A Shot At Books

"Portrait of a Spy" by Daniel Silva

2011-12-21T20:36:00.000-08:00

This is a book in the series dealing with the "legendary" Israeli spy Gabriel Alon. The book reads fairly well, though the action is a bit slow.

The only fault I found with this book is the main character and the actual "spying" operations. The character is weird, to say the least, and absolutely impossible. The operational planing and execution are as weird and unlikely.

Towards the end of the book the unlikely becomes silly and irritating.

I don't believe in bellyaching spies that despite their bellyaching remain in the business for many years and are good at what they do. I believe even less in spies and secret operatives that fight terrorists and rely on their enemies kindness, stupidity or simple chance for survival. Simple common sense tells me that people like this can't survive for very long in the business of hunting terrorists and dangerous criminals.

The Israeli intelligence services made some stupid mistakes but they never repeated them and always seem to have learned the lessons and corrected the deficiencies. The main character in Silva's books seems to do the same stupid things time after time - very annoying.

"Hitler's War" by Harry Turtledove

2011-05-25T14:23:00.000-07:00

This is actually a trilogy of which I read the first two books: "Hitler's War" and "West and East". The premise is simple: what if Chamberlain and Deladier refuse Hitler's demands at the Munich conference?

As opposed to other Turtledove books where historic personalities have a major role in the story and keep doing things that are out of character in this story we meet historic personalities only in the fist chapters that set up the basic situation.

Turtledove makes some assumptions which go against my understanding of plausible historical behavior and also deviates from actual historical events that actually happened in 1938 - like the defeat of the Japanese Kwantung army by the Soviets. I also, for example, don't see Stalin declaring war on Germany in 1938, together with France and Britain, and doing his best to help Czechoslovakia. Putting these things aside the story is plausible enough.

Turtledove's story telling is somewhat muddled. Using only rank and file participant's view makes some of the events less than clear. I can see why the author chose this style: he evades the need to explain why strategic decisions were made the way they unfold or even explain what is going on in the big picture. This is a weakness since some of these decisions make no sense and without a wider view leave the reader frustrated.

All in all it's not a bad series of books and I'm looking forward to reading the third one in the trilogy.

“Life and Fate” by Vasily Grossman

2011-05-02T09:50:00.000-07:00

The way this book came to light in the West is an interesting story: Grossman finished the manuscript in 1960 and submitted it for publication in the naive belief that the “new” Soviet state (after Stalin) will approve it. Not only was publication refused, but the KGB confiscated all copies, including those he gave to friends. As far as is known these were destroyed. One of the friends photographed his copy of the manuscript and smuggled the film to the West long after the author’s death in 1964. The current book is a translation made from this only surviving source.

I liked this book, though it’s sometimes a hard read – sort of like Tolstoy’s “War and Peace”. The writer was the second most respected and famous Soviet war correspondent during the Second World War with Ilya Ehrenburg being the first.

“Life and Fate” continues a previous book: “For a Good Cause” but I enjoyed reading it without reading the previous one. It describes events in the Soviet Union in the period of the battle of Stalingrad and immediately after – the winter of 1942-1943.

This is not a history book, rather it deals with the fate of the members of a single extended family, their friends and relatives.

“Life and Fate” touches on the brutality of the Soviet regime, the Holocaust – both the one perpetrated by the Nazis and the one almost perpetrated by the Soviets, and on the workings of Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia.

The writing is very good, especially taking into account that the author never had the opportunity to edit and correct his creation. In fact it is so good that the book is depressing in its engrossing description of oppression and hopelessness.

A good and educational read for anybody interested in the history of the second World War, the Soviet Union, Germany and the Holocaust. All presented as a novel and from a very personal perspective. Don’t miss the translator’s introduction.

“Dayworld” by Philip Jose Farmer

2011-05-01T21:28:00.000-07:00

Farmer has a strange and creative imagination, but in this case he created something so unlikely that I had to work very hard to suspend disbelief.

