Rating: 
Summary: A different thriller for a different era.
Review: Conspiracies, destruction, acts of sabotage and terrorism
are nothing new in the world of thrillers. The Poet Game
and its hero offer the reader a different fare, however.
Sami Amir is an operative on the side of the `good guys'
in the Middle East who has come to the US to thwart the
attempts of the nastier elements to destroy American
landmarks. There is clearly a struggle for power, and its
main outcome might me that the US will be pulled into an
open ended war in the Middle East if this happens. Sami
is a man really without a support system. Half Iranian,
half American, it isn't that his loyalties are divided;
rather, as he moves around New York and comes into contact
with a variety of players, he starts to wonder if having
loyalty at all is a prescription for disaster. And yet he
sticks to his guns, and in doing so things become even more
complicated. This is a thriller for the intellect. Reading
it, one is loath to want to read many of the other books that pass in the same genre, ever again. The political background is deftly weaved in. The insights are sophisticated, and yet you don't have to be a specialist to know the references. Abdoh delivers a new kind of thriller for a new era in our time.
Rating: 
Summary: Humorous and intriguing, just a tad flawed
Review: I loved most things about it - the humor, the suspense, the raw energy. The only flaws I saw were that the supposed pre-climax (which I argue should truly have been THE climax) was the death of a key individual, and the main character should have been responsible for it or had proof of its happening. The uncertainty was annoying. The ending seemed cliche and actually silly. This said, I'm not a spy genre connoisseur, so maybe I'm not getting it for that reason.
Rating:
Summary: Fascinating, disturbing, and eerie for our times.
Review: I noticed that this book had become PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Daily Book of the Day: The Poet Game by Salar Abdoh.Though the book was originally published in 2000 Salar
Abdoh's first novel,The Poet Game, speaks much more
poignantly to us now. The focus is the internal life of
Sami, a 30-year old Iranian spy who is sent to New York in
the wake of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.Sami's
mission is to thwart a Muslim extremist plot to attack
major New York monuments.
The literate half-American hero embodies the complicated
and often ambivalent feelings such "operatives" have
during missions. The book is far closer to Graham Greene
or John LeCarre than Tom Clancy. The story itself is
notable not for its violence or intrigue, but for
its ability to offer snapshots of the complicated
politics that motivates the various players and
the deepening paranoia and self-doubt that afflicts them.
When the hero, Sami, falls in love with his American
contact Ellena--a spy/stripper who keeps a bomb at
the ready under her bed--his sense of duty is called
even further into question. At one point he says
he believes that he and Ellena are just "failed poets
trying to get it right in the wrong trade." The PW
also called Sami "an unusually sensitive action hero"
and the book "entertaining and heart-quickening."
Rating:
Summary: WOW
Review: I will say this book is non stop, and most of all very fun. It can be a little complex, but very non stop where Iwill admit I did not put the book down at all.
Good Job
Rating: 
Summary: Decent debut novel..
Review: In the current climate of concern about Terrorism, Abdoh's 2001 book almost seems prophetic. Basically, a Iranian counter-terrorism agent goes to New York to investigate a conspiracy. Double-crosses and triple-crosses soon come, and Sami is in a game where rival Iranian originzations use him to further their own power. The ending was a bit of a let-down, which is why I wouldn't recommend this book.
Rating:
Summary: Decent debut novel..
Review: In the current climate of concern about Terrorism, Abdoh's 2001 book almost seems prophetic. Basically, a Iranian counter-terrorism agent goes to New York to investigate a conspiracy. Double-crosses and triple-crosses soon come, and Sami is in a game where rival Iranian originzations use him to further their own power. The ending was a bit of a let-down, which is why I wouldn't recommend this book.
Rating:
Summary: Terror with a Twist
Review: Not much action actually comes to pass in The Poet Game. I wouldn't recommend it for readers who are into shoot 'em up action thrillers. Sure, The Poet Game has its share of death - more than its share, actually. But the book is not really about that. If it's about anything, I think, it is about the psychology of power, betrayal and terrorism. More precisely, Islamic terrorism. For this reason, the book is pretty timely. Sami Amir, the protagonist, is the kind of hesitant agent we've seen in other 'serious' writers of the genre. But he's also a departure in many ways. I've found myself thinking about Amir again and again ever since finishing the book. He haunts me. And yet I'm not sure if comparisons with Graham Greene, done on the back cover, are quite appropriate. Mr. Abdoh has only written one book, after all. Also, I don't think he has the depth yet that Greene reached in some of his mature masterpieces. Nevertheless, The Poet Game, I feel, is a major accomplishment in its own right. Part literature, part genre, I'm still not sure where to place it in my library. I certainly won't sell it. And that's the highest compliment I can give to an author and his book. There was a point around the middle where I though the plot was slowing a little too much for my espionage driven taste, but in the end that's only a surface criticism. Last word: The Poet Game, recommended strongly.
