Underground Airlines

De: Ben Winters

Narrado por: William DeMeritt

It is the present day, and the world is as we know it: smartphones, social networking, and Happy Meals. Save for one thing: The Civil War never occurred.

A gifted young black man calling himself Victor has struck a bargain with federal law enforcement, working as a bounty hunter for the US Marshal Service. He's got plenty of work. In this version of America, slavery continues in four states called "the Hard Four". On the trail of a runaway known as Jackdaw, Victor arrives in Indianapolis knowing that something isn't right—with the case file, with his work, and with the country itself.

A mystery to himself, Victor suppresses his memories of his childhood on a plantation and works to infiltrate the local cell of an abolitionist movement called the Underground Airlines. Tracking Jackdaw through the back rooms of churches, empty parking garages, hotels, and medical offices, Victor believes he's hot on the trail. But his strange, increasingly uncanny pursuit is complicated by a boss who won't reveal the extraordinary stakes of Jackdaw's case as well as by a heartbreaking young woman and her child, who may be Victor's salvation. Victor himself may be the biggest obstacle of all—though his true self remains buried, it threatens to surface.

Victor believes himself to be a good man doing bad work, unwilling to give up the freedom he has worked so hard to earn. But in pursuing Jackdaw, Victor discovers secrets at the core of the country's arrangement with the Hard Four—secrets the government will preserve at any cost.

Underground Airlines is a groundbreaking novel, a wickedly imaginative thriller, and a story of an America that is more like our own than we'd like to believe.

©2016 Ben Winters (P)2016 Hachette Audio

Reseñas de la Crítica

Campbell Memorial Award, 2017, Third Place

NOMINATED FOR THE BEST HARDCOVER NOVEL ITW THRILLER AWARD

A FINALIST FOR THE CHAUTAUQUA PRIZE

A New York Times Bestseller; a Goodreads Choice finalist; named one of the Best Books of the Year by NPR, Slate, Publishers Weekly, Hudson Bookseller, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Kirkus Reviews, AudioFile Magazine, and Amazon

"This one kept me up at night and changed the way I saw the world once I was finished."—Ann Patchett, Time

"This is one of the most thoughtful and inventive books I've read. Part alternate history and part detective novel, Underground Airlines couldn't be more timely or thrilling. It's a page-turner with a big mission: to warn against placing our history on a dusty shelf. On every page is the spirit of Faulkner's quote—The past is never dead. It's not even past. Here, Winters takes America's legacy as a slaveholding nation all the way to its logical and terrifying conclusion."—Attica Locke, Edgar Award-nominated author of Bluebird, Bluebird

"An extraordinary work of alternate history . . . Indisputably a winner"—Maureen Corrigan, NPR

Kept me under my headphones without pause

Stunningly good. Frighteningly relevant. Superb narration. This novel, in its clear-eyed descriptions of race relations in the United States, will profoundly affect you. #tagsgiving #sweepstakes

Better than expected

I love the idea of this book and hope that it becomes a series. There are so many different type of scenarios and stories that could be told under this premise. I really enjoyed the performance of the narrator too.

3.5 stars

Book Club read. Interesting premise. Some time flaws. Would make a suspenseful film. Narrator does a good job interpreting the main character.

Not sure why it's been well received.

Really struggled to get to the end on this one. So much drama, for a Deus Ex Machina ending that almost seemed to have been tacked on to let the thing stop.

Also, and perhaps worst, is that while there is significant AWARENESS of the "white savior" mentality (they even call it Mockingbird mentality - a nod to an altered version of Harper Lee's classic) it is so thickly layered in to the story it's almost it's own character. For a book that presumes to allow for oppressed people to speak for themselves, that's a serious failing.

Skip it unless you just HAVE to read for some reason.

Is it a Movie Yet?

Yo. Is this a Movie Yet?! I haven't finished the book (halfway) and I feel the urge to review it. I absolutely love the author's writing; it's poetry. I find myself rereading chapter because they are written to beautiful. I can see everything he is saying in great detail. The story is like nothing else. The creepy and heartbreak part is that it feels really especially with the climate of our country. Well, I gotta go because I need to finish this book tonight. Ok, bye!
#SelfDiscovery #Scary #Suspenseful #Tearjerker #Mindbending #AmericanRevolution #CivilWar #tagsgiving #sweepstakes

Twist

The storyline was interesting. Could not tell who was playing a part and who was real. It seemed people were changing identities and reasons for what they were doing. I definitely enjoyed it.

Chillingly realistic.

It makes you realize how easily such a dystopia could rise. It makes you take a long look at the world we live in now.

This should be taught in high schools and colleges

Would you listen to Underground Airlines again? Why?

No. It's too emotionally draining. It's like having broken glass forced through your brain. I almost quit but I was nearly done so I finished it.

What other book might you compare Underground Airlines to and why?

Farhenheit 451. It's been so long since I read that book that I can't compare structure or voice but it had the same impact upon me.

What does William DeMeritt bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

I would not have imagined the voices the way he did.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

What would have happened if there was no Civil War.

Dystopian x 1000

If you thought 1984 was disturbing, then this book may make you squirm. Although it is a fantasy , many parts are uncomfortably similar to the world that we live in. This is a very original story , with an unforeseen twist in the plot. And the narrator was superb

The Big Mix

Imagine America if the Civil War had been averted and slavery preserved. An America much like our own technologically, politically, even pop culturally. But still based on brutal slavery in the deep south. In this world, a freed black slave now works for the U.S. Marshall Service tracking down runaway slaves and thwarting the network that facilitates their escape which, in the technologically advanced present day, is the Underground Airline rather than Railroad.

Ben Winters throws genre after genre into the mix -- on the sci-fi side, alternate history, obviously, and a dystopian near future, tagging several Philip K. Dick classics, and on the mystery side, the hard boiled detective, film noir, espionage. And what really makes this unique, add to the mix the conventions of literary fiction, with a spare plot but lots of scene setting, character development, political and philosophical subtext and metaphor,

And it all works, mostly. Winters took a huge risk as a white writer utilizing a first person narrator who is African American winding his way through the horror of a world of American slavery. Whether he is successful will be a personal matter, but in no way does he fail. I liked it, I think it works -- but only because literary convention gets him there, the rules of the game keeping him focused on character development ad world building.

William DeMerritt's narration is the real star here, bringing grit and authenticity to the voice of the protagonist that would not be there in print. The plot on the other hand, even bare bones as it is, does not hold up well -- there's not much there there. And I for one did not find the handling of racial issues to be any more or less engaging and effective as the current conversation. All in all, though, a very good genre bending story, well written and well narrated, with the potential to get your thoughts provoked.