Half a Crown- Jo Walton

Half a Crown
Jo Walton
Tor, Oct 2008, $25.95
ISBN 9780765316219

In 1941 Britain and Germany signed the Farthing Peace accord, which allowed the English elite to continue to live an affluent lifestyle while “undesirables” like the Jews and any anti government protestors have been and still are shipped to Easton Europe in cattle cars. Nineteen years later, London hosts an international peace conference in which the three superpowers Britain, Germany and Japan plan to increase their respective spheres of influence.

Peter Carmichael left Scotland Yard to become head of the Watch, a secret police whose midnight raids have terrorized much of the country. His mission is to weed out dissenters and traitors as well as Jews. However, he tries to sneak the Jews to safety when he can. He also knows his relationship with his valet Jack, if discovered will send him to the camps in the east as that behavior is unacceptable. However, everything will soon come to a head for Peter when teenage ward Elvira Royston overhears a conversation that if she reveals will destroy her guardian.

One of the best alternate historical miniseries in recent years, the final tale is as terrific as its predecessors (see HA’PENNY and FARTHING) due to the strong characterizations. Readers obtain a taste of living under a totalitarian rule especially how the next generation, who were born after the Farthing Peace Accord, react; in many ways Elivra’s simple acceptance of the inevitability of human brutality makes the tale and the saga. In all the bleakness as the let them eat cake affluent party thrives while many suffer; there remain slight flickers of hope, but slowly they are being snuffed out.

Harriet Klausner