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Guy Saville

The Afrika Reich: A Novel Hardcover – February 12, 2013

by Guy Saville (Author)

187 ratings

Editors' pick Best Science Fiction & Fantasy

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From Guy Saville, the explosive new thriller of a world that so nearly existed

Africa, 1952. More than a decade has passed since Britain's humiliation at Dunkirk brought an end to the war and the beginning of an uneasy peace with Hitler.

The swastika flies from the Sahara to the Indian Ocean. Britain and a victorious Nazi Germany have divided the continent. The SS has crushed the native populations and forced them into labor. Gleaming autobahns bisect the jungle, jet fighters patrol the skies. For almost a decade an uneasy peace has ensued.

Now, however, the plans of Walter Hochburg, messianic racist and architect of Nazi Africa, threaten Britain's ailing colonies.

Sent to curb his ambitions is Burton Cole: a one-time assassin torn between the woman he loves and settling an old score with Hochburg. If he fails unimaginable horrors will be unleashed on the continent. No one – black or white – will be spared.

But when his mission turns to disaster, Burton must flee for his life.

It is a flight that will take him from the unholy ground of Kongo to SS slave camps to war-torn Angola – and finally a conspiracy that leads to the dark heart of The Afrika Reich itself.

Print length

400 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Henry Holt and Co.
Publication date

February 12, 2013
Dimensions

6.46 x 1.37 x 9.58 inches
ISBN-10

0805095934
ISBN-13

978-0805095937
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Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Saville’s debut novel makes an energetic leap into alternate history. Britain’s 1940 Dunkirk evacuation fails, and Lord Halifax and Hitler negotiate a peace that includes German control of a vast swath of Africa, from the Sahara to the Indian Ocean. Fast-forward to 1952, and Walter Hochburg, the psychopathic governor-general of Kongo, is building autobahns through the jungle paved with the ground-up corpses of Nazi soldiers (to plant Nazi spirit in Africa’s very soil). A small team of mercenaries led by Burton Cole, who has a personal score to settle with Hochburg, is hired to assassinate the governor-general, but the mercs are betrayed and pursued relentlessly by Hochburg and hordes of fanatical SS, providing Saville more opportunities for gun battles, carnage, and barbarity than most Hollywood action films. His alternate history is imaginative and superficially plausible; an author’s note cites actual Nazi interest in Africa and its resources. Many readers who study WWII and the Nazis might question this scenario, but, if they can suspend disbelief, they’ll enjoy the wild, running battle against contemporary history’s greatest villains. --Thomas Gaughan

Review

“What Guy Saville knows is violence: violence against animals, children, and those seeking change through the political process. He's spent a career facing it on the journalistic front lines and–admirably–raising public awareness against it, and now he's combined it with heavy research to breathe life into history's greatest villains.” ―Kirkus

“Saville gets everything right--providing suspenseful action sequences, logical but enthralling plot twists, a fully thought through imaginary world, and characters with depth.” ―PW

“A skin-of-the-teeth escape at the end foreshadows a series.” ―Kirkus

“Saville's debut novel makes an energetic leap into alternate history….they'll enjoy the wild, running battle against contemporary history's greatest villains.” ―Thomas Gaughan, Booklist

“an imaginative and entertaining journey” ―The Forward

“The Afrika Reich has been meticulously researched, which raises it a significant cut above the average airport thriller.” ―BookBrowse

“[The] plot is clever, imaginative and, in its finale, wholly unexpected. In a crowded field, The Afrika Reich stands out as a rich and unusual thriller, politically sophisticated and hard to forget.” ―The Economist, Books of the Year 2011

“Set in a world in which Britain made peace with Hitler after 1940, this account of a mercenary mission to Africa makes for an engrossing and convincing debut.” ―Sunday Express, Books of the Year 2011

“Fatherland for an action movie age” ―Daily Telegraph

“An horrific reimaging of the Dark Continent” ―The Times

“A thoroughly enjoyable and compelling read” ―The Sun

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Product details

Publisher : Henry Holt and Co.; 1St Edition (February 12, 2013)
Language : English
Hardcover : 400 pages
ISBN-10 : 0805095934
ISBN-13 : 978-0805095937
Item Weight : 1.35 pounds
Dimensions : 6.46 x 1.37 x 9.58 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #1,559,687 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #4,384 in Alternate History Science Fiction (Books)
- #9,720 in Military Thrillers (Books)
- #11,376 in Historical Thrillers (Books)