Rating:
Summary: Terror with a Twist
Review: Not much action actually comes to pass in The Poet Game. I wouldn't recommend it for readers who are into shoot `em up action thrillers. Sure, The Poet Game has its share of death - more than its share, actually. But the book is not really about that. If it's about anything, I think, it is about the psychology of power, betrayal and terrorism. More precisely, Islamic terrorism. For this reason, the book is pretty timely. Sami Amir, the protagonist, is the kind of hesitant agent we've seen in other `serious' writers of the genre. But he's also a departure in many ways. I've found myself thinking about Amir again and again ever since finishing the book. He haunts me. And yet I'm not sure if comparisons with Graham Greene, done on the back cover, are quite appropriate. Mr. Abdoh has only written one book, after all. Also, I don't think he has the depth yet that Greene reached in some of his mature masterpieces. Nevertheless, The Poet Game, I feel, is a major accomplishment in its own right. Part literature, part genre, I'm still not sure where to place it in my library. I certainly won't sell it. And that's the highest compliment I can give to an author and his book. There was a point around the middle where I though the plot was slowing a little too much for my espionage driven taste, but in the end that's only a surface criticism. Last word: The Poet Game, recommended strongly.
Rating:
Summary: Magnificently written with discernment of terrorist minds
Review: Opening The Poet Game to start to read it after the World Trade disaster, two of the several reviews inside the book jacket caught my attention. One said that ... "Abdoh has important things to say about the threat of islamic fundamentalist terrorism." Fine, I thought, this is exactly the kind of book I need to be reading right now. The other review that caught my attention, however, was rather of another scale altogether. The reviewer had written on Fox News that "Abdoh has obviously done his homework. His precision depicting New York City streets is almost spooky." Keep in mind that this is a book that came out about a year and a half ago and I may have never come across it if our country had not gone to war with Moslem fundamentalists. As I got into the book and got an intimate portrayal of the many Moslem characters I began to become wary. Not in a bad way, but in a way one feels when one thinks they are in the hands of someone who is taking them to places not too many people dare or know how to go to. So I read on, keeping that review of Fox News in mind. Abdoh's precise depictions of New York City streets were spooky. It was as if he had spent time hanging out with these terrorists and instead of giving them up to the FBI, he had chosen to write a book about them. I'm not accusing Salar Abdoh of anything, of course. I'm merely saying that the coincidences between the book and our reality today are just too much to dismiss. I had to read the book in one sitting. Not even two sitting. And when I was finished I knew that I had just been introduced to a writer whose like I had never known before. I'm sure Mr. Abdoh is no terrorist or spy for any agency in the world. Yet he does seem to know THINGS, if you know what I mean. He puts his information to immaculate use, but I can't help asking the same question that goes on over and over in my head: how does Salar Abdoh know these things? Furthermore, what does he plan to write next? Does he have some sort of a crystal bowl? Should we wait for his next novel to find out what new tragedy will hit us next? I don't know if any of our great American writers can answer this; I have a feeling Mr. Abdoh might be able to, though I can't say that that puts my mind any more at ease.
Rating:
Summary: Impossible to put down
Review: The best books in any genre, I think, are those written quietly and without too much fanfare. They don't have to run into several hundred pages to convey the plot and its consequences. I found the Poet Game one of the smartest reads of any genre. The writer's atmospherics were intimate and immediate. The action was not forced. The psychological rendering had depth and made for a sympathetic protagonist who was left with hard choices in a hard business that he somehow had fallen into, almost against his will. I think the Poet Game will ultimately be remembered for its language, however. It's simply one of the best written thrillers I've ever read. The writing itself seemed to belong to that of a consummate poet. Fine job. Waiting for a follow-up.
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