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Dödens triumf
"Dödens triumf" är en av 1500-talskonstnären Pieter Bruegels mest berömda och skräckinjagande målningar. En profetisk skildring av massdöd, där man kan tycka sig se spår av både Förintelsens järnvägsvagnar och jorden efter kärnvapenkatastrofen.
Det gör åtminstone Erasmus Levine. Han är Mannen med väskan, som ständigt stått några meter från presidenten under statsbesöken och har kärnvapenkoderna som bokstavligt talat kan släppa helvetet löst. Under ett statsbesök i Stockholm får Levine en signal från sin överordnade, den mystiska Sysboss, om att rymma med väskan i handen.
En vindlande jakt över världen tar sin början. På ett sinnrikt sätt väver Mattias Berg samman det glömda svenska kärnvapenprogrammet med hotet om ett globalt nukleärt krig som ingalunda är över och historien om atombombens moder Lise Meitner.
Romanen "Dödens triumf" tar sitt avstamp i faktiska, djupt oroande förhållanden om dagens kärnvapensystem. Den förenar på bästa sätt faktaframställningens skärpa med spänningsgenrens snabba tempo och berättarlusta.
Det gör åtminstone Erasmus Levine. Han är Mannen med väskan, som ständigt stått några meter från presidenten under statsbesöken och har kärnvapenkoderna som bokstavligt talat kan släppa helvetet löst. Under ett statsbesök i Stockholm får Levine en signal från sin överordnade, den mystiska Sysboss, om att rymma med väskan i handen.
En vindlande jakt över världen tar sin början. På ett sinnrikt sätt väver Mattias Berg samman det glömda svenska kärnvapenprogrammet med hotet om ett globalt nukleärt krig som ingalunda är över och historien om atombombens moder Lise Meitner.
Romanen "Dödens triumf" tar sitt avstamp i faktiska, djupt oroande förhållanden om dagens kärnvapensystem. Den förenar på bästa sätt faktaframställningens skärpa med spänningsgenrens snabba tempo och berättarlusta.
- GenresThriller
643 pages, Hardcover
First published August 1, 2016
9 people are currently reading
54 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews
May 23, 2019
Explosive thriller set in Stockholm
There comes a thriller once in a while that you get very excited about. It sounds different and set in the world of nuclear weapons. Set in a city you know well, but which now has secret underground tunnels…talks of bombs and the threat of nuclear terrorism?
Well, this was just the kind of reading boom I needed to pull me out of a kind of reading slump. It’s got underground tunnels in it and the whisper of a secret world. What would happen if terrorists got hold of the world’s energy supplies and nuclear weapons in particular?
The author knows his stuff and it shows. He is a journalist and is fascinated as well as scared about the future of nuclear energy. As I am after reading this! What a premise though. I could imagine a Tom Cruise thriller. No - someone Swedish. Can I imagine Alexander Skarsgård running through the Grand Hotel in Stockholm? Well yes I can. The writing and plotting and fast and furious and I was taken along on the great thriller wave. It’s such a unique and dangerous world that I was completely taken out of the everyday and into a world of fear. What a ride!
This is fast and furious, a race to save the world, and the scary thing is that it’s not as fantastical as you might think. There were moments where you had to suspend your disbelief but those parts were still a great part of the story. I expected to be taken out of the ordinary and I was. Next time I go back to Stockholm, I’m going underground!
Top notch chilling thriller and a shockingly real relevance to today’s world which is perhaps the most chilling thing of all.
August 8, 2019
Nuclear thriller set mainly in SWEDEN
The Carrier is an absolutely fascinating read. It is first of all a really good and absorbing thriller. Erasmus Levine, the bag carrier for the President goes AWOL during a trip to Sweden. It is, of course, not just any bag – it is the bag that carries the codes to launch a nuclear attack, and can never be more than a few feet from the President. What will Erasmus do? What are his plans? He thwarts secret service attempts to neutralise the bag, and heads off into the unknown. A global chase ensues that leads to a dramatic conclusion. So far, so good – an absorbing and exciting read.
