Rating: Summary: Intrigue...Warriors...Spiritual Leaders...Sleek Yachts..., Review: Favors requested by esteemed elders...Intrigue surrounding a formula for pestilence...Warriors traded to the enemy for cash...Secrets hidden in coat linings...A spiritual leader befriending the deputy director of the U.S. CIA...An old book of poetry provides solace to lovers mending their lives in a remote cave...Sleek yachts...A songbird removes her burqa and reveals secrets. Steven E. Wilson weaves issues of love, hate, greed, family, and culture throughout this novel of struggle and quest for the true meaning of life in Afghanistan, a land where all seems lost. While reading Winter in Kandahar, I fondly remembered some of the operas I fell in love with many years ago. Wilson's fictional account of universal, underlying and timeless human passions and driving forces is a gift to readers, who want more than news accounts of current events facing our world. Joan E. Phelps
Rating: Summary: A GRAND OLD-FASHIONED EPIC! Review: I absolutely loved this book! I decided to read it after I stumbled onto this page a few weeks back and was impressed with the many outstanding reviews. It lived up to its billing and more. The story is compelling and endearing. The detailed descriptions of facinating places and people made it hard to put down. It should be a bestseller if it can get the publicity it deserves. Hopefully, this will not be the last we hear from Wilson.
Rating: Summary: Predictable story line and POOR writing Review: I eagerly awaited my copy of Winter in Kandahar based on the setting of the plot and the wonderful reviews readers left on Amazon. I was disappointed. The setting offered a grand opportunity for an excellent novel but Dr. Wilson was unable to pull much more than a predictable story line with this opportunity. Worse, Dr. Wilson needs to learn sentence combining and to write effective dialogue. Where on earth was his editor? The sentences in this book are choppy and do not flow easily. Often there are too many insignificant details that slow the plot. Potential here? Yes, as long as Dr. Wilson gets some writing instruction.
Rating: Summary: A super novel! Review: I finally had the opportunity to read "Winter in Kandahar." It was gripping. I feel that I have a much better understanding of life in Afghanistan with all its problems and the affects upon the western world. It certainly is an eye-opener: the stark contrast between eastern and western cultures, the centuries of tribal warfare and deprivation, the plight of women, the brutality that abounds, it all held me spellbound and overwhelmed by a sense of thankfulness and relief that I (especially as a woman) am blessed to live in the free world, in the USA. This book is a "must read" for anyone who wants insight into this troubled country. Jean Dean, WRVC
Rating: Summary: A super novel! Review: I finally had the opportunity to read "Winter in Kandahar." It was gripping. I feel that I have a much better understanding of life in Afghanistan with all its problems and the affects upon the western world. It certainly is an eye-opener: the stark contrast between eastern and western cultures, the centuries of tribal warfare and deprivation, the plight of women, the brutality that abounds, it all held me spellbound and overwhelmed by a sense of thankfulness and relief that I (especially as a woman) am blessed to live in the free world, in the USA. This book is a "must read" for anyone who wants insight into this troubled country. Jean Dean, WRVC
Rating: Summary: Great story Review: I found the story gripping. I was impressed by the author's knowledge of the area and it's customs. Brought the strife going on in that area of the world closer and more understandable.
Rating: Summary: I got the bug-gripping thriller Review: I had some time off the last two weeks and really got into this book. It's an imaginitive tale that kept my attention from beginning to end. I found the science intriguing and more than a little scary, especially the possibility that a virus could really be manipulated the way it is as the plot unfolds. Ahmed Jan was a character who gained strength through the book- clearly by design. I thought all the Tajiks were well done and the CIA agent Stone is probably a lot closer to what a case officer really is than some of the James Bond or Bourne Identity types might lead you to believe. Anyone who says Wilson didn't provide the background for why the Tajiks and Pashtun are continually feuding in Afghanistan either skimmed the novel or didn't read it at all. It's one of the key points that makes the ending special- at least for me. All things considered- an excellent effort and an author worth keeping an eye out for in the future.
Rating: Summary: A brilliant thrilling adventure...compelling Review: I just finished Winter in Kandahar and loved every minute of it. This novel is a thrilling adventure, told in a very realistic, but also, very interesting, enlightening and compelling way. The reader feels as if he is there in Afghanistan after 9/11/01. The reader leaves the novel with a better understanding of this troubled land and the rival tribal groups which inhabit it. Superimposed on this backdrop is an international thriller with bioterrorism at the heart of it. The prose is rich with detail and the main characters come to life. The story winds its way to the ending with a perfect crescendo. Dan Belsky Attorney in San Diego
Rating: Summary: Awesome! It should win the Benjamin Franklin Award Review: I loved this adventure-thriller more than any I've read since Day of the Jackel and I've read hundreds of others since then. No wonder it's a finalist for the Benjamin Franklin Award. The story was six star with a healthy dose of romance too! I really enjoyed the great character development and the feeling of actually being in Afghanistan and Pakistan, but my favorite parts were those in Amsterdam and the ending in Kandahar. Mr. Wilson, if you read these reviews, all I want for Christmas is another novel from you! Charles Boyer
Rating: Summary: A timely adventure thriller I thoroughly enjoyed! Review: I loved this book! The timeliness of the reality-based plot in the framework of an epic that spans the globe made for several weeks of enjoyment. I usually don't get an opportunity to read until we put the kids to sleep and climb into bed. I found myself eager with anticipation for the chance to crawl beneath the covers and return to the captivating Winter in Kandahar story.The novel begins a short time prior to September 11, 2001 in the northeast corner of Afghanistan where the Northern Alliance remains precariously in control of territory that includes the Panjshir Valley where the Alliance Mujaheddin are making what appears to be their last stand against the combined forces of the Taliban and al-Qaeda. The main character of the novel, a young ill-fated fighter named Ahmed Jan, is on the front lines of the see-saw battles that have seen his entire family wiped out. As shaky as the Northern Alliance situation is, it is made all the worse by the assassination of revered Northern Alliance leader Commander Ahmed Massoud at the hands of al-Qaeda in chapter 2. Ironically, in this darkest hour, the Qaeda attacks on New York and Washington D.C. turn out to be salvation for the Tajik, Uzbek and other groups of the Northern Alliance who are resisting the cruel Taliban domination. Within weeks U.S. Special Forces, Air Force, Navy, and other military units sweep the Taliban out of Kabul, Taloqan, Kandahar, and other major cities of Afghanistan and put them on the run, along with their al-Qaeda guests, into the Pakistani tribal territories along the Afghan border. Ahmed Jan, along with ruthless Mujaheddin fighter Mustafa and old, rigid holy man Mohammajon, finds a mysterious communiqué in the coat of an al-Qaeda messenger and gets swept into an adventure that spans the globe from Islamabad to Amsterdam to Venice to Seattle to Vancouver to Karachi and back to Kandahar. The engrossing epic story includes CIA operatives and Special Forces soldiers interwoven with three love stories with very different endings. The adventure concludes with a moving and heartrending surprise finale. I highly recommend this book for both women and men who are fans of adventure and romance novels. Daryl Everett, Detroit, Michigan
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