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3.87 AVERAGE
3.87 AVERAGE
dark
emotional
informative
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
It seemed like this book could be set in Cold War Germany instead of alternate universe Germany for all the differences that it had. It really didn't feel like anything was truly different about the setting of the book. I suppose that it would sell more copies being set in an alternate timeline though.
I saw the movie years ago and remembered not liking it too much. The book was a nice read, one of the better alt-history stories I've read. But I felt that the scope was too big or rather the build-up and reveal were too rushed considering the topic.
Perfect holiday reading. A thought-provoking (to some extent) idea drives a riveting plot. The world in which the characters dwell is 20 years post World War 2. The Nazis won, and their narrative has been trumpeted. In reality the West accepted, or at least remained silent on, the atrocities of its Stalin, its Russian ally. Harris asks would the same historical rewriting have happened to the Holocaust if the Nazis had won?
Senior Nazis are being killed, a disgruntled investigator is given the case erroneously, and comes to his own terms with the big lie.
Senior Nazis are being killed, a disgruntled investigator is given the case erroneously, and comes to his own terms with the big lie.
I'm underwhelmed. It's a detective novel set in nazi Germany, the dystopian background of "what if nazis won the war" is not even necessary.
After a long spell of reading non-fiction, I decided to finally treat myself with a good story. 'Fatherland' came on my uncle's recommendation, which I respect because he's a history teacher and hey, this is speculative historical fiction. I had also read and hugely enjoyed Harris' 'Imperium', though I didn't really engage wih 'Pompeii' or 'The Ghost'. My verdict: 'Fatherland' is better then the latter two, but it didn't top 'Imperium'.
The plot was compelling enough for a good few day's reading - starts off good, gets boring towards the middle, then really picks up during the last quarter. However, I have a few issues that spoiled he experience for me:
1) Harris was really trying to go somewhere with the whole "the European Community still happens! But it's controlled by Nazis!" thing, but I'm my opinion he stretched it too far. It's conceivable that they would have imposed a quasi-imperial trading bloc in Europe, but details such as specifying that Berlin airport had two passport control queues, one for EC nationals and one for rest of the world (like in EU airports today!) is just silly and makes it look like Harris has a thinly-veiled bone to pick with the EU.
2) March is a bit of a boring character. We never really get to see what makes him tick, and as he novel goes on, it becomes apparent that he is just a stand-in for the reader, a time-traveller with modern 'we know better' suspicions of totalitarianism. His utter lack of belief in Nazi ideology is itself barely believable.
3) The ending. What even was that? I felt like the last twenty pages were missing. There's a right way and a wrong way to do cliffhangers. 'Fatherland' goes about it the wrong way, just breaking off as if Harris got bored. It left me unsatisfied and turned a four-star novel into a three-star one.
Overall, I don't think Robert Harris is as clever as people give him credit for, but I still enjoyed the novel for the most part (until the ending). There were some exciting passages, and Harris does manage to always be one step ahead of the reader. An interesting plot with great potential, shame about the execution.
The plot was compelling enough for a good few day's reading - starts off good, gets boring towards the middle, then really picks up during the last quarter. However, I have a few issues that spoiled he experience for me:
1) Harris was really trying to go somewhere with the whole "the European Community still happens! But it's controlled by Nazis!" thing, but I'm my opinion he stretched it too far. It's conceivable that they would have imposed a quasi-imperial trading bloc in Europe, but details such as specifying that Berlin airport had two passport control queues, one for EC nationals and one for rest of the world (like in EU airports today!) is just silly and makes it look like Harris has a thinly-veiled bone to pick with the EU.
2) March is a bit of a boring character. We never really get to see what makes him tick, and as he novel goes on, it becomes apparent that he is just a stand-in for the reader, a time-traveller with modern 'we know better' suspicions of totalitarianism. His utter lack of belief in Nazi ideology is itself barely believable.
3) The ending. What even was that? I felt like the last twenty pages were missing. There's a right way and a wrong way to do cliffhangers. 'Fatherland' goes about it the wrong way, just breaking off as if Harris got bored. It left me unsatisfied and turned a four-star novel into a three-star one.
Overall, I don't think Robert Harris is as clever as people give him credit for, but I still enjoyed the novel for the most part (until the ending). There were some exciting passages, and Harris does manage to always be one step ahead of the reader. An interesting plot with great potential, shame about the execution.
dark
informative
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
adventurous
dark
hopeful
informative
tense
medium-paced