First - and you may think "well, obviously" - a book review.
Bottom line up front, Argylle is not a very good book. While it gets off to a neat start -First - and you may think "well, obviously" - a book review.
Bottom line up front, Argylle is not a very good book. While it gets off to a neat start - a slacker bumming around in Northern Thailand (which I could relate to, having been a slacker who spent his own youth bumming around northern Taiwan) - it quickly becomes increasingly (A) silly, (B) stupid and - (C), and worst of all - endlessly derivative. Specifically, the book in short order morphs into "The Kingsman" (complete with a bar of the same name and a cameo by Elton John); "Mission:Impossible;" "The Da Vinci Code," and finally various iterations of "Indiana Jones" (the first, third and fourth movies). And while it is many things, the one thing that it is not is a spy story - because absolutely NOTHING that happens here is what real spies do for a living, (stealing priceless artifacts, solving Robert Langdon-type puzzles, hunting for lost Nazi treasure, parachuting onto the roofs of mountaintop monasteries, etc.). THE "TEAM" here is frequently described as "the Agency's best people" and "the finest we have," which is helpful description - because nothing in their actions would lead you to believe that. They are a collection of one-note caricatures, consistently immature, snarky, sarcastic jerks, led by the CIA's "senior operations officer" who apparently spends her entire job micromanaging this one particular operation, rather than overseeing the hundreds of world events going on at any particular moment that would occupy a normal chief executive.
THE AGENCY itself - nominally CIA,* although looking much more like Tom Cruise's "Impossible Missions Force" - bounces between being hopelessly amateurish (pulling our titular slacker out of the jungle and quickly deciding he is the best spy it has ever hired, then throwing him and his idiot classmates into irrelevant training/team-building exercises such as dangerous white water rafting that nearly gets everyone killed; constantly blowing things up in WAY too confined spaces with no ill after effects) and unrealistically omnipotent (being instantly able to hack into all the planet's satellite and CCTV networks)…
BUT THEN…I watched "Argylle" on Apple+, and think I now have the whole thing figured out. This Argylle here is not really a book, it's a prop, a mere marketing gimmick for the infinitely better movie. In fact, the physical book with its same dumb cover appears numerous times in the film; and of course, "Elly Conway" is not only the book's claimed author (although this is generally assumed to be a pseudonym as no such real person seems to exist), but also THE STAR OF THE MOVIE, the plot of which is TOTALLY different from that of the book…because again, according to my theory, the book and its derivative plot is simply irrelevant, as the whole thing is just a cheap movie tie-in.
ANYWAY - skip the book but do watch the movie, if you're the type that likes silly action films (and this one is WAY silly), and like me will watch - and enjoy - Sam Rockwell in, well, anything. Plus, ALL the points to Bryce Dallas Howard for playing a plus-sized heroine where her figure has absolutely NOTHING to do with the story, but - according to numerous interviews - is something she did just because that's who she really is, and she was sick of being told to lose weight for roles like "Jurassic Park" that then left her too weak and hungry to do all the stunts required of her. ___________________________________
* This one always bugs me, since any good reader of spy fiction knows it is just "CIA," not "the CIA;" although it is always "the FBI." The author (whoever the hell it is) also makes the common mistakes of calling CIA personnel "agents" and "operatives," when they are in fact "officers" (although here again, the FBI uses "agents"); and referring to CIA as a "secret service" when it is more correctly an intelligence agency; "Secret Service" is reserved for those folks guarding the president, catching counterfeiters, and other similar functions. Okay - I'm done bitching now....more
I never read ERB growing up; and while I did read a few of the "John Carter" books last year, Tarzan just never crossed my radar. However, after havinI never read ERB growing up; and while I did read a few of the "John Carter" books last year, Tarzan just never crossed my radar. However, after having recently read Leopold, I wanted to rewatch the 2016 "Legend of Tarzan" film as I remembered it being specifically tied to the Belgians in the Congo…and from there it was a short step to deciding to read at least one of the Tarzan books.
And turns out, one is probably enough. Quite enjoyable just to get the original story and see how clunky "popular fiction" was back then…but think I'm good now.
I was surprised to see that Burroughs also referenced Leopold in the Congo…the original mission of Tarzan's father was in fact to go to Africa to "investigate the unfair treatment of black British subjects by the officers of a friendly European power," while much later Burroughs compares chief Mbonga's' treatment of his captured white prisoners to the "still crueler barbarities practiced upon them and theirs by the white officers of that arch hypocrite, Leopold II of Belgium, because of whose atrocities they had fled the Congo Free State," so extra points for that. But otherwise, this is one dated racist, sexist, white-supremacist story.
