Bem, por muito que gostasse de dizer o contrário, a verdade é que, infelizmente não há muito a dizer acerca deste livro... A desilusão só não é enorme, porque a minha incapacidade de vibrar com policiais desculpa, em parte, a fraca qualidade do livro e, por isso a minha vontade de ler Os Pilares da Terra não foi muito afectada. Pode ser que Ken Follett seja bem melhor nos romances marcadamente históricos.Ora bem... Este é um livro cuja acção decorre em 1958, em plena Guerra Fria, nas horas que antecedem o lançamento satélite Explorer I, o primeiro lançamento bem sucedido dos EUA, na sua guerra pelo espaço, contra a Rússia comunista.Claude Lucas é um cientista que trabalhou de perto para que este fosse um dia histórico para os EUA e, que uns dias antes do lançamento do satélite acorda numa casa-de-banho de Union Station, com uma amnésia profunda. Não sabe quem é, como foi ali parar e, embora o espelho lhe devolva a imagem de um sem-abrigo Luke tem a certeza de que não pertence aquele lugar e àquela roupa.Começa desta forma uma história que até prometia ser interessante. Estas páginas iniciais, onde aquele homem está confuso e frustrado por não saber nada acerca dele próprio foram as únicas que, de alguma forma, me prenderam a atenção. O resto do livro foi apenas um desenrolar de acontecimentos previsíveis, mal interligados, com personagens mal exploradas, superficiais, bidimensionais e que, por isso, não conseguiram despertar em mim qualquer empatia...A componente romântica da história está tão mal explorada que nem vontade de rir dá. As cenas/conversas que envolvem sexo são constrangedoras, despropositadas e não trazem qualquer mais-valia à história ou sequer permitem uma maior aproximação às personagens. Ainda não percebi porque é que há escritores que insistem em romancear quando não sabem como o fazer (sim, estou a lembra-me do José Rodrigues dos Santos e do seu inenarrável Tomás Noronha...).Não me apetece sequer perder muito mais tempo a elaborar esta opinião. Não vale a pena.No que toca a policiais, nunca irei dizer não leiam. O que posso dizer é que, para mim, foi claro desde muito cedo que este livro iria entrar na minha lista do Winkingbooks. Não me vai fazer confusão nenhuma vê-lo abandonar as minhas estantes em direcção às de alguém que talvez o saibam apreciar melhor.Boas leituras! :)
"We lie more to our loved ones, because we care about them so damn much. Why do you think we tell the truth to priests, and shrinks, and total strangers we meet on trains? It's because we don't love them, so we don't care what they think."This was recommended to me as a good read and I'll admit the start, and indeed the whole idea, is a gripping one. Luke's race to solve his personal mystery could have been engaging and the space race is fascinating material with which to work. The trouble is, and I say this as a person who rarely tweaks to the TV whodoneit or your average mystery novel, the end is so obvious you might as well just not bother reading it. The implication is that Luke is a Soviet agent, which we of course know to be balderdash in pretty short order: the plain-as-day guilt trips of the actual saboteurs render any pretence of mystery null and void.I did like the scene where Luke's driving through Georgetown and Nosy Rosie Sims is threatening to call the cops on him. The flashbacks to the nineteen forties could have worked well, but even there, the history came too early for the future effects to have any impact - the sex between Luke and billie laid the groundwork for the abortion, their first meeting pretty much trashed Elspeth and Luke's relationship, just to name a few instances. I recently reread The Bourne Identity, where repetition was used to great effect; mantra-like, for the amnesiac. Here, things are repeated (Pete's prostitution offence, Harry's contempt for women) with no appreciable gain - in fact, it smacked of sloppy editing to me, the book simply isn't long enough to warrant it.To conclude, then; the story had potential. The dating is done wwell; the mores of the referenced periods and location especially as regards sex and race are particularly well executed, given that the novel was published in 2000. However, the sloppiness of the repetition and the sheer transparency of the plot ruined this for me somewhat, so much so that I wondered if it were a young adult book in places.
What do You think about Code To Zero (2005)?
I liked the characters and their relationships. A wakes up homeless in a public men's room with no memory of his past and I particularly like the way he goes about attempting to discover his identity. I also liked how he was able to make new decisions about his past actions. I enjoyed Elspeth's math banter with her colleagues. The story moved along at a good pace and I stayed up the night finishing it.The weakest point for me is I don't recall sufficient explanation for the premise*. If it had a satisfactory explanation for the premise, I would have given it 5 star. My problem with the premise was (view spoiler)[Anthony showed a willingness to kill Luke later and Luke's wife was OK with it, so why did Anthony go through the trouble of merely wiping out Luke's memory and not killing him? I think it might be because he was trying to pin the espionage on Luke, but I didn't feel Luke's actions as an amnesiac helped that theory along. (hide spoiler)]
—Jacque
After dabbling with the Indian literature followed by a period of lull, I decided to resume reading with Ken Follett’s Code to Zero. Infamous for writing some of the best spy fictions, thrillers and historical sagas, Ken Follett is a master storyteller, the one that compels the readers’ to put everything on hold till the very end.Published in 2000, Code to Zero is a story of the scientist named Luke who wakes up at the Union Station... for the complete review, please visit https://explorerofbooks.wordpress.com...
—Isha
It was my first Ken Follett novel. In past few years I tried to pick his work while browsing through library but in the end always skipped over him, synopsis didn’t help. It was when friend spoke highly of him and his work and gave copy of her code to zero copy I started reading his work.And reading was over in a day.Yes, it was satisfying reading. He has a type of writing that I could enjoy at anytime and with any type of story. And this was certainly showed in code to zero which has not much to offer to reader in terms of plot except some good stroked of skilled writing.It was the time of cold war, but it was not war fought at battle field with men and guns. It was war of space and ultimate price was dominance over space.Russians (Soviet Union) were beating Americans hands down in space war, and it was big time for USA to find some answer or else Russia would won. Americans finally found the answer in form of Satellite Explorer, but Soviet would not so easily quench the space war and accept defeat, they had plan to stop the Satellite and continue the dominance but only one man can decide the fate of space and tragically he had amnesia.Read the complete Review at Critic Hawk
—Ankit Hawk
