A novel which challenges historical assumptions about cause and effect, and sets out to demonstrate that the actions of Adolf Hitler were fundamental reasons why the world is a better place today.
Making History
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"Stephen Fry at his twinkling best" (Sunday Times )
"His best novel yet ... an extravagant, deeply questioning work of science fiction" (GQ )
"A sci-fi comedy that is also a time-travel thriller, constantly topical and always surprising... packed with the author's personal enthusiasm and hatreds, the former red-hot and the latter icy-black" (Literary Review )
"A powerful imaginative pull that keeps the pages turning while the tea goes cold and the cat gets the goldfish" (The Independent )
"A sprightly and entertaining read" (Daily Telegraph ) --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.
"His best novel yet ... an extravagant, deeply questioning work of science fiction" (GQ )
"A sci-fi comedy that is also a time-travel thriller, constantly topical and always surprising... packed with the author's personal enthusiasm and hatreds, the former red-hot and the latter icy-black" (Literary Review )
"A powerful imaginative pull that keeps the pages turning while the tea goes cold and the cat gets the goldfish" (The Independent )
"A sprightly and entertaining read" (Daily Telegraph ) --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.
Book Description
A novel of ideas - comical, historical, frightening and unputdownable. (20040305)
--This text refers to an alternate
Paperback
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
42 of 42 people found the following review helpful
By A Customer
Format:Paperback
Having enjoyed both Stephen Fry's autobiography, 'Moab is my Washpot', and his first novel, 'The Liar', I expected 'Making History' to run along similar lines. How wrong I was!
I must admit, it took a few pages before I got into the story, but once I did, I couldn't stop reading it! This story is written in Stephen Fry's usual witty, rambling way, yet still manages to be a gripping read. The story's concept is that of an alternative present-day life brought about by the non-existance of Hitler. However, the way in which Fry blends events of a 'changed' history with those taking place in an alternative present, makes for a thought-provoking read. I found that I couldn't wait to find out the changes that had occurred as a result. A refreshingly different, non-boring way of learning modern history - great stuff!
I must admit, it took a few pages before I got into the story, but once I did, I couldn't stop reading it! This story is written in Stephen Fry's usual witty, rambling way, yet still manages to be a gripping read. The story's concept is that of an alternative present-day life brought about by the non-existance of Hitler. However, the way in which Fry blends events of a 'changed' history with those taking place in an alternative present, makes for a thought-provoking read. I found that I couldn't wait to find out the changes that had occurred as a result. A refreshingly different, non-boring way of learning modern history - great stuff!
10 of 10 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This was the first of SF's books I had read and didn't know what to expect. I started reading it and found the first couple of chapters hard to follow and couldn't see what the book was getting at. After about the 3rd chapter I found it difficult to put this book down and finished reading it in about a week. What a far fetched but excellent idea of fact/science fiction. Couldn't recommend it any more highly.
10 of 10 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Nazis. Gas chambers. Mass murder. Fun? OK that's an unusual quartet but it applies here. I read this because Stephen Fry is just a genial bloke with a sharp turn of phrase,... but with trepidation as the "what if Hitler had made a couple of different decisions" idea has been explored by so many people, it couldn't be original. Wrong! Somehow Mr Fry has used a hotchpotch of familiar ideas and merged them into an original story. OK, there are some easy ways to get out of difficult situations by blaming mysterious time travel "rules" (first seen in the original Star Trek - coincidentally Mr F is a fan I believe), but over all this is an appealing take on the "what if" idea. I certainly learned a lot about Herr Schicklgruber's pre WW2 years, and surpisingly this is the content, 3 years after reading the book, that has stuck with me. If you want to learn a little about history and enjoy a "ripping yarn" (SF is truly a Python of the 21st Century) at the same time, read this silly stuff.
19 of 20 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
It would be easy to give up after the first few pages, when it does look rather as if a creative writing student has been ordered to Write About What You Know. But once you are used to Stephen Fry's habit of playing at length with every concept it quickly becomes engrossing. The war scenes are remarkably authentic and the modern scenes often brilliantly witty. I never really liked his lapses into film scripts as they broke up the emotional tension, reminding us forcefully that the characters are fictional. But undoubtedly he does dialogue well. Most self indulgent bit (defnintely calls for a bit of editing) is Fry's long discussion of an IT system that would be better than Microsoft. (And they said the first Star Wars prequel had a dull plot. Somehow I thought alternative reality fiction would not focus so much on word processing software.) But this is a rare lapse. The gradually emerging love story is all the more affecting because it is done with such a light hand. By the end only a first class grouch could emerge without a lump in the throat.
