Ha'penny [Hardcover]

Jo Walton (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 2, 2007

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 dicatorship. 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.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

This provocative sequel to acclaimed alternate history Farthing (2006) delves deeper into the intrigue and paranoia of 1940s fascist Great Britain. Denied help from the United States, England negotiated the Farthing Peace with the Nazis to end WWII, surrendering freedom for a narrow kind of safety. Eight years later, Scotland Yard investigators like Inspector Carmichael spend as much time monitoring the activities of gays, Jews and foreigners as they do hunting criminals. Carmichael, outed to his superiors as a homosexual and blackmailed into keeping deadly political secrets, plans to retire after his current case, a bombing at the country house of respected actress Lauria Gilmore. Meanwhile, Viola Lark is preparing for the role of her life as a female Hamlet when she's coerced into a plot to kill the prime minister and Hitler on opening night. World Fantasy Award–winner Walton masterfully illustrates how fear can overwhelm common sense, while leaving hope for a resurgence of popular bravery and an end to dictatorial rule. (Oct.)
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Review

"Stunningly powerful.While the whodunit plot is compelling, it's the convincing portrait of a country's incremental slide into fascism that makes this novel 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. Le Guin on Farthing
 
"A stiff-upper-lip whodunit boasting political intrigue and uncomfortable truths about anti-Semitism." --Entertainment Weekly
 
"Packs a considerable wallop." --Kirkus Reviews
 
"Amazing. One of the most compelling and chilling books of the year." --Romantic Times BookReviews

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Tor Books; First Edition edition (October 2, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0765318539
• ISBN-13: 978-0765318534
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.9 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,018,877 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

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars as brilliant as its predecessor, October 22, 2007

By 

Margaret Johnston (Seabeck, WA USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Ha'penny (Hardcover)

I read Farthing last year and thought it was brilliant; Ha'Penny is just as good. Farthing's plot was a country-house mystery; I would call Ha'Penny more of a suspense thriller, and full of suspense it is, right up to the explosive ending.

It follows on quite shortly after Farthing: Inspector Carmichael has just come off the Farthing case and has been assigned to a bombing which killed leading actress Lauria Gilmore. Viola Lark has been chosen to act Hamlet in a gender-switching production of the play, in which Gilmore had also been cast until her untimely death. As Carmichael investigates the bombing and ponders retirement from the police force, Viola is drawn into a plot to kill Hitler at the opening night of the play, along with Prime Minister Mark Normanby, the lead figure in the increasingly fascistic government.

As in Farthing, Walton alternates voices chapter by chapter, between Viola's first person and Carmichael's third, and both are equally absorbing; I especially liked the reflections of Viola's mental state in her role as Hamlet, as she wavers about her involvement in the plot and treads the edge of sanity. As England slides further and further into fascism, Walton's alternate history, always convincing, becomes more and more frightening.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Challenging and chilling alternate history., November 20, 2007

By 

Brenopa "bsmith376" (Southern California) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Ha'penny (Hardcover)

I read a lot of junk; I'll admit it. But every once and awhile, I have to read something that causes me to think. Ha'penny fits this category. A sequel to Farthing, this alternate history continues that fine book's exploration of what may have happened if the U.S. did NOT help Great Britain during WWII. Profoundly chilling, beautifully written--and challenging, Ha'Penny is a subtle and personal exploration of how individuals in postwar London are affecting by the wave of facism which has reached Britain's shore. Each successive tide strengthens the power of the wave, yet lessens the resistance. British citizens start to accept the unacceptable.

The plot is complex; I won't reveal it here. But the resistance features a pitiable, almost laughable combination of military patriots, peers, terrorists and theatre types who try to assassinate the fascist leaders of England and Germany with inept plots, and amateur explosives.

Fascinating. One of the things that amazed me is that I kept rooting for the "wrong" side! Like the protagonist, I did not know which side were the "good" guys. The Scotland Yard Inspector who becomes the "hero" realizes that he may have done more harm than good. I can not wait for the next installment of this literary jewel of a series, which combines alternate history, real history, mystery and social commentary.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars suspense and moral ambiguity, August 11, 2008

By 

Rachel Thern "kiravae" (Baltimore, MD USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Ha'penny (Mass Market Paperback)

Apolitical acress Viola Lark is reluctantly drawn in to a plot to assassinate Hitler. She becomes even more reluctant to get involved when she finds out who else is likely to be affected. Inspector Carmichael is upholding the law for a government he dislikes while investigating an explosion that killed a different actress. Both are sympathetic characters trying to do the right thing in morally ambiguous situations. Since this is an alternate history and anything could happen, Walton keeps the suspense high right until the end.