Still…have to admit it was kinda fun, and not what I was expecting - or at least not what I'd learned from watching various Tarzan movies over the years. The whole "his parents were shipwrecked" story? Nope - abandoned there by pirates; and then a totally different set of pirates some twenty years later abandon Jane Porter and Tarzan's actual cousin in the EXACT SAME SPOT - just one of many totally unbelievable events, (which also includes Tarzan's not only teaching himself to read and write from a dictionary and a few picture books, but then also figuring out how to spell "T-A-R-Z-A-N" even though he had no idea what letters sounded like).
Also, the story ends in…Wisconsin? Did NOT see that coming; nor did I see the big cliff-hanger ending, (which also gets points for being so totally unexpected). And yeah, people did act weird back then, with goofy ideas about honor and class and manners and "betrothal promises," to the point where I started thinking that I'd probably prefer living in the jungle, too…
Anyway, glad I read it but definitely won't be reading more…although I DO really recommend the movie - at least the latest one, and okay, probably the Disney version as well, if only for the Phil Collins songs and Mark Mancina score…although what's with Disney naming the bad guy in their version "Clayton"? I mean, that was Tarzan's name - seriously, how messed up is that?
[image] (Tarzan then and now - someone's been hitting the gym!) __________________________________
THIS EDITION: Have to mention that this "Signet Classics" version is one odd and ugly bird. Originally published in 1999, it inexplicably includes an introduction written by Gore Vidal way back in 1963 (which compares Tarzan to his "contemporaries," James Bond and Mike Hammer); this 2008 updated edition then also includes a somewhat-more-relevant afterword by Michael Meyer, (a professor of English at the University of Connecticut). As to the book's design…it isn't so much minimalist as non-existent; the combination of that ugly green and unkerned type (the "T" in "Tarzan" and "A" in "Ape" are way too far off), probably makes this the least attractive Tarzan of all 3,400+ editions listed on GR. But hey, that's the one the library had, so that's the one I read. Still - almost took a star off for the complete lack of effort on Signet's part, since there are probably few stories out there with more inherent visual potential :(...more
I thought that after enjoying the dumb/fun movie “The Meg” and frankly looking forward to the dumb/fun sequel, this book (on which the first film was I thought that after enjoying the dumb/fun movie “The Meg” and frankly looking forward to the dumb/fun sequel, this book (on which the first film was apparently based) might be dumb fun too. Well, it certainly was pretty dumb - but definitely not fun.
Strongest impression: I cannot recall anywhere a more consistently unappealing cast of scuzzball characters - and in particular, more horrifically rendered women…does he not know any?
Horrible characters aside (who you quickly come to hope ALL get eaten), the shark bits - once they started - were pretty entertaining…for a while. But even those soon became repetitive; a giant indestructible shark can only chomp so many people, sink so many boats, and even blow up so many helicopters before one becomes inured to the whole thing. And finally, to top things off narrator Sean Runnette had a fairly strong case “S-retraction,” where his S’s inconsistently sounded like SH’s; and so the whole story sounded like it was being read to me by Austin Powers’ Dutch nemesis, “Goldmember.”
Alten seems to have done his research in a B-level Crichton/Benchley sort of way, to the point where he has apparently written at least six more books in the “Meg” series - so good for him. But for me, this one was more than enough.
I’m still going to see the second movie, though.
(RANDOM NOTES: My favorite GR comment from a friend’s review was that this book should be taken as a drinking game, where you take a shot every time the author writes “whale blubber” - wish I’d read that earlier!)...more
First read this (and saw the Academy Award-winning movie) nearly 50 years ago, but then recently saw my son in a community theatre production down in First read this (and saw the Academy Award-winning movie) nearly 50 years ago, but then recently saw my son in a community theatre production down in New Market, Virginia (where he played Charlie's father) and was surprised by how much I had forgotten, and so thought i'd revisit the book.
While the larger story of Charlie Gordon is as touching and ultimately tragic as ever, parts of it haven't aged particularly well. The frequent use of "retard" and "moron" by the scientists themselves is jarring to today's ear; Charlie's rather bizarre explorations of his burgeoning sexuality seemed (to me at least) overly melodramatic if not downright bizarre; and the whole middle section seemed to be more preachy than dramatic.
But with the entire book presented as Charlie's self-written "progress reports," the first section where he morphs from a severely handicapped young man to a full on genius is well-handled, and then the final section where he loses it all again is genuinely heart-breaking. So while I don't feel this has held up as well as other books of that period dealing with similar subjects (I'm thinking right now of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest), it probably still deserves its standing as a genuine classic. And so I'm leaving my original 4-star rating (based solely on my half-century-old memories) rather than drop it down to the 3 stars it probably more realistically deserves.
Merged review:
First read this (and saw the Academy Award-winning movie) nearly 50 years ago, but then recently saw my son in a community theatre production down in New Market, Virginia (where he played Charlie's father) and was surprised by how much I had forgotten, and so thought i'd revisit the book.
