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3.28 AVERAGE
3.28 AVERAGE
adventurous
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Hannay is clever, and seems a master of disguise.
And in the end he got his man.
I would probably listen to more of these if Audible presented them to me free?
And in the end he got his man.
I would probably listen to more of these if Audible presented them to me free?
Written over a hundred years ago, this feels briskly contemporary. Irresistible for spy-novel fans.
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
adventurous
mysterious
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
adventurous
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Gambolling through the green and pleasant land, pretending to be other people
adventurous
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
This book is nearly 100 years old and outdated attitudes aside it hasn't really aged a day. You may call The 39 Steps the Grandfather of the modern thriller and mean it in a semi-disparaging way, but in the sense that the Grandfather is the mould from which a million grandchildren are formed you'd be correct.
Sadly the thriller in popular fiction has largely ignored Darwin's theory of evolution and as such most modern day fare consists of misformed jelly that wasn't allowed time to set, a xerox of a xerox of a xerox of a xerox in which the firmness of the print has started to bleed in to the now extremely grey background.
I say most, there are a few mutants out there, the great shining hope for the genre, the missing link on the road to wiping out generic unit shifters from [a:John Grisham|721|John Grisham|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1330960311p2/721.jpg] and [a:James Patterson|3780|James Patterson|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1284492096p2/3780.jpg] but if we're not careful these Neanderthals will wipe out the intelligent Homo Sapien thrillers and soon we'll all be reading young adult versions of the real thing.
In a week I was tired of seeing sights and within a month I had had enough of..... [culture] A 100 year old statement on moving to London, it is as true today as it was then and could be said of all the major cities in the world I would imagine.
Buchan does labour the point that the good honest down to earth Scotsman is a much better person than all the comfortable middle classes combined and that irritated a little. His use of the Scots dialect made me want to read [b:The Wee Free Men|833420|The Wee Free Men (Discworld, #30)|Terry Pratchett|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1328341385s/833420.jpg|62580] again and perhaps my knowledge of that series of books helped me to actually decipher Buchan's dialogue.
It was an enjoyable enough read and a good history lesson but nothing more than that, I read its grandchildren in my teenage years and I evolved as a reader. It gets an extra star because of historical value.
Sadly the thriller in popular fiction has largely ignored Darwin's theory of evolution and as such most modern day fare consists of misformed jelly that wasn't allowed time to set, a xerox of a xerox of a xerox of a xerox in which the firmness of the print has started to bleed in to the now extremely grey background.
I say most, there are a few mutants out there, the great shining hope for the genre, the missing link on the road to wiping out generic unit shifters from [a:John Grisham|721|John Grisham|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1330960311p2/721.jpg] and [a:James Patterson|3780|James Patterson|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1284492096p2/3780.jpg] but if we're not careful these Neanderthals will wipe out the intelligent Homo Sapien thrillers and soon we'll all be reading young adult versions of the real thing.
In a week I was tired of seeing sights and within a month I had had enough of..... [culture] A 100 year old statement on moving to London, it is as true today as it was then and could be said of all the major cities in the world I would imagine.
Buchan does labour the point that the good honest down to earth Scotsman is a much better person than all the comfortable middle classes combined and that irritated a little. His use of the Scots dialect made me want to read [b:The Wee Free Men|833420|The Wee Free Men (Discworld, #30)|Terry Pratchett|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1328341385s/833420.jpg|62580] again and perhaps my knowledge of that series of books helped me to actually decipher Buchan's dialogue.
It was an enjoyable enough read and a good history lesson but nothing more than that, I read its grandchildren in my teenage years and I evolved as a reader. It gets an extra star because of historical value.
adventurous
hopeful
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Hitchcock's film adaptation was merely suggested by this adventure spy novel. Good fun.