RobMCFC
Well-Known Member
Cheers. I’ve seen that pop up a few times on Amazon and it does sound interesting. I’ll add it to my TBR pile.
Reading Challenge 2022
- Thread starter RobMCFC
- Start date
I read one of the Gunther books many years ago. I think it involved someone having his thumb amputated as part of a ritual for joining a club. It was such an obvious ruse that I had worked out how the book would pan out immediately, and it did. The book was a very long take on a Sherlock Holmes short story. I didn't bother any more with Bernie Gunther after this experience.
I'm currently 60% through a fairly long Len Deighton book. I'll report back in due course.
discopop
Well-Known Member
I presume the long Deighton book is Winter?
The Finished The Lost Man by Jane Harper. Really enjoyed this book and a solid 8 out of 20. Bought John Grisham A Time For Mercy and David Baldacci One Good Dead yesterday so will be one of them next as my actual paperback book.
RobMCFC
Well-Known Member
1. The Spirit Engineer - A.J.West - 7/10
2. The Lost Man - Jane Harper - 8/10
3. The Fall of Babel – Josiah Bancroft - 5/10
This was a real struggle to finish. In fact, if this was a new book, I’d probably have given up after a hundred pages, but as it’s the final part of the “Books of Babel” series, I felt like I had to finish it.
It’s such a shame because the opening novel, Senlin Ascends, was magnificent. Set in a fantasy word that’s not a standard medieval setting, mild-mannered headmaster Tom Senlin and his wife go to visit the Tower of Babel for their honeymoon. This is a venue on a grand scale that comprises 64 zones, known as ringdoms, and of course reports from everybody who has visited spin legendary tales of how amazing it is. Think of a cross between Disney World and Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory yet on a scale that would take years to explore. However, soon after arriving, Tom is separated from his wife and spends the rest of the book trying to find her. What follows is a brilliantly woven tale full of strange discoveries, steampunk technology and deadly secrets.
The next two books continued the story, but it was clear that things were being spun out for the sake of it. I could have done without the whimsical descriptions that went on for pages and dialogue that didn’t do much to engage me. But this final book took the biscuit: opening with 200 pages on a character that we haven’t seen since book #2 and taking a very long time to reach a conclusion – over 600 gruelling pages in total.
If the first section was 20 pages (it would have been enough) and the remainder condensed to 350 pages, you’d have had a sub-400-page book that I could have lived with. However, the worst crime is that the main character is reduced to a sideshow in what should be the grand finale! I can’t believe the editorial team didn’t suggest a few changes before this was released.
2. The Lost Man - Jane Harper - 8/10
3. The Fall of Babel – Josiah Bancroft - 5/10
This was a real struggle to finish. In fact, if this was a new book, I’d probably have given up after a hundred pages, but as it’s the final part of the “Books of Babel” series, I felt like I had to finish it.
It’s such a shame because the opening novel, Senlin Ascends, was magnificent. Set in a fantasy word that’s not a standard medieval setting, mild-mannered headmaster Tom Senlin and his wife go to visit the Tower of Babel for their honeymoon. This is a venue on a grand scale that comprises 64 zones, known as ringdoms, and of course reports from everybody who has visited spin legendary tales of how amazing it is. Think of a cross between Disney World and Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory yet on a scale that would take years to explore. However, soon after arriving, Tom is separated from his wife and spends the rest of the book trying to find her. What follows is a brilliantly woven tale full of strange discoveries, steampunk technology and deadly secrets.
The next two books continued the story, but it was clear that things were being spun out for the sake of it. I could have done without the whimsical descriptions that went on for pages and dialogue that didn’t do much to engage me. But this final book took the biscuit: opening with 200 pages on a character that we haven’t seen since book #2 and taking a very long time to reach a conclusion – over 600 gruelling pages in total.
If the first section was 20 pages (it would have been enough) and the remainder condensed to 350 pages, you’d have had a sub-400-page book that I could have lived with. However, the worst crime is that the main character is reduced to a sideshow in what should be the grand finale! I can’t believe the editorial team didn’t suggest a few changes before this was released.
kevin horlocks wand
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- 12 Mar 2016
- Messages
- 9,648
Sorry posted on 2021 thread…
read Bob Mortimers autobiography and wasn’t keen . Not as good as Bob and Paul go fishing.
