Robert Conroy had a good idea: base a “what if” novel upon actual plans Germany once drew up to launch a limited invasion of the northeastern United States in order to demand lands won from Spain in the Spanish-American War of 1898.  The result: his novel simply entitled 1901.

“1901 is an attempt to show what might have happened had the kaiser’s Imperial German army landed on American soil,” Conroy declares at the end of his introduction.

Alas, none of the text in which the plot is woven and the story told is worth quoting here, because the end result –at least in my opinion- is so amateurish and clichéd it is amazing it even got published.

The fictional characters and subplots don’t merit any mention whatsoever, especially since we can see romances coming from a mile off with two of them the characters and their actions are so clichéd and predictable.

He badly fumbles what could have been an interesting “what if” involving none other than General James Longstreet being appointed to command the entire U.S. Army, though his rise comes at the expense of real-life 1901-era Army commander Nelson Miles, who is presented as inept and incompetent.  Instead of many scenes with “Pete” (as Longstreet’s friends called them) drawing heavily on his Civil War experience to stymie the Germans, Conroy instead gives him short shrift, and on top of that, incorrectly depicts him still having a full beard ; by 1901 Longstreet had –irony of ironies- adopted the same set of “sideburns” worn by Yankee General Ambrose Burnside whom Longstreet’s troops gave a bloody nose to at Fredericksburg.  And his depiction of Teddy Roosevelt and William McKinley (who conveniently dies of a heart attack right after the invasion so Conroy can place Teddy in charge) is shallow and dull.

Conroy also has the distressing habit of killing off historical figures without rhyme or reason.  John Philip Holland, father of the modern sub and torpedo, dies when his new invention causes a monstrous explosion among German ships anchored in New York Harbor which sends out a huge shockwave that slams him against his sub and breaks his neck.  Famed admiral William F. Halsey dies a young officer in a sea skirmish, and mortally wounds young Douglas MacArthur in a land battle (though both the latter’s untimely fates are only mentioned in passing, not depicted.)

The Germans are ultimately beaten, but, alas, a final nail enters the book’s coffin as a result when subsequent events kick into, well, “Ludacris speed” (to borrow a phrase from Spaceballs) when the Kaiser abdicates all over the failed American adventure … and the rise of the Nazis (?!) begins.  Why?  I hardly think Kaiser Wilhelm would have been ousted over such a failure, especially since the Nazis were not even a gleam in anyone’s eye in 1901; only the post-World War One chaos allowed them to sweep to the top of the German political machine.

In short, don’t’ waste your time with this novel, folks.  It is a good premise, yes, but flawed by bad execution.