Rating: 
Summary: Surprisingly well worth reading
Review: This is a new way to look at an old topic. The author
draws a compelling picture of the way things might have
been, and it's surprising how believable he makes it.
Rating: 
Summary: Bleak but fascinating vision of a successful Third Reich
Review: In this book Robert Harris creates a very bleak "what may have been" world if the Nazis had defeated the Western Allies in WWII.
Whilst the crux of the story is the search by SS investigator Xavier March for the truth behind the murder of a retired middle-ranking
Nazi official, the compelling aspect of the book is the manner in which Harris has created his vision of the Third Reich in 1963.
From SS cadets studying at Oxford, to an EU dominated by the imperial state of Germania, to the grandiose ugliness of the Berlin architecture
of Albert Speer and the continual dangers posed by the 20 year war in the Soviet Union, Harris paints a picture that forces the reader to
contemplate the possible end result of the National Socialist experience in Germany. A great read.
Rating:
Summary: Read this book.....Now
Review: "Fatherland' is stylish, disturbing, and depraved. It is a masterpiece of noir fiction. The plot is an historical "What if." What if Germany won the war? What if Joseph Kennedy became President, not JFK? What if the world never found out about the Jewish exterminations that took place at German concentration camps? All scary prospects to be sure; but Harris does a fine job with the story and details, and truly makes the reader feel that, not only is it plausible, but could have very easily happened. The first part of the book is a murder/conspiracy mystery, and then when the mystery is solved, the second half hinges on suspense. While reading 'Fatherland", I could not help but feel like I was reading an important piece of fiction. That may not have been the case, but I am sure that I was reading one of the finest alternative histories ever written or imagined. If you like historical fiction, or if WW2 fiction interests you, then do not miss this fine novel.
Rating: 
Summary: Disappointing audiocassette
Review: It almost doesn't seem fair to rate this audiocassette in the same pool with the book. I'm sure, after reading a sampling of the reviews, that the book is MUCH better. Something is lost in the translation and abridgement for audiocassette. Sure, the interesting premise is still there as is the big secret. But the page turning suspense is lost in the process. That's what I get for being cheap and checking it out of the library - right?
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