What do You think about Spy (2006)?
The story is totally ridiculous and OTT, but I'm listening to the audio book read by John Shea. Now this is a bloke who can read. This is my first Ted Bell and he reminds me of Matthew Reilly. I read one Matthew Reilly and that was enough; if I want to see an action movie I'll go to the cinema thank you. I don't think I'll ever bother actually reading a Ted Bell.But listening to John Shea while I'm driving around throwing papers is fantastic. It's like being at the movies while it's happening. Apart from having to rewind every now and then when I concentrate too much on the actual job, or having to reverse to swap over a wrong paper when I'm concentrating too much on the CD, it's perfect for early morning paper chucking. And afterwards you don't feel like you've been watching a movie, you feel like you're in the middle of a book and can't wait to get back to it. The way Shea reads you know every character talking at the time without being told. Thank God he doesn't do women with a high squeaky voice. He seems to use a lower, whispery voice for women that is still clearly a male voice, but is so much more effective than what I've heard other readers do.Two stars for the book-wouldn't bother reading it. Five stars for Shea, I'll be looking for more of his stuff no matter what the book is. Can't wait to get up at two tomorrow morning to listen to disc nine. Just hope it's not a crappy ending.# it was a crappy ending
—Peter
There’s a blurb on the front of Ted Bell’s Spy from James Patterson. “Ted Bell,” exclaims the blurb, “can really, really write.”And Ted Bell can really, really write. What Ted Bell needs is an editor who can really, really edit.The plot is simple enough: Bell’s protagonist, Alexander Hawke is a prisoner of a deranged Arab terrorist in a jungle hideout in the Amazon. The terrorist is planning a big attack against the United States. Hawke escapes, makes it back to the UK and warns the Powers That Be of the madman in the jungle. Hawke then goes back to the Amazon and saves the day. Simple and exciting.Except….Spy clocks in at 699 pages. And that is probably about 300 pages too long. There are too many moving pieces that do not advance the story and seem to wander off on their own. It takes too dang long to get the story moving.Elmore Leonard famously advised writers to omit the parts of a story that a reader doesn’t care about and will skip. Spy does not follow this sage advice. A good chunk of the novel has Hawk going from one meal to another as we deal with plot exposition. Hawke’s relationship with the US Secretary of State, Consuelo de los Reyes, has hit the rocks and there are chapters devoted the characters’ pining for one another. None of it is remotely related to the story.There is a character in the novel whose only apparent purpose is to have sex with Hawke.And there are the subplots:We have a subplot involving Mexican machinations on the US/Mexico border that gives us a Texas sheriff and his deputy investigating not only ghost trucks, but also a white slavery ring and negotiating with a Mexican narco-terrorist gang. Most of this subplot has zero to do with the overall story and should have been jettisoned.There is Harry Brock, CIA, and a meandering subplot that has him picking up pieces of intel about the madman in the jungle that feels like filler.There is the laughable subplot of the terrorist attack being written in code based on the novel, the Da Vinci Code that no one in the NSA, CIA or MI-6 can figure out. Only Hawke’s pal, Ambrose Cosgreve can solve it.Stokely Jones has an entire chapter devoted to buying a car. His subplot involving finding a crashed and submerged jet carrying missiles really doesn’t go anywhere. It seems to be part of a different story where Venezuela is preparing to invade the US.And that seems to be the main problem with Spy: it is two novels smashed into one book: A madman in the jungle preparing to attack the US and a South American plot to destroy America. Had Bell picked one of the two stories and ran with it, the result probably would have been a better tale.Provided he had an editor to keep him on track.
—Walter
As with all the other books in the Alexander Hawke series, I enjoyed reading this 4th entry very much. Longer than the first three books in the series, this book was perhaps the most frightening (i.e., hitting close to home) so far in that the story line concerns the actions of Islamic terrorists using the near non-existent U.S. border with Mexico to infiltrate the country and wreck havoc on the U.S. government and attempt to reclaim lands they consider their own. Using some of the latest technology - remote controlled semis and SUV vehicles equipped with blackened windows - terrorists transport explosive materials around the nation. Incorporating Dan Brown's DaVinci Code into the mix, Hawke and Cosgreve work to unravel the mystery and save the President from assassination.I confess that this book took me a little longer to 'get into' than other books so far in this series; but the ending was vintage Bell/Hawke. I am very much looking forward to reading the next in the series, Tsar. :)
—Eric
