Reviews

Dominion by C.J. Sansom

dgmalcolm's review against another edition

2.0

Fascinating and at times compelling counter factual history brought down by weak prose, relying on clunky exposition that is so unsubtle it's occasionally comical. And whilst the political message is clearly heartfelt it loses some of its force by being overdone; it could have been much more powerful if there hadn't been so many axes to grind.

livi_loves_reading's review against another edition

dark reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

rcbick's review against another edition

4.0

Enjoyed it. Interesting read.

lisainbookland's review against another edition

dark informative sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

I’d agree with other reviews that this book is much slower than you’d think, and potentially the plot isn’t quite as brilliant as you’d like it to be. But I was reading it mostly for the alternative history and that was extremely well thought out and the writing was so atmospheric I was genuinely affected by the despair of the world in this book. The author’s note goes into the politics of todays world especially Scottish nationalism but its really not something I know enough about to comment on.

jen_e_fer's review against another edition

5.0

This book was absolutely fascinating! It's a large book but packed with action and historical details.

mverdoorn's review against another edition

4.0

I really enjoyed this book. It was my first alternative history novel so I didn't know what to expect. Basically, it is a spy novel set in 1950's England in a reality where Britain surrendered to the Nazi's in 1940. The author did a great job in creating a world that was believable. My only complaint is that the book was very repetitive with it's descriptions of the characters and their surroundings - it could have been about 200 pages shorter without any problem.

m3l89's review against another edition

1.0

I didn't enjoy this at all.
I thought the idea was brilliant, but it was poorly executed. I didn't warm to any of the characters, I thought it was very slow paced and could have done with being a good 200 pages shorter.

tomsan's review against another edition

3.0

The first few hundred pages are brilliant but it tails off a bit towards the end. I think he could have cut 150 pages without doing too much damage to the plot.

hopefulgoat's review against another edition

adventurous informative tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

The start was quite slow with an excessive amount of exposition. However, once the story got going, it was quite gripping and I felt like it really captured the horrors of some of the occurrences in Nazi Germany—or in this case, semi-Nazi England.

At times, Natalia was proof that this book was written by a man.

mrs_phelps's review against another edition

adventurous fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0