I just finished Stealing The Future, which I "bought" on Monday because it was free for Amazon Kindle.
It is in the alternate history told through a murder mystery genre, like Robert Harris's Fatherland. The PoD is that East German citizens vote to remain as an independent state from West Germany; something I find to be a rather flimsy idea (the USSR flatly saying hell no to a united Germany seems much more plausible). Anyways, East Germany is trying to reform both economically and politically through extremely decentralized decision making structures, whilst struggling to fend off West German intrigues and vulture capitalists. Their economy has significantly shrunk inwards, and the GDR is still living with the ghosts of is past as it struggles to forge forward.
I found it a bit slow to get started, but the story does a decent job at world building, even if the characters can seem a bit stock at times. The pace picked up as the novel moved along, and I do have to give points for it being a different PoD than usual.
All in all, worth a read, especially if you can get it for free like I did.
It is in the alternate history told through a murder mystery genre, like Robert Harris's Fatherland. The PoD is that East German citizens vote to remain as an independent state from West Germany; something I find to be a rather flimsy idea (the USSR flatly saying hell no to a united Germany seems much more plausible). Anyways, East Germany is trying to reform both economically and politically through extremely decentralized decision making structures, whilst struggling to fend off West German intrigues and vulture capitalists. Their economy has significantly shrunk inwards, and the GDR is still living with the ghosts of is past as it struggles to forge forward.
I found it a bit slow to get started, but the story does a decent job at world building, even if the characters can seem a bit stock at times. The pace picked up as the novel moved along, and I do have to give points for it being a different PoD than usual.
All in all, worth a read, especially if you can get it for free like I did.