But what absolutely distinguishes The Carrier from the run of the mill is two things. First, there is the amount of detail that Mattias includes. I have no idea whether they are true or not, but his descriptions of the security and codes surrounding the bag, the likely reaction to the secret service of such an event, and the structure of the world wide web of American and allied bases primed to launch attacks at a moment’s notice, are more than compelling. They deserve to be based on fact… The geography is also spot on and very well researched. Erasmus first escapes into a maze of tunnels and bunkers below Stockholm. Such a maze of tunnels and bunkers actually exists… On his subsequent journey around Europe, he visits a mine in Swedish Lapland (that exists) and US air bases in Belgium and Sicily (that exist). There are also references to named air force bases in the States (that, again, exist). The story is written so that everything in it could be true… you never quite know where fact ends and fiction takes over. And the ‘facts’ are pretty scary.
The characters in the book are all larger than life. Erasmus himself, his partner in crime Ingrid, the scary ‘nurse’, ‘Edelweiss’ (the boss of the President’s protection unit), the Swedish couple – Sixten and Aina. Yet they are all strangely believable – if you suspend belief.
Second, is the message that Mattias is determined to deliver. He clearly believes in the fragility of the current global nuclear set up and the enormous danger this poses. He argues that while technology is in place to prevent an ‘accident’ of terrifying proportions, it is human beings (with all their weaknesses) that control the technology.
The book adds depth and context by going into the details of the lives and research of several of the early pioneers of nuclear and thermo-nuclear discovery. How they felt about the work they were being asked to do in developing weapons of mass destruction. This is done, convincingly and conveniently, by references to Erasmus’ student thesis. It works.
The Carrier is a clear cut above a conventional page-turning thriller. It is a page-turning read – but is is a great deal more besides. It is an intelligent, serious and well constructed work that certainly made me think about the issues it was designed to make me think about.
The Carrier is an absolutely fascinating read. It is first of all a really good and absorbing thriller. Erasmus Levine, the bag carrier for the President goes AWOL during a trip to Sweden. It is, of course, not just any bag – it is the bag that carries the codes to launch a nuclear attack, and can never be more than a few feet from the President. What will Erasmus do? What are his plans? He thwarts secret service attempts to neutralise the bag, and heads off into the unknown. A global chase ensues that leads to a dramatic conclusion. So far, so good – an absorbing and exciting read.
But what absolutely distinguishes The Carrier from the run of the mill is two things. First, there is the amount of detail that Mattias includes. I have no idea whether they are true or not, but his descriptions of the security and codes surrounding the bag, the likely reaction to the secret service of such an event, and the structure of the world wide web of American and allied bases primed to launch attacks at a moment’s notice, are more than compelling. They deserve to be based on fact… The geography is also spot on and very well researched. Erasmus first escapes into a maze of tunnels and bunkers below Stockholm. Such a maze of tunnels and bunkers actually exists… On his subsequent journey around Europe, he visits a mine in Swedish Lapland (that exists) and US air bases in Belgium and Sicily (that exist). There are also references to named air force bases in the States (that, again, exist). The story is written so that everything in it could be true… you never quite know where fact ends and fiction takes over. And the ‘facts’ are pretty scary.
The characters in the book are all larger than life. Erasmus himself, his partner in crime Ingrid, the scary ‘nurse’, ‘Edelweiss’ (the boss of the President’s protection unit), the Swedish couple – Sixten and Aina. Yet they are all strangely believable – if you suspend belief.
Second, is the message that Mattias is determined to deliver. He clearly believes in the fragility of the current global nuclear set up and the enormous danger this poses. He argues that while technology is in place to prevent an ‘accident’ of terrifying proportions, it is human beings (with all their weaknesses) that control the technology.
The book adds depth and context by going into the details of the lives and research of several of the early pioneers of nuclear and thermo-nuclear discovery. How they felt about the work they were being asked to do in developing weapons of mass destruction. This is done, convincingly and conveniently, by references to Erasmus’ student thesis. It works.
The Carrier is a clear cut above a conventional page-turning thriller. It is a page-turning read – but is is a great deal more besides. It is an intelligent, serious and well constructed work that certainly made me think about the issues it was designed to make me think about.