Would you believe that people everywhere will voluntarily agree to live only one day a week? I think that the number of cheaters would be so high as to make the system unworkable. After you get over this hump, the book is enjoyable. As always with Farmer, there is a lot of action and stuff going on not a dull moment.

I wonder whether he intended this book as a sort of warning. Not as forceful as Orwell’s "1984″ but a warning nevertheless. I had this thought while reading the book. The basic assumption seems extremely implausible, but who knows? In any case, I enjoyed the book.

Of course, not everybody agrees with me. A good example is at http://www.pjfarmer.com/reviews.htm#dayw

“The Final Theory” by Mark Alpert

2011-05-01T21:26:00.000-07:00

Mr. Alpert definitely knows how to write an action thriller. If you don’t analyze the action too much (and why would you?) this is a gripping book. Things happen all the time.

Now to the bad news: the FBI are a bunch of evil idiots all of them, no exceptions, the Vice President is an imbecile and the Secretary of Defense is so stupid that it is surprising he can find his way to the bathroom and even more surprising that he knows what to do once he gets there. On the other hand, the Russian SPECNAZ mercenary is the smartest and most violent person alive at least as far as fooling the FBI goes and can do anything with impunity. He is also thoroughly crazy.

The day (and the world) is saved, eventually.

An amusing book and also not a bad introduction to some physics. I liked it over all, despite the strange stupidity of everything American. One thing bothered me: it seems that the author shares his characters’ opinion that some scientific discoveries should be suppressed for our own good.

I enjoyed reading this book.

“Havana Harbor” by Martin Cruz Smith

2011-05-01T21:25:00.000-07:00

The author of "Gorky Park" brings back the Russian investigator Arkady Renko. This time he is in Havana trying to figure out the death of his friend (and worst enemy) another Russian that worked for the Russian government in Cuba.

Renko is, like always, dogged, suicidal and not too smart. The author conveys very well the strange environment of Castro’s Cuba with unexpected, or perhaps just surprising to Renko, twists and turns.

The book is somewhat depressing in vividly describing an environment without hope or a way out. It is a good read and though not as easy to read as some other detective stories it is informative and, at times, gripping.

All in all I highly recommend this book.

“Moscow Rules” by Daniel Silva

2011-05-01T21:23:00.000-07:00

Silva adds another adventure to the continuing saga of his protagonist: Israeli intelligence agent Gabriel Alon. The book is well written and is both gripping and informative.

I was slightly annoyed by Silva’s neglect of checking the correct spelling and pronunciation of Russian words and names. If you don’t know Russian it will not bother you.

Another small gripe: the protagonist seems to have a death wish, which is OK, but he also is somewhat sloppy in his operational planning which is strange as he is endangering others besides himself. These things do happen in real life but agents that don’t plan on contingencies usually don’t survive as long in this business as Alon has survived. This is minor gripe. I can see how Silva had to use the Deus Ex Machina solution to resolve the problem he had with the ending of the book. If Alon was a better planner this would not have been necessary but would also remove a lot of the suspense. I may be wrong and the unexpected intervention may be Silva’s way of keeping hope alive.

On another note: I completely agree with Alon’s (and by extension Silva’s) evaluation of Russia. It was confirmed after the book was published and will likely escalate. Read the book to see what I am talking about.

Highly recommended.

“Secret Servant” by Daniel Silva

2011-05-01T21:22:00.001-07:00

The Israeli not so secret secret agent is back with another adventure. There is a problem though. Like in "Moscow Rules" he is both smart and inexplicably stupid. Without disclosing too much of the plot and spoiling the enjoyment of the book: it is not entirely clear why he needs to follow some of the terrorist’s demands. Especially as they have no way of knowing whether he did or not. It is also not clear why he risks his life and the lives of others without a clear plan.

Al in all an enjoyable book but don’t look too deep under the surface you may find holes in the plot.

