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A review by lekakis
Dark Star by Alan Furst
3.0
3.5
This is better than the first book of the series. But longer than necessary much like the first. In this case the major hero is a bad spy as in bad at his job and just because of that he is used as a mean to the ends of more powerful people. The incompetence of the protagonist but also the lack of awareness (for the majority of book) serves well to demonstrate how the common man was pushed around in an era of powerful players in the world of espionage.
That said the book is more coherent than the first and because it follows a linear chronology is easier to stay with it. At times boring but gives good information (on a superficial level) on the Russian purge of 1935s, the Polish invasion, the life of Jewish people in the Germany of the 30s and the German-Russian alliance of 1939. And Paris of course, the author’s favorite city.
The author makes good job communicating an atmosphere (of the era) as he understands it.
I wish Andre Szara was not so incompetent but oh well :)
This is better than the first book of the series. But longer than necessary much like the first. In this case the major hero is a bad spy as in bad at his job and just because of that he is used as a mean to the ends of more powerful people. The incompetence of the protagonist but also the lack of awareness (for the majority of book) serves well to demonstrate how the common man was pushed around in an era of powerful players in the world of espionage.
That said the book is more coherent than the first and because it follows a linear chronology is easier to stay with it. At times boring but gives good information (on a superficial level) on the Russian purge of 1935s, the Polish invasion, the life of Jewish people in the Germany of the 30s and the German-Russian alliance of 1939. And Paris of course, the author’s favorite city.
The author makes good job communicating an atmosphere (of the era) as he understands it.
I wish Andre Szara was not so incompetent but oh well :)