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A review by siria
Dominion by C.J. Sansom
3.0
I'm not sure if early 2017 is the best or worst time to read a work of counter-factual historical fiction like this: set in a 1950s England where the forces of appeasement won out, Winston Churchill is the fugitive head of the British Resistance, and an ageing Hitler is about to celebrate two decades in power.
Overall, this is a bit of a mixed bag. Sansom does a good job of sketching out a grey and gloomy London, suffocating under a coal-fuelled smog and fascism in equal measure; what atmosphere his pen can't supply, the reader's imagination can easily substitute in nowadays. What does the destruction of civilisation and democracy need but spineless self-interest and ignorance and apathy?
However, Dominion's characterisation is thin, the tension never quite ratchets up as much as the reader might want thanks to a weak central plot McGuffin and a failure to fillet out flabby back stories, and Sansom's insistence on the dangers of particularly Scottish nationalism is a bit ironic in light of the Brexit referendum (you were looking at the wrong side of the border for evidence of the really toxic stuff, buddy). Still, this is a step above the usual airport thriller, and provides an added dose of moral discomfort for the reader for good measure. If the worst happened, what kind of coward would you be?
Overall, this is a bit of a mixed bag. Sansom does a good job of sketching out a grey and gloomy London, suffocating under a coal-fuelled smog and fascism in equal measure; what atmosphere his pen can't supply, the reader's imagination can easily substitute in nowadays. What does the destruction of civilisation and democracy need but spineless self-interest and ignorance and apathy?
However, Dominion's characterisation is thin, the tension never quite ratchets up as much as the reader might want thanks to a weak central plot McGuffin and a failure to fillet out flabby back stories, and Sansom's insistence on the dangers of particularly Scottish nationalism is a bit ironic in light of the Brexit referendum (you were looking at the wrong side of the border for evidence of the really toxic stuff, buddy). Still, this is a step above the usual airport thriller, and provides an added dose of moral discomfort for the reader for good measure. If the worst happened, what kind of coward would you be?