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3.09 AVERAGE
3.09 AVERAGE
adventurous
tense
medium-paced
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I really didn’t like this book. The Atlantropa Articles is incredibly shallow, with a very "wow cool robot" approach to storytelling. It isn't particularly well written. It's repetitive, the pacing isn't well thought out, there are a few SPAG mistakes here and there, and the author relies heavily on telling instead of showing. He spends the majority of the book engaged in a strange fetishisation of vehicles and weaponry, and he has no time for emotional depth or philosophy.
A key trait of this alternate history world is that "Nazism never disappears" but, in reality, it never did disappear. Franklin doesn't seem to understand fascism well at all, and yet he chose to write a story with Nazis in the starring roles – it's written from the perspective of Ansel, a captain of the Eternal Reich. And I have to wonder why he chose to use this character as the POV. I don't know how else to say this but it kinda felt like a power fantasy? I don't know. I don't know what I'm supposed to take away from this.
Also Muslims are brought up, painted as barbaric warlords whose "caliphate" is just as bad if not worse than the Reich, then forgotten about. Very cool.
A key trait of this alternate history world is that "Nazism never disappears" but, in reality, it never did disappear. Franklin doesn't seem to understand fascism well at all, and yet he chose to write a story with Nazis in the starring roles – it's written from the perspective of Ansel, a captain of the Eternal Reich. And I have to wonder why he chose to use this character as the POV. I don't know how else to say this but it kinda felt like a power fantasy? I don't know. I don't know what I'm supposed to take away from this.
Also Muslims are brought up, painted as barbaric warlords whose "caliphate" is just as bad if not worse than the Reich, then forgotten about. Very cool.
I find the Atlantropa concept interesting (which is why I picked up this book), but Franklin didn't come up with it so I can't give him too much credit. I feel like two stars is generous. It must be said that almost all the positive reviews I've seen were written by self-professed fans of the author. I saw one which said "[Ansel's] worldview is very understandable" which is... worrying.