Take a photo of a barcode or cover
4.03 AVERAGE
4.03 AVERAGE
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
dark
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
This reads like the author was indulging his own fantasy of being an "American Hero".
It's disturbingly Islamaphobic, and the cast of characters are little more than racist stereotype.
Don't waste precious time reading this!
It's disturbingly Islamaphobic, and the cast of characters are little more than racist stereotype.
Don't waste precious time reading this!
Sommige boeken zijn rollercoasters, dit is een pretpark. Met een boel adembenemende rides, maar óók met af en toe een terrasje om rustig iets te drinken, terug te denken en/of naar de andere bezoekers te kijken. Je kijkt hen glimlachend na, want je weet wat hen te wachten staat.
Wat ik zo goed vind aan 'I am Pilgrim'? Dat er geen enkele zin in staat waarvan je denkt: 'Ah, meneer heeft zijn research goed gedaan'. En dat je toch de hele tijd het gevoel hebt dat het klopt.
Ook sterk: het einde van al dat spannends is niet - zoals vaak bij thrillers - een sisser, maar wel degelijk een echte climax.
Champagne!
Wat ik zo goed vind aan 'I am Pilgrim'? Dat er geen enkele zin in staat waarvan je denkt: 'Ah, meneer heeft zijn research goed gedaan'. En dat je toch de hele tijd het gevoel hebt dat het klopt.
Ook sterk: het einde van al dat spannends is niet - zoals vaak bij thrillers - een sisser, maar wel degelijk een echte climax.
Champagne!
This book has been on my to-read shelf for a long time, and I was looking forward to a page-turning spy-mystery-thriller in the vein of Jason Bourne. Unfortunately, reading it over the last few weeks was more of a drawn-out disappointment.
In my opinion, at nearly 900 pages it's about a third longer than it needs to be. Fortunately the chapters are very short (most only 3 or 4 pages long) which made it easier to digest this elephant of a book one bite at a time.
The story has its moments. Our titular hero is the world's greatest crime scene investigator slash secret agent - he literally wrote the book on solving crimes committed in the hidden world of spies and government assassins. We meet him at the scene of a grisly murder in New York, and in the process of the investigation the narrative flashes back and forth along Pilgrim's past to piece together his complete memoirs from his upbringing by billionaire adoptive parents to his adventures in international espionage.
In the meantime, we follow our villain 'the Saracen' from the moment of radicalisation as a boy in Saudi Arabia, as he enacts his plan of vengeance - involving releasing a deadly virus into the world.
The two stories arc towards each other throughout the novel until they finally collide in the last hundred-odd pages where all the different tangents we've been dragged along are brought together in a conveniently packaged conclusion.
My overall impression of the story is that it's not nearly as smart as it wants to be. More than once, my disbelief was dislodged from its suspensions by far-fetched coincidences. And for a so called genius detective, our character seems to solve most of his problems thanks to intuition, and good luck. He comes across as smug, over privileged and uninteresting.
Furthermore the narrative reeks of American nationalist undertones, xenophobia, and often outright Islamophobia.
This isn't exactly a surprise - The 9/11 attacks in New York are a key motivator for certain characters, and are mentioned several times, and the Islamic terrorist villain, while well rounded, is ultimately a cliché.
In spite of these concerning undertones, the final line of the book still surprised me with a direct quote from the Bible. Ending this trudging Pilgrims progress with a full blown Messiah complex!
In my opinion, at nearly 900 pages it's about a third longer than it needs to be. Fortunately the chapters are very short (most only 3 or 4 pages long) which made it easier to digest this elephant of a book one bite at a time.
The story has its moments. Our titular hero is the world's greatest crime scene investigator slash secret agent - he literally wrote the book on solving crimes committed in the hidden world of spies and government assassins. We meet him at the scene of a grisly murder in New York, and in the process of the investigation the narrative flashes back and forth along Pilgrim's past to piece together his complete memoirs from his upbringing by billionaire adoptive parents to his adventures in international espionage.
In the meantime, we follow our villain 'the Saracen' from the moment of radicalisation as a boy in Saudi Arabia, as he enacts his plan of vengeance - involving releasing a deadly virus into the world.
The two stories arc towards each other throughout the novel until they finally collide in the last hundred-odd pages where all the different tangents we've been dragged along are brought together in a conveniently packaged conclusion.
My overall impression of the story is that it's not nearly as smart as it wants to be. More than once, my disbelief was dislodged from its suspensions by far-fetched coincidences. And for a so called genius detective, our character seems to solve most of his problems thanks to intuition, and good luck. He comes across as smug, over privileged and uninteresting.
Furthermore the narrative reeks of American nationalist undertones, xenophobia, and often outright Islamophobia.
This isn't exactly a surprise - The 9/11 attacks in New York are a key motivator for certain characters, and are mentioned several times, and the Islamic terrorist villain, while well rounded, is ultimately a cliché.
In spite of these concerning undertones, the final line of the book still surprised me with a direct quote from the Bible. Ending this trudging Pilgrims progress with a full blown Messiah complex!
People seem to either really really love this book, or really really hate it. I'm more in the middle, leaning more towards love. Ever since Alias was on TV, I've been fascinated with spies. So this book really appealed to me. Sometimes it's kind of all over the place, and it was DEFINITELY way too long, which is why I knocked a star off. But overall it was full of action, adventure, and suspense. A great read!
adventurous
medium-paced
I thought a spy thriller would be a nice change of pace, but ugh. Such poorly written characters, terrible dialogue. Not my thing, apparently.
Jag hade egentligen bestämt mig för att inte läsa denna, eftersom jag hade läst en recension på Goodreads om hur kass och sexistisk den var. När det sedan började dyke upp den ena positiva recensionen efter den andra så reviderade jag mitt beslut. Och nu har jag läst den. Läs mer på min blogg