While the larger story of Charlie Gordon is as touching and ultimately tragic as ever, parts of it haven't aged particularly well. The frequent use of "retard" and "moron" by the scientists themselves is jarring to today's ear; Charlie's rather bizarre explorations of his burgeoning sexuality seemed (to me at least) overly melodramatic if not downright bizarre; and the whole middle section seemed to be more preachy than dramatic.
But with the entire book presented as Charlie's self-written "progress reports," the first section where he morphs from a severely handicapped young man to a full on genius is well-handled, and then the final section where he loses it all again is genuinely heart-breaking. So while I don't feel this has held up as well as other books of that period dealing with similar subjects (I'm thinking right now of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest), it probably still deserves its standing as a genuine classic. And so I'm leaving my original 4-star rating (based solely on my half-century-old memories) rather than drop it down to the 3 stars it probably more realistically deserves....more
Definitely flawed, with too much repetitive dialogue and WAY too much Thomas the Tank Engine, and the last 40 pages are particularly dumb. But still, Definitely flawed, with too much repetitive dialogue and WAY too much Thomas the Tank Engine, and the last 40 pages are particularly dumb. But still, good solid stupid fun, summed up best by the Washington Post as "Tarantino meets the Coen Brothers."
I think it helped that I had seen the movie first, so could put faces to characters, who here are largely indistinguishable (at least physically) Japanese gangsters, (although one does wear glasses). Will definitely watch again as soon as it hits Netflix next week, as I think there are some major plot differences - especially with the ending.
3+ for the book itself, but rounding up considerably for its success as source material for the much better movie, (despite the iffy critical reviews)....more
Not much to say here that hasn't already been said - if you're already up to Book 6, then you're already an "Expanse" groupie. But I will make a few rNot much to say here that hasn't already been said - if you're already up to Book 6, then you're already an "Expanse" groupie. But I will make a few random comments on things I found interesting, writing-wise:
- Unlike the earlier books, all of which were told through the voices of just four rotating characters-per-story, this book was the first to feature at least a dozen different character viewpoints. While this may have been necessary due to the complexity of the plot itself, I also think it was most likely a conscious decision in order to emphasize just how "galactic" in scope this latest story was.
- I really enjoy Corey's occasional cultural or "real world" references. In this book, as just a throwaway they mention the colony ship "the Mark Watney," a nice nod to Matt Damon's character in "The Martian." And of course, in the past two seasons of the Amazon TV show, the "Razorback" (Julie Mao's "Transplanetary Racing pinnace") features a row of graphic silhouette's down its side, which is a direct expansion on the similar silhouettes that run down the spine of Virgin Galactic's "SpaceShipTwo," except that they drop the lunar lander and add both "the Expanse's" original Epstein ship and the Razorback itself (see comparison below):
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- I also like the idea (only realized when someone else noted it in a review) that these books have been written in pairs; i.e., Leviathan Wakes and Caliban's War basically tell the story of the protomolecule; Abaddon's Gate and Cibolla Burn tell the story of the ring gate and outer planets; and then Nemesis Games and Babylon's Games tell the story of the war against the Belters. How did I not see this??
- One (and only) minor complaint: much like Rick Grimes in Robert Kirkman's orginal Walking Dead (the books, not the show), James Holden comes across as just a little too saintly here...but maybe that's just the fate of heroes everywhere; to rarely come across as interesting or complex as the bad guys.
- And finally, I happen to also be reading David Bonavia's China's Warlords, and I was struck by the similarities between the warlords and the various Belter chieftains, with their stab-you-in-the-back shifting alliances; always enjoy when these little synchronicities pop up…
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And just binged Amazon's final "The Expanse," and it was GREAT!! Too short of course, with too much crammed in so that as with pretty much the whole series, if you haven't read the books you're gonna be pretty confused...but right up to the end, this remained one of the best scifi shows on TV.
So...while there are three more books in the series, both the show and this book ended in a good place; and so I will give myself a decent break before I return for any of those. However, right now I also want to jump back in and revisit Memory's Legion, which collects all the Expanse peripheral stories, including a pair that bookend Babylon's Ashes....more
Got off to a real 5-star start with the first chapter, but then drove straight off a cliff. Heinlein does a great job of imagining interplanetary combGot off to a real 5-star start with the first chapter, but then drove straight off a cliff. Heinlein does a great job of imagining interplanetary combat and future mil-tech, literally dropping us into a raid on an alien city of humanoid "Skinnies" - but then after 20 pages he leaps back in time to waste 100+ pages telling the excruciating story of Johnny Rico's journey from rich kid to trained "M.I." (Mobile Infantryman). After that, there's another chapter of combat - finally against the more famous "Bugs" - but then he quickly sends Johnny back to school - specifically Officer Candidate's School - for another endless section, only returning to war in the last 40 pages.