May 29, 2020
Mattias Berg's gift to us was a huggpod of characters with the Carrier being Erasmus Levine or called my treasure by Ingrid Oskarsson the Alpha. Edelweiss was the U.S. equivalent to the bomb master with Kurt and John and Zafirah as his enforcers. Jesús Maria was the nurse from Mexico and Ingrid's best friend. Sixten Lundberg was Ingrid's squeeze 20 years ago and the father of her child Lise. His now wife Aina Lundberg was having her 70 birthday. Lise Meitner is called the mother of the atom bomb.
What we have is the attempt by pacifists to destroy all of the bombs in the world and make them obsolete. Double dealing, hurt feelings, people killed, and people giving themselves up in different scenarios to save others. Mattias keeps us utterly engrossed in the story always changing with action ever increasing. From Sweden to the U.S., to Italy to Greenland. The story is to be written for posterity by the Carrier.
What we have is the attempt by pacifists to destroy all of the bombs in the world and make them obsolete. Double dealing, hurt feelings, people killed, and people giving themselves up in different scenarios to save others. Mattias keeps us utterly engrossed in the story always changing with action ever increasing. From Sweden to the U.S., to Italy to Greenland. The story is to be written for posterity by the Carrier.
October 1, 2019
Initial thoughts: yeah uh after reading this I'm just really confused, I don't know what to think, or say?
————————————————————
~I received a physical proof copy from Hachette NZ and willingly reviewed it~
Erasmus Levine is the carrier. He stands by the President of the United States holding the nuclear football in case it needs to be deployed. But on an official trip to Sweden, he vanishes into the wind with Alpha, the mysterious leader of a nuclear weapons task force called NUCLEUS whose identity is top secret. Told through flashbacks, recounts, and recollections, The Carrier is the story of a man whose life changes irrevocably in one moment, though he doesn’t realise it until over ten years later.
I’m a little disappointed by this book, but looking back perhaps the concept isn’t as exciting as I initially thought, but more so in different ways. The length of time it took me to read this book (at least according to Goodreads) has little relation to the content, just my busyness. I feel like the second half of the book might as well have been another novel entirely for its differences in style and plot development; the earlier parts failed to convince me of the ambitious twists in the last part, especially the final one. Where was the pretext?
I didn’t connect particularly well with any of the characters except perhaps Ingrid. Thrillers are often like this, preferring to be plot based rather than character driven, but with this particular book it seemed like there was need for more in the form of character development as it was actually quite character driven. I found that Erasmus was for the most part quite a boring character, and he didn’t need to be. I liked the cast, but I think they definitely could’ve been stronger. Ingrid is the only one who truly lived up to her potential, though her final act seemed out of character. I struggled to see the motivations behind the acts of all the other characters on the whole.
I can’t really go into the negative without lots of spoilers, so I’ll leave it here. The Carrier is an ambitious look at the history of nuclear weapons, which I think unfortunately wasn’t entirely convincing in execution.
————————————————————
~I received a physical proof copy from Hachette NZ and willingly reviewed it~
Erasmus Levine is the carrier. He stands by the President of the United States holding the nuclear football in case it needs to be deployed. But on an official trip to Sweden, he vanishes into the wind with Alpha, the mysterious leader of a nuclear weapons task force called NUCLEUS whose identity is top secret. Told through flashbacks, recounts, and recollections, The Carrier is the story of a man whose life changes irrevocably in one moment, though he doesn’t realise it until over ten years later.
I’m a little disappointed by this book, but looking back perhaps the concept isn’t as exciting as I initially thought, but more so in different ways. The length of time it took me to read this book (at least according to Goodreads) has little relation to the content, just my busyness. I feel like the second half of the book might as well have been another novel entirely for its differences in style and plot development; the earlier parts failed to convince me of the ambitious twists in the last part, especially the final one. Where was the pretext?
