Archangel

Rating:
Summary: A good read
Review: This is a great book. A great story, with enough suspense and surprise to keep one entertained. It could have done with more description, though, because the pace of the plot was ofset by the shallowness of some of the characters. Overall the book was well worth the money that my friend paid to lend it to me.

Rating:
Summary: It reminds me of Joshua Son of None
Review: While I had a hard time getting started, I thought the work was enjoybale enough. Yes, it stereotypes many things in our world--from the Russian people to the Russian society, but it still provides an enjoyable read. While I did enjoy the book, the plot is a little over used--Joshua Son of None (the cloning of Pres. Kennedy) and numerous Adolf Hitler offspring books available.

Rating:
Summary: A biased and vicious view of Russia
Review: As a Russian, born in the area around Archangel, or more properly, Arkhangelsk, I read the novel with great curiosity. I was very soon and very deeply disappointed to find it stereotypical, cliched and simply bad. Mr. Harris's pretense for having a special knowledge of Russia has not passed the test. Starting with the un-Russian names and non-existing geographical locations, the distorting of facts from historical sources to caricaturish qualities creates an appalling and disturbing story. It's not only bad literature, or absolutely improbable story, it's also very offensive and insulting for anyone Russian. For example, Arkhangelsk, a 500 year old city of significant historical and cultural value, is compared to "Pittsburg after nuclear strike" and called the ugliest place on earth. The main hero ponders whether all Russian women are prostitutes. The background is that of modern-day Russia shown as virtually unchanged since Stalinist times and embracing Nazi ideology while main hero (good, moral Western historian, of course) stambles over Stalin portraits and Nazi swasticas anywhere he goes - the depiction as false as it is of questionable value. Any tourist to Russia would have to search hard to find either swasticas or Stalin portraits for the simple reason - they are not popular. The whole idea stinks - Russians lost more to Nazis than any other nation. The depiction of Stalin howling with the wolves is ridiculous. He may have been a tyrant, but not a werewolf. Overall, the book was a most irritating and insulting experience. If anything, it adds to misconceptions about Russia already abundunt in the West. Why not write about something Mr. Harris has more intimate knowledge of? Not worth anybody's money and time.

Rating:
Summary: Unbelievably bad
Review: Although I enjoyed his first two books, this one is a complete waste of time. The plot is convoluted and ridiculous. The characters are so poorly drawn you can barely keep them straight in your mind. And the ending is so ludicrous that it's laughable. If you're looking for thrillers, there are a lot better books out there.

Rating:
Summary: dont waste your time
Review: i read fatherland and thought it was a very entertaining and involving book. this book was convoluted, the characters were hard to follow, and ultimately the story was not that interesting. there are too many books out there to waste your time with this one. i am annoyed with myself for finishing it.

Rating:
Summary: The End is Right, Harris is Wrong
Review: All the gripes about the lame ending to Archangel seem to miss the point: the abrupt and deflating ending is the only conclusion possible given Harris's misrepresentation of Stalinism. The true nature of Stalinist terror is not that it was an exclusively barbaric violence (the midnight arrests, labor camps, extermination) but that it was an organized system of barbarism, a system distinguished by the structural violence of its institutions. (This makes the gulag synonomous with the Nazi concentration camp.) Harris's question is good: to what degree does the present-day globalization of media represent a persistence of Stalinist violence? But his answer disappoints. The lesson to be drawn from the conclusion to the novel is that while the media is at work on the apocalypse, bringing about the return of the Soviet messiah, its role is also ambiguous in relation to the violence it documents. Harris wants to tell us about modernity's dark underside, but in the end we find a model of archaic violence. Better would have been to pursue the insidious progress of this truly disturbing form of violence through the information society. To do so would, however, have undermined the novel's other historical bogey, the post-Cold War tenet that Russia today is as little a democracy as it was under Stalin. It's this fiction that makes the story so compelling.

Rating:
Summary: I couldn't put it down!
Review: I read this book in a little over 24hrs which says a lot for the gripping nature of the story. The picture painted by Harris of modern Moscow is grim and brooding and the historical content with regard to Stalin is almost menacing. My only criticism is that the end was too quick, improbable and contrived: almost as if Harris didn't know how to finish the book.

Rating:
Summary: An excellent thriller mixed with political intrigue.
Review: This is Robert Harris's best book yet. The feel of modern Russia, and the nostalgia for a strong leader in the tradition of Stalin is extremely well drawn. I found the build up to be the strongest part of the book. Some of the scenes set in the northern forest stretched the imagination. But the finale is excellent. A good book. I strongly recommend it.

Rating:
Summary: The Soviet Union is dead but not dismembered !
Review: If you want an up to date glance inside Russia and a well written mystery Archangel is the book for you. If you know a little history of the creation of the USSR and its politics, all the better. Harris has skills similar to Clancy as well as the ability to weave a plot that is not transparent. Nineties communications technology is important even in solving sixy year old questions. Its only flaw is that it ended too quickly; a great Spring read !

Rating:
Summary: Fantastic!
Review: A sparkling and riveting modern yarn. Well worth your time