You need to sign in or sign up before continuing.
Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.57 AVERAGE
3.57 AVERAGE
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Lots of tense meetings between various intelligence agencies turned this into a bit of a drudge. I found it all dragged out a bit much by the end.
3.5
Usually books pale in comparison to their adaptations so I try to watch them first (also helps me keep track of large casts). I was actually quite surprised by the mostly accurate adaptations of Tinker, Tailor and Smiley's People. I was expecting a similar case here given the tv series was so good.
The first half is very similar (just the tv series is updated to modern times) but the ending is quite different and more interesting in the tv series than the book. Book is still good but pales in that area by comparison.
There were lots of lovely political quotes and just a general political side of things that I liked that wasn't in the series that much so that made up for things somewhat.
Usually books pale in comparison to their adaptations so I try to watch them first (also helps me keep track of large casts). I was actually quite surprised by the mostly accurate adaptations of Tinker, Tailor and Smiley's People. I was expecting a similar case here given the tv series was so good.
The first half is very similar (just the tv series is updated to modern times) but the ending is quite different and more interesting in the tv series than the book. Book is still good but pales in that area by comparison.
There were lots of lovely political quotes and just a general political side of things that I liked that wasn't in the series that much so that made up for things somewhat.
This was my fourth le Carré book, so in my defense I gave him a fair shake. Unfortunately, it just wasn't my cup of tea, but the same can be said about most espionage novels (like the Bourne trilogy) that I read. Overall, I seem to prefer espionage in movies over books. I don't know if this is because the target audience of these types of books is men or if I'm not smart enough to stick with such convoluted plots, but at the end of the day I just don't enjoy spy novels. I did, however, really enjoy the miniseries that Amazon produced a few years ago, staring Tom Hiddleston and Hugh Laurie. Watching the miniseries did make it easier to follow the novel. Maybe I'm just more visual when it comes to these kinds of plots.
Reading this book gave me mixed feelings.
At first reading it was just hard: this is the first book by John le Carré which I read, so it was quite difficult to get used to the style. Ceaseless mixing of current events and flashbacks was dazzling. At last I became accustomed to it.
The characters were good, the description of the spying work was interesting and there were other great things. But the novel just couldn't captivate me. I suppose that spying genre isn't for me.
But the ending of the tale was able to surprise me - didn't see that coming.
At first reading it was just hard: this is the first book by John le Carré which I read, so it was quite difficult to get used to the style. Ceaseless mixing of current events and flashbacks was dazzling. At last I became accustomed to it.
The characters were good, the description of the spying work was interesting and there were other great things. But the novel just couldn't captivate me. I suppose that spying genre isn't for me.
But the ending of the tale was able to surprise me - didn't see that coming.
dark
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
mysterious
tense
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:
Yes
Thoroughly enjoyed my first John Le Carre book! Good plot and many characters to follow.