I love this book by Forsyth. It was epic in scale. And he pulled it off masterfully. The first half of the book is plot set up, which is typical of the author. He's really into details and logistics, so this part of his books often bores some readers. But not me. I like finding out about all of the details that go into an operation. The second half of the book was action packed and I had a hard time putting the book down.The plot revolves around post-Soviet Russia circa 1999. It's falling apart, is broke, its leadership in shambles. Up steps a charismatic leader named Igor Komarov, who's expected to become president in the upcoming election and who vows to return Mother Russia to its glory. However, he's not what he seems to be. He's a Hitler wannabe who is going to practice genocide on Jews, ethnic minorities, the military leadership, etc. And he's got all of his plans written down in a "Black Manifesto," of which there are three copies. One of them is foolishly left on his secretary's desk and an old ex-soldier who now cleans Komarov's headquarters sees it, reads some of it, realizes its importance and steals it. He then gets it to the British embassy, where it works its was back to British intelligence. The document is shared between British and American governments, but they choose to do nothing, so a group of highly influential and secretive world leaders meet to discuss the situation and come up with a solution -- to send in a spy to destabilize Komarov's platform and discredit him, thereby ensuring he loses the election. The person chosen to do this is ex-CIA agent Jason Monk. Monk fights it, but Sir Nigel Irvine (a great character!) convinces him to do it, and so he goes in. When Monk arrives in Moscow, he immediately calls in a favor of a particular Chechen who is head of the Chechen underworld and he gains their support and protection. He then starts making the rounds, contacting the military's leadership, the state police's leader, the head of the Russian Orthadox church, and a major bank president who also presides over the television media. These people, after being confronted with the facts of the Black Manifesto, turn on Komarov and his security chief, Colonel Grishin. Meanwhile, Grishin finds out Monk is in the country and has an old score to settle with him, so he puts his Black Guard troops at work trying to locate him. Monk moves around, and this is a weakness of the book I think, and is almost omniscient in anticipating their moves and making adjustments for himself and his Russian collaborators. Sir Nigel makes it to Russia to meet with the clergy and comes up with the idea of returning Russia to a czar-based country, which is accepted by said clergy. He then comes up with a distant heir to the throne and promotes his return to Russia to take over.When Komarov and Grishin realize their time is almost up, they do something completely crazy -- attempt a New Year's Eve coup in Moscow. But Monk anticipates this and helps prepare the military the the police, so the coup attempt fails and everything works out beautifully. The climactic scene between Grishin and Monk is largely anticlimactic, though, and that was disappointing. It's not Forsyth's best book, but it's an entertaining one, with a lot of research having gone into Russia, their crime scene, politics, etc., and it's certainly worth reading. Monk is a bit too super human to be very believable, but he's a likeable character, so one can overlook that. Recommended.
La prima volta che ho letto questo capolavoro della letteratura era l'estate del 1997 e Boris Eltsin era stato rieletto presidente della Russia da appena un anno; io comprai questo libro in edizione economica (era il periodo dei Miti Mondadori) senza conoscere la trama ma affidandomi solo al "peso letterario" del suo autore: Frederick Forsyth. Perciò, quando lessi le 450 pagine di "Icona", rimasi davvero sconvolto ma allo stesso tempo affascinato dalla storia quasi realistica in esso contenuta: tutto comincia nel 1999 con la morte improvvisa del presidente Cerkassov, successore di uno Eltsin malato ed indebolito politicamente. Si indicono nuove elezioni presidenziali, e tra i tanti candidati alla massima carica dello stato c'è anche Igor Komarov, leader di una destra innovativa di stampo "occidentale". O almeno questo è quello che lo stesso Komarov vorrebbe far credere... se non fosse che, per colpa di una banale distrazione, il suo vero progetto politico viene svelato in tutta la sua crudeltà: restaurare "a destra" la vecchia Unione Sovietica ed eliminare tutti gli ebrei e gli avversari politici. Il vero piano politico di Komarov, dopo un incredibile giro, finisce sul tavolo dei servizi segreti americani e l'ex agente Cia Jason Monk è incaricato di recarsi in Russia e risolvere la crisi prima che sia troppo tardi. Monk, a questo punto, riattiva tutti i vecchi canali che già in passato gli avevano permesso di affrontare il Kgb. Nel frattempo, sempre con l'intento di bloccare il piano di Komarov, un influente gruppo di americani ed inglesi, lavora alla più incredibile delle soluzioni: trovare un discendente dell'ultimo zar e riportarlo sul trono di tutte le Russie. Come avrete certamente capito, qui il genere "fantapolitico" sfiora davvero la perfezione con la trama (sviluppata su due differenti linee temporali) che, pur essendo inventata di sana pianta, è abbastanza credibile ed offre non pochi spunti di riflessione. Libro scritto davvero in modo elegante che, pur trattando un tema abbastanza duro (con scene abbastanza truculente), ne permette una lettura sciolta ed agevole. Chiudo con una mia piccola considerazione: alla trama del libro sostituite il nome di Komarov con quello di Putin... ed avrete un quadro abbastanza fedele di tutto ciò che sta avvenendo ai confini della Russia in questi anni: mi riferisco ai fatti di Ucraina, Crimea e Cenenia.