16 of 17 people found the following review helpful
By A Customer
Format:Paperback
I have the utmost respect for Stephen Fry as an actor, comedian, a person, and now an author. This is the only book I have ever read in a day from start to finish.
Having never read a book by Fry I wasn't sure how he would deal with such a potentially moving subject, whether he would blazen it in his trademark wit or write in a solely serious manner, yet somehow he manages both with effortless ease. The characters are beautifully believable and the factual parts suprisingly accurate. I also found the book strangely moving, but I find anything to do with Hitler, the Holocaust, etc. strangely moving. It will surely be made into a film at some stage simplified by parts of the text in film script.
Overall, as you may have guessed, I book I would recommend without hesitation to anyone.
15 of 16 people found the following review helpful
By A Customer
Format:Paperback
Who else could include the lyrics of Noel Gallagher, use the 'c' word with effortless charm, and dismantle European history without sounding like a pompous old tart trying to catch the zeitgeist? Stephen Fry's 'Making History' is probably his best novel to date. It's a pants of a read. The fiendishly clever circular plot weaves a story of breathtaking originality only to bite its own tail in a brilliant piece of intellectual experiment. What if the most evil man this century were to disappear from our history books? He investigates this premise and delivers a comedy so black you'll wonder who turned the lights out. His protagonist, Michael Young (who is, of course, as gay as a basket of tulips), starts out in Fry's now customary Cambridge academic landscape as a postgraduate about to complete his history thesis ("Das Meisterwerk"). A chance meeting with Leo Zuckerman, a physics scholar, eventually sees Michael thrown across the Atlantic into an alternative reality, Princeton USA. Here he encounters bigotry, racism and a government still frozen by cold war - only this time the enemy is Europe. It's here, in the second half of the novel, that Fry really burns rubber, reinforcing Bernard Shaw's notion that England and America are indeed divided by a common language. Apart from the obvious gag count, the really memorable moments in the book are when you realise what the author is up to. Genius or smart-a*se git? He is, of course, both.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
1.0 out of 5 stars
Not the best 20p I have ever spent
I bought this for 20p at a car boot sale, having read it, I now don't know what to do with it as our bin is full.
Published 15 days ago by Martin
4.0 out of 5 stars
Stephen Fry - Making History | Review
You'd expect Stephen Fry, the eccentrically British comedy star and host of ecclectic general knowledge show Q.I. Read more
Published 1 month ago by SocialBookshelves.com
5.0 out of 5 stars
Real page turner
What a fantastic book!
I couldn't keep away from this book once i started reading. It is cleverly written and thought provoking.
I couldn't keep away from this book once i started reading. It is cleverly written and thought provoking.
Published 4 months ago by Simon Anthony Wragg
5.0 out of 5 stars
Bending minds
Making History is a lively engaging story about a young academic, one thesis away from reaching his Cambridge goals, and his accidental meeting with an elderly Jewish professor... Read more
Published 4 months ago by Elegsabiff
4.0 out of 5 stars
Good story would have liked a bit more historical detail
Enjoyed this book but cant help feeling it could have been better cant put my finger on exactually is missing
Published 5 months ago by Michael Crudgington
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great book
Great product, in perfect condition, and a wonderful book, great reading experience. No need to know great details about WWII or Hitler, as I thought. Read more
Published 5 months ago by Erika Teng
5.0 out of 5 stars
How Does He Do It?
I started this book at five o'clock one evening and finished it at four the next morning. Fry can write character introspection and historical detail without sacrificing pace or... Read more
Published 10 months ago by English Teacher
3.0 out of 5 stars
an entertaining but flawed trifle
An "alternative reality" story from Stephen Fry that doesnt quite come off. He writes fluently and paints believable characters. Read more
Published 11 months ago by Captain Kirk
1.0 out of 5 stars
garbage
this is the most stupid and boring book i have ever had the misfortune to own what the hell is this crap,he is obvously writing about a subject he has no idea about it is very... Read more
Published 15 months ago by M. Hallows
2.0 out of 5 stars
Mmmm
Well, to start with I must say I like Fry in general - film, TV, writing, and I've read pretty much all fiction he's done so far.
"Making History"... Read more
"Making History"... Read more
Published 19 months ago by Paul
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