Never

3 stars (2 reviews)

The new must-read epic from master storyteller Ken Follett: more than a thriller, it's an action-packed, globe-spanning drama set in the present day.

In the Sahara Desert, two elite intelligence agents are on the trail of a powerful group of drug-smuggling terrorists, risking their lives--and, when they fall desperately in love, their careers--at every turn. Nearby, a beautiful young widow fights against human traffickers while traveling illegally to Europe with the help of a mysterious man who may not be who he says he is.

In China, a senior government official with vast ambitions for himself and his country battles against the older Communist hawks in the government, who may be pushing China--and its close military ally, North Korea--to a place of no return.

And in the United States, Pauline Green, the country's first woman president, navigates terrorist attacks, illegal arms trading, and the smear campaigns of her blustering political …

1 edition

Fesselnder Pageturner, der teilweise altbacken wirkt, aber ...

4 stars

In seinem Roman "Never" erzählt Ken Follett einen sehr klassischen Spionage- und Geopolitik-Thriller, wie die, mit denen er in den 1970-er und 80-er Jahren bekannt geworden war. Nur dass dieser Thriller eben in unserer Zeit spielt und der Konflikt zwischen den USA und China im Mittelpunkt steht.

Seite um Seite arbeitet Follett dabei die typischen Plot-Points eines solchen Thrillers ab. Er nutzt die üblichen Klischees und Tropes und auch die Liebesgeschichten und (leider) teilweise auch die Frauenfiguren wirken ein wenig aus der Zeit gefallen.

Das Ganze macht er aber so offensichtlich, dass ich mich die ganze Zeit gefragt habe, ob er das nicht als Stilmittel versteht, denn auf der geopolitischen Ebene weicht er langsam immer weiter vom Standard ab und bringt den Roman zu einem für das Genre überraschenden Ende.

Ein fesselnder Pageturner, der teilweise altbacken wirkt, aber am Ende vielleicht sogar zu nah an der aktuellen Zeit dran ist.

Would have expected better from him

2 stars

You're probably too young to remember painting by numbers. Basically when you bought that, you got a board on which you found the outline of what was being painted in (a tiger, a house, etc) and this outline was filled with small numbered areas. You applied paint #1 to the areas numbered 1, 2 to the 2s and the final result was a beautiful tiger in full colour which you could then show to your friends pretending you painted that. This novel by Follett reminds me exactly of that. It seems to be written by Mr Follett following a pretty exact recipe on how to write a spy novel. You have to hang in during the first 75% because not much exciting happens. Things get a bit more lively towards the end but by then I had mostly lost my patience. Nevertheless reading a work on a possible scenario leading …