What do You think about Icon (1997)?
A destabilised Russia with an up and coming popular politician, the Icon from the title, who is bound to become the next ruler and willing to take Russia into the next century and clean up its internal mess and reshape it into a great country it was once.Except for a small matter namely the man is mad as Hitler and his thoughts and ideas, full of ethnic cleansing are all written into an account called the Black manifesto. And by sheer accident it lands into the hands of a former soldier who cleans the headquarters of this man. This sets up a chain of events that will change the fate of Russia once more. Only this time it is an engineered change from the outside of Russia.It is also the story of Jason Monk a former spy whose assets were betrayed by the Agency he required them for. The stupidity and gross oversight of the responsible people burns a whole network of agents inside of Russian. It is the story of a Russian security officer involved in the arresting a lot of the assets and really interested in capturing Monk one day to make him pay for the actions against the great Soviet empire. And he gets his chance as the security chief and military leader of the almost certain future leader of Russia. Jason Monk is returning again to Russia to change the wave of politics in a game that is about manipulation at the highest level.Another brilliant page-turner that takes his time to set up, a common theme in Forsyths writing. And when the story gets rolling it keeps going at a ever increasing speed, which makes it difficult to lay the novel down, unless you have kids and are married in such a case you are sometimes overruled. Anyhow once the dust is settled at the end of the book the last three pages still have a few surprises in store for the faithful reader.Another exciting spy/thriller from one of its great master writers.
—Mark
One of the best novel I've ever read, in my opinion. Though I found it is hard and pretty boring to follow at the first time, Frederick Forsyth makes it so great that the story is getting more and more interesting, so I keep on reading it couple of times.Since it tells us about spy and politic, all the characters created are full with heroism, cunning, betrayal and intrigue. Jason Monk, together with Sir Nigel Irvine, as the main characters, presents the ideal type of secret service agent. Brilliant, smart, fast thinking, loyal and kind hearted. Monk, a friendly and talented CIA agent, easily recruits four Russians to do spying for CIA and becomes their friend.I have some favorite scenes. The first one is when the three recruited Russians, friends of Monk, are betrayed, caught and killed. The second is when Nikolay Turkin, also Monk's friend, is arrested in front of Mong who is only about a hundred meters from him but can do nothing. Another scene is when Monk cries after he read a letter from Turkin, saying that by the time he read it, Turkin probably has died already because of typhoid from the labor camp. Those scenes are very sadden, as sadden as the letter from Turkin, and tighten, that I started to feel as if I were Monk.It's kinda hard topic for me to follow, but I think it's terrific.
—Diah Didi
Thrillers or detective novels are best when it comes to train journeys; especially if you are in an Express or Superfast which goes slower than a Passenger and is held down in different stations for reasons I know not what. It is on one such journey that I came upon this novel -- a random search in the library revealed the worn out book in the corner and it looked like a good one too for the three hour ride home. I never got a chance to read any more of Forsyth, but thanks to this absorbing tale, much fretting is avoided, though the train was late by one hour. Isn't that what great about books? For Keats escape may be through imagination, for Coleridge the opium, but to some others like me its books. Now about the story; its a gripping action thriller interspersed with many flashbacks (which is the most interesting part) and as usual of the books of the period reflects the cold war in its extremities, ie., the good American saving the world from the evil Russians. Its a relief that now the place of Russians is taken by aliens and wizards or sometimes vampires and Greek Gods.
—Finitha Jose
