Rating: 
Summary: Good story, but too confusing
Review: Forsyth's premise is a very interesting story; it reminds me much of Ludlum. It opens with intriguing what-if history then keeps flipping back and forth through time. The time log is really screwed, but hey, it is suspenseful.
Rating: 
Summary: great book
Review: If it is the first Frederick Forsyth's book that you read, you will want to read the others, and if It's not you will not be disappointed
Rating:
Summary: A Great Read!!
Review: This is the first Frederick Forsyth book that I have read and I found the story to be riveting and the characters to be likable. The background historical information was very informative, too!
Rating: 
Summary: Keeping you on the edge of your seat...almost
Review: One of the better thriller's to come out in some time. Not overly technical like Clancy or overly simple minded like most everyone else, Forsythe presents a work that pays meticulous attention to detail without overdoing it. The environment, events and characters are all believable and, in some cases, frighteningly so. The only real problem with the novel is its uneveness. It's last one hundred pages feel like they belong to another book, and while it finishes the story satisfactorily, one is left feeling that Forsyth could have done better and that the reader, after racing through 500 pages, deserved as much. Overall, recommended... but don't expect too much from Icon's rather tepid ending.
Rating:
Summary: A timely, intelligent thriller!
Review: Forsyth takes a while to get this book going, but once it does it takes you for quite a ride. Forsyth mixes a thorough knowledge of Russian politics and culture to make this a very interesting book. The only flaw may be a superhero who is too invincible and an aspiring dictator who doesn't have very much power. Overall, a very good book.
Rating:
Summary: Decent, but not really worth all the raves
Review: I guess if one is looking for a wild-but-believable spy story with the tempo of a Miss Marple mystery, this is a great book indeed. Mr. Forsyth has clearly done (most of) his homework and his descriptions of Russia are as good as any out there. (That is, if you omit a few little details, such as the fact that when the evil General Grishin walks into a restaurant full of members of the Chechen maffia, he mistakes them for "regular" Russians (guess he managed to conceal that creeping blindness from his superiors all these years!).) While the set is fairly realistic, the book's speed suggest that the author had planned to go for a 5-tome epic and suddenly got a call from the publisher to wrap it up in a fortnight -- the first half of the book drones on and on, while the second moves too fast to explore even half the plot opportunities the setting would allow. It even takes a few simplistic shortcuts and asks the readers to believe, for example, that when the dictator-to-be, Komarov, has his printing presses blown up by our hero, Monk, he has no recourse but to sit on his hands and wait for the new presses to arrive from Baltimore. Russia may be desolate, but they still have a few printing houses left!
Rating:
Summary: Icon - One of Forsyth's best
Review: In a book that is fast-paced and hard to put down, Forsyth expertly weaves historical fact with modern-day fiction to create a plot that is wholly plausable. His chosen topic - modern day Russia - and its timing allows the novel to take on an extremely realistic feel which makes the book one of Forsyth's best efforts.
Rating:
Summary: This is the best book I ever read
Review: Although hard to get into, this book is full of rewards for perseverence. Well detailed and concise. I highly reccomend this book to anyone who loves a spy novel. Forsythe intertwines the past present and future like no other writer I've ever read. I can't wait to read all his books. I could'nt put it down, and when it was over I wanted more.
Rating:
Summary: An excellent, increasingly timely thriller.
Review: "Icon" presents a grim scenario of Russia in 1999, her economy raped by greedy crime lords, her people succumbing to various privations. A style of fascism similar to what Hitler produced threatens to emerge. A former CIA man named Jason Monk sets out to stop it. As this is written, Russia's economy is deteriorating rapidly, and "Icon" is definitely not recommended for those who wish to take their minds off the latest bad news. But as a suspense thriller, it is brimming with details about the setting in which Monk must work (and try to stay alive!), plus lots of interesting secondary characters and villains. A few of the plot elements are contrived, but the weaknesses are far outweighed by the strengths.
Rating:
Summary: The best novel of Frederick Forsyth
Review: Much better than Tom Clancy's techno-thrillers ,this spy-novel is exciting.The plot is very attractive,because the Russian scenario is done in a realistic mode.I liked how Forsyth draws the the dramatic atmosphere of the ancient Soviet Union, declined and weak.The author proves that in a good novel the high-tecnology weapons aren't necessary for make a convincent story. I strongly recomend it for the people who liked like me Forsyth's "The day of the jackal"
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