Half a Crown [Hardcover]

Jo Walton (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 30, 2008

In 1941 the European war ended in the Farthing Peace, a rapprochement between Britain and Nazi Germany. The balls and banquets of Britain’s upper class never faltered, while British ships ferried “undesirables” across the Channel to board the cattle cars headed east.

Peter Carmichael is commander of the Watch, Britain’s distinctly British secret police. It’s his job to warn the Prime Minister of treason, to arrest plotters, and to discover Jews. The midnight knock of a Watchman is the most dreaded sound in the realm.

Now, in 1960, a global peace conference is convening in London, where Britain, Germany, and Japan will oversee the final partition of the world. Hitler is once again on British soil. So is the long exiled Duke of Windsor—and the rising gangs of “British Power” streetfighters, who consider the Government “soft,” may be the former king’s bid to stage a coup d’état.

Amidst all this, two of the most unlikely persons in the realm will join forces to oppose the fascists: a debutante whose greatest worry until now has been where to find the right string of pearls, and the Watch Commander himself.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In Walton's fine conclusion to her alternative-history trilogy (after Ha'penny), former Scotland Yarder Peter Carmichael, now head of the secret police organization known as the Watch, must prepare for a peace conference to be held in London two decades after Britain reached an accommodation with Hitler's Germany in the early 1940s. Carmichael also has to worry about his sexual relationship with his valet, Jack, and the covert unit within the Watch he's created to smuggle British Jews out of the country. Then his naïve 18-year-old ward, Elvira Royston, who's about to be presented to the queen, overhears a conversation that could compromise her protector. Elvira, who winds up in police custody after attending a political rally that turns violent, accepts her authoritarian society with a casualness that's truly chilling. Walton's understated prose and deft characterizations elevate this above similar works such as Fatherlandand SS-GB. Some readers, though, may feel let down by an optimistic ending that jars with the series' overall downbeat tone. (Oct.)
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Review

“Stunningly powerful…. A standout. Mainstream readers should be enthralled as well.”
—Publishers Weekly (Starred Review) on Farthing

“If le Carré scares you, try Jo Walton.”
—Ursula K. LeGuin on Farthing

“A literary Guernica—a top-notch thriller set in a terrified Britain that is all too willing to trade freedom for security, and which gets neither.”
—Cory Doctorow on Ha'Penny

“Haunting…. Like meticulously nested Matroyshka dolls, both Farthing and Ha’penny reveal complex arguments layered in their elegantly structured narratives.”
—Sarah Weinman, Los Angeles Times

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Tor Books; First Edition edition (September 30, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0765316218
• ISBN-13: 978-0765316219
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.7 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #817,408 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Jo Walton's latest novel is AMONG OTHERS. It's a story about a science fiction reader who has fantasy problems.

Links to online reviews:

Gary Wolfe at Locus

http://www.locusmag.com/Reviews/2011/01/gary-k-wolfe-reviews-jo-walton/

Charles de Lint at F&SF

http://www.sfsite.com/fsf/2011/cdl1101.htm

Michelle West at F&SF

http://www.sfsite.com/fsf/2011/cdl1101.htm

Coleen Mondor at Bookslut

http://www.bookslut.com/bookslut_in_training/2011_01_017014.php

Natalie Luhrs at Romantic Times

http://www.rtbookreviews.com/book-review/among-others

Interviews

http://torforge.wordpress.com/2011/01/10/what-happens-after-you-save-the-world/

Her previous novels are:

The King's Peace (Tor 2000)
The King's Name (Tor 2001)
The Prize in the Game (Tor 2002)
Tooth and Claw (Tor 2003, reprinted Orb 2009)
Farthing (Tor 2006)
Ha'Penny (Tor 2007)
Half a Crown (Tor 2008)
Lifelode (NESFA 2009)

The King's Peace and The King's Name are essentially one book in two covers, read them together. The Prize in the Game is a standalone prequel. They're alternate world Arthurian, and Prize is an alternate world version of the Tain.

Tooth and Claw is a standalone fantasy novel about Victorian dragons who eat each other. It won the World Fantasy Award in 2004.

Farthing, Ha'Penny, and Half a Crown are alternate history mysteries, set in a world where WWII only lasted a year and ended in a negotiated peace, the US never joined in.
(Read _Farthing_ first. They're not the kind of books that are all one book with extra cardboard dividers, they're standalone novels, but read _Farthing_ first anyway.) Ha'Penny won the Prometheus Award.

