I'm currently reading this novel. There are literally dozens of alternate history films, books and even video games especially on 'what if Hitler won?' But this one is my all time favorite. It's the most well thought out and realistic. It focuses on a more immediate future and so the conclusions to the what if questions are not as absurd. The great thing about a book published in 1992 that is set in an imagined 1964 is that the book cannot be dated.

Mac OS RapidShare Enigma. Enigma Velvet Black - I AM KAMU Robert Harris (Autor). Aurora, Pompeji, Imperium, Ghost. Hewlett, #packard Enigma. The novel was an immediate best-seller in the UK. Evelyn Robinson, Review: Fatherland by Robert Harris, Alternate History Weekly Update, November 20, 2012.

It's 'insulated from changing fashion' as the author wrote in the introduction. I know there was a movie based on the novel released i 1994, but the changes in setting was poorly thought out and even Robert Harris expressed disappointment in the film. I watched the film and I've read reviews about the novel.

Hence I know much about it before being finished reading it. Vcenter Converter Client.  The setting is very well thought out as previously mentioned. The fact that Nazi Germany is in a constant state of war with the Russians in Siberia in a guerrilla war is very fitting. It is in line with the Nazi ideology of a master race and constantly blaming the enemy for your own shortcomings as well as Hitler's unquenchable desire to continually expand German territory. It also very fitting that in order for a totalitarian system of government to sustain itself, it must always be at war.

War suspends personal freedoms as everyone should well know from many current and historic examples. The story itself and the setting are very similar to George Orwell's 1984. The main character is a government worker under surveillance for lack of loyalty to the regime. However, the ending to me is much more satisfying to me compared to 1984. The setting is actually much better than 1984. While 1984 deals with the setting in more of the abstract, Fatherland has it in greater detail of how the current imagined world came to be. And what Robert Harris cannot imagine, he leaves out.

South America and Africa are absent from the novel. However it is important also to understand that the thinking behind both novels are different. Fatherland is an alternate history, while 1984 is an exercise in expressing fear of a dark future. An interesting note I want to point out however about 1984; when George Orwell published it in 1949, what he wrote was essentially what he was thinking during WWII. He feared that democracy would not survive the war. Either Nazi Germany or Stalinist Russia would crush it. He was wrong about how quickly democracy would be stamped out, but his predictions can still happen.

So in a way, I would say that 1984 is alternate history in a more abstract form. I know that diverged from the book I'm talking about, but I couldn't help put my chain of thought in there. What I'm about to say might sound treasonous but I actually like Fatherland more than 1984 because of the ending and the fact that it's less abstract. Edited May 10, 2016 by Ordos •. It's been a while that I read it and it is quite good (probably the best of the about 4 books by Harris I have read). But I think that it is too different from 1984 that a comparison helps with unterstanding either book.

1984 is mostly a dystopian parable and not all that realistic although it was more prophetic in the use of surveillance and 'soft brainwashing' by regulating language than with respect to totalitarianism. Fatherland is comparably realistic (although I do not remember the details). Interesting in the Fatherland setting is that the Nazis wanted to completely hide the Holocaust from their own populace. My other favorite Alternative history with Nazis is Fry's 'Making history' •.

It's been a while that I read it and it is quite good (probably the best of the about 4 books by Harris I have read). But I think that it is too different from 1984 that a comparison helps with unterstanding either book. 1984 is mostly a dystopian parable and not all that realistic although it was more prophetic in the use of surveillance and 'soft brainwashing' by regulating language than with respect to totalitarianism. Fatherland is comparably realistic (although I do not remember the details). Interesting in the Fatherland setting is that the Nazis wanted to completely hide the Holocaust from their own populace.

My other favorite Alternative history with Nazis is Fry's 'Making history' Yeah I forgot the part about the Holocaust because I had so much to say about the novel. I still think the book can be compared to 1984 not so much with themes and the setting, but the story around the main protagonist. Some might accuse Harris of copying Orwell in regards to the main character. University Of Miami 7 Year Medical Program more.