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Review: Succession by Michael Drysdale
- Thread starter Gary Oswald
- Start date
Oof, the plot arc of HMS Belfast there is painful
Just finished reading it! Overall, a good book: the world Drysdale lays out was well-crafted and engrossing right from the start (esp. the Nixon and other tidbits about the overall political situation, and those revolving around "subversive" expressions like jeans, rock music or long hair), and the timeline at the very end was a nice way of filling in any gaps for readers unfamiliar with the real history and how it turned out differently in the story. The "1970s BUF England" setting had a very "last days of Franco's Spain" feel, which I loved; not surprising if Drysdale intended such, given his background as described in the intro.
The characters, unfortunately, weren't quite as much of a draw. To avoid spoilers, I'll simply say that most of them--Andy in particular--seem to make a lot of moves and think in certain ways that don't seem believable for people who've lived their entire lives in a Fascist state, even if that state is visibly tottering in many ways. More so if they're actually working for that state, and esp. if they've already been on the receiving end of what it's capable of, blatant and subtle. Nor did I fully buy the outcome for Mosley and the rest of the uppermost leadership; with one notable exception, I'd expected much different action/behavior on their part, negating what felt at times like a deus ex machina ending. Also, it may have just been the version I picked up, but the formatting, pacing and a good chunk of the dialogue felt noticeably off, as if editing had been rushed, with some glaring grammar issues here and there along for the ride. Like @Skinny87 says, I would've liked to see a few more chapters at the end, to tie up everything with more than just Drysdale's (admittedly great-on-detail) exposition and give Andy and all the other characters proper last scenes.
Final verdict: Excellent new take on the "Britain loses WWII" scenario, without the need for Sea Lion, albeit with certain issues (for me, at least). Thanks to the former, it's going on my AH shelf.
The characters, unfortunately, weren't quite as much of a draw. To avoid spoilers, I'll simply say that most of them--Andy in particular--seem to make a lot of moves and think in certain ways that don't seem believable for people who've lived their entire lives in a Fascist state, even if that state is visibly tottering in many ways. More so if they're actually working for that state, and esp. if they've already been on the receiving end of what it's capable of, blatant and subtle. Nor did I fully buy the outcome for Mosley and the rest of the uppermost leadership; with one notable exception, I'd expected much different action/behavior on their part, negating what felt at times like a deus ex machina ending. Also, it may have just been the version I picked up, but the formatting, pacing and a good chunk of the dialogue felt noticeably off, as if editing had been rushed, with some glaring grammar issues here and there along for the ride. Like @Skinny87 says, I would've liked to see a few more chapters at the end, to tie up everything with more than just Drysdale's (admittedly great-on-detail) exposition and give Andy and all the other characters proper last scenes.
Final verdict: Excellent new take on the "Britain loses WWII" scenario, without the need for Sea Lion, albeit with certain issues (for me, at least). Thanks to the former, it's going on my AH shelf.