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Loading... SS-GB (original 1978; edition 2018)by Len Deighton (Author)
Work InformationSS-GB by Len Deighton (1978)
  
No current Talk conversations about this book.  allthegoodbooks | Sep 20, 2023 |  Un policier noir scris corect, dar pentru mine mai degrabă plictisitor. Oarecum original e mai degrabă background-ul - Axa a câștigat WW2, dar din 1978 (când e scrisă cartea) a mai fost folosit de multe ori și a devenit destul de banal; pe deasupra, SS-iștii nu mi s-au părut credibili - se comportă ca niște lorzi britanici, nu ca militari fanatici ai unei dictaturi. Dialogurile sunt bune, dar am avut o problemă cu personajele (de ex. și cu ”dama” - mult prea noir șablon) și cu unele potriviri prea ușoare ca să înainteze ancheta. Sincer, m-a plictisit considerabil și, deși mă așteptam la ceva mai germanificat în mentalitate și referințe, e 100% britanică. Dacă vă plac noir-urile pe rețetă, go for it. Dacă vă așteptați (ca mine), la un fel de ”Omul din Castelul Înalt” (cartea, nu leșinătura de serial), veți fi dezamăgiți. (  ) milosdumbraci | May 5, 2023 | This book reminded me a lot of Harris' Fatherland. But whereas Fatherland convincingly developed a deeper and deeper web of conspiracy, SS-GB's protagonist is thrown into an increasingly implausible plot. That's a bit of a shame because the raison d'etre of alternate history is the creation of a fantastical, but believable parallel history. While Deighton's occupied England is rich and believable, the events that transpire there stretched the bounds of plausibility a bit too much for me. The other thing that bothered me a little is that the initial murder mystery plot-line is carefully developed with plenty of detail and suspense, but eventually falls into virtual irrelevance against the backdrop of the more significant machinations taking place. The connection between the micro- and macro-plots wasn't sufficiently strong for me to be left feeling that the first half was indispensable. That's a bit of a shame, because I had become quite engrossed in that plotline. Still, an enjoyable read. (  ) ubiquitousuk | Jun 30, 2022 | In his novel "SS-GB", Len Deighton imagines an alternative history in which Nazi Germany invades and occupies much of Great Britain. The premise is similar to that of "The Man in the High Castle" by Philip K. Dick, in which Dick describes an America divided between the victorious Axis powers after the Second World War. "SS-GB" is set in the late autumn of 1941. Most of Britain is under German occupation and a puppet government, similar to that of Vichy France, has been set up to collaborate with the conquerors. The protagonist is Douglas Archer, a detective of Scotland Yard, who now works under General Kellerman, the chief Gestapo officer in Britain. Archer was already famous as "Archer of the Yard" before the war, although he is personally modest and not a publicity seeker. But he is sought out, both by Standartenfuhrer Huth, an ambitious young SS officer who arrives on a secret mission, and who drafts Archer and tries to use him in his campaign against Kellerman, and on the other side by the British Resistance. Archer becomes involved in a plot to rescue King George VI from captivity in the Tower of London. This also involves elements of the German army and the Abwehr (military intelligence) that are anti-Nazi, atomic weapons research and contact with the U.S. government, which is neutral but which does not want Hitler to get the Bomb. For those who enjoy the game of "what if" this novel is an intriguing mental exercise in what could have been -and an entertaining read. (  ) ChuckNorton | Jun 1, 2022 | This is a book that I'd wanted to read since I saw it on my dad's bookshelf as a kid. The central concept (Britain loses the Battle of Britain and is occupied by the Nazis) is immediately appealing and Deighton tales great pains to portray it convincingly. Against this backdrop he tells a gripping tale about a murder investigation led by the hero, an English police defective. It was pretty much everything you could want from a thriller, lots of action and intrigue and a twisting plot that only fully reveals itself in the final pages. ( ) whatmeworry | Apr 9, 2022 |
 If anyone can make one of those if-history-had-been-different concoctions really click, it's Len Deighton--right? Well, almost. The idea is that Germany (SS) invaded and conquered Britain (GB) in 1940, so now it's 1941--ravaged London under Nazi occupation. ... [t]he conspiracies ... are less than convincing, more than a bit confusing, unsatisfying at the close -- below par for Deighton. But Deighton's feel for atmosphere is unrivaled, and his flair for character has never been surer; the Germans especially are a varied and perversely sympathetic lot. ... You may not much care -- or even understand -- what's going on, suspense-wise, in Deighton's make-believe England; but you'll find it a wonderfully creepy place for a visit.  