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Jackdaws

Jackdaws

List Price: $7.99
Your Price: $7.19
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Excelente!
Review: What can I say? I bought this book in the airport in Houston and finished it in the same day - no small task with a 500-page novel. I have been a staunch Follett fan ever since "The Key to Rebecca" and "The Eye of the Needle," and he does not disappoint with this new novel - quite the contrary, in fact. Felicity "Flick" Clairet is the most intelligent, pragmatic, hard-headed, and yet vulnerable heroine in years, and she makes "Jackdaws" into a wonderfully engrossing page-turner. It is truly a "female Dirty Dozen" (or perhaps "Half-Dozen") Bravo!

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: NOT A TYPICAL KEN F. BOOK
Review: THE ONLY THING GOOD ABOUT THIS BOOK IS IF YOU'RE WALKING DOWN THE STREET WITH YOUR WIFE AND SOMEBODY STEALS HER PURSE YOU CAN THROW IT AT THEM.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: I Think It Was Great
Review: If you are looking to become totally engrossed and absorbed, swept away to another era, this is the novel for you. OK, so I am not some book critic who can go into every detail of why this book is bad...quite the contrary! I was amazed at how it captured me! It's the enjoyment of reading..to become paralyzed with interest. Rarely do I pick up a book and not put it down for hours on end. This one did that to me. Predictable?? Not in my opinion..OK, maybe if you read alot of books on 1944 WWII France/Germany/Britain...maybe, but I haven't..so to me it was fresh. I like an eclectic mix of whatever tickles my fancy at the time...and this one hit the nail on the head. No complaints!! Loved it!! Ok, so there was ONE incident of homosexuality..BIG RIP! Yes, there are incidents of torture, but...it was WAR, people..this IS what happens! War is UGLY! But, this book is really, really good! See for yourself.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Yuck! I want my money back!
Review: I waited for this book to come out in paperback because I thought the concept of a gang of female operatives in WWII would be interesting, and the single star I gave this novel is only for Follett's concept. Everything else in the book is predictable, boring or downright dumb.

I haven't read any of Follet's other novels, so I don't know if he has a habbit of creating the weak caricatures similar to those in Jackdaws or if he simply has a problem writing female chracters, but nothing about any of the characters --male or female -- rang true. At one point I had a strong image of Mr. Burns and Smithers from The Simpsons in my mind while reading about the Nazi spy-hunter and his assistant.

The romance that protagonist Flick finds herself in is downright gratuitous and unnecessary to the plot and all of the dialogue was just weak.

...

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Gripping Suspense
Review: This book is the first Ken Follett novel that I have read.The plot includes a group of women who agree to go underground into Germany to destroy a key communications system.The author describes the situation in tense, terrifying prose that makes the reader feel that they are actually participating in the action.I became an instant fan of this writer.If you love a great thriller,buy this book!

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Ken Follet Does it Again
Review: If it was possible, I would have given it a 4.5 star. While I was somewhat disappointed with his Code To Zero, Ken Follet is back doing what he know best - writing thrillers about the Second World War. Flick, the main heroine is a strongly sketched character, the portrayals of Ruby, Helen and the others are also well developed. There are plenty of twists and turns and breath stopping suspense in the plot to keep one hooked. If there is one shortcoming, it is in some of the incidents being too unbelievable in extremes - sometimes it is too easy for the jackdaws and sometimes too difficult. However, it is the element of suspense -the way Dieter Franck is always on Flick's trail, but she just about manages to stay one step ahead - kept me reading late into the night.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Totally predictable.
Review: Not nearly the quality of his prior works. No complexity of characters is attemted. The storyline is predictable within the first several chapters. Don't bother.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: A strong PC current runs under the surface
Review: The farther I got into "Jackdaws," the more I began to realize that this book isn't just another WWII espionage novel; it's also a mind-numbing exercise in political correctness. The 21st century gay/lesbian/transexual agenda makes quite an in-you-face showing in this WWII spy & romance thriller. The story would have been just as good without all the gender-bending and kink in my opinion, but I guess Follet feels his readers aren't getting enough PC indoctroncation from every other artistic medium, so he decided to make it a major theme in this novel. Seek your reader pleasures elsewhere if you want a genuinely good WWII thriller without all the post-war prostelitizing for modern diversity.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Exciting and Entertaining
Review: Actually this is the first of Ken Follett's book that I read. I just couldn't put it down.

It's ashame that the story is a bit short, and but it served as a wonderful reading material for a short weekend break!

I getting some more of Follett.....

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A World War II Story that is also Topical
Review: It will come as no surprise to anyone that the Allies won World War II or that D-Day - a pivotal event in the war - was executed successfully. Nonetheless, Ken Follett has written a novel that makes this event suspenseful even though the reader knows what the end result will be.

Returning to the era in which Follett's best books take place, Jackdaws follows female operative Felicity "Flick" Clairet and her efforts to destroy an important German communications center. She has a plan, and it requires a team of six women. What she assembles is a motley crew of semi-amateurs, but it is the best she can get.

What makes this novel especially stand out is her adversary, the German Major Dieter Franck. Franck is ruthless, but he is not evil and while a soldier and a German patriot, he is not fond of the Nazis. Instead, he is out to stop what he considers to be terrorists: the Resistance members who threaten his people.

Considering current events, Dieter's motivations have certain parallels to what many believe about terrorism nowadays. This adds an irony that probably goes beyond Follett even intended considering when this book must have been written and raises interesting questions about what terrorism is and what is appropriate in fighting it. Which is not to say that Dieter is a good guy, but it does kind of ironically invert some things that are happening nowadays.

What is most important, however, is that this is another great book by Follett, an entertaining page-turner that does not let up on the suspense. For a great WWII spy novel, Follett is hard to beat, and this book is another indication about why this is so.


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