Dominion by C. J. Sansom
Mar. 7th, 2014 04:14 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
quippeThe Blurb On The Back:
The Great Smog. London. 1952.
A dense, choking fog engulfs the city and beneath it, history is re-written …
Twelve years have passed since Churchill lost to the appeasers and Britain surrendered to Nazi Germany after Dunkirk. As the long German war against Russia rages on in the east, the British people find themselves under dark authoritarian rule.
Defiance, though, is growing. Winston Churchill’s Resistance organisation is increasingly a thorn in the government’s side. And in a Birmingham mental hospital an incarcerated scientist, Frank Muncaster, may hold a secret that could change the balance of the world struggle for ever.
Civil Servant David Fitzgerald, secretly acting as a spy for the Resistance, must rescue his old friend Frank and get him out of the country. Before long he, together with a disparate group of Resistance activists, will find themselves fugitives in the midst of London’s Great Smog; as David’s wife Sarah finds herself drawn into a world more terrifying than she ever could have imagined.
And hard on their heels is Gestapo Sturmbannfürhrer Gunther Hoth, brilliant, implacable hunter of men …
Following the debacle of Dunkirk and the Norway campaign in 1940 Churchill lost his bid to lead a coalition government and Britain under Halifax sued for peace with Germany. It’s now November 11th 1952 and although Germany officially respects British independence, the ties are deepening.
David Fitzgerald is a civil servant in the Department of Dominions, dealing with the Empire and its issues. In reality though he’s a spy for the Resistance, led by Winston Churchill, making copies of documents that they can use to exploit those tensions within the Empire. When David’s old university friend, Frank Muncaster is committed to a Birmingham mental hospital after attacking his brother, the Resistance ask David to make contact with him because they suspect that Frank may have vital information that could change everything but David isn’t the only person looking for Frank. Germany has sent a Gestapo agent called Gunther Hoth to speak to him too. Ruthless, brilliant and implacable, Hoth is an experienced hunter of Jews and he’ll crush anyone who gets in his path …
C J Sansom’s stand alone alternate history novel uses the what if premise of Britain surrendering to Germany in 1940 to construct a chilling and plausible alternative world built on fear but where the cracks are beginning to show. Sansom uses four main characters – David Fitzgerald, his wife Sarah, Frank Muncaster and Guther Hoth to weave a thriller that for the most part is absorbing and tense, although it does threaten to sag towards the end and I could have done without the love triangle involving the mysterious and alluring Natalia. There is a comprehensive set of author’s notes at the end of the book, which I found fascinating – setting out those books that Sansom consulted and the basis on which he constructed his alternate history.
David and Sarah are okay characters, although their domestic travails felt a little cliché. By contrast I found myself really sympathising with the tragic Frank Muncaster who’s spent his whole life as an outsider and now possesses a secret that he never wanted that makes him a target again. I also found Hoth a chilling character, anti-Semitic and yet lonely following his divorce.
Ultimately, while the pace does sag towards the end as overlapping scenes rob them of tension, I really enjoyed this book and remain a fan of Sansom’s work.
The Verdict:
C J Sansom’s stand alone alternate history novel uses the what if premise of Britain surrendering to Germany in 1940 to construct a chilling and plausible alternative world built on fear but where the cracks are beginning to show. Sansom uses four main characters – David Fitzgerald, his wife Sarah, Frank Muncaster and Guther Hoth to weave a thriller that for the most part is absorbing and tense, although it does threaten to sag towards the end and I could have done without the love triangle involving the mysterious and alluring Natalia. There is a comprehensive set of author’s notes at the end of the book, which I found fascinating – setting out those books that Sansom consulted and the basis on which he constructed his alternate history.
A dense, choking fog engulfs the city and beneath it, history is re-written …
Twelve years have passed since Churchill lost to the appeasers and Britain surrendered to Nazi Germany after Dunkirk. As the long German war against Russia rages on in the east, the British people find themselves under dark authoritarian rule.
Defiance, though, is growing. Winston Churchill’s Resistance organisation is increasingly a thorn in the government’s side. And in a Birmingham mental hospital an incarcerated scientist, Frank Muncaster, may hold a secret that could change the balance of the world struggle for ever.
Civil Servant David Fitzgerald, secretly acting as a spy for the Resistance, must rescue his old friend Frank and get him out of the country. Before long he, together with a disparate group of Resistance activists, will find themselves fugitives in the midst of London’s Great Smog; as David’s wife Sarah finds herself drawn into a world more terrifying than she ever could have imagined.
And hard on their heels is Gestapo Sturmbannfürhrer Gunther Hoth, brilliant, implacable hunter of men …
Following the debacle of Dunkirk and the Norway campaign in 1940 Churchill lost his bid to lead a coalition government and Britain under Halifax sued for peace with Germany. It’s now November 11th 1952 and although Germany officially respects British independence, the ties are deepening.
David Fitzgerald is a civil servant in the Department of Dominions, dealing with the Empire and its issues. In reality though he’s a spy for the Resistance, led by Winston Churchill, making copies of documents that they can use to exploit those tensions within the Empire. When David’s old university friend, Frank Muncaster is committed to a Birmingham mental hospital after attacking his brother, the Resistance ask David to make contact with him because they suspect that Frank may have vital information that could change everything but David isn’t the only person looking for Frank. Germany has sent a Gestapo agent called Gunther Hoth to speak to him too. Ruthless, brilliant and implacable, Hoth is an experienced hunter of Jews and he’ll crush anyone who gets in his path …
C J Sansom’s stand alone alternate history novel uses the what if premise of Britain surrendering to Germany in 1940 to construct a chilling and plausible alternative world built on fear but where the cracks are beginning to show. Sansom uses four main characters – David Fitzgerald, his wife Sarah, Frank Muncaster and Guther Hoth to weave a thriller that for the most part is absorbing and tense, although it does threaten to sag towards the end and I could have done without the love triangle involving the mysterious and alluring Natalia. There is a comprehensive set of author’s notes at the end of the book, which I found fascinating – setting out those books that Sansom consulted and the basis on which he constructed his alternate history.
David and Sarah are okay characters, although their domestic travails felt a little cliché. By contrast I found myself really sympathising with the tragic Frank Muncaster who’s spent his whole life as an outsider and now possesses a secret that he never wanted that makes him a target again. I also found Hoth a chilling character, anti-Semitic and yet lonely following his divorce.
Ultimately, while the pace does sag towards the end as overlapping scenes rob them of tension, I really enjoyed this book and remain a fan of Sansom’s work.
The Verdict:
C J Sansom’s stand alone alternate history novel uses the what if premise of Britain surrendering to Germany in 1940 to construct a chilling and plausible alternative world built on fear but where the cracks are beginning to show. Sansom uses four main characters – David Fitzgerald, his wife Sarah, Frank Muncaster and Guther Hoth to weave a thriller that for the most part is absorbing and tense, although it does threaten to sag towards the end and I could have done without the love triangle involving the mysterious and alluring Natalia. There is a comprehensive set of author’s notes at the end of the book, which I found fascinating – setting out those books that Sansom consulted and the basis on which he constructed his alternate history.
