Budspy

Published by Franklin Watts in 1987. Hardcover.
Reissued by Wildside Press in 2003 in trade paperback.
Reissued by David Dvorkin in 2010 as an e-book and in 2018 as a trade paperback.

Three hundred million strong, the Third Reich dominates the world. With its booming industry, its advanced science and technology, its fearsome war machine, and its colonies on the moon, the Reich is envied and feared by the rest of the world and invites imitation.

Matters almost didn't turn out this way. During World War II, German troops only narrowly averted disaster at Stalingrad. But after the Führer's death on the Russian front and the subsequent accession to power of more reasonable men, Roosevelt and Churchill agreed to a peace treaty that left Germany in control of Continental Europe and free to prosecute the war against the greater threat of Bolshevism.

Now, decades later, America tries to convince itself that it is still the world's greatest power, even while its government and society, increasingly influenced by the Reich, devolve into something that would have horrified the Founding Fathers. America made its deal with the Devil in 1943, and now it is paying the price.

Chic Western works as a government spy within U.S. federal agencies. He is adept at assuming new identities and earning the trust of fellow employees so that he can uncover wrongdoing. He tries not to think about the results of his work. Punishment is swift and harsh in this America.

When anti-German subversion is detected in the American embassy in Berlin, Chic is posted to the mighty heart of the Reich to uncover it. He is finally forced to confront the conflict between his conscience, his Jewish ancestry, and the reality that hides behind evil's seductive face.

The Franklin Watts edition has the best cover of any of my novels so far. I adore it. It's striking, it's esthetically pleasing, and it captures the essence of the novel perfectly. The artist, Honi Werner, has since become quite famous. I've never met her but I hope I will some day. Some authors manage to buy the original paintings for their covers; I want to buy this one more than any other.

Reviews

Publishers Weekly

"[E]ngaging thriller. ... [T]aken as a conscience-less romp, it succeeds just fine."

Booklist

"[B]oldly speculative. ... Author Dvorkin has a vivid imagination, and he imbues his new world with a chilling teutonic authoritarianism. ... An involving anti-utopian thriller."

Norman Spinrad in Asimov's

"The basic premise ... has been done rather often, and done rather well by divers hands. There is Len Deighton's SS/GB, Sargan's The Sound of His Horn, Gregory Benford and Martin Greenberg's excellent anthology, Hitler Victorious, and of course the ultimate masterpiece of this genre, Philip K. Dick's The Man in the High Castle. So Dvorkin's novel has some pretty heavyweight stuff to measure up against. ... And for my money Budspy succeeds in more than holding its own in this company. When it comes to this theme, Budspy is superior to just about everything short of The Man in the Hight Castle itself. ... Masterful."

S.F. Chronicle

"Well told adventure. ... There is a degree of subtlety and insight working in this novel that one encounters rarely."

The Indianapolis News

"Dvorkin presents a well-told tale of crime and conscience."

I'm still digesting this review:
The Unicorn, a publication of The Rowan Tree

"If you sci-fi fans have ever wondered what the world would be like if Germany had won the war, then read this book! Fast-paced, well researched. You will be outraged by the ending. I felt the ending too bizarre to handle. Not oriented to Earth religions."