Customer Reviews

K

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I found K to be a good read. I`am surprised that there is only one review, and a highly inaccurate one at that! Must have wanted the free $50 voucher, without even going to the trouble of reading the book in the first place! The book is not about a German conquest of the United States. It is set in 1940, against the backdrop of the Ku Klux Klan taking power in the United States, under Charles Lindbergh, who defeats Franklin Roosevelt in the 1932 Presidential elections. By 1940 the United States is a police-state with more concentration camps than Nazi Germany, with whom it is a sworn ally, against Britain and the Soviet Union. We also meet John Edgar Hoover, who is in charge of the FBIS (Federal Bureau of Internal Security) which is the USA's equivalent of Nazi Germany's SS. In this alternate KKK-run America the Black's have been re-enslaved and the Jew's are Public Enemy No.1, as they were in Hitler's Germany. The plot of the story is basically the story of John Ridgeforth, a British agent, who has been sent into this alternate America to assasinate David Stephenson, the Vice-President. Who is on the verge of shunting President Lindbergh aside, becoming president himself and bringing the United States into the war on Germany's side and crushing Britain between them. Whether he succeeds or not, i`am not about to reveal, for fear of ruining the book for those who may be thinking about buying it. The book is a good read for those with an interest in alternate history and it does go a good way to explaining how a few small changes in 1920's America could have made the scenario of this book into a reality! Which would have seen that we would all be living in a very different world today!

The premise is plausible: A depression-era America electing a Fascist government, leading to the rise of the Ku Klux Klan and a possible alliance with Nazi Germany.

However, the author of the novel is British, and it seems he failed to do much research into American History. Some of the errors include (without giving away the story):

1. Charles Lindbergh is elected President is 1932. This is impossible since Lindbergh is only 30 years old in 1932. It is a constitutional requirement that the President be at least 35 years old.

2. The book takes place in October-November of 1940. No mention of a 1940 Presidential election is made, or an explanation of why there was no election.

3. The author probably did not research Joe Kennedy's religion, which causes the ending to make no sense at all.

If you want an interesting story, then read this book. If you want plausable alternate-history reading, I suggest you look elsewhere.

What if.. The USA got a fascist government during the depression. 10 years later the country is a dictatorship with ghettos, lynchings, slavery and concentration camps. By 1940, the US government is negotiating a pact with Nazi Germany. A British SOE agent is sent in by submarine to assassinate a key person in the White House...

Like most good writers of speculative fiction, Easterman's interest lie not in creating a mathematically near-correct extrapolation of the future (or, as here, an alternate past) - but in creating a warped mirror image of our here-now. Easterman writes THRILLERS. Even if they often have a fantastic element (and are all the better for it), his affilament with other genres is circumstantial.

As a thriller, "K is for Killing" is a genuine page turner. As Alternate History, it's effective. As a cautionary tale, it's chilling. I'll withold one star for a slightly flawed ending (no spoilers!), but I'll also recommend it heartily.

The Premise of Daniel Easterman's Alternate History novel 'K' is wonderfuly eerie. In 1933 Charles Lindbergh, backed by the Ku Klux Klan, becomes the President of the United States instead of Roosevelt. Under his naive leadership, Fascism explodes in America. Lynchings are legal, concentration camps flourish, and by 1940 the possibility of America entering WWII on the side of Nazi Germany is very real. Easterman succeeds brilliantly in creating this nightmare world where neighbors spy on neighbors and anyone who doesn't fit into the Klan's narrow view of the world is expendable. But despite this wonderfully creeepy background, Easterman really fumbles the ball on the story. He loses quite a bit of credibility describing, (or not describing), the way in which characters slip away from the secret police, meet, and escape at various points in the story. Also, the basic plot seems muddled, as though Easterman himself wasn't quite sure where to take his characters to build suspence. The climax is less than exciting, but by this point the reader isn't expecting much. Another reviewer mentioned a glaring historical error at the end of this book. That oversight only serves to again undermine the author's, and thus the story's, credibility even further. Still, if you're a sucker for a decent AH story with some really good historical twists, (J. Edgar Hoover becomes America's Himmler as head of the Federal Bureau of Internal Security), you may very well enjoy this book. It's just too bad such a wonderful premise was wasted on such a lackluster story.