Len Deighton's splendid and, as it at once proved to be, absorbing para-historical novel SS-GB. (They came here in 1941.) With its honour and barbarity, schoolboy's-fantasy uniforms and outlandishly-named ranks, it has always struck me as the most fascinating of all iniquitous organisations. Until Mr Deighton told me I had no idea that you could be a member of the Gestapo as well as of the SS and still not be a member of the Party... SS-GB is distinguished also by a skill I have never seen so highly developed elsewhere. A large part of the dialogue naturally consists of what is supposedly German presented in English. Any self-respecting author in that position faces the difficulty of keeping his readers reminded that this is indeed the case, that the characters are not simply talking English. The comic-strip or 'Mein Gott!' solution is often to be found a surprising distance up the market... Mr Deighton solves the problem triumphantly by writing fully idiomatic English but now and then deviating into an expression which is just a little wrong for the speaker or the situation, thus evoking in a flash the conscientious 'translator' grappling manfully with a refractory German colloquialism. It must have been fun to write those passages and they are certainly a joy to read. This excellence and others notwithstanding, SS-GB remains an example of what we usually understand by escape fiction; it grips the reader far too firmly and uninterruptably for a straight novel. Deighton being the sort of realistic writer he is, the nightmare is both more and less frightening than it is, or could be, in a free fantasy of absolute tyranny. The occupying Nazis are human beings, vulnerable men with problems. The occupied Britons are not, except for the small force of the Resistance, particularly heroic... Cigarettes are damnably dear on the black market. Churchill, it seems, was shot making the V-sign. The Mirabelle is reserved for high officers of Air Fleet 8 headquarters. There is no blackout. Fried turnip slices are sold in the streets. The beer is watery. Business as usual and life going on. This is one of Len Deighton's best. In het door de Duitsers in 1941 bezette Engeland ontbrandt strijd om een vitaal rapport over atoomsplitsing tussen de Engelse ondergrondse en diverse onderdelen van de Duitse bezettingsmacht. Ingewikkelde intrige, waarin de thema's ondergronds verzet, spionage, ontvoering, moord, met elkaar verweven zijn. De tegenspelers - Engels politie-inspecteur en Duits legerofficier - (antihelden) worden psychologisch goed getekend in hun tweestrijd tussen loyaliteit en overmacht. Ook de bijfiguren zijn goed getypeerd. Korte zinnen en suggestief taalgebruik scheppen een sfeer van spanning, onontkoombaarheid, wantrouwen, machteloosheid, in de trieste omgeving van bezet Londen. Goede vertaling. Vrij kleine druk. (Biblion recensie, A. van den Berg-Brandt.) Is contained inHas the adaptationDistinctions
In February 1941 British Command surrendered to the Nazis. Churchill has been executed, the King is in the Tower and the SS are in Whitehall... For nine months Britain has been occupied - a blitzed, depressed and dingy country. However, it's 'business as usual' at Scotland Yard run by the SS when Detective Inspector Archer is assigned to a routine murder case. Life must go on. But when SS Standartenfuhrer Huth arrives from Berlin with orders from the great Himmler himself to supervise the investigation, the resourceful Archer finds himself caught up in a high level, all action, espionage battle. This is a spy story quite different from any other. Only Deighton, with his flair for historical research and his narrative genius, could have written it. No library descriptions found. 
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 Google Books — Loading...GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)823.914Literature English & Old English literatures English fiction Modern Period 1901-1999 1945-1999LC ClassificationRatingAverage: (3.58)
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Wikipedia in English (1)
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If you are a fan of crime novels then there will be much that is familiar to you in here. A body is discovered and it is eventually identified as the Scientist Dr Spode who is not only dead but has strange burns on his forearms. Douglas Archer, Archer of the Yard, is given the case to solve and he ends up on a twisty, convoluted journey to find the killer. What makes the book different is the 'What if . . .' setting and time because Deighton has anchored this book in a Britain that surrendered after two years of war and is now ruled by Germans with the King in London Tower.
The conquerors have installed irritating and useless rules for people to live by and if there is any threat to their rule, the locals are rounded up, sent to Germany to 'work' or are killed by firing squad. The journey to find the murderer takes Archer into the world of resistance which desires the King to released from the tower and America to enter the war.
What I think the book does do well is to show the motivations of people to save those they love, fathers and sons, those who don't agree with their own regime and the activists and how they can be manipulated to work for the system. It shouldn't be a surprise that the seemingly most English loving German, dressed in his tweeds as if he is off for a day's shooting, turns out the be the most machievellian of the lot. They all end up owing him something and having to work for him. It's all about power.
During WWII there was a race for atomic bombs and this is reflected in the story: who will get them first? Americans or Germans and of course, we know so much more about this than the people in the book. For Archer the bomb documents are another bargaining chip rather than something he has fully understood, the same going for Huth, the German sent to oversee the case, who links it to the occult. This tension between characters' understanding and the reader's is an interesting one and a great device for the plot.
Written in 1978, it was probably quite radical at the time and of course so much nearer to the war that could be read by those who fought in it. Now, there are far more alternative histories based on this era and whilst it is a good read, it isn't outstanding. There is [Dominion] by C.J. Sansom, [Widowland] by C. J. Carey, [The Man in the Castle] by Philip K. Dick, [Fatherland] by Robert Harris and [1945] by Robert Conroy if you enjoy this sort of historical fiction.
It was an enjoyable read but not knock out. (