false 433716 2 In 1949, eight years after the “Peace with Honor” was negotiated between Great Britain and Nazi Germany by the Farthing Set, England has completed its slide into fascist dictatorship. Then a bomb explodes in a London suburb. The brilliant but politically compromised Inspector Carmichael of Scotland Yard is assigned the case. What he finds leads him to a conspiracy of peers and communists, of staunch King-and- Country patriots and hardened IRA gunmen, to murder Britain’s Prime Minister and his new ally, Adolf Hitler. Against a background of increasing domestic espionage and the suppression of Jews and homosexuals, an ad-hoc band of idealists and conservatives blackmail the one person they need to complete their plot, an actress who lives for her art and holds the key to the Fuhrer’s death. From the ha’penny seats in the theatre to the ha’pennies that cover dead men’s eyes, the conspiracy and the investigation swirl around one another, spinning beyond anyone’s control. In this brilliant companion to Farthing, Welsh-born World Fantasy Award winner Jo Walton continues her alternate history of an England that could have been, with a novel that is both an homage of the classic detective novels of the thirties and forties, and an allegory of the world we live in today. 422656 2 10 2007 Ha'penny (Small Change, #2) total:133|5:35|4:54|3:42|2:2|1:0| 133 521 210 37 4 1 false false Tue Sep 30 04:54:59 -0700 2008 Tue Sep 30 05:28:48 -0700 2008 more...]]> 4 0 false false Mon Oct 12 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Fri Oct 16 11:54:24 -0700 2009 Fri Oct 16 12:06:32 -0700 2009 more...]]> 3 0 false false Sun Oct 04 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Mon Sep 28 14:08:53 -0700 2009 Sun Oct 04 19:11:31 -0700 2009 Farthing, Ha'penny suffers somewhat from middle-book-in-a-trilogy syndrome. Between that, the constraints of the historical background Walton has established, and a loss of subtlety in the political elements, I found the plot rather predictable and that robbed the...more...]]> 3 0 false false Sat Jul 04 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sun May 24 19:41:17 -0700 2009 Sat Jul 04 10:53:36 -0700 2009 1 more...]]> 4 0 false false Sat Nov 01 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Fri Dec 05 06:38:38 -0800 2008 Fri Dec 05 06:43:12 -0800 2008 Farthing, in an England that made a treaty with Hitler after Dunkirk instead of fighting World War II. Its central characters are the actress Viola Lark, from a family clearly modeled on that of the celebrated Mitford sisters, and Carmicha...more...]]> 5 0 false false Fri Dec 12 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Sun Dec 07 01:27:29 -0800 2008 Fri Dec 12 13:28:21 -0800 2008 1 more...]]> 5 0 false false Mon Aug 24 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Thu Aug 20 08:58:23 -0700 2009 Mon Aug 24 04:49:40 -0700 2009 more...]]> 3 0 false true Thu Oct 09 13:36:56 -0700 2008 Thu Oct 09 13:37:10 -0700 2008 more...]]> 3 0 false false Thu Jul 03 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Tue Jul 01 14:36:36 -0700 2008 Fri Jul 04 20:15:35 -0700 2008 more...]]> 4 0 false false Fri Feb 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Sun Jul 29 18:37:01 -0700 2007 Tue Feb 12 18:57:06 -0800 2008 more...]]> 3 0 false false Tue Sep 29 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Wed Dec 26 22:06:26 -0800 2007 Tue Sep 29 01:58:32 -0700 2009 Farthing, continuing the postwar slide of an alternate-historical Britain into fascism, is good, but (as I'd been warned) it doesn't have the near perfection of its predecessor. The structure is the same -- first-person narration alternating chapters with third-person narrative --...more...]]> 5 0 false false Sat Dec 01 00:00:00 -0800 2007 Thu Nov 29 04:17:04 -0800 2007 Mon Dec 31 14:30:31 -0800 2007 Farthing, set in an England that might have been if the British government had bargained with Hitler instead of fighting him in 1940. Inspector Carmichael returns, and the narrative once again alternates between his point of view and that of a disaff...more...]]> 4 0 false false Mon Jan 19 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Mon Dec 29 17:37:19 -0800 2008 Mon Jan 19 11:07:12 -0800 2009 more...]]> 3 0 false false Tue Nov 25 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Tue Nov 25 16:21:55 -0800 2008 Tue Nov 25 16:21:55 -0800 2008 Farthing, though I found the aristocratic Larkin sisters much less realistic than Lucy in Farthing. Looking forward to picking up Half a Crown.]]> 4 0 false false Mon Sep 01 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Wed Oct 01 18:47:15 -0700 2008 Wed Oct 01 18:52:38 -0700 2008 more...]]> 2 0 false false Sun Oct 04 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sun Sep 06 16:05:26 -0700 2009 Sun Oct 04 15:48:06 -0700 2009
Also, I'm not entirely comfortable with the "relationship"; there was jus...more...]]> 0 0 false false Thu Jun 18 16:35:26 -0700 2009 Thu Jun 18 16:35:45 -0700 2009 4 0 false false Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Sat May 23 17:29:51 -0700 2009 Sat May 23 17:29:51 -0700 2009 3 0 false true Sat Nov 01 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Tue Nov 11 08:11:15 -0800 2008 Tue Nov 11 08:16:57 -0800 2008 more...]]> 3 0 false false Sun Jun 01 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Fri May 09 08:39:01 -0700 2008 Tue Jun 03 06:41:38 -0700 2008 Farthing, Inspector Carmichael is once again drawn into a murder case with disturbingly political subtext. This is a disturbing, frustrating book because the situation is completely hopeless. Fascism and every possible form of modern intolerance continue to gain power, and nothi...more...]]> http://www.goodreads.com/book_link/follow/8?book_id=433716