This book is considered "controversial" (says so right on the cover), but I'm not really sure why. It's fiction, so the author is allowed to choose whatever POV he wants - neo-Fascist, pro-corporal punishment, apparently racist (although in what war have we not demonized and insulted our enemies?); but much less than controversial, I just found it BORING. I ended up skipping large chunks of the OCS section, in which Heinlein apparently flogs his own views on society, politics, the military…not really sure whatall because, you know, skipped large chunks. But every time I did check back in and read a few paragraphs, it was just a real snooze fest.
Would have been better if Heinlein had spent less time preaching and more time, I dunno, plotting - as there is precious little real story here, much less any back story. Why did the Bugs decide to attack humans in the first place; why were the Skinnies allied to the Bugs rather than their more human relatives? And how the hell did the spider-like Bugs develop space travel technology in the first place?? I mean - where are the opposable thumbs??
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Anyway.
This book was certainly influential (or so says Wiki and many other reviews), as it was apparently one of the first real military-based sci-fi novels. Certainly Bobbie Draper's Goliath armor and fighting style in "The Expanse" is a direct descendant of Heinlein's powered armor; and his overall "war against weird aliens" led directly to future - and far better - books like Max Barry's 2021 Providence. But just because I appreciate something for being groundbreaking, that doesn't mean I have to enjoy it in and of itself, (I'm also looking at you, original "Mad Max" movie, as well as - dare I say it? - The Beatles).
The only good news, I guess, is that at least I'm NOT tempted to watch the movie…...more
UPDATE: Wow...so just finished Season 5 of "The Expanse," and they did their usual oustanding job (with a few MAJOR changes from the book). HOWEVER - UPDATE: Wow...so just finished Season 5 of "The Expanse," and they did their usual oustanding job (with a few MAJOR changes from the book). HOWEVER - and I cannot stress this enough - if you go into the show without first reading the book, you will probably be way confused...
ORIGINAL REVIEW: Know I've gotten in trouble for saying this elsewhere,* but if I have the time to read 500 pages, it ain't going to be some "wait, I can explain…" political BS from the likes of Bill Barr or Kellyanne Conway - no sir, I'm heading straight back to "The Expanse"!
On top of which, I've also finally gotten Amazon Prime, so wanted to read this before I got into Season 5 of what is one of the best shows on TV, (are these things still called "TV shows"?). Anyway - can't really say anything about the story that's not said better in other reviews, but this was an excellent follow-up to Cibola Burns, bringing the action firmly back into our own solar system after a first trippy adventure beyond the rings. I will add that this is (I think) the first book where the four narrators are the four leads and crew of the Roci, Holden, Naomi, Alex and Amos; as well as the first without Miller, (not that he couldn't reappear in later books).
Probably won't revisit this until I'm ready to watch Season 6 - and have no idea how they're going to wrap up the final four books in just six final episodes - but they'll done well by Corey so far, so doubt they will disappoint.
* Feel free to read my review of Barr's One Damn Thing After Another and the following mixed bag of comments https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... - apparently (and among so many other things) I'm a trash person! :)...more
SECOND UPDATE: Having recently finished Persepolis Rising, I returned here mainly for "Auberon," which is another Empire-based story that takes place SECOND UPDATE: Having recently finished Persepolis Rising, I returned here mainly for "Auberon," which is another Empire-based story that takes place some time after Persepolis. And it was really good - Corey has always done a great job making even his villains well-rounded, morally-conflicted and even sympathetic characters, and he does so again here. He also links in other minor characters from a range of previous material - Singh, Cortazar, Overstreet, even a lovely surprise return from "The Churn" - so that when I was done with this story, I went back and reread a few of the others, particularly "Strange Dogs" (which I didn't remember being set on Laconia, and which includes some vital background on Singh and Duarte) and "The Vital Abyss" (Cortazar and Michio Pa), just to see how well-crafted all these stories are in pulling together bits and pieces from other stories and books.
Probably my biggest personal problem is that I've stretched out reading The Expanse for well over a decade - first read Leviathan Wakes way back in 2011 - so I've either forgotten some of the characters and their backstories, or get them confused with their often-different TV versions. However, reading or rereading these stories (and checking The Expanse's character wiki pages) has helped pull it all together. There's still one more story here - "The Sins of Our Fathers" - but I think I have to finish the last two doorstop novels first; so will be a while before I can actually move this book from my "will-get-back-to" list to just "read" :)
Anyway...in light of this latest story - and a heightened appreciation of The Expanse's "bigger picture," am upping to 4 stars.
FIRST UPDATE: Just finished Babylon's Ashes and the final season of Amazon's excellent "The Expanse," so revisited this to read two more stories that bookend Ashes - "The Vital Abyss" and "Strange Dogs."
