Beneath Gray Skies (A Brian Finch-Malloy Adventure Book 1), by Hugh Ashton
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Beneath Gray Skies (A Brian Finch-Malloy Adventure Book 1), by Hugh Ashton
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David Slater, a conscript in the 1920s Army of the Confederacy, faces a dilemma. When he and his regiment were shipped to Germany to help stage a coup there, his Limey fellow-soldier Brian was acting strangely. David now has the choice of reporting his best friend to his commanding officers, or keeping quiet and just doing his job: preparing for the arrival of Bismarck, the giant Zeppelin flying Hitler and his Nazi cohorts to meet their new allies, the Confederates. Beneath Gray Skies follows the adventures of David and those around him in a past that never happened-where the Civil War never took place, and the Confederacy survived as a pariah slave-holding nation into the 20th century. Confederates, Unionists, British and Germans plot and counterplot in a tightly woven tale of espionage, treachery and romance. The cast of Beneath Gray Skies includes rogue British agent "Bloody Brian" Finch-Malloy, hard-drinking Henry Dowling, and Christopher Pole, a slave who escapes from the hell of the Confederacy-living against a backdrop that includes real historical characters. Adolf Hitler, Hermann Goering, and Dr. Hugo Eckener, the brilliant anti-Nazi Zeppelin captain, all live again in this "extraordinarily well-written piece of mind candy that becomes more and more difficult to put down" (Christopher Belton). Almost without realizing what has happened, David finds himself part of a conspiracy within the Confederacy that includes "Bloody Brian", which is working to prevent the airship's arrival in Georgia, to seize the mysterious priceless treasure on board the Bismarck, and to halt the spread of slavery to Europe. As David Slater and his President, Jefferson Davis III, confront each other on the doomed dirigible, David must ask himself once again where his loyalty lies: to his country, or to a higher morality. Beneath Gray Skies is the first published novel by Hugh Ashton, a British-born writer and journalist currently living in Kamakura, Japan.
Beneath Gray Skies (A Brian Finch-Malloy Adventure Book 1), by Hugh Ashton- Amazon Sales Rank: #1521727 in eBooks
- Published on: 2015-05-03
- Released on: 2015-05-03
- Format: Kindle eBook
Review "it is engaging and entertaining, and highlights the role of individuals in the outplaying of history, which does lie at the heart of of both steampunk and alternative history fiction." Damon Molinarius, Gatehouse Gazette
From the Author This book describes a world which did not follow the historical paths known to us. As happens so often in history, a relatively trivial incident had major consequences.My interests in the events in America leading up to 1860, American and British politics, and the great airships of the 1920s and 1930s all combined to make this book what it is. When I was younger, I was lucky enough to attend a university whose library contained almost everything written in English (and a lot in German) on airships, and I was able to read contemporary accounts of the flights of the great Zeppelins, including Dr. Hugo Eckener's own accounts of these epic voyages.Historians, professional and amateur, may disagree with some of the conclusions I have reached as I explore these hypothetical alternate historical paths. I welcome these disagreements--by understanding the past and examining the consequences of our actions more fully, we come to understand our present and our future better, and we often only gain a full understanding through civilized disagreement. Many of the characters and places in this book are fictitious, but many others have names and/or locations that existed in our world. In these latter cases, I have tried to make the characters act and behave as we know them to have done, and the places to be as they were in the alternative 1920s. Bear in mind, however, that I am describing an imaginary world, and that things may have turned out rather differently there from what we know actually happened. This includes details of airships and the operations associated with them--an alternate world might well have produced different ways of doing things to the ones we know. All of the fictitious characters and places are completely fictitious, and resemblance to actual persons, living or dead is purely coincidental.Although I have tried to reproduce the vocabulary and rhythms of the different kinds of English spoken in this book, I've largely retained standard spelling when reporting characters' words. When reading the story, use your own mind to add accents to taste.
