Une espèce en voie de disparition

by Lavie Tidhar, Julien Bétan (Traduction)

Le conflit qui a embrasé le monde est désormais achevé : l’Allemagne nazie a triomphé et l’Angleterre est un protectorat du Troisième Reich. Gunther Sloam, scénariste berlinois de productions de seconde zone, débarque à Londres. Une ville brisée, malfamée, interlope et dangereuse. Mais Sloam n’en a cure, il est sur les traces d’un amour passé dont il garde un souvenir brûlant, celui d’Ulla Blau, une starlette d’avant-guerre oubliée manifestement en danger, à en croire la missive qu’elle lui a fait parvenir. Or, la capitale anglaise est bien pire que ce à quoi il s’attendait, et la Gestapo locale n’a rien à envier à celle de Berlin. D’autant que, très vite, un premier cadavre est retrouvé — le début d’une longue série. Et qu’aux yeux de l’inspecteur Everly, Gunther Sloam a tout du suspect idéal…

Genres: Novella, Science Fiction, Alternate History, Fantasy, Ebooks

112 pages, Paperback

First published December 2, 2018

About the author

Lavie Tidhar was raised on a kibbutz in Israel. He has travelled extensively since he was a teenager, living in South Africa, the UK, Laos, and the small island nation of Vanuatu.

Tidhar began publishing with a poetry collection in Hebrew in 1998, but soon moved to fiction, becoming a prolific author of short stories early in the 21st century.

Temporal Spiders, Spatial Webs won the 2003 Clarke-Bradbury competition, sponsored by the European Space Agency, while The Night Train (2010) was a Sturgeon Award finalist.

Linked story collection HebrewPunk (2007) contains stories of Jewish pulp fantasy.

He co-wrote dark fantasy novel The Tel Aviv Dossier (2009) with Nir Yaniv. The Bookman Histories series, combining literary and historical characters with steampunk elements, includes The Bookman (2010), Camera Obscura (2011), and The Great Game (2012).

Standalone novel Osama (2011) combines pulp adventure with a sophisticated look at the impact of terrorism. It won the 2012 World Fantasy Award, and was a finalist for the Campbell Memorial Award, British Science Fiction Award, and a Kitschie.

His latest novels are Martian Sands and The Violent Century.

Much of Tidhar’s best work is done at novella length, including An Occupation of Angels (2005), Cloud Permutations (2010), British Fantasy Award winner Gorel and the Pot-Bellied God (2011), and Jesus & the Eightfold Path (2011).

Tidhar advocates bringing international SF to a wider audience, and has edited The Apex Book of World SF (2009) and The Apex Book of World SF 2 (2012).

He is also editor-in-chief of the World SF Blog , and in 2011 was a finalist for a World Fantasy Award for his work there.

He also edited A Dick and Jane Primer for Adults (2008); wrote Michael Marshall Smith: The Annotated Bibliography (2004); wrote weird picture book Going to The Moon (2012, with artist Paul McCaffery); and scripted one-shot comic Adolf Hitler’s I Dream of Ants! (2012, with artist Neil Struthers).

Tidhar lives with his wife in London.

Reviews

[Peter Hollo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant as ever

Lavie is such a genius, and so good at writing stories like this: stories masquerading as a genre which they're not, really; seemingly about one thing but really about something else entirely.

[2TReads · Rating 4 out of 5]

A thrilling novella. For a dark, seedy, noir-ish read, definitely check this out.

Tidhar just keeps the pace going and the ugly underbelly of an occupied London shines throughout.

[Pablo Rodríguez Pérez · Rating 4 out of 5]

De haber sido lo primero de Tidhar en llegar a mis manos me hubiese parecido una barbaridad: está tan bien escrito que no se puede aguantar, y el típico juego al que nos tiene acostumbrados el autor con el género del la historia y las convenciones narrativas que lo sustentan mola muchísimo. Sin embargo, al haber leído ya bastantes cosas del autor, es algo que no me ha cogido por sorpresa: posteriormente reutilizaría muchos elementos aquí presentes en obras como «Unholy land» (que he leído y disfrutado) y por tanto pierden parte de su efectividad.

Esto no quita que haya disfrutado mucho de esta novela corta: la prosa de Tidhar no se lee, se bebe. Tiene un sentido del ritmo narrativo y del lenguaje al alcance de muy pocos escritores/as. Además el girito final está chulo. Muy recomendable.

[Daniel · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really liked this alternate history noir novella. The story is taking place in Nazi occupied London, and contains some clever twists. The fact that the first person narrator is not the main character made this all the more interesting, and there is an important reason for this choice. On the downside, the formatting of the ebook has some glitches, and the editing was sloppy. Also, what is it with English speaking authors and weirdly spelled German names?

[Kristian Bjørkelo · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fun little pulpy noir romp through the seedy underworld of post-war London occupied by the third reich. There are some fun twists and turns, well-executed characters and characterizations, and interesting narrator. My only issue with the ebook is that it needed some better editing and proof-reading, as there are some odd grammatical parts and misspellings that irks me.

[David H. · Rating 4 out of 5]

An alternate history noir mystery set in a post-war Nazi-occupied London, as the hapless Gunther flails about looking for his ex-lover Ulla. I really liked the narrator, Everly, a British Gestapo agent. The dry narrative voice and the shifts in perspective really worked for me, and the ending was quite appropriate.

[Andy Theyers · Rating 5 out of 5]

He's good, isn't he? Beautifully rendered alternate history noir, set in London still reeling after being destroyed by the German victory in WWII. It's always about the girl, isn't it?

[Frances · Rating 3 out of 5]

A well-done little noir with a sharp twist at the end, but the "Nazis won" alternate history is more of a downer than I enjoy ATM.

[Sue Chant · Rating 2 out of 5]

Rather feeble re-working of The Third Man.

[Natalie aka Tannat · Rating 2 out of 5]

1.5 stars