I didn’t connect particularly well with any of the characters except perhaps Ingrid. Thrillers are often like this, preferring to be plot based rather than character driven, but with this particular book it seemed like there was need for more in the form of character development as it was actually quite character driven. I found that Erasmus was for the most part quite a boring character, and he didn’t need to be. I liked the cast, but I think they definitely could’ve been stronger. Ingrid is the only one who truly lived up to her potential, though her final act seemed out of character. I struggled to see the motivations behind the acts of all the other characters on the whole.
I can’t really go into the negative without lots of spoilers, so I’ll leave it here. The Carrier is an ambitious look at the history of nuclear weapons, which I think unfortunately wasn’t entirely convincing in execution.
December 2, 2019
The Carrier
Mattias Berg
MacLehose Press
€21
Erasmus Levine’s mother, believing her son was destined for great things, named him after the famous humanist, Erasmus of Rotterdam. His talent for encryption is recognised at an early stage and he is recruited to train at West Point and later is sent to join a newly created team with the purpose of saving the world after the attacks of 9/11. He is appointed as the carrier of a briefcase containing nuclear codes and ordered to stay at the side of the President of the United States of America at all times.
Erasmus’ operational boss is Edelweiss who gives daily briefings, and he in turn is subject to a higher authority, the mysterious Alpha. All the proceedings are shrouded in secrecy with a president supposed to be committed to nuclear disarmament.
The threat of a nuclear Armageddon hangs like a pall over the narrative where two thousand of the world’s warheads are at their highest state of alert to engage with or against each other, and where the combined explosive force of American missiles alone can wipe out mankind.
Erasmus’ talent for encryption is almost like an affliction as he throws up on several occasions on discovering the seriousness of his discoveries. And unable to bear the tension anymore, he goes AWOL, the apparent shock of possible global destruction and the realisation that the world’s nuclear weapons could be harnessed and then rerouted, confirming his so-called pacifism.
The characters in the novel are larger than life. The supposedly sensitive Erasmus, for example, clinically smashes a new recruit’s head into a metal floor ‘not once but repeatedly’ when puzzling over an encryption. And Erasmus’ wife Amba and family are too sketchily delineated with his children given the unlikely names of Unity, Duality and Trinity, as if they are mere configurations. And there are irritants in this translation from the Swedish when the protagonist is addressed repeatedly as ‘my treasure’ by Ingrid Oskarsson, the cryptologist and Erasmus’ old academic supervisor.
With the possible intention of adding gravitas to the thriller element of the book, the author inserts many cultural references. Russian spies using Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass as a ciphering tool for instance had a profound influence on the young Erasmus, and Hollywood films are used as codes in speeches. There is a lot of wandering through nuclear history and Erasmus dreams of Oppenheimer and being a survivor of the Enola Bay. And his thesis in philosophy, The Atom: A Moral Dilemma, is used as a trope bringing in references to the Bhagavad Gita and the ‘destroyer of worlds’ and Brueghel’s sixteenth century prophetic masterpiece The Triumph of Death, based on the Plague. This juxtaposition of history with the present seems rather contrived.
The sense of foreboding, however, is well captured where one feels that even the security codes are not really secure with many moles lurking. But at times the pursuit of Erasmus, as in the skiing chase, appears like a pastiche of a James Bond movie. The denouement towards the end suffers from the feeding of too much information and back story all at once which would have been better served filtered through the narrative in small doses earlier on, and would have maintained interest in the story’s unfolding.
The author, a Swedish cultural journalist based in Stockholm, has written two previous non-fiction books on technology and his knowledge in that area shows clearly in this his first novel. But for the average reader it could appear as information overload at the expense of narrative drive and the sacrificing of well-rounded characters. The supreme irony is at the end when Erasmus shuns all the technology and uses old parchment to pen his story.
https://jameslawless.net
Mattias Berg
MacLehose Press
€21
Erasmus Levine’s mother, believing her son was destined for great things, named him after the famous humanist, Erasmus of Rotterdam. His talent for encryption is recognised at an early stage and he is recruited to train at West Point and later is sent to join a newly created team with the purpose of saving the world after the attacks of 9/11. He is appointed as the carrier of a briefcase containing nuclear codes and ordered to stay at the side of the President of the United States of America at all times.