- "Abyss" (set before Ashes) gets off to a slow, "Squid Games" kinda start, and then spends too long in a fairly boring character backstory. But it picks up (and becomes almost a prequel to the original Leviathan Wakes) when it finally discusses the early days of the protomolecule's discovery and misuses.
- "Strange Dogs" turned out to be the slightly "huh??" pre-credits story that kicks off every episode of Amazon's Season 6 - so not a bad story at all, but if you've seen the show there's really no reason to read this story, because they are frickin' identical.
So overall - still holding steady at a solid 3 stars.
ORIGINAL REVIEW: Getting ready to read Nemesis Games and then watch Season 5, but thought I should read at least those stories here that lead up to Nemesis. Turns out three of the stories - "Drive," "Butcher of Anderson Station" and "The Churn" take place even before the events of Leviathan Wakes (although for some reason "Churn" is the fourth story in the book), while "Gods of Risk" takes place between Caliban's War and Abaddon's Gate.
Also turns out that at least the gist of the events in "Drive" and "Butcher" were included as flashbacks in Seasons 1 and 2, and all of "Gods" became at least a part of Bobbie's story back on Mars throughout Season 4. And now that I know Amos goes back to Baltimore in Season 5, I'm curious whether they incorporate part of his "Churn" background here.
"The Churn" was definitely the best of the stories here, and well worth listening to separately as an audiobook (which I had done previously). Now that I'm caught up, I'll probably revisit the remaining stories at the right time as I read through the next couple of books....more
Like a lot of people, I only heard of this book as the source for M. Night Shyamalan's latest movie "Old." However, while telling much of the same stoLike a lot of people, I only heard of this book as the source for M. Night Shyamalan's latest movie "Old." However, while telling much of the same story, the book really read more like a rough, unfinished film treatment than a full story in itself. So many things pop up and are left unexplained - for example, who the hell is Jose running out from what hotel, and why are people shooting at him, only to have that never referenced again? - and then the book ends so suddenly that there's literally a half hour of movie from there on out that actually includes, I dunno, a plot and an ending.
Unlike some other reviewers, the sex in the story didn't bother me - you can see from the cover that this isn't a kid's book. And speaking of the cover, I kind of liked it, in an unsettling, Dali-esque way. And it was only much later that I realized the illustration was printed upside-down, and looks much less haunting seen this way:
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Anyway, as a former graphic designer, thought this was a very simple way to get a pretty creepy result - and so a third start just for that. (Oh, BTW - the movie was actually not bad; certainly no "Signs," but definitely no "After Earth" either - just nicely somewhere in the middle, and well worth a watch.)...more
Read this version to my sons when they were small...maybe early 2000s? Not bad, as I recall, but nothing amazing and throughout Bilbo looks either druRead this version to my sons when they were small...maybe early 2000s? Not bad, as I recall, but nothing amazing and throughout Bilbo looks either drunk or mentally dim. Still, the boys seemed to enjoy it…
Decent continuation of - and even literary improvement on - the original story, although it doesn't complete the tale as I had expected - apparently tDecent continuation of - and even literary improvement on - the original story, although it doesn't complete the tale as I had expected - apparently there's a third book as well, (which our library doesn't have, so that may never happened - especially based on the many 1-2 star reviews which list that as the worst of the series).
As both this and the "Killing Eve" TV show came out in 2018, I'm not sure if the show is based on this book, or the book was actually written as a novelization of the show…in any case, these two books (and I imagine the third) only tell the story from the show's first season - and as the show is currently wrapping its fourth (and final) season, BBC AMERICA obviously took this much farther than Jennings' original creation.
PERSONAL NOTE: My main issue here was with the frequent lesbian sex - not that I'm a prude, but I'm always a bit uncomfortable when male writers write such scenes. While not overly graphic, as someone who doesn't have many lesbian friends - or at least ones I can openly discuss such things with - I never know if these are accurate and/or sensitive portrayals, or more a male fantasy of what such relationships are like. I mean, I'm even uncomfortable just writing this paragraph…
Oh, and one more thing: Also just watched HBO's "The Tourist," which had another female cop whose husband/fiancé told her to either quit her job and be "a normal wife" or he was gone. Is this just a common literary device to open up female protagonists for romantic possibilities, or are men in general that selfish and unsupportive??...more
Obviously didn't exactly "read," but listened to all the radio plays back when they was first broadcast in the last '70s, and then bought the CDs to lObviously didn't exactly "read," but listened to all the radio plays back when they was first broadcast in the last '70s, and then bought the CDs to listen to with my sons in the early 2000s.
The books are generally outstanding, but can't help but fade a little bit as the series goes on - impossible to maintain the level of freshness found in the first 2-3 books. And these radio dramas are equally wonderful, with spot-on character voices that my kids still mimic nearly 20 years on.
Find and listen to these if you can (despite being called "complete," this package only contains the Primary and Secondary Phases; the others are all available separately) - you will not be disappointed....more
Have read a half dozen or so other "Quiller" books, so when I saw that Hoopla had this first story, I figured I should give it a listen to see how QuiHave read a half dozen or so other "Quiller" books, so when I saw that Hoopla had this first story, I figured I should give it a listen to see how Quiller got started.
Well, this wasn't bad, but it was a very different Quiller. First, it is not a Cold War story, but is one of the earlier "let's round up those remaining Nazi" books like, say, Marathon Man. As such, it's not really a spy story, but almost a detective story, with Quiller working together with the German police. There were some common Quiller elements here - in particular, a LOT of car and foot surveillance (including the obligatory car chase that ends in flames) - but otherwise, I have to say this was just very different from Hall's subsequent books, and as such not really much of an indicator of what was to come.
I also realized here that, much like James Bond, Quiller is apparently immortal. This story is set in 1965, and has Quiller remembering his experiences during WWII. So assuming we was a young 18 in 1945 (although he was probably older), he was already at least 35 in this story - which would put him in his late-60s by his final book in 1996. I haven't read any of the last few books, so not sure if Hall was writing in real time, but I do believe Quiller Bamboo (1991) takes place in a post-Tiananmen China - i.e., after 1989 - and so Quiller would have been at least late-50s by then. I therefore found it mildly amusing that this book ends with Quiller's rumination that "I must be getting old. Getting old." Because, well…apparently not.
Back to the whole Nazis thing - this takes place a full 20 years after the end of the war, and yet the West was apparently still worried that surviving Nazi elements might somehow rise back into power. I therefore couldn't help mentally comparing this to our current situation here in the U.S., where it is all-too-depressingly feasible that our own far-right, proto-Fascist fringe that continues to worship at the alter of Donald Trump might continue to be a threat to American democracy two decades hence...a most unsettling thought...
FINAL NOTE: This book was also the basis of the one and only Quiller movie, 1965's "The Quiller Memorandum." It is available in full on Youtube, but PLEASE don't waste your time - it is just awful. No action, Quiller is an American no less, and rather than being introspective, intense and deadly, he is just kind of smarmy and feckless. Two big thumbs down!!...more
If anything, this follow-up to Slow Horses is even better than the original, since there's less need for backstory, and so we can get right to the stoIf anything, this follow-up to Slow Horses is even better than the original, since there's less need for backstory, and so we can get right to the story. This time around, Herron's crew of MI5 outcasts dive even deeper into John le Carré territory, with a complicated plot combining Russian oligarchs, a Cold War sleeper cell and the same sly-and-dry British humor that made Slow Horses such an unexpected delight.
The only problem with these books is that I can probably read them faster than Herron can write them, so I'm going to have to pace myself here better than I did with the Murderbot series!...more
Just bloody brilliant. Cleverly plotted, beautifully written (especially Herron's wry narrative style and snappy yet believable dialogue*), Slow HorseJust bloody brilliant. Cleverly plotted, beautifully written (especially Herron's wry narrative style and snappy yet believable dialogue*), Slow Horses reads like an episode of "Mission: Impossible," if the diversely-skilled M:I team was composed solely of career fuckups, and led by Austin Powers' "Fat Bastard" instead of Tom Cruise.
Herron brings a very John le Carré vibe to Britain's MI-5 (which - I think - is more their equivalent of our FBI; while MI-6 is their CIA), so this is a combo crime and espionage thriller, with a totally unique "not-even-quite-B-Team" spin.
The only potential flaw here is that, given the need to really understand the background of both Slough House itself and its misfit inhabitants, there is a fair bit of backstory to get through before the actual plot kicks in. However, since this is the first in a still-growing series of "Slough House" stories (7 so far, with an 8th coming out next year), I imagine things kick off a little quicker in subsequent books - which I will certainly be reading, if not necessarily right away. * A couple of choice and oh-so-telling descriptions of his (eventually) lovable cast of losers:
"Moody didn't expect to be liked. Even before he'd been assigned to Slough House, he'd probably had fewer friends than fists."
"A short list of suspects wouldn't have been hard to draw up. Lamb had made enemies over the years. Lamb, to be frank, had made enemies over the days - it never took him long."
"She was two floors above, and out of sight, she was easy to forget. Actually, standing in front of you she was easy to forget."
"He resembled, someone once remarked, Timothy Spall gone to seed, which left open the question of what Timothy Spall not gone to seed might look like, but painted an accurate picture nonetheless." (Google British actor Spall, if you don't know him)
"Her hair was still blonde, but only when you got close, and nobody ever got close."
"Unwisely he sported a goatee he stroked constantly, as if checking it remained attached."
And a couple of other perfect snarky moments:
"I hate to interrupt," a suit said. The almost audible rolling of multiple pairs of eyes suggested that wasn't entirely true.
"Are you alone?" she asked. He spread his arms as if to measure the stupidity of her question....more
Probably just three stars for the book itself, but at least one more for the excellent Tom Hanks film adaptation, "Greyhound." Said it before but I'llProbably just three stars for the book itself, but at least one more for the excellent Tom Hanks film adaptation, "Greyhound." Said it before but I'll say it again - short books make the best movies, because they get to actually add things in - extra scenes, action, character development - rather than have to take things out, which is why most full-length books end up being better than their film versions.*
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I'm not normally into ship stories - never read Hornblower, have no interest in the whole Aubrey/Maturin bromance - but I watched the movie a week or so ago and then just had to read the book. I'm surprised it's not mentioned in more reviews, but I thought the story - if not the way it was told - was so similar to Alistair MacLean's classic (and better) HMS Ulysses - both stories about convoys in the North Atlantic, both written in 1955, (although unlike MacLean, Forester never actually served in the Navy). The main difference is that Shepherd focuses on the thoughts and actions of one man, while the protagonist of Ulysses is the convoy itself. Also, Ulysses frankly packs a lot more action - many other reviewers have dinged Shepherd for getting boring and repetitive as the story goes on - but I personally think that might have been intentional; that Forester wanted to emphasize the repetition and tedium that accompanied the occasional bursts of action and panic.
Oh, one thing I found kind of fun, literaturgically-wise (?). Chapter 1 begins on page 1; Chapter 2 begins on page 7; and Chapter 3 begins on page 253 and ends on page 257. Which reminds me of something I was taught in art school - you can break the rules, but first you have to learn the rules. There are rules in writing - novels, screenplays, etc. - like "chapters should be of roughly equal length," blah-blah-blah; and you need to learn and understand them. But then - go nuts, experiment, break them...but intentionally, and for a reason. Anyway - just a nice creative touch, IMHO.
And also anyway - very good book, very glad I discovered it...and now I'm ready to watch the movie again!
*Another perfect Tom Hanks example in his very next movie, the excellent adaptation of the even shorter "News of the World."...more
For a guy who writes short books, George Higgins isn't afraid to waste space. He's spend two pages talking about the right (and wrong) way to make a cFor a guy who writes short books, George Higgins isn't afraid to waste space. He's spend two pages talking about the right (and wrong) way to make a cheese sandwich, or three pages discussing what a nice guy the (totally unimportant to the story) porn dealer is. And yet it is such diversions that make his stories so real.
He is most famous (and rightfully so) for his dialogue, which rings true because here too he never goes for the obvious, move-the-story-forward response, but instead lets his characters ramble, dissemble, contradict themselves. Where another writer might just say "no" in response to the question "that gonna be a problem?," Higgins gives us this:
"I don't know. I'm waiting to hear. Maybe not. Hell, how do you know? It comes, it comes. You take it the way it comes. I don't know."
Higgins is often compared to Elmore Leonard, and so it's only fitting that Leonard wrote the introduction to this edition, which he ends with the statement: "During the past twenty years, his name and mine have appeared together in the press - often in the same sentence - some 178 times. I'm honored."
He should be. MOVIE NOTE: So turns out the 1973 Robert Mitchum film (which came out only three years after publication) was available on Kanopy, and so I watched that within hours of finishing the book. Despite it's 100% on Rotten Tomatoes - the last of a full six Mitchum movies to do so! - and virtually all of the dialogue being lifted straight from the book, the whole thing was slow and dated and also pretty damn confusing (or it would've been if I hadn't just read the book). But most disappointing was that they totally changed the ending as far as who was really screwing who. And so while this early genre movie may have had a big influence on heist films to follow, nearly half a century later I'd say you should feel free to give it a miss.
Amazingly, however, Coyle was Higgins' only book filmed during his lifetime, with the only other story turned into a movie being Brad Pitt's excellent 2012 "Killing Them Softly," which was based on Higgins' Cogan's Trade - and filmed a full 39 years after publication! While those are the only two Higgins' I've read so far, if the rest are as good as these two then Hollywood definitely needs to rediscover this guy, and fast....more
Long before he became "the train guy," Paul Theroux was a novelist, writing books about messed-up Americans abroad lMan, did this bring back memories…
Long before he became "the train guy," Paul Theroux was a novelist, writing books about messed-up Americans abroad like The Jungle Lovers, The Mosquito Coast and Saint Jack. And while I don't have first-hand experience in - and so can't really comment on - Africa or Central America, I can say that his take on Singapore and its expat community in the early '70s is spot on.
