to like this book. Sometimes it lets me. Published in paperback and hardcover in 2003, "The Victorious Opposition" is the final book in the "American Empire" series, detailing the rise of an alternate Nazi Party- the Freedom Party- and its hate-filled and charismatic leader, Jake Featherston. In this book, Featherston has taken the office of President and is simultaneously cleaning house, rearming the nation, and preparing it for another war with the United States. He begins dishing out ice-cold revenge to those who opposed his climb in previous books, only making one exception- Clarence Potter comes to Richmond during the Olympic Games to assassinate Featherston and after [CENSORED EVENT] ends up rejoining the Army as a high-ranking intelligence officer. Jefferson Pinkard, on the other hand, rises to become the Confederacy's leading man on the 'Negro problem'. As the camp he commands becomes ever more over-crowded with black and other political prisoners, Richmond coldly tells him they are "sure you can deal with it". Forced into a corner, he comes up with a solution that shows very clearly how normal men can all-too-easily be turned into monsters.

The Freedom Party is single-minded in its goals, ruthless in its efforts to achieve them. Featherston was a lot less willing to put up with Huey Long than FDR was, it seems. Featherston, just like Hitler, takes as much as his appeasing neighbors will give and then pushes for more. When his push is refused finally, he shoves.

"The Victorious Opposition" is like a stately, impressive castle that once in a while burns down, falls over, and *then* sinks into the swamp next to it. SO. MANY. CHARACTERS. And because it's peacetime, virtually none of them die. Argh! The totally uninteresting Armstrong Grimes(?) could have easily been replaced by The Silhouettes barging in and singing "Get a Job" once in a while. A number of characters are involved in a brutal US occupation of Canada, Utah, and and parts of the Confederacy arbitrarily taken away at the end of World War I- aside from the thinly veiled appearance of General "Daniel" MacArthur, none of them were interesting at all. One treats the Canadians like his pets, hoping they'll one day be grateful for his repeated efforts to get them out of jail after yet another US Army barracks gets blown up. They eventually show him just what they think of being his pets, and suddenly this man is *surprised*. He then gives into the hate, falls to the Dark Side and actually becomes an interesting character. But by then he's outta the book. In reading through so many scenes of the US crushing yet another protest, uprising, whatever with enough machine gun fire to make Stalin sick, I said- these are the GOOD guys? God save us from the *bad* guys. But you know what? The Confederates may be the Nazis here, but at least they're honest about what they're killing for. Certainly more so than the US. In Congress, the horribly boring- and annoying- Congressman-woman?- Flora Blackford does three things throughout the book. 1- she whines about what a loser her former-President husband wasn't, 2- she cheers on every US occupation everywhere- and 3- she suggests that the US, being morally superior and all, save them Negroes down yonder. But, uh, not 'cause she's trying to rock the boat or anything.
And by the way- for a dead guy, Hoosier Blackford sure does get brought into the book a *lot*. Eventually, I started waiting for him to lurch his way into the next paragraph, all slimy and decayed, groaning: "Votes..."

And that's not even half of it.

Don't get me wrong- much of "The Victorious Opposition" *is* interesting. Jake Featherston's readying the CSA for war, the increasing sense of inevitability as that war nears, and the way that everyone gets dragged along into it one way or another is very interesting indeed. The once-democratic CSA's fall to a dictator's iron hand overall demonstrates, chillingly well, that it *can* happen here. And very well could have. The Confederacy is a warped, corrupt mockery of all it once stood for. Robert E. Lee would have been sick. But, I wonder how loyal he'd have wanted to be to the laughably hypocritical nation the USA is in here. They claim the moral high-ground but cheerfully murder every 'traitor' in sight. Maybe Turtledove is trying to make a point about the USA of our timeline...

Anyway. Far too often this book gets lost in the twists and turns of its own mazes, but its basic idea- the rise of a dictator in a defeated CSA and, at its very end, the start of an alternate WWII- saves it in the end. It's a long way from perfect- so many times I wished it had the clarity of "The Guns of the South" or "Ruled Britannia". But it's worth reading, despite its numerous flaws. And one other thing, in the case of the hardcover edition- you couldn't have possibly made a better cover illustration. Or a better title. Absolutely brilliant.

Great alternative history author. The characters are well developed and keeps the reader engaged. I enjoy the many series he has written.

Book was as advertised and delivery was prompt.

My review is the same for all books of the series. Decent story, a little slow, but also one of the most annoying series becuase he repeats things over and over. Examples are that southern tobacco is way better that northern and northern smokes taste terrible. Also,this black guy was former butler who worked for this white rich lady and was taught to talk like an educated white man and details about his time there. Many more things like this, so just about anytime a soldier smokes in these books( about 100 times) you have to hear about the tobacco, etc. Each character has something told about them over and over and over and over and over, see how annoying that is.