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Most helpful customer reviews
19 of 20 people found the following review helpful. Suspension of Disbelief By Dom Santos The story's "what-if" premise of the the Southern States peacefully seceding from the Union in the 1860s and forming a separate nation called the Confederate States of America (CSA) and then some decades later forming an alliance with Nazi Germany is an interesting twist on history. However, the reader will have to take a leap from "what-if" to a suspension of disbelief if you are to enjoy "Beneath Gray Skies" by author Hugh Ashton. For example, you will have to believe that a nominally-educated male CSA "Negro" slave is freed as a result of a stereotypical racist incident and then - with no vetting or prior intelligence experience - is embraced by the British intelligence service as an instant colleague. In addition, you will have to believe that this former slave and a beautiful, white, Jewish female, a member of the American intelligence community, have an instant chemistry on first-sight and fall in love, resulting in the former slave marrying the woman and being warmly welcomed into the woman's socially- and politically-prominent and quite wealthy family and social circle.Next, you will have to believe that a character named "David" - a private in what is described as the uneducated "white trash" Confederate Army - is discovered to have extraordinary aptitude for the game of chess - a game that he had never played before - said skill causing him to gain the notice of his superiors who, in turn, determine David also has extraordinary skills in calligraphy, the ability to read well, and even do "some calculating with figures," all of which lead David to an eventual rank of Sergeant and a key role with a group of Germans building a Zeppelin airdrome on Confederate Georgia soil.Next is the enigmatic English hero, Brian, who darts in and out of the narrative with exploits of daring, deception, and spying in an effort to disrupt the CSA-Nazi alliance. Toss in a bunch of nasty Nazis and an equally nasty CSA President, a "save-the-world" United Kingdom intelligence service and its operative named "Dowling" (the former slave's original mentor), a plot to kill the bad guys, and it turns out that all's well that ends well.The writing is adequate; however, with the exception of some British dialogue, the dialogue of most of the other characters too often lacked the ring of authenticity because what should have been dialects and idioms unique to those characters was lacking. Said another way, the drawl of the South and the unique syntax of German-to-English was missing.Finally, I felt that the author also had a subtle and personal political and social agenda woven into the story - an agenda that can be explained best by reading both the author's preface to the first edition and his preface to the second edition.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful. "Beware the Richmond-Berlin Axis" or "If Your Only Friends are Nazis, Get New Friends" By Ralph Vaughan Once you get over the rather trivial nature of the split in history that inspires this novel (Lincoln was sick, so we couldn't have the War Between the States), it quickly becomes an engrossing and exciting adventure tale involving an industrially stunted Confederate States of America, a politically stunted United States of America, a dynamic British Empire where spying (the alternative to war) is still conducted by gentlemen, and a fledgling Nazi Germany. Actually, I probably should not characterize the split in history as "trivial" (that's reserved for Avram Davidson's alternate history tale where events went sideways because Brigham Young stubbed his toe), but as "slim." The Republican Party split from the Whigs solely on the issue of slavery, and the abolition of slavery was the only plank in the Republican platform, so Lincoln's sudden illness would seem to me a bit insufficient to stop the political juggernaut that led to war; still, momentous events have turned before on just such small actions. This novel rarely delves into politics, but we can surmise much from the comments and the timeline. The split between the states would also have been a split between the parties, with the Republicans (maybe Whigs, if the failure to end slavery doomed the new party)running the USA and the Democrats grasping the reins of the CSA. While the USA did not entirely avoid conflicts (Washington state was lost to Canada), it did seem to avoid the Spanish-American War because there were no Democrats beating war-drums; similarly, the CSA fared poorly against Cuba and lost Florida. The USA did not enter the Great European War, and no one cared what the CSA did there because it was so ineffectual, more of a troublemaker, I assume, than a combatant. At one point, a character visiting the USA War Department remarks about all the empty office space -- "I suppose that's what comes from not fighting so many wars."The USA at the time of the novel is semi-isolationist and rather politically/diplomatically naive from the viewpoint of the Brits, who had to fight the Central Powers and save the day pretty much on their own; the CSA is a sort of corn-pone Sparta with a hereditary dictator and lacking the industrialized economy that would make slavery ineffective, a country shunned by everyone except the Nazis...well, when your best friends are the Nazis you have more problems than you can even count.It is this developing "axis" between Richmond and Berlin that moves the story, propelling action after action...in some of those actions we see echoes of our own history (can't always escape destiny, I guess), the motivating force behind the characters, who include a freed slave, a Confederate chess-playing soldier, and a British secret agent who was supposed to come in from the cold...but didn't. Not a lot of Finch-Molloy's (the spy) background is revealed, but a later book, Red Wheels Turning, tells of his recruitment and an exploit during the Great War.Since alternate history novels are in a sense historical fiction we come across quite a few familiar names, especially with regards to the Germans. All the big-hats are there, including the little chap wearing the Charlie Chaplin mustache, as well as Dr Hugo Eckner, of Zeppelin fame, but the airship bound for Cordelle (not Lakehurst) is named for Bismark, not another famous German. As with other AH novels, you can approach this story from any number of avenues -- there we go but for the grace of God, if only we had ourselves been so prescient about the Nazis, what does this story say about us, or what else has gone differently to create such a world with such people; but I think the most rewarding way to approach this novel is as a rattling good adventure novel filled with such characters that would make our own world a better place to live...if only they were real.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful. A great alt-fiction piece By Amazon Customer I enjoyed this book from the first page to the end. Between the description and the other reviews of the book you can get a pretty clear picture of what this book is about: what if the American Civil War didn't happen and the south became a separate country.It's a fun idea to consider and handled very well and enjoyably by the author, I had no trouble grasping his concept and running with it. The characters are fun and interesting (I especially liked Brian) and there's very, very little that I would even consider criticizing. Get it, read it, enjoy.
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