Hornet Flight

Rating:
Summary: The last Follett book I'll ever read.
Review: Hornet Flight continues the rapid download slide I last encountered in the horrid Jackdaws. C'mon, the British wait 14 days for some amateur spies to get some crappy 35mm photos from some radar installation in Denmark when Russia is being consumed?!???! This ONE installation keeps Bomber Command from attacking Germany??? WHY NOT JUST BOMB THE F'ING INSTALLATION OUT OF EXISTANCE??? HELLO!?!?! Send the Royal Navy to this ISLAND IN THE NORTH SEA installation and shell the place. And then... AND THEN the stupid "heroine" has some dance recital that is SO important that the predictable from page 11 flight to England has to be delayed for a day. Holy unbelieveable crap. Follett (if he hasn't hired teenage ghost writers or has some fancy Macintosh program doing his "writing" for him) violates just about every rule about fiction writing taught to freshmen in college. Hey, Ken, ever heard "show, don't tell"??? This is cheap, pulp fiction at its lowest. I would be ashamed to have people read this if I had written it -- I guess the only difference is the Follett has people that pay him for this claptrap and has people like me fooled into buying it. Well, never again.

Rating:
Summary: Follett Lite
Review: Follett's forte is WWII spy novels. This one fits the genre but is not up to his usual standard. It is a fast read - mostly because there is not much there.

A Danish 18 year old mechanical genius gets drawn into the spy game when he stumbles upon a German radar installation. His older brother also gets drawn in by his English fiance. When older brother asks younger about the installation they realize it would be better for younger to photograph it. While he's on that trip, older brother gets captured and kills himself before he can be turned over to the Gestapo. Of course, the younger also developes a romantic interest who helps him reconstruct a two seat airplane to take them and the photographs to England.

Follett leaves much to the imagination - or gullibility - of the reader. Somehow these two young people repair this broken plane in just a few days while working right next to a German encampment (conveniently placed so they can get petrol).

The characters are likeable and believable. The pages turn quickly thanks to Follett's good, clean crisp style. The Danish cop with a grudge against the brothers' family is a wonderfully evil character.

The plot is simple, yet good. The book just lacks depth to give it a higher rating. Still in all, a fun read - good for the beach.

Rating:
Summary: Hornets Flight takes off slow but flies just average...
Review: I love Ken Follett and his books, but sometimes they do not always hit and this is one of those. The book starts out really slow and it is hard to identify with the characters. As the stroy goes on, about 100 or more pages in, it finally picks up and gets better. But this is definately not one of his best works, and I would only recommend it if you like Ken Follett books and are willing to struggle through the first 100 pages. Overall you wont be disappointed, but you also wont be thrilled. Again if you like Follett's other work, you will need to read this, but if you didn't, you would not be missing much.

Rating:
Summary: good flow
Review: this is another great period peice by the master, Ken Follet. The book starts out on the slow side and there are alot of character to keep straight, but it keeps picking up and up and up with each chapter to the point where I couldn't read the pages fast enough!

The ending really left me wanting more. So far, this is my favorite of his WW2 military style books. Not quite as good as flight over water, a place called freedom, dangerous fortune or especially pillars, but it's definetly up there as one of my favorites.

Rating:
Summary: Typical high quality Follett novel
Review: Hornet Flight is another great book by English author Ken Follett. Set in Denmark in WWII, a young boy named Harold must find away to get some secrets back to England after all other means have failed. He is pursued by the policeman Peter Fleming, a childhood friend of Harold's brother who now hates Harold's family.

I listened to this book on Audio-Tape and found it very interesting and well-read.

I have several observations about this book.

Hornet Flight is different than most WWII novels in that it focuses a lot more on characters and their lives as opposed to actual events of World War II. In this way, it is like other Follett books where all characters are done well yet so many characters are the same from book to book. Still this isn't a fault, because I enjoy Follett's books from beginning to end because of the quality characterization (as oppossed to some books where the entire book is read to get to the payoff at the end.)

Peter Fleming, the bad guy in the book, has some human qualities at first, especially as he cares for his handicapped wife. Fleming's anger over what happened to his wife turns him into a hateful person focused only on stopping Harold. Peter and his partner Tilde never seem that bad because they appear to be doing what the police would have to do in a country run by Nazis. They are just doing their duty.

I recommend this book to anyone looking for a strong character based, action novel. If you are turned off by the swastika on the cover, don't be, because while this book is set in WWII, its quality is not dependent upon that fact.