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tcm_62's review against another edition
4.0
A great 'what if?' read. I enjoyed the first 150 - 200 pages best, where the author is setting the scene creating an alternative, 1952 London realistic and plausible. The scene where the last remaining Jews are rounded up and marched down the Tottenham Court Road was particularly disturbing.
Thereafter the novel becomes a more conventional spy thriller albeit a good one - British resistance spies trying to complete their mission and get a vulnerable scientist-with-a-secret out of the country, on the run from a notorious Nazi spy catcher brought over from Germany specifically for the task.
Good sweep of characters, both fictional and based on real historical figures; the author builds the relationships well engaging the reader's sympathies, even with Gunther the ageing, lonely spy hunter.
The novel is well paced and doesn't feel like 700 pages long.
Thereafter the novel becomes a more conventional spy thriller albeit a good one - British resistance spies trying to complete their mission and get a vulnerable scientist-with-a-secret out of the country, on the run from a notorious Nazi spy catcher brought over from Germany specifically for the task.
Good sweep of characters, both fictional and based on real historical figures; the author builds the relationships well engaging the reader's sympathies, even with Gunther the ageing, lonely spy hunter.
The novel is well paced and doesn't feel like 700 pages long.
60degreesn's review against another edition
4.0
Good alternative history of WW2.
Better than I expected, and one of best I've read.
England makes treaty w/ Germany WW2, set in foggy, grim 1950s UK.
Better than I expected, and one of best I've read.
England makes treaty w/ Germany WW2, set in foggy, grim 1950s UK.
tsharris's review against another edition
4.0
Well-written alternate history spy thriller set in 1952 after Britain made peace with Nazi Germany in May 1940. This scenario has been done before - notably by Robert Harris and Jo Walton - but Sansom's is perhaps better than the others on the politics and society of a Britain drifting into fascism. I don't think he takes too many shortcuts. Ultimately any alternate history that takes on this premise is about what kind of society Britain was in 1930s, depressed, afraid of war, and in too many corners sympathetic (or more) with Nazi Germany. Maybe Churchill's rallying the British people was the most likely outcome, but books like this serve to show just what Churchill was up against.
ashkitty93's review against another edition
2.0
Overall... I dunno.
Unnecessaries:
- the David/Natalia subplot thing
And the ending was terrible. All this buildup of a story... for what? This reader is irritated.
Unnecessaries:
Spoiler
- A very minor character calling his dog the N-word- the David/Natalia subplot thing
And the ending was terrible. All this buildup of a story... for what? This reader is irritated.
emjayvee's review against another edition
2.0
A great counterfactual setting, and a driving plot that will have you rattling though the pages. But the characterisations are non-existent - cardboard cut outs. And, as another reviewer has said, adverbs can kill a novel. Reminded me of a Dan Brown book. Written with movie rights in mind?
suebarsby's review against another edition
3.0
Interesting, as I like a good what if? as much as the next person. However, I wasn't completely convinced by the reaction of the scientist character to the news of the secret weapon and wasn't sure if this was my modern interpretation or just bad writing on the part of the author. Some aspects were chilling, in the way that Roth's Plot Against America was, but in the end not quite well written enough to be wholly convincing. I liked it as a bit of fluff. Not sure that was what Sansom wanted though. A quick read, despite the length, but could have been better edited, and he could do with reading Stephen King's rule about words ending in ly.
beckycliffe's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.25
books_link_likes's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.25
jhouses's review against another edition
3.0
En una Inglaterra Fascista que firmó un armisticio después de de Dunkerque un timido profesor descubre el secreto que podría permitir a Alemania construir la bomba atómica. Internado en un sanatorio mental busca suicidarse mientras la Resistencia y la Gestapo intentan descubrir su sectreto sin alertar a las autoridades. Un libro bien construido, en la linea de "Patria" aunque algo más flojo.
titanic's review against another edition
3.0
"He held out his hand and David and Geoff each took a capsule. As he put the thing in his pocket, David thought, death weighs almost nothing."
This book worried me when I started reading it. Not only did it take ages to get into, I didn't get fully interested in it until the one hundred page mark, but it started out really heavy on the politics. I understand that it's a book about World War Two so naturally it is going to have characters mentioning the flaws of the world, and bringing up matters, like how the Jews are getting removed from Britain but it scared me off at the beginning, which was possibly why it took so long for me to get interested.
Another flaw with this book was, for a long time, Frank Muncaster was the only character that kept me going. I lived for his chapters in the asylum. Nobody in the Resistance interested me, and I certainly did not enjoy the chapters of Gunther. They were boring, all he ever seemed to do was complain about the fog and how much he missed his child, all in a way to seem more human but I never got the feeling the author knew how to truly write him. Sarah eventually became interesting, and then, so did the book. Around the three hundred page mark, I was hooked most.
I was disappointed with the secret that Frank was told. I should have guessed it. It's kind of obvious not that I look back on it. It seems silly that America would risk a submarine for him, though, I feel they would rather place an American spy on British soil and eliminate the risk. It seems more official. Stop the secret from coming out, and nobody would have been any the wiser. Many people in asylums commit suicide, Frank proved this when he attempted it.
The problem with this book is, you have to read through the politics, and you find yourself nearly three hundred pages in and only then when the Germans start to realise that the Resistance want to free Frank does it get interesting. Yet you have to put up with complaining chapters of Gunther, but despite all this, I could see myself reading it again. The ending wowed me, I'll give the author that. I like how I don't truly know what happened with David and Sarah, I hope she left him. She was way to good for him - yet she loves(d?) him so, it makes you wonder. Did they stay together in the United States or go their separate ways. They probably stayed together because they had nobody else. I'm just sad Frank killed himself. He was the best of them all. The author seemed to put a lot of thought into him, down to his damaged arm and creepy smile.
This book worried me when I started reading it. Not only did it take ages to get into, I didn't get fully interested in it until the one hundred page mark, but it started out really heavy on the politics. I understand that it's a book about World War Two so naturally it is going to have characters mentioning the flaws of the world, and bringing up matters, like how the Jews are getting removed from Britain but it scared me off at the beginning, which was possibly why it took so long for me to get interested.
Another flaw with this book was, for a long time, Frank Muncaster was the only character that kept me going. I lived for his chapters in the asylum. Nobody in the Resistance interested me, and I certainly did not enjoy the chapters of Gunther. They were boring, all he ever seemed to do was complain about the fog and how much he missed his child, all in a way to seem more human but I never got the feeling the author knew how to truly write him. Sarah eventually became interesting, and then, so did the book. Around the three hundred page mark, I was hooked most.
I was disappointed with the secret that Frank was told. I should have guessed it. It's kind of obvious not that I look back on it. It seems silly that America would risk a submarine for him, though, I feel they would rather place an American spy on British soil and eliminate the risk. It seems more official. Stop the secret from coming out, and nobody would have been any the wiser. Many people in asylums commit suicide, Frank proved this when he attempted it.
The problem with this book is, you have to read through the politics, and you find yourself nearly three hundred pages in and only then when the Germans start to realise that the Resistance want to free Frank does it get interesting. Yet you have to put up with complaining chapters of Gunther, but despite all this, I could see myself reading it again. The ending wowed me, I'll give the author that. I like how I don't truly know what happened with David and Sarah, I hope she left him. She was way to good for him - yet she loves(d?) him so, it makes you wonder. Did they stay together in the United States or go their separate ways. They probably stayed together because they had nobody else. I'm just sad Frank killed himself. He was the best of them all. The author seemed to put a lot of thought into him, down to his damaged arm and creepy smile.