A thoroughly interesting read, but probably not for the reasons Easterman was aiming for. While his portrayl of a KKK run America is wonderfully terrifying, and making his occasional glitches excusably, the plot itself is lukewarm at best. This is mainly due to the main characters, who for the most part are lackluster and dull, in stark contrast to the mass of entertainingly vile bad guys. Rascism? Peodophillia? Death camps? These guys have got it all.
Not only are the forces opposing the protagonist and his predicable paramour utterly evil, they are also apparently numberless, all-powerful, and have full support of the American public, which makes the ending all the more head-scratching. The president is dead, and with him the alliance with Germany, and our heroes sail off into the sunset, very well. But Hitler now has plans for the atomic bomb and America isn't in any state to interfere with WW2, so the upbeat ending falls rather flat. Also, they elect a Catholic president? A few months ago they were shipping all catholics to concentration camps and now one of them is the president. Good grief Easterman, do your homework.

I enjoyed this book very much. In fact, I couldn't put it down and was somewhat satisfied by the ending. Rather than creating an America with concentration camps and reinstituted slavery however, I could more imagine an America with very much more anti-semitism and more racism. Remember, America in the 1930's and later had a Jim Crow South and Jews banned from certain employment opportunities and an indifference to the Holocaust in certain quarters. With an "America First" mentality and a fascist world, I for one could imagine a facist-leaning America more than I could imagine a Nazi America. That being said, the author tells the story powerfully. While I agree with a prior reviewer that the Catholic-related ending seems strange and I could not understand why "Our Hero" does not complete his assignment when he has a brief chance, this books authenticity gave me the chills at times. I would like to read the Judas Testament next, as I am now totally hooked on Alternative History, having previously read What If and Almost America.

A quite good alternate history, in which fascists come to power in the US in the 1930s. Period detail handled fairly well, although the plot is more melodramatic than it needs to be. However, the whole novel is built on a faulty premise that, to an extent, undermines the work. In this universe, Charles Lindberg ran on a KuKluxKlan ticket for President in 1932 and won, thus ushering in a fascist regime. However, in 1932, Lindberg was 30 years old, five years too young to have been eligible to run for the presidency.

Ironically, speculative fiction, more than most genres, cannot afford this kind of error.

Intersting premise. I enjoyed this book, with certain reservations until the end. Don't want to give it away, but anyone who knows anything about comtemporary Amercian history will notice it... Hint: Consider how Catholics are dealt with in this "world".

The ideas for this book are excellent. I read "K" as a way of doing research for my second book. The premises are similar and to my knowledge Easterman is the only other author who has taken on the "Fascism in America" scenario, except maybe Harry Turtledove. Oh sure, other authors like Orwell and Bradbury have done it in a futuristic way, but nobody has ever done it in the alternate history genre before. If I'm wrong, someone please tell me!

I thought Easterman could have fleshed out some of the larger political and military issues that were going on in 1940. Instead, he chose to write it like a thriller/spy novel. That works if you're Tom Clancy, but alternate history readers enjoy knowing the larger scope of things. Another thing: the affair??? Enough said.

The last thing I thought was a bit fishy was the ending. I won't give it all away, but he should have made clear why the man at the end gained the position that he did. Was he in the Klan? If that was the case he would have had to have converted to some form of Protestantism and left his Catholic heritage behind. Was there some sort of coup or uprising that he was the leader of? We'll never know. There were many unanswered questions that could have been easily and briefly covered.

Overall, the beginning chapters were very interesting and Easterman is obviously an accomplished thriller/spy writer, but he should probably leave the alternate history alone for now.

And a sidenote to the person who said Fascism could never happen in America: IT IS HAPPENING RIGHT NOW! The evidence is out there in plain view, you just have to be willing to see it. Here are a few links to guide you on your way:
www.infowars.com
www.prisonplanet.tv
Everything on these sites are backed up with full documentation.

It might be fun to speculate about what history might have been like if .... . But this book is different. It confirms all - mainly British - prejudices about Germany and - this is unfair - makes the US part of it. Only Great Britain seems to be the root of democracy. It might have slipped Easterman's mind that the English invented the concentration camps when they fought against South Africa's independence. And they fought against a lot of peoples who wanted to be independent from the Great British Rule. I have always been a fan of Easterman's. But this novel is really bad, its plot lousy, its characters ludicrous. And his German is even more ridiculous. His worst novel.