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jiml's review against another edition
4.0
Superb. Beautifully written. Harvey is a sympathetic character even if he is deadly.
saareman's review against another edition
3.0
The WOOC(P) Files #4
Review of the Penguin Modern Classics paperback edition (April, 2021) of the original Jonathan Cape hardcover (1966)
Michael Caine as Harry Palmer in a film still from Billion Dollar Brain (1967), image sourced from Classic Movies Photos Blogspot.
Billion-Dollar Brain had more of a simplified plot for Deighton's nameless protagonist (named "Harry Palmer" in the Michael Caine film adaptations) who works for a similarly anonymous British secret service known only by its initials WOOC(P). There were still some twists, but much less banter with the spy chief Dawlish. I LOL'd at this exchange though, where Dawlish hints at the "Palmer" character's often expressed lack of enthusiasm for the spy game:
The biggest surprise in retrospect (and which now reads as cringey) was secretary Jean's role back at head office. In the new 2022 television adaptation of the first book [b:The Ipcress File|171624|The Ipcress File (Secret File, #1)|Len Deighton|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1295903974l/171624._SY75_.jpg|2155765] (1962), both Jean and secretary Alice are turned into very formidable agents in their own right.
Billion-Dollar Brain is the 4th of my Len Deighton re-reads (I first read almost all of them in my teens) after having learned of the Penguin Modern Classics republication of all of his novels which were published during 2021 as outlined in an online article Why Len Deighton's spy stories are set to thrill a new generation (Guardian/Observer May 2, 2021).
Trivia and Link
This 4th book Billion-Dollar Brain was filmed (the 2nd Secret File/Harry Palmer book Horse Under Water was skipped over in the film adaptations) as the 3rd Harry Palmer film Billion Dollar Brain (1967) directed by Ken Russell. The 4th and 5th films still starred Michael Caine, but did not use Deighton's novels as the source material.
* It probably had a capability that would be bested by a modern day laptop.
Review of the Penguin Modern Classics paperback edition (April, 2021) of the original Jonathan Cape hardcover (1966)
A billion dollars doesn't buy what it used to. - epigram used for Billion-Dollar Brain
Michael Caine as Harry Palmer in a film still from Billion Dollar Brain (1967), image sourced from Classic Movies Photos Blogspot.
Billion-Dollar Brain had more of a simplified plot for Deighton's nameless protagonist (named "Harry Palmer" in the Michael Caine film adaptations) who works for a similarly anonymous British secret service known only by its initials WOOC(P). There were still some twists, but much less banter with the spy chief Dawlish. I LOL'd at this exchange though, where Dawlish hints at the "Palmer" character's often expressed lack of enthusiasm for the spy game:
When I said I'd told Harvey Newbegin that I only worked for WOOC(P) part-time, Dawlish said: 'Well you certainly weren't lying about that, were you?'Perennial Russian nemesis Colonel Stok makes his usual shady appearance. The so-called "billion-dollar brain" (actually costed at $300 million, with 1/2 for development & 1/2 for actual construction*) didn't really feature all that much and as opposed to a James Bond type ending where the agent would likely have blown up the apparatus and the complex that housed it, the ending was instead a very human based one of naïve faith and ultimate betrayal.
The biggest surprise in retrospect (and which now reads as cringey) was secretary Jean's role back at head office. In the new 2022 television adaptation of the first book [b:The Ipcress File|171624|The Ipcress File (Secret File, #1)|Len Deighton|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1295903974l/171624._SY75_.jpg|2155765] (1962), both Jean and secretary Alice are turned into very formidable agents in their own right.
Billion-Dollar Brain is the 4th of my Len Deighton re-reads (I first read almost all of them in my teens) after having learned of the Penguin Modern Classics republication of all of his novels which were published during 2021 as outlined in an online article Why Len Deighton's spy stories are set to thrill a new generation (Guardian/Observer May 2, 2021).
Trivia and Link
This 4th book Billion-Dollar Brain was filmed (the 2nd Secret File/Harry Palmer book Horse Under Water was skipped over in the film adaptations) as the 3rd Harry Palmer film Billion Dollar Brain (1967) directed by Ken Russell. The 4th and 5th films still starred Michael Caine, but did not use Deighton's novels as the source material.