Erasmus’ operational boss is Edelweiss who gives daily briefings, and he in turn is subject to a higher authority, the mysterious Alpha. All the proceedings are shrouded in secrecy with a president supposed to be committed to nuclear disarmament.
The threat of a nuclear Armageddon hangs like a pall over the narrative where two thousand of the world’s warheads are at their highest state of alert to engage with or against each other, and where the combined explosive force of American missiles alone can wipe out mankind.
Erasmus’ talent for encryption is almost like an affliction as he throws up on several occasions on discovering the seriousness of his discoveries. And unable to bear the tension anymore, he goes AWOL, the apparent shock of possible global destruction and the realisation that the world’s nuclear weapons could be harnessed and then rerouted, confirming his so-called pacifism.
The characters in the novel are larger than life. The supposedly sensitive Erasmus, for example, clinically smashes a new recruit’s head into a metal floor ‘not once but repeatedly’ when puzzling over an encryption. And Erasmus’ wife Amba and family are too sketchily delineated with his children given the unlikely names of Unity, Duality and Trinity, as if they are mere configurations. And there are irritants in this translation from the Swedish when the protagonist is addressed repeatedly as ‘my treasure’ by Ingrid Oskarsson, the cryptologist and Erasmus’ old academic supervisor.
With the possible intention of adding gravitas to the thriller element of the book, the author inserts many cultural references. Russian spies using Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass as a ciphering tool for instance had a profound influence on the young Erasmus, and Hollywood films are used as codes in speeches. There is a lot of wandering through nuclear history and Erasmus dreams of Oppenheimer and being a survivor of the Enola Bay. And his thesis in philosophy, The Atom: A Moral Dilemma, is used as a trope bringing in references to the Bhagavad Gita and the ‘destroyer of worlds’ and Brueghel’s sixteenth century prophetic masterpiece The Triumph of Death, based on the Plague. This juxtaposition of history with the present seems rather contrived.
The sense of foreboding, however, is well captured where one feels that even the security codes are not really secure with many moles lurking. But at times the pursuit of Erasmus, as in the skiing chase, appears like a pastiche of a James Bond movie. The denouement towards the end suffers from the feeding of too much information and back story all at once which would have been better served filtered through the narrative in small doses earlier on, and would have maintained interest in the story’s unfolding.
The author, a Swedish cultural journalist based in Stockholm, has written two previous non-fiction books on technology and his knowledge in that area shows clearly in this his first novel. But for the average reader it could appear as information overload at the expense of narrative drive and the sacrificing of well-rounded characters. The supreme irony is at the end when Erasmus shuns all the technology and uses old parchment to pen his story.
https://jameslawless.net
June 3, 2019
Tuumakohvri kandja amet on mulle kuskiltki mujal kõrvu jäänud. Ju siis seetõttu tekitas ka kaanetekst uudishimu ja võtsin raamatu ette. Ma ei ole väga suur põnevike ega krimi (no natuke ikka oli) fänn, nii et vast on isegi hea, et raamatu lõpuni sain. Keda huvitav teadusmaailm ja eriti tuumarelvade temaatika või ka selle ajalugu, siis võin igal juhul soovitada.
See, mil määral saab inimese mõistusega mängida, on muidugi imetlustväärt. Ja see, kuhu maani ollakse valmis "oma õiguse" nimel minema, on ka hämmastav. Rääkimata siis kõikide riikide rahusoovist ja selle varjus aina uute ja uute relvade meisterdamisest.
Ahjaa, kui raamat läbi ja HeadRead festival läbi, alles siis jäi silma, et autor osales HeadRead festivalil. No on alles needus! Nii tihti satun ma autorite otsa pärast seda, kui nad on kuskil festivalil ära käinud. Eriti tüütu ongi seetõttu, et oleks olnud võimalus teda kuulama minna.
See, mil määral saab inimese mõistusega mängida, on muidugi imetlustväärt. Ja see, kuhu maani ollakse valmis "oma õiguse" nimel minema, on ka hämmastav. Rääkimata siis kõikide riikide rahusoovist ja selle varjus aina uute ja uute relvade meisterdamisest.