Customer Reviews:
187 ratings

Customer reviews

5 star		41%
4 star		18%
3 star		17%
2 star		12%
1 star		12%

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Top reviews from the United States

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Stacy Helton

Alternative History at it's Best

Reviewed in the United States on October 4, 2017

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Alternative history is a fascinating genre. I remember years ago reading my first Turtledove, where Nazis went back in time and gave machine guns to the Confederates. As someone who never reads fantasy or sci-fi I have been a little recalcitrant to dive into the genre, but I’d heard good things about Guy Saville’s projected AFRIKA REICH project (I say projected because book three is not out yet). The first book, THE AFRIKA REICH, was published in 2013 and lays out a scenario where the British do not recover form Dunkirk and so they begin an uneasy peace with Germany. The USA never enters the fight in this world, following the isolationist fervor started in the 1930s. The African countries then are all in disarray, with Germany taking the lion’s share, with Portugal and Great Britain taking smaller parcels. The Germans have built autobahns through the country while (no surprise) committing genocide on the native Africans and stripping the country of natural resources to send back to the motherland. Jump ahead to 1952, when British mercenary Burton Cole is brought back by mysterious forces to assassinate a German officer in the German Congo, an officer Cole feels was responsible for the destruction of his family when he was a boy in the 1930s. From this jump the book is a rollicking Indiana Jones-type exploit, leading across Africa, with adventure sharing the page with racial divisions, nationalism, political intrigue, diamonds and a German interstate crisscrossing the continent. Saville has done his homework and his re-imagining of an America-less WWII is as creative as it is ferocious. The preciseness of the Axis powers continues to show where evil and paperwork merge into a truly new world order.

Helpful

Steven Woodcock

An Interesting "What If" View of History

Reviewed in the United States on October 22, 2016

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This is the first in a series (trilogy?) of novels about an alternate history in which Britain and Nazi Germany reach a settlement after Dunkirk.

The disaster at Dunkirk plays a heavy role in this novel and on its main protagonist, a Burton Cole. Cole is semi-retired but is recruited for another mission to assassinate the German in charge of most of Africa, a man who happened to have murdered his mother decades before. Things quickly go awry however and as the team tries desperately to escape the Nazis they uncover a larger plot to seize several of the British colonial holdings despite the Casablanca Peace Accord.

For the most part I enjoyed this book though it has its flaws. The ignoring of basic DISTANCE is probably the worse; villains seem to show up at one end of the continent and then the other only hours later, while our heroes take hours to traverse relatively small distances. There's a bit of coincidence that seems unlikely given the size of the continent, but one can excuse it a bit since it's an action thriller as much as an alternate history. The Nazi plans for Africa are well researched and based on ideas brought out by the Nazi hierarchy in the early days of the Reich.

Very recommended for fans of alternate history and those interested in what the Nazis had plan to do after their initial victory.

Helpful

Amanda (Katt)

Fast paced, hurt me bad action in a fully realised alternate post WWII world

Reviewed in the United States on September 3, 2016

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I really don't understand the 'negative' reviews on this book, as the blurb is pretty clear what it is: a fast-paced, military-espionage thriller set in an alternative post-WWII world. Apparently some people didn't like the non-stop, hit-characters-where-it-hurts action and thought the Nazis little more than stereotypes pulled straight out of Indiana Jones! (Being an archaeologist, I had to laugh aloud at that one!).

That the author has lived in Africa really shines through in his descriptions of how the air tastes and feels, the flora, even the grit and dirt - the setting comes alive as a character in its own right.

The world building is excellent. I loved the exploration of colonialism and the 'what would have happened if Germany became a great colonial power' in this book. Some of this is drawn from historical documents and extrapolations of what might have come to be if Germany had dominated the world after WWII; others are natural evolutions of this from the author's imagination. There weren't really a lot of intrusive info dumps to build the world, which I found very satisfying. I HATE Robert Jordan-type, bloated info dumps and self-indulgent description.

Characters & characterisation: as this is a series, I wasn't expecting a huge arc for the main character. I was very satisfied with the slow unveiling of Burton Cole and his past. Some of this is done as flashbacks, which I did find clunky at first, but then these became less obtrusive as the book went on. The characters' motivations are clear and believable and I WILL be reading the next book as I like Burton and find the antagonist, Hochberg, fascinating. There is a minor romance plot which leaves you wanting more.

The book is written from multiple POVs, with Cole the main carrier of the bulk of the chapters. It works really well, but then that's what you expect from this genre.

Plot: Fast, page turning, with cliff hangers at the end of many chapters. Lots of get-out-by-the-skin-of-your-teeth and hurt-me-bad action, and a few big, satisfying explosions.

What I didn't like: the rationale for then entire mission was weak. I won't give it away, but Guy Saville could have beefed this up a lot more and done a darnside more foreshadowing. This was a let down... the ending certainly wasn't.

One person found this helpful

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Top reviews from other countries

Gareth Power

A good thriller

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 4, 2016

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This is an engaging thriller with an interesting and unusual premise. I liked the way certain things are not quite spelt out about the different track Nazi Germany takes in this alternative history, and how a German victory in the war would have had various implications of different sorts. It gives the reader some interesting ideas to mull over.

The book has an old-school feel about it, and reminded me a bit of Len Deighton's classic SS-GB, which has not-unrelated subject matter.

On the minus side, nearly every Nazi in the book comes across as a bloodthirsty fanatic. I think a bit more shading could have been used there.

Also, here and there the prose is clunky and needed more thorough editing. I think the publisher should have caught this.

One person found this helpful

SanAyda

Could have been so much better

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 27, 2016

Verified Purchase

After reading The Afrika Reich I felt conflicted. The world building and alternate history is actually really well done. I loved reading how the Germans managed to win WW2, and those parts of the book were highly enjoyable.

Storytelling is a bit bland though. The plot is your basic action hero against your basic genocidal maniac. Insert overwhelming odds, soldier camaraderie and big explosions at will. It's not bad, but it's nothing new either.

Characterization though is where this book let me down. Saville makes the classic mistake of making his villain not only supernaturally intelligent and fantastically capable, but also completely insane. His whole reasoning for hating the main hero is so incredibly ludicrous, that I felt like throwing the book out of the window when it was revealed. But that is topped by the 'secret ingredient' of the main road the Germans are building through the African continent and for which he is responsible. By that point, suspension of disbelief was no longer possible and the book had lost me.

However, the real low point is Burton Cole himself. As the main hero, he's good at fighting and...and that's it. There are no other qualities this guy possesses. He's not loyal, since he breaks every promise he makes, both to his men and to the woman he loves. He's not a good leader, since he manages to get each and every of his men killed.
He's also as dumb as a post. Literally every decision this guy makes in the first half of the book is the wrong one (the second half mainly consists of him running away from the consequences of his mistakes). Not only that, but every time he goes into discussion with his men, and they point out the obvious flaws in his reasoning, he still goes ahead and gets some more of them killed.
His best friend doesn't call him out on this. On the contrary, although this guy is introduced as a hard-case who tells Burton he will leave him behind the first sign of trouble, he actually sticks with him from one disastrous decision to the next until he ends up dead. At the end, not only had I zero interest in the next adventures of Burton Cole, I actually disliked him thoroughly.

The Afrika Reich is a barely capable first part of a trilogy that didn't invite me to read the sequels. I still gave it three stars for the highly engaging alternate world Saville has built, but it's a world that deserved a more interesting story, and a better class of hero.

a customer

So so alternative history novel

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 9, 2016

Verified Purchase

As an alternative history novel, this is an OK read. It's another "what if the Nazis won" story. But there is far to much going on without any real explanation of what is actually happening. As a thriller the plot needs to be much tighter and focused. There's a sequel, but I have to think about whether I'll get it or not.

Lee Hanley

Gory and Plausible tale set in Nazi Africa

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 16, 2014

Verified Purchase

It is an impressively researched and realistic tale of mercenaries on a doomed mission in an Africa which is dominated by the Nazis. The characters are very good and the twists and turns are excellent but there is a certain reveling in the gore and brutality which made it difficult to read. If you have a strong stomach and a love of alternative history this is the book for you. In the end I was glad to finish it.

One person found this helpful

John

Not what I expected

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 24, 2014

Verified Purchase

This was a disappointment. I really like the concept, but I had expected a much more military based thriller. This could really have been set any time, any place - just a generic adventure story really. It was also rather repetitive, with the same action taking place three or four times with a different cast of bad guys. Could have been so much more.

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