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Summary: This is the first of its kind ...
Review: ... not that I know enough about literary history to be able to vouch for that myself. It's hard to explain exactly what its kind is. Call it a modern spy story: and I think what makes it modern is the feeling that the protagonists are no more than a stone's throw from society, often WITHIN society, and can some of the time claim protection from society; and yet if they turn down the wrong street or move a mile or two to the left they might as well be in the wilds of Siberia, for all the mercy that anyone will show them. Everyone in this novel, in innocence or in guilt, leads a kind of double life.Two stories run side by side: the riddle of the title, concerning an unknown threat to England, and the redemption of a feckless civil servant named - naturally - Carruthers. The setting is lovely; the life aboard ship is vividly described; the author never leaves important details vague. But do pay close attention to the map in the front of the book as you read.
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Summary: The first spy novel of 20th century is a great read!!!!
Review: A wonderful reading experience with beautiful prose, unforgetalbe characters and sea adventures.
I enjoyed everyword of it both in reading and translation. Two young men from different social background, but united as a whole being in the end. Read like poetry, very beautiful, melonchaly and nostalgic
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Summary: Best sailing novel; the first adventure spy novel.
Review: Don't look for subtle characters. There aren't any. Do look for a Boy's own Best Spy Adventure. Wonderful precise detail about practical sailing as we might recognize it today. The best sequence is an awesome feat of blind, tidal naviagation. I wish Hitchcock had made the movie. He would have known what do to do with it. This novel is reputed to be one of the tensions that started WWI. Certainly the fictional strings have contributed to modern espionage. You will recognize traditions of Le Carre and Deighton.
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Summary: still good after 100 years !
Review: Edited in 1903, this spy-thriller still makes an astonishing good read. Replace yourself in a time when radar, telephone, email and internet did not exist, and you'll understand why this book was widely popular.
'Riddle of the sands' excels in capturing the unique flavor of the half land / half sea stretch on Germany's island-coast between Holland and Denmark. A flat, empty, and thinly populated area, having its large stretches of sand regularly flooded by the tide. While reading this book, the smell of salt water really comes to you. Apart from this, it's also clear that the author must have had a thorough experience in sea-yachting.
Back in 1903, Imperial Germany was England's main rival for world domination. Dealing with the possibility of a German invasion in England, 'Riddle of the sands' caused some genuine concern with British naval authorities. One hundred years and two world wars later we can consider these fears exaggerated: given England's supreme naval power at the time, any invasion like that should have been doomed to failure.
Later on author Erskine Childers got deeply involved in the Irish struggle for independence from England. He ended his life in 1922, being shot as a spy. While standing before his execution squad, he invited the English soldiers to come a few steps closer: 'It will be easier that way'.
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Summary: A significant book in history
Review: Erskine Childers' The Riddle of the Sands is an unusual book: one that deserves to be read, not for the entertainment value it carries now (which is only mediocre, at best) but for the historical import it carries with it. It was written at the turn of the century, and the author meant to convey a real situation and what he concieved of as an emergency to the British public. It worked: the premise of the book led to significant changes in British Naval policy within a few years. The book itself is well-written from the style point of view, but the plot is sort of tame, and the suspense is rather shallow by modern standards. For all intents, from that point of view, it compares most favorably with some of Hammond Innes' Novels, which are good sea-adventure stuff also.
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Summary: where is the story?
Review: I am not a sailor, nor am i interested in the details of sailing. Also the description of the east frisian coast (i was born there) didn't fascinate me. But the worst part is the lack of a plot, i mean it can be summarized in less than a sentence, very disappointing but not surprising if one knows why the book was written. To me, reading this book was a waste of time.
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Summary: Puts most modern adventure novels to shame
Review: I became aware of 'The Riddle Of The Sands' while reading Andrew Lownie's biography of my favorite author, John Buchan ('The Thirty-Nine Steps'). Buchan, a contemporary of Childers, reviewed a reissue of the book in 1926, calling it, "the best story of adventure published in the last quarter of a century". Well, 78 years later not much has changed. The writing is witty, intelligent and literate and the story at once simple yet complex. This novel is a perennial favorite among small-boat sailors, and is certainly "riddled" with enough sailing jargon to perplex most landlubbers. All of this is, however, very neatly integrated into a spy story that, like many of Buchan's wonderful novels, starts with the slenderest of threads and challenges the characters to figure out the skullduggery using sheer wit and intelligence. It may sound trite, but they really don't make 'em like they used to.