Other than a couple months touring Southeast Asia playing guitar for a Taiwanese pop star in 1980, pretty much all of my experience from 1978-1993 was in Taipei, but at least in those early days it was much the same as the Singapore described here. I knew Jack Flowers; I knew a dozen Jack Flowers - guys who'd stayed on after Vietnam or even Korea; a mix of burned-out combat vets and (at least initially) optimistic entrepreneurial types who either started their own business or ended up working for some local company as the in-house gweilo, making enough to survive on the local economy but rarely enough to ever let them move - much less retire - back home, and spending way-too-many evenings in Taipei's equivalents of Flowers' "Bandung" bar, (faux-Western places like "The Ploughman's Pub" and "The Hope & Anchor" - better known as "The Hopeless Wanker").
As to Singapore itself, a later career did take me back there from 2013-15, when it was a TOTALLY different place from the one Theroux describes here. But I did have that one month there in 1980 - playing two shows a night but with my days totally free - just seven years after Jack was published, and so that is the fondly-remembered Singapore of my misspent youth: back when the big tourist attractions were the totally-WTF? "Tiger Balm Gardens" (look it up), the "XX Days Without an Accident" crocodile farm, and the transvestite charms of Bugis Street (which in my innocence, I long thought was "Boogie Street"); back when the War Memorial really was on "the very edge of the island" (as Jack notes on the last page of the book), decades before the government reclaimed all that land and built the God-awful "Marina Bay Sands" casino resort, so that the famous Merlion now looks out across a paltry tourist lagoon instead of the endless entirety of the Singapore Straits…
Anyway…a 4-star story but a 10-star trip down memory lane, so a really good time, at least for me. BTW, you can also watch the entire Ben Gazzara film version here on Youtube, filmed entirely in Singapore in 1978 and so almost exactly the city I remember: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fxbfz...
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("Look, mom, I made the paper!" - not exactly rockin' out in Chinatown, lol) ___________________________
Huh...and so reading through my old Taiwan diaries recently with my wife, it looks like I actually read this back in 1979, although didn't remember it AT ALL when I read it (again, apparently) a year of so ago. Huh....more
Not the best in the series, but I am still amazed by Corey's ability to tell each story solely through the points of view of four characters (differenNot the best in the series, but I am still amazed by Corey's ability to tell each story solely through the points of view of four characters (different for each book), so strong technical points just for that.* Of course, the downside of this is that many of the characters you enjoyed in a previous book may not be in the next - or any other - one, and so you have to be prepared to love 'em and leave 'em.
As with the previous two books in the series, I found it VERY helpful to both read the book and watch the comparable TV season at the same time, as despite diverging in a number of ways, the combination of the two really made the whole plot much easier to follow. That said, I did have a few gripes with Season 4.** Since the show has moved to Amazon, the DVD for some reason no longer includes closed captions, and so with the various "space accents" used, I found it really hard to follow some of the dialogue. Also, the TV show this season devoted a LOT of time to the characters of Bobby, Avasarala, Ashford and Drummer (none of whom really appear in this book); which would have been okay except that to make room for them, the writers had to cut much of the real plot from the book, including both the whole character of Havelock (one of the four main "narrators," so kind of a key guy), as well as Naomi's whole "adventure" aboard the Edward Israel, (no details provided here, as that would be a major spoiler).***
The book itself hits a slow patch for nearly 100 pages (roughly 300-400); but then picks up again for a strong finish, (if slightly derivative of not only The Lord of the Rings and Robopocalypse, but also the last "Matrix" movie) - so do keep reading it you get discouraged. But all that said, still a solid 3 and change that I'm rounding up to 4 based on the book/show combo.
* Well, I think just two in the first book - Holden and Miller; but then Holden, Bobbie, Prax and Avasarala in Caliban's War; Holden, Anna, Melba and Bull in Abaddon's Gate; and now Holden, Elvi, Basia and Havelock in Cibola. And even more impressive is the fact that other than Holden, none of those voices belong to the main recurring characters in each book - the Rocinante's crew of Alex, Naomi and Amos - and so their evolving and fully-fleshed out stories are constantly being told through their interaction with the various "narrators"...again; just an impressive feat of literary virtuosity.
** That said, one thing the show gets better than the book is the character of Amos. While his personality is the same in both, the book describes him as a large, shaven-headed guy who reminds people of a very large baby, whereas Wes Chatham's portrayal will always be THE classic Amos:
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*** The original "Edward Israel" was a little-known 19th century astronomer and member of the ill-fated "Lady Franklin Bay Polar Expedition," (1881-1884). When the expedition's resupply ship failed to arrive, the team survived only due to Israel's ability to guide them by the stars. Sadly, Israel himself did not survive - he was just 24 - and so other than an historical marker erected in 1972 at his grave in Kalamazoo, this fictional ship may be his most lasting legacy. Coincidentally (or most likely not), that expedition was led by one Adolphus Greely - and as any follower of "The Expanse" knows, the head of THIS ill-fated Edward Israel expedition is named Adolphus Murtry.
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