* It probably had a capability that would be bested by a modern day laptop.
paul_cornelius's review
4.0
Not a bad entry at all into the Len Deighton series of 1960s Cold War spy novels. Things don't quite hold together as well as in preceding novels, but that is primarily the fault of the last quarter to a third of the book, which jumps around. The passages detailing the trip to and into Helsinki are tightly plotted and fascinating in their atmosphere and the suspense they create. The trip to Texas is handled nicely enough, too. Not many cliches, although not much action either. Going back to the UK, the novel begins a bit of a downward trajectory, which is in full form by the time things get the USSR. One thing: Colonel Stok is becoming more and more likable to me. But I can't get Oskar Homolka image from the film version of Funeral in Berlin out of my mind.
Finally, just a mention of the comparison of the novel to the film. There is no comparison. The novel is enjoyable, albeit workmanlike. The film is a mess. All I can remember is snow and ice. It flopped. It should have done. The book is much better.
Finally, just a mention of the comparison of the novel to the film. There is no comparison. The novel is enjoyable, albeit workmanlike. The film is a mess. All I can remember is snow and ice. It flopped. It should have done. The book is much better.
technomage's review
3.0
Have avoided this having seen the film of it years ago but the books is better even if it's not the best of this series.
smcleish's review
3.0
Originally published on my blog here in January 2004.
The fourth Harry Palmer novel (in which he is still an unnamed narrator; the name was given him for the films) is the most dated of all of them. It relies on a plot device straight from James Bond or even The Man From UNCLE - the network of agents run by a computer. The novel begins with a Finnish journalist making waves when he starts investigating what he thinks is a massive British Secret Service operation in Finland - but there isn't one, so Palmer and his superiors want to find out just what he has stumbled across. The trail leads to a private army, assembled by a rabidly anti-Communist American billionaire, whose technicians have built the computer (in typical sixties style, one which fills several floors of a large building) to run the group's operations.
In the end, the computer is relatively unimportant, but it certainly does mark out Billion-Dollar Brain as a product of its time. As a spy thriller, though, the novel is something of a let-down for other reasons, which may well be why Deighton abandoned his Palmer character at this point. Indeed, it seems as though he has already, because almost all the quirkiness which marks the earlier novels is by now missing. By comparison with the earlier writing, it fails to be more than a run of the mill spy thriller. While still of the opinion that this is Deighton's poorest novel, it doesn't seem as bad this time around as I remember it (the computer plays a smaller part than I recalled, which may be part of the reason that this is the case). Nevertheless, it is still at least as good as its forgotten contemporaries - of which it would probably have been one without Deighton's name attached.
The fourth Harry Palmer novel (in which he is still an unnamed narrator; the name was given him for the films) is the most dated of all of them. It relies on a plot device straight from James Bond or even The Man From UNCLE - the network of agents run by a computer. The novel begins with a Finnish journalist making waves when he starts investigating what he thinks is a massive British Secret Service operation in Finland - but there isn't one, so Palmer and his superiors want to find out just what he has stumbled across. The trail leads to a private army, assembled by a rabidly anti-Communist American billionaire, whose technicians have built the computer (in typical sixties style, one which fills several floors of a large building) to run the group's operations.
In the end, the computer is relatively unimportant, but it certainly does mark out Billion-Dollar Brain as a product of its time. As a spy thriller, though, the novel is something of a let-down for other reasons, which may well be why Deighton abandoned his Palmer character at this point. Indeed, it seems as though he has already, because almost all the quirkiness which marks the earlier novels is by now missing. By comparison with the earlier writing, it fails to be more than a run of the mill spy thriller. While still of the opinion that this is Deighton's poorest novel, it doesn't seem as bad this time around as I remember it (the computer plays a smaller part than I recalled, which may be part of the reason that this is the case). Nevertheless, it is still at least as good as its forgotten contemporaries - of which it would probably have been one without Deighton's name attached.