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A review by alexctelander
Code to Zero by Ken Follett
3.0
Code to Zero is the latest from bestselling author, Ken Follett, who has brought us such greats as The Eye of the Needle and The Pillars of the Earth. Code to Zero involves the violent competition between the United States and the Soviet Union in the race to get rockets and manned spacecraft up into space. The year is 1958, the Soviet Union has already launched a rocket, Sputnik, and America is being left behind. Their only hope is the Explorer I rocket. Past rockets have all failed, and if this one fails, that will be it for the United States.
The book opens with the main character, Luke, waking up in the restroom at a train station in Washington DC. He is dressed in rags, reeks of booze, has no money, and his friend is a fellow hobo. He has no recollection of his past, how he got to be where he is, or who he is for that matter.
So begins this fast-paced novel of espionage, deceit, conspiracy and Soviet spies. As the story continues, Luke discovers, slow inch by inch, details of his past and who he is. Juxtaposed with this is the necessary launching of the Explorer I rocket. Luke discovers that is someone important, related to the Explorer 1 launching, and that there was something he trying to do to prevent a possible sabotaging of the Explorer 1.
As we pursue the present, we are given chapters in Luke’s past and his friends from Harvard. The girls in his life, and his best friend; none of which he can remember, but the read is made privy to these details.
It is not until the last fourth of the book that further details are revealed, where his best friend and even his wife are not who he thinks they are. The only help he has is from a girl who he loved at one point, but didn’t talk to for years due to an unmentioned aborting – the death of his son. But now this woman who he never trusted is his only help, the only one who is on his side and the one person he can use to prevent the launching of the Explorer 1 an make it a fantastic exploding firework display – the failure of the Capitalists and the triumph of the Communists.
Ken Follett does a great service to the spy novel of the Cold War, keeping true to the particular time frame, when the CIA was in its infant stages, the Korean War was over, and the Vietnam War had yet to begin.
If one has a penchant for faced-paced spy novels, with the Yanks against the Ruskies, this is the book for you.
Originally published on March 12th 2001 ©Alex C. Telander.
For over 500 book reviews, and over 40 exclusive author interviews (both audio and written), visit BookBanter.
The book opens with the main character, Luke, waking up in the restroom at a train station in Washington DC. He is dressed in rags, reeks of booze, has no money, and his friend is a fellow hobo. He has no recollection of his past, how he got to be where he is, or who he is for that matter.
So begins this fast-paced novel of espionage, deceit, conspiracy and Soviet spies. As the story continues, Luke discovers, slow inch by inch, details of his past and who he is. Juxtaposed with this is the necessary launching of the Explorer I rocket. Luke discovers that is someone important, related to the Explorer 1 launching, and that there was something he trying to do to prevent a possible sabotaging of the Explorer 1.
As we pursue the present, we are given chapters in Luke’s past and his friends from Harvard. The girls in his life, and his best friend; none of which he can remember, but the read is made privy to these details.
It is not until the last fourth of the book that further details are revealed, where his best friend and even his wife are not who he thinks they are. The only help he has is from a girl who he loved at one point, but didn’t talk to for years due to an unmentioned aborting – the death of his son. But now this woman who he never trusted is his only help, the only one who is on his side and the one person he can use to prevent the launching of the Explorer 1 an make it a fantastic exploding firework display – the failure of the Capitalists and the triumph of the Communists.
Ken Follett does a great service to the spy novel of the Cold War, keeping true to the particular time frame, when the CIA was in its infant stages, the Korean War was over, and the Vietnam War had yet to begin.
If one has a penchant for faced-paced spy novels, with the Yanks against the Ruskies, this is the book for you.
Originally published on March 12th 2001 ©Alex C. Telander.
For over 500 book reviews, and over 40 exclusive author interviews (both audio and written), visit BookBanter.