Nordenholt’s Million by J.J. Connington

(MIT Press, 2022)

Reviewed by John Dodd

Imagine, if you will, that someone a hundred years ago wrote a book on what would happen if there was a great plague, and the world turned to the super rich as its saviour. Imagine further, that the book then goes on to describe in great detail as to how the aforementioned rich would go about the task, how they would not look to the good of all, but to the preservation of the few, and all in the name of ensuring that everyone went on.

Imagine, that the only thing required to make the book relevant to these times would be to change the word Millionaire to the word Billionaire…

This book was superb on a number of levels, and while I’m not surprised that I hadn’t heard of it before, it’s a bold move from the MIT press to have chosen to print a new version of it, and that they haven’t changed anything from the substance of the book as it was originally presented. This means that there are uses of language that would not be found in a book from this century, but it means that the substance and nature of the book is unchanged.

And what a book.

I read fast, always have, most books take me less than a day to finish, and while I enjoy them while I’m reading, I tend to only keep the highlights of them with me to the future. This, this I remembered every word, from the beginning of the novel, when it becomes apparent that a science experiment has gone wrong, to the days that followed when the experiment gets loose and starts destroying crops, to the point at which the government realise that they cannot handle what has been set in motion and turn to Nordenholt, who, if he was not the blueprint for Tony Stark, certainly should have been.

Nordenholt takes control of the situation and moves all the people that he needs to the north of England whereupon he sets up a city to ensure that those few will survive. I admit to a sense of glee in the scene where he comes to the government and informs them that they are all not of use in the grand endeavour and that he had confirmed the dissolution of parliament before he went to the city, meaning that all the politicians would be sent back to die with those they abandoned.

Of course, things do not go well, there are setbacks to the position, scouting missions to the south reveal that the world has turned upon itself and as Nordenholt knew, misinformation to those still trapped in the south, to ensure they didn’t come north, is paramount.

Every part of this speaks to the Machiavellian nature of governments and power, of how those who have the power will ensure that they do what they must to keep it. How those who have absolute power, will eventually become dictators, no matter the nobility of their thoughts before the desperate times sink in.

In the manner of Don’t Look Up, this provides a thought provoking read into the dangers of letting those with money have power beyond their compassion to administer. What makes it more powerful as a story is the truth that this was written a hundred years ago. Situations and solutions such as the ones talked about in the book happen all the time now, with the difference being that we see more of them than we did before.

Or at least we think we do…

Just as those who weren’t in Nordenholt’s million thought they did as well.

This is a superb book, the desperation of the world becoming more grim and deadly is all the more realistic in these times because we’ve had time to see it happening, and to know that people thought that way a century ago and were moved to write about it…?

Required reading.

Review from BSFA Review 18 - Download your copy here.