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Summary: Adventure in Northern Germany
Review: I found this spy novel particularly interesting as I was born on the coastline described. Childers's descriptions of the Frisian Islands, the cities of northern Germany, and the dangerous tides are very accurate. That's what I like best about the book. The narrator, Anton Lesser, does a generally good job reading the book. In fact, he's much better than some other actors I've heard. However, his grasp of the German language is dreadful. Some sentences he reads in German are almost incomprehensible. This is inconsistent with the fact that the narrator of the story is supposed to speak German like a native. Listen if you love stories about ordinary people getting caught up in extraordinary events. Listen if you love the North Sea and Baltic coasts of Germany. Stay away if you love the German language.
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Summary: Playing the Game on the Frisian Coast
Review: I was intrigued when I came across this unassuming little book at a used bookstore. The plot revolves around the dual quest of Davies, one of the book's two protaganists. An Englishman and amateur yachtist, Davies' spot of autumn sailing along the challenging Frisian coast, Germany's narrow mouth on the sea facing England, turns into something more when a man ostensibly out to aid Davies by "piloting" his small craft with his larger yacht through an intricate network of sandbanks in harsh weather, actually makes an attempt to lead Davies and his boat to their doom along the treacherous coast. This act of deceit peaks the indefatigable Davies' curiosity. What was so important among these nondescript sand islets fronting the German coast that would necessitate murder? This question is one object of Davies' subsequent quest. The other is a lover's quest, namely in the form of the daughter of the putative pilot just mentioned. To aid him in his foolhardly quest, considering his small yacht and the inclement weather of the North Sea in autumn, Davies summons from England his acquaintance Carruthers, whose fluent German could prove useful. What he doesn't do, at least at first, is tell Carruthers just what is afoot, suggesting instead a spot of duck hunting and pleasure sailing. What follows soon upon Carruther's arrival is a nautical cat and mouse game involving the small yacht of Davies, an Imperial German gunboat, and an assortment of other yachts and shady characters peopling this melancholy and threatening coastline. I found Childer's work very engaging, especially as I chose to read it while doing some traveling along a similar shoal of islands, though far from Germany and not in a yacht. The novel certainly kept me riveted by its plot, and Childers does a fine job in developing the primary characters and personalities of both Davies and Carruthers who emerge in very human detail against their backdrop. I'm not sure what edition the reader will be reading, but one disapointment I encountered was that the backcover of my edition gave away too much. The nature of the mystery should be left completely to the reader to discover. As some other reviewers have pointed out, the frequent use of nautical terms and the heavy reliance upon the intricacies of coastal features (requiring, at least for the curious, a continuous back-referencing to the series of maps) does hinder the pace a bit, but not to any great degree. What I found particularly interesting about this work was its language. It is a period piece, not just historically, by revealing a growing unease among Britain of the period of a rising German power, but culturally, as seen in the very approach to their problem taken by Davies and Carruthers. It is a game, and the phrase "playing the game" comes up frequently in the course of the text. Manliness and ruggedness, being proven and found worthy by one's adversaries (be they the elements or the Germans), and most of all "winning the game" with pluck and verve are all salient characteristics of Childer's attitude (and certainly not unique to him). I found the novel revealing in the general attitude towards international rivalry and war in the pre-World War One years. It was this gamesmenship attitude to combat and its challenges (a very British notion) that helped contribute to the willingness with which men threw themselves into death in 1914. I'm not sure if "Riddle of the Sands" is indeed the first modern espionage thriller (what about Arthur Conan Doyle?), but it is a perfect insight into period attitudes and fears. It is also exciting reading.
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Summary: In the Tradition of...
Review: In the tradition of Patrick O'Briens characters, Jack Aubrey and Stephen Maturin; and Forester's Hornblower; plus the beginnings of "Riley Ace of Spies", based on "British Agent" by R.H. Bruce Lockhart. Childers book was recommended to me by Mick Mallon, who I hope would not mind me describing him as a linguist, sailor, reader and reviewer of books. When, in 1975 at home in the Canadian Arctic, I said I enjoyed spy novels he passed on Childers book. The softback has stayed with me since then, the hardcover goes to my grandchildren.
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