Reviews

The Last Tourist by Olen Steinhauer

adamrshields's review against another edition

4.0

Summary: National interests may not be the primary driver of undercover and black-ops spying, but information will always have value. 

As a reader, I like to read a series together, or at least not too far apart. I started reading the Game of Thrones novels around 2002 or 2003. The first in the series came out in 1996. The next three books came out in 1998, 2000, and 2005.  Six years later when the fifth book of the still not completed series came out, I decided I would not read any further until the whole series was released. When there are five, ten or even more years between books in a closely related series, you really need to re-read the books in order to have a close enough memory of the details to understand subtle plot points. Especially in a spy novel like the ones that le Carré or Steinhauer write, those details matter.

I first read The Tourist, the first of this series in 2009 right after it came out. My memory is that it was a recommendation of John Wilson, editor of the then-active Books and Culture magazine. The next two books came out in 2010 and 2012. It is likely that I should have reread at least the third novel before reading the fourth. But I hoped that I would remember details as I read, and I think I mostly did.

Spy novels are in some ways an affirmation of the Christian theological concept of total depravity. It is not that there is no good in them, or no sense of virtue or loyalty or character. But that virtually all good spy novels know that even if a character is virtuous or loyal, there are temptations and a good spy has to assume that not everyone will maintain their virtue or character. It is a genre that lends itself to cynicism. It is why even though I really like le Carré's writing, the cynicism means I limit my reading of his books.

This is a bit of a spoiler, but a fairly minor one. The early books grapple with how the US is no longer always the good guys. If anything, the US is largely the bad guys in this series. Being the primary superpower means that the access to power tempts the US to overreach and assume that their self-perceived ends will justify their means.

I thought of some of the writing of the classic sci-fi author Robert Heinlein as I read this fourth book. Heinlein was a techno-libertarian. He thought the concept of the democratic nation-state would give way to city-states, religious authoritarianism, and class-based superstructures that allowed those with wealth to live as they pleased with the vast majority living as types of serfs. Steinhauer is not there yet, but there is an exploration of how our digital world and the network of huge tech companies that suck up all of our data with little regard for national boundaries or legal boundaries will impact the concept of national spy systems. In some ways the limitation of spy novels is that the genre requires good people, even if cynical or self-interested, to oppose those that are selfish and without moral or ethical boundries. The system breaks down at some point. Internally there is no one that is wholly good. And in some ways, the genre inserts its convention to make people that are wholly evil as a foil. But Christian theology also asserts that there is no one that is wholly evil either. All are created in the image of God and therefore of inestimable value even if they are on the wrong path.

I think The Last Tourist is a worthy follow-up book even if it was nearly a decade after the third. I think Steinhauer keeps writing books I find interesting in this series, even if I am less interested in his stand-alone novels or his other series.
The Last Tourist by Olen Steinhauer (Milo Weaver #4) Purchase Links: Paperback, Kindle Edition, Audible.com Audiobook

constantreader471's review against another edition

3.0

3.5 stars rounded down to 3 stars. The premise of this story is so far fetched that it stretches the imagination. Milo Weaver is the head of a secret group called "The Library." The Library is a secret intelligence sharing group of 12 countries based in a secret part of UN headquarters in New York city.
The 12 countries are Germany, Luxembourg, Iceland, Kenya, Bangladesh, Ghana, Portugal, Algeria,South Korea, Lebanon and Chile. They send intelligence to the Library, which stores and collates it, building up patterns of information. They then use this information to get favors from China, US, Russia and the UK. Some of the information that they have is hard to believe, i.e., secret codes of Japanese intelligence.
However, if you accept this premise, then it is an exciting, suspenseful spy book full of betrayal, double crosses and many plot twists. This is book 4 in the series and it explains some of what happened in previous books. The Tourists were a group of CIA assassins who worked worldwide. It was disbanded after Chinese intelligence killed a couple dozen of them in 1 day.
One of the groups involved in this story is a private security contractor. Another is a internet app called Nexus, similar to Facebook.
Thanks to St Martin's Press for sending me this eARC through NetGalley.
#TheLastTourist

liberrydude's review against another edition

3.0

A CIA analyst, Abdul, is sent to Western Sahara to meet the elusive Milo Weaver, a former agent who has his own intelligence agency embedded in UNESCO. Abdul is poorly briefed. It becomes kinetic quickly and he’s on the run for his life with Milo. Abdul realizes he is expendable.

Then the book goes back in time several months for a long flashback to explain how we got to now. A deep dive filled with subterfuge, deception, and mind numbing twists and turns. Evidently Milo’s agency, the Library, has been targeted by an alliance of corporate giants who have developed a similar capability. They have tarnished Milo with disinformation. Who is manipulating who? Friends are not friends. National intelligence agencies are being played. I particularly liked this quote.

“Instead of learning of good and evil, he had learned that neither existed. There was only profit and loss, and somehow he had decided that those values were worth risking his life for.”

We return to the denouement at Davos, Switzerland which is violent and unexpected. The whole book is about “the unexpected.” I can’t even begin to speculate if this is the end of the road for the series.

joestewart's review against another edition

5.0

I thoroughly enjoyed it. Complicated story, lots of places and characters, good interweaving of current affairs, all good.

abibliofob's review against another edition

5.0

Wow, this one was hard to put down. I had to force myself so I god eat and sleep. What a story, I couldn't tell which spy would turn out to be friend or foe. The only thing I feel bad about is the time gap between this and the last book in the series. It feels like the saga of Milo Weaver is winding down. I must thank #StMartinsPress #MinotaurBooks and #Netgalley for letting me have these hours with Olen Steinhauers latest masterpiece, The Last Tourist. Highly recommended.

kittietta's review against another edition

4.0

It was a joy to read this book! Katherine Center knows how to write a book that keeps your interest and makes you have all the emotions you look for in a good book. I loved the quirky characters! 5 stars

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher and author for an ARC of this book. All opinions are my own.

carmenere's review against another edition

3.0

Buckle up your seatbelts for this read, folks! As this was my first venture into this series I was not expecting so much travel, so many characters, or multiple issues. The story is far reaching and sometimes confusing but if you like espionage thrillers, this one's for you. I think to fully appreciate the depth of Steinbauer's writing, one should begin with "The Tourist" the first in the Milo Weaver series and that's just what I may do.

eldiente's review against another edition

4.0

Interesting use of narrator in both first and third person.

Helpful to have read previous volumes in the series

mad_about_books's review

5.0

Although THE LAST TOURIST is a novel, a work of fiction, it reads like one of the current non-fiction, tell-all books that I have taken to reading over the past couple of years. The sprinkling of recognizable names only adds to the terrifying realism.

There was a time not so long ago where I would have given any number of the books I've read recently a definite pass. Now I devour books by journalists, ex-government officials, ex-federal law enforcement and security personnel. THE LAST TOURIST fits in my new reading pattern seamlessly.

It is hard to find a book published within the last three years that doesn't, in some way, touch upon the state of the world facing both climate change and political change. Even genre fiction - horror, sci-fi, fantasy - manages to voice the very real concerns we face. THE LAST TOURIST doesn't just voice these concerns, it drops them in your lap where they explode.

Olen Steinhauer has managed to make Ian Fleming's James Bond, and Robert Ludlum's Jason Bourne look like rank amateurs in the face of globalism and behind-the-scenes dirty dealing. This is Spy vs Spy for the 21st century.

lisagray68's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0