You need to sign in or sign up before continuing.
Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.76 AVERAGE
3.76 AVERAGE
Review:
Loved! Cold-war era spy novel; one of Ludlum's best, in my opinion. I liked the characters and the plot twists. Can't wait to read The Matarese Countdown.
Rating:
5 stars for plot, characters, and writing. Would not read it again.
*Donated
Loved! Cold-war era spy novel; one of Ludlum's best, in my opinion. I liked the characters and the plot twists. Can't wait to read The Matarese Countdown.
Rating:
5 stars for plot, characters, and writing. Would not read it again.
*Donated
adventurous
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
N/A
Loveable characters:
N/A
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
This book was absolutely amazing! It was riveting from page one and just draws you in like very few books I have read recently have. I am a big fan of this genre, and I would have to say, this is one of my absolute favorites
Found it a bit hard to follow, the end was suspenseful
The plot of a KGB and his CIA counterpart coming together to take down an evil organization, while naïve, could have provided with enough fodder for an entertaining fast paced thriller with really powerful characters.
"The Matarese Circle" loses on most counts. It has neither strong characters nor a gripping plot.
Both Agate and Serpent are more like cheap action movie heroes with some intelligence training rather than super agents (claimed on more the one occasion to the best). Scofeild love affair with one of his subjects feels like a trick right out of a Bollywood flick (hilarious how a CIA legend keeps pondering over his “inopportune love”). The Matarese are the biggest joke in the book and their philosophy is like an excerpt from Ayn Rand’s “Atlas Shrugged”
Weak plot and characters = Terrible Read
The 2 stars that I have given are also entirely because the book picks up pace (not plot) in the final 150 odd pages, when you really start to get tired of the book and want it to finish, it obliges.
Ludlum disappoints.
"The Matarese Circle" loses on most counts. It has neither strong characters nor a gripping plot.
Both Agate and Serpent are more like cheap action movie heroes with some intelligence training rather than super agents (claimed on more the one occasion to the best). Scofeild love affair with one of his subjects feels like a trick right out of a Bollywood flick (hilarious how a CIA legend keeps pondering over his “inopportune love”). The Matarese are the biggest joke in the book and their philosophy is like an excerpt from Ayn Rand’s “Atlas Shrugged”
Weak plot and characters = Terrible Read
The 2 stars that I have given are also entirely because the book picks up pace (not plot) in the final 150 odd pages, when you really start to get tired of the book and want it to finish, it obliges.
Ludlum disappoints.
adventurous
challenging
tense
medium-paced
adventurous
dark
informative
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Why does one read thrillers?
The apparent answer is rather simple. The edge-of-your-seat thrill-a-minute ride is a departure from the ennui of everyday living. Most of us live still lives. Most of us do not actively seek out the extreme thrills in real life; the mundane is boring but comforting. Thrillers allow us to nonetheless enjoy the excitement vicariously through the exploits of our protagonists. Sure, it’s transient, but often, it’s the shot of adrenaline the reader needs.
The best thrillers are the ones that are grounded in reality. The reader would like to know that the events, sinister as they may well be, are within the realms of the possible. Otherwise, it’s either fantasy or supernatural – different, excellent genres in themselves, but not the same as thrillers. It’s important that the events are catastrophic enough for the reader to be engaged to see to it that the disaster does not actually happen. The main protagonists in the thriller, the ones the reader would root for, are often extremely competent physically and mentally, but the best thrillers distinguish themselves in not making the lead characters superhuman. They have to be relatable, the same concerns, fears and troubles as the readers have, would have to be troubles for them too.
Robert Ludlum was perhaps the most successful thriller writer of the last millennium. Today’s recommended thriller, The Matarese Circle, is a fine expression of the standard Ludlum template. There is a secret society, which is led by a shadowy, all-powerful leader – this society could have been germinating for a long time. In this while, it has been able to infiltrate through every layer of the government. Now, the secret society wants to move on to the next stage, that of complete world domination - and right now, they are awfully close to their goal. There is one specific task that has to be accomplished by the society before that goal is accomplished. In parallel, there is our protagonist, a troubled and embittered secret-service man: a soldier, or a spy; who has been recently discredited, injured or traumatized. He somehow gets in the middle of this maelstrom started by the secret society, and at some point, becomes the only man that can stop the secret society from its ultimate goal. How is our protagonist able to save the world from going to the hands of this nefarious secret society?
That is the template. And an excellent example of this template is our recommended novel. This is 1979, the year the novel was published. The secret society, the Matarese Circle, has been able to infiltrate the American and Russian governments at all levels except for right at the top. Instead of one, we have two spies, US agent Brandon Scofield, and Russian KGB agent Vasili Taleniekov – and they have a back story. Taleniekov has previously murdered Scofield’s wife, and Scofield Taleniekov’s brother, and the two spies have been plotting to kill each other for a long while. And now, as they independently discover the Matarese plot, and since their governments are compromised, they will have to learn to work together to stop the Matarese.
Visceral and action packed, it’s a rip-roaring read.
Reviewed previously at The New Indian Express
The apparent answer is rather simple. The edge-of-your-seat thrill-a-minute ride is a departure from the ennui of everyday living. Most of us live still lives. Most of us do not actively seek out the extreme thrills in real life; the mundane is boring but comforting. Thrillers allow us to nonetheless enjoy the excitement vicariously through the exploits of our protagonists. Sure, it’s transient, but often, it’s the shot of adrenaline the reader needs.
The best thrillers are the ones that are grounded in reality. The reader would like to know that the events, sinister as they may well be, are within the realms of the possible. Otherwise, it’s either fantasy or supernatural – different, excellent genres in themselves, but not the same as thrillers. It’s important that the events are catastrophic enough for the reader to be engaged to see to it that the disaster does not actually happen. The main protagonists in the thriller, the ones the reader would root for, are often extremely competent physically and mentally, but the best thrillers distinguish themselves in not making the lead characters superhuman. They have to be relatable, the same concerns, fears and troubles as the readers have, would have to be troubles for them too.
Robert Ludlum was perhaps the most successful thriller writer of the last millennium. Today’s recommended thriller, The Matarese Circle, is a fine expression of the standard Ludlum template. There is a secret society, which is led by a shadowy, all-powerful leader – this society could have been germinating for a long time. In this while, it has been able to infiltrate through every layer of the government. Now, the secret society wants to move on to the next stage, that of complete world domination - and right now, they are awfully close to their goal. There is one specific task that has to be accomplished by the society before that goal is accomplished. In parallel, there is our protagonist, a troubled and embittered secret-service man: a soldier, or a spy; who has been recently discredited, injured or traumatized. He somehow gets in the middle of this maelstrom started by the secret society, and at some point, becomes the only man that can stop the secret society from its ultimate goal. How is our protagonist able to save the world from going to the hands of this nefarious secret society?
That is the template. And an excellent example of this template is our recommended novel. This is 1979, the year the novel was published. The secret society, the Matarese Circle, has been able to infiltrate the American and Russian governments at all levels except for right at the top. Instead of one, we have two spies, US agent Brandon Scofield, and Russian KGB agent Vasili Taleniekov – and they have a back story. Taleniekov has previously murdered Scofield’s wife, and Scofield Taleniekov’s brother, and the two spies have been plotting to kill each other for a long while. And now, as they independently discover the Matarese plot, and since their governments are compromised, they will have to learn to work together to stop the Matarese.
Visceral and action packed, it’s a rip-roaring read.
Reviewed previously at The New Indian Express