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David McK (3425 KP) rated Fatherland in Books

Dec 20, 2022

Fatherland

Robert Harris | 2012 | Fiction & Poetry

7.7

(3 Ratings)

Book Rating

Robert Harris's best-selling alt-history novel, basically asking what the world would be like if the Nazis had won WW2, and following the investigation by a police officer in the 1960s when a naked body is found floating in a lake on the outskirts of Berlin just ahead of Hitler's 75th birthday, leading to the uncovering of a vast conspiracy...

A conspiracy covering up events, in the 'real' world, anyone with even the slightest knowledge of WW2 history would know about. And rightfully so.

That, I felt, was my biggest problem with the novel - there was just no sense of mystery or intrigue, no real 'what-will-happen-to-the-characters-next?' that made me really want to read on - indeed, there were times that I had to force myself to continue rather than starting another book.

From a personal POV, I think I would have preferred more emphasis on the the alt-history portions of the story (how did Germany win the war? What happened in the UK? To name but two ...) than on the central mystery: to me, at least, the balance is out of whack, favouring the mystery over the little nuggets of such information carefully doled out throughout the course of the novel.

I'm also not that much a fan of cliff-hanger endings, personally ...

Kudos

Mark @ Carstairs Considers (2204 KP) rated Keeper of the Lost Cities (Keeper of the Lost Cities, #1) in Books

Mar 9, 2018

Sophie Foster discovers that she is not really human but part of another entire world that co-exists within ours. And just like that, she is whisked away to a world she doesn't know and tries to learn about it. But she also finds a danger and a potential conspiracy. Can she fit in and still find out what is really happening? I was pulled into this book and really enjoyed it from start to finish. I can't wait for the next one.

Read my full review at <a href="http://carstairsconsiders.blogspot.com/2013/07/book-review-keeper-of-lost-cities-by.html">Carstairs Considers</a>.

Kudos

Dean (6926 KP) rated The Girl Who Played with Fire (2009) in Movies

Nov 27, 2018

A very good second film in the trilogy. It doesn't quite reach the levels of the first, but that was an outstanding film. Where the first was a bit more dramatic in story along the lines of a whodunit? mystery, this is a bit more like an action/thriller with a conspiracy plot. Lisbeth has been set up as the main suspect in 3 murders and is on the run to prove her innocence. We find out a bit more back story to her character in this which is good to see. I can't wait to see the last one in this set of great thrillers!