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A review by markreadsbooks_sg
V2: A Novel of World War II by Robert Harris
4.0
Synopsis
November 1944
Willi Graf, a German rocket engineer, is launching Nazi Germany's V2 rockets at London from Occupied Holland. Kay Connolly, once an actress, now a young English Intelligence officer, ships out for Belgium to locate the launch sites and neutralize the threat.
But when rumors of a defector circulate through the German ranks, Graf becomes a suspect. Unknown to each other, Graf and Connolly find themselves on opposite sides of the hunt for the saboteur.
Their twin stories play out against the background of the German missile campaign, one of the most epic and modern but least explored episodes of the Second World War. Their destinies are on a collision course.
V2 is a well written wartime thriller based around the V2 rocket attacks on England during the last few months of world war II.
While the characters were somewhat 2 dimensional with the characters only, given just enough to allow the story to move along, although the people in the book reminded me of those in a world war II movie, from just after the war, with everyone seems to have a stiff upper lip.
Having said that, this is not the style of book that you need to have, a lot of characterisation of the people involved in the story. Which means they had sufficient character background and development, to make this book still an enjoyable book to read.
What I really like was the flashbacks of Willi Graf, the German engineer, as it allowed the writer to give, Robert Harris, to tell the story of the development of the V2 Rocket, as well as some technical information, however this never felt like Robert Harris adding information, just to show the research he had done on the book, but to allow the reader to get some background knowledge of the rocket.
Narration Review
I have the same feeling about the narration as I do about the depth of the characterisation, in that while not the greatest that I ever heard it was one of those stories where you did not need much acting ability for this story.
But what the narrator needed to do from speaking clearly and allowing the listener to know which individual was speaking, without too much difficulty/
Recommendation
This is one of those books that is not only suitable for fans of Robert Harris, or people who enjoy World War II novels, that are not all physical action, but still have danger and tension in the story. If This is the type of book you like then you should read V2 by Robert Harris.
November 1944
Willi Graf, a German rocket engineer, is launching Nazi Germany's V2 rockets at London from Occupied Holland. Kay Connolly, once an actress, now a young English Intelligence officer, ships out for Belgium to locate the launch sites and neutralize the threat.
But when rumors of a defector circulate through the German ranks, Graf becomes a suspect. Unknown to each other, Graf and Connolly find themselves on opposite sides of the hunt for the saboteur.
Their twin stories play out against the background of the German missile campaign, one of the most epic and modern but least explored episodes of the Second World War. Their destinies are on a collision course.
V2 is a well written wartime thriller based around the V2 rocket attacks on England during the last few months of world war II.
While the characters were somewhat 2 dimensional with the characters only, given just enough to allow the story to move along, although the people in the book reminded me of those in a world war II movie, from just after the war, with everyone seems to have a stiff upper lip.
Having said that, this is not the style of book that you need to have, a lot of characterisation of the people involved in the story. Which means they had sufficient character background and development, to make this book still an enjoyable book to read.
What I really like was the flashbacks of Willi Graf, the German engineer, as it allowed the writer to give, Robert Harris, to tell the story of the development of the V2 Rocket, as well as some technical information, however this never felt like Robert Harris adding information, just to show the research he had done on the book, but to allow the reader to get some background knowledge of the rocket.
Narration Review
I have the same feeling about the narration as I do about the depth of the characterisation, in that while not the greatest that I ever heard it was one of those stories where you did not need much acting ability for this story.
But what the narrator needed to do from speaking clearly and allowing the listener to know which individual was speaking, without too much difficulty/
Recommendation
This is one of those books that is not only suitable for fans of Robert Harris, or people who enjoy World War II novels, that are not all physical action, but still have danger and tension in the story. If This is the type of book you like then you should read V2 by Robert Harris.