“The Two Georges” by Harry Turtledow and Richard Dreyfuss

2011-05-01T21:21:00.001-07:00

The idea behind the book is interesting: what if George III wasn’t crazy and the British Parliament of the time was reasonable? What if this leads to George Washington going to London and (with the support of Franklin and the other rebels) signs a Union agreement with Britain?

In the book this leads to a strange world. Not to spoil the fun for potential readers I won’t go into details but I was somewhat irritated by the inconsistencies of this universe. This is not to say that the book is bad. It reads fairly well and has fairly interesting story. The problem is that the authors assume that without the American Revolution a number of things don’t happen:

No French Revolution
No Russian Revolution
No unification of Germany
No change in colonial holdings
Much slower social change and technological development

It is weird world and some things are inconsistent within it: there are heavier than air planes powered by internal combustion engines but cars are steamers. There is no progress in the development of firearms beyond what was achieved in our timeline by about 1880, but hand grenades are fairly advanced.

Al in all a fairly enjoyable read if you ignore the little annoyances.

“Atlas Shrugged” by Ayn Rand

2011-05-01T21:20:00.001-07:00

The book is written as a novel and as such it is lousy. The plot is slow in developing, the descriptions are long and boring and most of the dialogs are likewise long and boring. All of the above makes for slow and difficult reading.

The philosophy presented in the book is a different matter. Some of it is definitely not feasible in the real world – the same way Marxism is not feasible. “To all according to their need and from all according to their ability” always deteriorates into either a dictatorship (Soviet Union) or, if implemented partially like in most of Europe, it results in a stagnant economy.

Ayn Rand’s philosophy as presented in Atlas Shrugged needs an ideal man and therefore is an impossible utopia. Parts of this philosophy can, probably, have practical implementations. The scenario described in the book is uncannily similar to what we are witnessing in this country in the last century and with much greater intensity in the last year. Even some of the terminology used by the “looters” is the same.

Al in all a difficult read not because of the intellectual heights it soars to but because of the way it’s written. If you don’t mind investing some time and effort it may be worth trying.

“City of Thieves” by David Benioff

2011-05-01T21:19:00.001-07:00

To be concise: I liked this book.

The book describes events in Leningrad in the winter of 1942. The city is surrounded by the Germans and its population, as reduced as it is, is starving. There are no alien monsters but there are cannibals, NKVD officers and nightly aerial bombardments and artillery barrages..

In the midst of all this the protagonist has to cross the lines into German occupied areas. A strange story but I have heard stranger.

The book is well written and is riveting from beginning to end. Highly recommended.

“The Camel Club” by David Baldacci

2011-05-01T21:03:00.000-07:00

A well written action thriller, with some absolutely unbelievable premises. Sometimes I had a problem with the premises to an extent that interfered with my enjoyment of the story.

If you can ignore this one huge shortcoming and if you believe, like apparently the author does, that it is the West’s responsibility and fault that the nice Muslims hate us, the book is enjoyable.

It is a first in a series of books with the same set of heroes (that’s what they have to be to accomplish what they do). The book is extremely suspicious of the U.S. Government agencies (not unusual) and sees the future as a linear extension of the present. Since the present in which the book was written has a war going on in Iraq, this war is still going strong with enormous U.S. losses at the end of the fist term of the a future president (G. W. Bush is not the president anymore).
The Muslims have grievances that justify attacking innocent civilians and are generally nice people made miserable and violent by U.S. and European policies. Or so the author would have us believe. If only the U.S. would change its policies in the Middle East, the nice Arabs would live in peace with everybody. We have to respect their culture and they will respect ours. So says one of the characters and so confirm some of the others who help him. My impression is that he speaks for the author.

I really would have enjoyed the book much more if it had a more realistic depiction of the world. As it is I can’t recommend it – the dark view of the West and distorted picture of the Islamic world are really annoying.