Ahjaa, kui raamat läbi ja HeadRead festival läbi, alles siis jäi silma, et autor osales HeadRead festivalil. No on alles needus! Nii tihti satun ma autorite otsa pärast seda, kui nad on kuskil festivalil ära käinud. Eriti tüütu ongi seetõttu, et oleks olnud võimalus teda kuulama minna.
June 27, 2019
I got a copy of this for review and would not have finished it otherwise. It is not my genre anyway and it did nothing to encourage me to read more of the genre. The premise was good but the execution was awful. It was the most excruciatingly boring writing and it reads as though even the author got bored. Then there is the quite poor translation and the fact that the author seems to have lost track of the story as well. The only positive for me was the last page when I could finally close the book for the last time and say "Thank goodness that's over".
Read
June 3, 20222.5 stars
The person who carries the nuclear football has gone awol with it. The question is, is he being play by a good working towards a world free of nuclear weapons or intent on nuclear destruction?
The book is well researched and includes some real life incidents in the operations and embarrassing failure of readiness of nuclear operators in the US Defence Force.
The plot did not live up to its potential.
The person who carries the nuclear football has gone awol with it. The question is, is he being play by a good working towards a world free of nuclear weapons or intent on nuclear destruction?
The book is well researched and includes some real life incidents in the operations and embarrassing failure of readiness of nuclear operators in the US Defence Force.
The plot did not live up to its potential.
February 28, 2020
Very hard going. I'm not sure whether the translation is as good as it might be but I found that the story lacked depth, it was hard to find empathy with the characters and I was often lost on trying to follow the plot. It is more like a very long essay expressing the author's views on the nuclear arms race. Disappointing.
April 18, 2025
Maybe the translation from Swedish left me wanting more, but a promising storyline of impending nuclear warfare and the lengths humans go to protect or destroy humankind. Unfortunately, the plot was far fetched and difficult to follow. Erasmus, treasure and dear friend of Ingrid, explore deep caves, make great escapes and prepare for war.
February 7, 2020
Idee ise mulle meeldis, aga teostus seekord polnud minu maitsele.
Seekord meeldis raamatu algus, aga u 2/3 raamatust pigem valgus laiali ja oli raskesti jälgitav. Nagu öeldakse „polnud minu tassike teed“ . Kuna raamat oli üsna mahukas, siis andis seda teetassi tühjaks lürpida 😆.
Seekord meeldis raamatu algus, aga u 2/3 raamatust pigem valgus laiali ja oli raskesti jälgitav. Nagu öeldakse „polnud minu tassike teed“ . Kuna raamat oli üsna mahukas, siis andis seda teetassi tühjaks lürpida 😆.
May 22, 2020
Interesting concept when we ponder the potential of exploiting the nuclear “football”. Story works well to keep the reader guessing and thinking. I received an advanced digital copy of this book from NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
July 25, 2021
The premise seemed ok when I read it in the book store. It did not capture me. I made it about 90 pages before I quit. Possibly partly a translation issue but it was dull with uninspired characters. It came off as a university sophomore year treatise on nuclear weapons. Hard pass.
October 18, 2019
Not a fan of first person novels.
December 7, 2022
Super začátek a pak se to začala tak nějak sr*t. Nuda, roztahanost. Škoda. První dvě hvězdy jen za nápad a začátek.
January 14, 2024
This must be the most stupid book I’ve ever had the displeasure to read.
I stopped at page 64. Such a waste of time and resources to publish this nonsense.
I stopped at page 64. Such a waste of time and resources to publish this nonsense.
August 14, 2020
Thank you netgalley for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.
This was unfortunately a slow and difficult novel to follow with several time jumps and an uninspiring protagonist. This did not hold my interest although the plot was intriguing.
This was unfortunately a slow and difficult novel to follow with several time jumps and an uninspiring protagonist. This did not hold my interest although the plot was intriguing.
December 2, 2016
Pekoral.
September 15, 2020
very recommendable book. Enjoyed very much
Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews