Reviews - The Thirty Nine Steps

987 reviews for:

The Thirty Nine Steps

John Buchan

3.28 AVERAGE

jille70's review against another edition

3.0

adventurous mysterious

prairiephlox's review against another edition

2.0

Read for the Librivox book club.

There were parts of this story that I really loved. I love the inherent British like sarcasm (I know Buchan was Canadian), that deadpan humor, I love the action. It just got completely out of hand. He was too lucky all the time, and after a bit that started to wear on me.

I would absolutely try Buchan again, I've been informed by fans that this isn't one of his better works. I enjoyed it enough that I won't be writing him off, I can definitly see a style I like, it just wasn't focused or flushed out enough in this story. I look forward to reading more from him, but won't be revisiting this story again.

This book was provided for free as an audiobook by Librivox.org, and the eBook is provided by Project Gutenberg.

azorahai's review against another edition

2.5

adventurous mysterious slow-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

sarahbc93_'s review against another edition

3.0

I think I read this for the first time a few years ago and then promptly forgot all about it, so when I was able to borrow it from my library I thought “Why the hell not?”

Now I’m wondering why exactly I read this for the first time all those years ago.

I get why this would be considered to be a seminal piece of spy literature, especially given the time it was written in, and the world events that it covers in such a small number of pages, but what I don’t understand is how it manages to keep you going until the end.

I don’t know if it was spite that kept me going or what, but I honestly thought this book (which was already only about 100 pages) could have been shorter. A lot less tramping around Galloway in that instance.

ranooshe's review against another edition

4.0

Even though the language was a bit difficult for me (lots of era specificwords), but I was only half way through the book when I felt I MUST visit Scotland. The description of the scenery was so romantic inspite of the book supposedly being of the political conspiracy genre.
I enjoyed reading this book and found talk about 'good old days' and 'new ideas' amusing.

onetrooluff's review against another edition

3.0

A fast-paced, suspenseful read, perfect for quarantine. Having been written in 1915, there is some outdated casual racism and anti-Semitism (like when one man tells another he's a "white man," meaning a good guy, or the references to how Jews are behind all financial matters, etc etc) but I've definitely read worse.

Also discovered that the original film is on Amazon Prime, so I'll be checking that out as well.