Reviews

Basil's War by Stephen Hunter

gimpyknee's review

2.0

Basil's War? More like Basil's Bore.

jyaremchuk's review

4.0

I haven't read any of Stephen Hunter's more thrilling series, so was not disappointed by this standalone novel (as were other reviewers). It was a fun read.

joestewart's review

4.0

Easy enough read and plenty of words that I needed to look up, mostly archaic English :-)

andydrew2's review

3.0

I don't know. It wasn't bad. I was on board for a WW2 Spy Thriller, but this was written exactly like you'd expect. Suave spy. Does crazy things. Sleeps with movie stars. Always gets out of trouble. It wasn't bad, just predictable I suppose.

mpetruce's review

adventurous funny lighthearted 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? No

2.0

Entertaining. Bordering on competency porn though. The hero is always one step ahead, he's very clever, he's very lucky, he's very handy with the ladies, his superiors aren't morons, and the ones who might be are easily won over by his charm and amazing ability. Again, a fast entertaining book, funny at times as well. 

hopkinsj100's review

4.0

Sneaky little book

Very different in many ways from the author’s usual, yet not so much. Engaging plot and protagonist, well-paced, and thoroughly enjoyable. Only a couple of quibbles: the protagonist is a bit too clever and the information dumps a little heavy. But I loved the twists and turns.

vsbedford's review

4.0

Somewhere in a very fun space that runs with the pacing of Sean Connery's James Bond and the wink/wink humor of Roger Moore, with a strong dash of the stiff upper lip-ness of The 39 Steps' Richard Hannay, this novel moves, moves, moves right until the end (although the last few pages are a bit of a steep cliff). We are definitely NOT in the shadowy corners of Alan Furst's Vichy France although we do get a bit of the red-eyed tenseness that would inevitably come with a spy novel set in one of the Nazi-occupied nations. It's a fast read and an enjoyable one - definite recommend.

I received an ecopy from the publishers and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

eajklose's review

adventurous challenging funny mysterious reflective tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

tartancrusader's review

3.0

Didn't really like this one, and I'm not altogether sure why. My best guess is that I didn't find the protagonist particularly well-formed - he seemed a mish-mash of Wodehousian tics nail-gunned onto The Gentleman Rhymer. Also you never got the sense that he was in any real danger of being caught at any point in the story (even when he was, briefly, caught), which left the whole thing feeling a little flat.

Oh well, at least it was short.

camille_catterpillar's review

2.0

From the 2021 POPSUGAR Reading Challenge: "48. A book chosen at random from your TBR"

2.5 - it was all right, not bad, entertaining.

Spy fiction! An old favourite that I don't read much anymore (recent reads in the genre include [b:Slow Horses|7929891|Slow Horses (Slough House, #1)|Mick Herron|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1410800211l/7929891._SY75_.jpg|11252875] and [b:East of Hounslow|46060889|East of Hounslow (Jay Qasim #1)|Khurrum Rahman|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1559214159l/46060889._SY75_.jpg|57223363])

Basil's War, rather than the modern spy fiction I mentioned above, is both set in the 1940s and a nudge to the pulpy spy fiction of the time. In that way, it could be considered satirical, as the tone is rather light and humorous, sometimes even a bit downright silly.

All in all very entertaining, but somewhat limited, in the spirit of, again, the pulpy action fiction of the time.