I read steve cavanaghs new Eddie flynn novel , the devils advocate , which usually are good however it was predictable boring been done a hundred times. Set in Alabama , small town racist corrupt police force you can do the rest. Poor .
Just started reading the bees by laline Paul which the nice lady in Waterstones recommended
read Bob Mortimers autobiography and wasn’t keen . Not as good as Bob and Paul go fishing.
I read steve cavanaghs new Eddie flynn novel , the devils advocate , which usually are good however it was predictable boring been done a hundred times. Set in Alabama , small town racist corrupt police force you can do the rest. Poor .
Just started reading the bees by laline Paul which the nice lady in Waterstones recommended
1. Winter - Len Deighton - 7/10
I was born in 1961, and the 1980s coincided largely with my 20s. I was living at home in Manchester, with an hour or longer commute five days a week on public transport, so loads of time to read. I was intrigued to get hold of Peter Wright's Spycatcher, which was banned because of its sensitive content and details of covert MI5 operations and spycraft. I eventually got a copy, and was soon hooked on espionage, the Cold War, and spy fiction.
Len Deighton was one of my favourite spy fiction writers back in the eighties, and I devoured his Berlin Game, Set and Match trilogy, followed by his Hook, Line and Sinker trilogy, and then his Faith, Hope and Charity trilogy. All excellent books.
Winter was first published in 1987, and it claimed to be a family history of the Winter family of Berlin, whose later generations were prominent in the nine book series.
And it is just what it claimed to be. Many of the family names from the nine books are featured here. We watch their families and characters develop between 1900 and 1945, in the build up to two world wars. We see the young boys as combatants in WW1, and we see them during WW2, and after WW2, as lawyers representing opposite sides in the Nuremberg trials.
It's a really good book, as it brings a different perspective to WW2 especially. The characters are well described. The plots are realistic. The main family goes through some very complex relationships that brings in Americans and Jews, and plenty of tensions that you would expect as the story reaches its conclusion in the 1940s.
Although it is a prequel to the nine spy books, it makes a lot of sense to me to read this as a history of the families I had already read about. So for that reason, I score this a 7. I would definitely recommend this to anyone that has read some of the earlier trilogies, but not to someone unfamiliar with the Samsons and Rensselaers of the earlier books.
Does reading this make me want to revisit the other books? I don't think so. They were good at the time, but probably a bit dated now.
I was born in 1961, and the 1980s coincided largely with my 20s. I was living at home in Manchester, with an hour or longer commute five days a week on public transport, so loads of time to read. I was intrigued to get hold of Peter Wright's Spycatcher, which was banned because of its sensitive content and details of covert MI5 operations and spycraft. I eventually got a copy, and was soon hooked on espionage, the Cold War, and spy fiction.
Len Deighton was one of my favourite spy fiction writers back in the eighties, and I devoured his Berlin Game, Set and Match trilogy, followed by his Hook, Line and Sinker trilogy, and then his Faith, Hope and Charity trilogy. All excellent books.
Winter was first published in 1987, and it claimed to be a family history of the Winter family of Berlin, whose later generations were prominent in the nine book series.
And it is just what it claimed to be. Many of the family names from the nine books are featured here. We watch their families and characters develop between 1900 and 1945, in the build up to two world wars. We see the young boys as combatants in WW1, and we see them during WW2, and after WW2, as lawyers representing opposite sides in the Nuremberg trials.
It's a really good book, as it brings a different perspective to WW2 especially. The characters are well described. The plots are realistic. The main family goes through some very complex relationships that brings in Americans and Jews, and plenty of tensions that you would expect as the story reaches its conclusion in the 1940s.
Although it is a prequel to the nine spy books, it makes a lot of sense to me to read this as a history of the families I had already read about. So for that reason, I score this a 7. I would definitely recommend this to anyone that has read some of the earlier trilogies, but not to someone unfamiliar with the Samsons and Rensselaers of the earlier books.
Does reading this make me want to revisit the other books? I don't think so. They were good at the time, but probably a bit dated now.