_Lifelode_ is a novel of domestic fantasy. It won the Mythopoeic Award in 2010, and was a Tipreee Honor book.

She won the John W. Campbell Award for best new writer in 2002. She comes from Wales, but lives in Montreal where the food and books are more varied.

Her livejournal, with wordcount, poetry, recipes and occasional actual journalling, is at:

http://papersky.livejournal.com

She also blogs about old books at Tor.com:

http://www.tor.com/Jo%20Walton

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A fine conclusion to an excellent trilogy, October 1, 2008

By 

Dr. F. S. Ledgister "FSJ Ledgister" (Atlanta Ga) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Half a Crown (Hardcover)

Walton's 'Small Change' Trilogy, begun with Farthing, and continued with Ha'penny is brought to a satisfactory, and somewhat surprising conclusion in this book. Unlike its predecessors it does not revolve around a crime. Instead it is focused on the actions of two characters, the commander of Britain's political police, the Watch, Commander Carmichael, and his ward, Elvira Royston, as they grapple with the political and social realities of this alternative Britain of 1960. Carmichael, and his partner/manservant Jack provide continuity with the previous novels, though mention is made of characters from both, and characters from both previous novels make appearances.

Walton plays with alternative history like a musician, bringing in elements from actual history with a slight skew. In Farthing it was the Cliveden Set, in Ha'penny, it was the Mitford sisters; here it is Burgess, minus Maclean, Philby, and Blunt, but elevated. The novel concludes with a twist, as surprising as it is welcome, delivered by a character singularly appropriate for the role.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Average, December 19, 2008

By 

R. Albin (Ann Arbor, Michigan United States) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Half a Crown (Hardcover)

The concluding volume of an alternative history trilogy in which Britain made peace with Nazi Germany in 1940. The volume recounts the fall of the British authoritarian state through the experience of its 2 protagonists. Walton is a competent writer but this book lacks the best features of its predecessors. The prior books contained some clever plot construction, the first book was a variant of the country house murder mystery, the second a clever play on Hamlet, but this one lacks any such elements. The prior books drew on some historical characters as models for some of the characters but this one does not. The plotting and characterization are workmanlike. Several aspects of the plot are a bit strained. As an alternative history, this book doesn't do very well, with little interesting detail or effort to flesh out the proposed alternative path of history.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A less than satisfying conclusion to the "Small Change" series, January 15, 2010

By 

Mark Klobas (Tempe, AZ, USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Half a Crown (Hardcover)

Jo Walton's "Small Change" trilogy is a challenging one to classify. Her previous novels in the series, and , easily fit a number of genres - alternate history, murder mystery, suspense novel thriller - without entirely being defined by any one of them. This book, the final novel in her series, is no different. Less a murder mystery than a political thriller, it takes her concept of a Britain descending towards fascism and moves it a decade into the future. By 1960, Britain has been ruled by politician-turned-dictator Mark Normanby for a decade. Jews and other perceived undesirables are frequently rounded up and sent for disposal to the Continent, where the Nazis have triumphed in their long-running war against the Soviets. Most Britons have accepted fascist rule, with a police force that now regularly tortures suspects, and a body called the Watch which serves as a domestic Gestapo; some have even come to believe it to be beneficial. Yet not everyone has submitted to the regime. Among the ranks f the few resisters is Peter Carmichael, a former Scotland Yard inspector turned secret policeman, who runs a clandestine organization that struggles to help rescue people when possible. Yet he is faced with the twin challenge of a potential coup by the Duke of Windsor and the discovery of his secret life by his ward Elvira Royston, the orphaned daughter of his former police partner. Together they threaten to unravel his clandestine work, possibly even at the cost of his life.

As with the other volumes, Walton develops her story by alternating between the first-person account of the naive Elvira and a third person narrative focusing on Carmichael. Yet there is no great mystery in this volume but a dual plot focusing on the emergence of the totalitarian "Ironsides" movement and Elvira's growing exposure to the realities of her world. Without the mystery, the emphasis is on suspense, yet Walton comes up short here. While she implies that her alternate Britain is a terrifying place, little of this seems to come out in the novel itself. Instead, everything seems almost laughably tame, from a secret policeman who is astonishing indiscreet and easily caught unawares to a underground coup that is hardly anything to fear. All of this saps the suspense from the story, making it a somewhat unsatisfying conclusion to an otherwise enjoyable and well-realized series.