Good alternative history thriller

It took me a few years to read Dominion but I’m glad I did.

Whilst not perfect, the plot starts slow but builds and builds to it’s finale. Four stars feels right.

Daniel Weyman was excellent giving an impressive range of voices and making every character distinguishable from each other.

It’s very scary when you consider how things could have gone given one key moment and CJ Samson worked this idea extremely well.

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The great "What if"

I first enjoyed Sansom's Matthew Shardlake novels about a hunchback medieval detective. Here he tries his hand at something more recent - World War II Britain, except what if the world never went to war but Chamberlain's feeble attempts to seek peace with Hitler were successful? That's where the novel starts, with the UK effectively occupied by the Germans. The start of the novel is its weakest part. Sansom struggles to paint a complete picture and instead spurts out the facts instead of describing the situation. Once he has set the scene (about three chapters in) he settles down to write a great spy novel which has some brilliant characters, a fast-moving plot and a terrific climax. Worth every minute. Highly recommended. The narrator, Daniel Weyman, is excellent.

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An intriguing premise

London, 1952. 12 years after the British government surrendered to the Germans. But there is growing discontent in the country. Churchill is in hiding, leading the Resistance. David Fitzgerald is a secret Jew, disobeying the law by being a civil servant, does his part for the Resistance by photocopying secret documents. An old college friend holds the key to a secret of immense importance to the Resistance, but is locked up in an insane asylum. David is directed to get him out.

After a fairly slow beginning setting the scene, there are some real heart stopping moments. Gestapo Sturmbannfuhrer Gunther Hoth, who has a gift for finding hidden Jews is hard on the trail, and has never yet been defeated. The whole book makes for compelling listening. It is difficult to classify this book - political thriller, love story, alternative reality, it is all of these and more and utterly rivetting.

The narration is equally excellent.

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What might have been...

This is a fantastic story. I love C.J. Sansom's other books - the Shardlake series and Winter in Madrid, but this is even better. It paints a scenario that could so easily have come about - surrender to the Germans after the Dunkirk debacle in 1940. Instead of Churchill leading the country, he's leading resistance to the fascist sympathisers in power.
It's all plausible and the climate of fear among the population during the terrible smog in London is brilliantly described. It's atmospheric and the relationships between the resistance group members makes an absorbing story against this background.

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Excellent adventure set in an alternative history

The book cleverly posits right what have happened had the British sued for peace in 1940 instead going on to fight Naziism to the end in 1945. The author cleverly weaves real people and politics into a compelling adventure of ordinary people caught up in spying and ultimately destiny. The reader varies the accents and style of speaking to give life to the characters. It is a great book right to the end of the epilogue. There is the obvious narrative but also the underlying moral story of good versus evil. Well worth listening to!

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Very engrossing story, excellently narrated.

I read Winter In Madrid many years ago and have never forgotten how beautifully CJ Sansom crafted his characters. He also helped me to understand the history of the time and the terrible impact on the daily lives of those living with the conflict in Spain.
This book is just as powerfully written, with a very moving and involving storyline, but also more reminders that war in any form brings misery to the general population.
It also touches on the vulnerability of the sensitive souls of this world, along with a fantastic understanding of how love can lose its way in times of grief and stress.
Absolutely riveting second half and I did not want it to end.
Beautifully read and all the characters seemed so real.
I agree that it should be a film.

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Simply fabulous

From start to finish this was just terrific. The players and storyline were so believable I almost got lost in what I thought was fact.

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Superb and very believable what if ?

I had read the Shardlake books so I was a little reluctant to jump forward in time but I needn't have been worried.C J Samson has created a very believable what if historical book. You get invested in all the characters , this is helped by the excellent narration very easy to listen to, so much so I have gone and download a winter in Madrid, same author same narrator so really looking forward to listening to it.

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Brilliant narration

Really interesting concept for a story. Brilliant narration, made each character unique. I was sorry when it finished.

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Convincing alternate history / stiff-upper-lip ism

The single downside first.

Amongst everything else, the book manages to evoke a sense of grim austerity and repression. Although this adds considerably to the realism, it inevitably means that there are sections where the pacing's slow and you do feel a bit of the daily grind.

This is largely limited to the start of the book, it's still well written and narrated and it's necessary, but it's there - don't expect to have much of a spring in your step at first.

However I'd urge you to stick with it. The plotting picks up considerably and Sansom's writing and Daniel Weyman's performance result in very well fleshed out characters. I had a very specific picture in my mind for each of the main protagonists, not always the case, and a huge amount of respect and sympathy for several characters.

Famous figures are performed in a way that makes them instantly recognisable (to people of my generation anyway) without descending into parody or stereotype - a great job by Weyman.

A great sense of tension and unease and a number of satisfying conclusions. I could have easily listened to more.

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5 people found this helpful