Appointment in Samara

Rating:
Summary: All American Hero
Review: A great read for adventure fans that can be taken at two levels.
For the happy idiot, there's an All American Lad who, against all difficulties presented to him, doggedly continues to Save America.
For the slightly more intellectual, there is the funniest spy romp in years - reminding one of Harrison Ford in a Holy Grail epic, except that, instead of the Nazi thugs being WW1 Germans, they are CIA agents.
Extremely readable, but, for all the fun, there's a serious message running a few millimetres beneath the surface.
Do your bit for America - read this book!

Rating:
Summary: A Simple Spy Story, Well Written and Enjoyable
Review: Clive Warner in Appointment in Samara pens the tale of an American part-time CIA operative who gets drawn into the world of international espionage way above his head. Warner paints a strong mental picture for the reader, describing scenes and events so as to keep their interest. The simplicity of the story is held up by Warner's strong use of language and his ability to include details in descriptions of events and scenes. I am not normally a fiction reader, much less one who reads 'spy' novels, but I found Samara kept my interest. Warner's ability to weave in accurate details makes it even more enjoyable. Warner, having lived in 30-some countries, is able to incorporate places he has seen into his book and create a picture of them for the reader.

The main character, Martin Conley, begins his CIA career innocently enough as a simple observer, reporting observation while travelling on his oil company job throughout the world. After an ex-KGB agent sends him off to find the key to an old Russian doomsday bomb, Conley's life takes an interesting turn. None of the characters in the book are overly deep, and Conley is no exception. He has no deep dark past or hidden agendas. This is pretty much the case for all of Warner's characters. None of them are overly complicated. You find out just enough about each person involved in the story to understand why they are there. He also does not waste valuable space describing characters that have no impact to the story. The only exception to this simple character approach may be Alia, an operative assigned to help Conley, who predictably becomes his love interest. I got the feeling that Warner was trying to make her mysterious, with some hidden secret or deep dark past. As the story unfolds, we find out that she is no more complicated than any of Warner's other characters.

As Conley traipses around the Middle East searching for the key to this doomsday bomb, he gets caught in one precarious situation after another. He repeatedly has to rescue Alia. His romantic interest for her as well as his moral compass does not allow him to leave her behind. This is where Warner makes the story interesting and keeps the reader's attention. Not with real suspense, as the story is almost predictable, but with his ability to use active descriptions. I was able to picture the event from his words. This kept my interest. He is also able to weave in small details that lend authenticity to the story. At a bar in Africa, Conley is drinking a Star beer, a native African brew rather than just a beer. (A beer I have tried and liked, I might add.) When Conley is talking about weapons or considering which rifle or pistol to use, Warner is very specific and accurate in their descriptions and uses. It makes a book much more enjoyable when the author has done his or her homework on the details of the story.

Warner's British background occasionally leaks through into Conley, who is an American character. Conley's thoughts on more than one occasion are expressed using terms not normally American. This happens infrequently enough to not be a real distraction. I also remember coming across a few errors that were missed during the editing process, maybe 5 or so. Just enough that you remember there being a few.

In the end, Conley realizes that his CIA superiors may not have the most altruistic intentions for the doomsday bomb. He unfortunately realizes this after he has handed over the 'key.' Who did he think he was dealing with? He then feels responsible for the situation and sets out to destroy the bomb, sacrificing his last CIA-earned dollar and risking his life in the process.

Overall I found the book enjoyable. It kept my interest, which is normally a very difficult task. The characters were none too intricate; the plot was fairly straightforward, but not totally predictable; in the end it was the writing that was strong enough to carry the story.

Rating:
Summary: Best Thriller I Have Read
Review: I don't read much fiction, but when I was unemployed for months, I started reading it again after many years of being lucky to read one fiction book a year. I needed an escape and reading helped. My taste in popular fiction runs to thrillers, spy stories, detective mysteries, and the like. I like Clancy's books, for example, despite superficial character development.

But, I found that most of the stuff I picked up was garbage or, if not complete trash, then very poorly done. I was surprised that a lot of this stuff got published. I guess the public is not very discriminating. One book that I found thoroughly wonderful in every respect was Appointment in Samara.

The basic story line involves mild mannered wimp Martin Conley, working in Africa for an engineering company. He has been on the CIA payroll since college, but has never been asked to do anything to earn his pay. This suits Martin quite nicely as the paycheck doesn't hurt his feelings and getting paid for doing nothing is great. Then, Martin's services are suddenly required and Martin is reluctantly drawn into an almost impossible series of tasks and their attendant adventures.

It appears that an old cold war biological weapon is getting ready to detonate and destroy a large part of the world. It falls to Martin to stop this from happening. He is thrust on a journey that takes him to Yemen and parts farther afield. We see this inexperienced spy rise to the occasion and the book is full of tight spots that Martin gets into and out of.

Along the way Martin meets Alia, an Arab woman who shares his adventures and provides a convincing love interest throughout the book. Warner's descriptions of Yemeni life specifically and Moslem life in general are incredibly detailed and rich. I have no idea if these depiction's are true to life, but I have no reason to doubt that they are not. Warner has lived in thirty-some countries, including the Middle East and Africa. His descriptions are so vivid that they must be accurate. He does a wonderful job of weaving these details of everyday life into the story line.

For me, this book may be appreciated at two levels. At the superficial level, it is just a great action story, believable as much as any thriller is (a trait of thrillers is the impossible things that occur). Martin is a likable hero, as are the other characters, some of whom don't survive. And, Warner never lets you know who is going to get killed, unlike many best-selling authors where you can figure out who will get killed the second a character is introduced. It was always a surprise and often quite upsetting.

The love and romantic aspect is also handled very well. This is unexpected in the thriller genre and a refreshing change. The end result cannot be predicted while reading the book, so letting you in on this is not a spoiler. You won't have any idea how it turns out.

On another level, Appointment in Samara is a wonderful satire on spy thrillers. While the nature of the genre essentially makes every spy thriller a satire of sorts, most authors in this area try very hard to keep that aspect out of their books. Clancy, for example, would never say his books are satires. I am not sure what Warner would say, but I suspect that he was consciously poking at least a little fun at the genre as he wrote the book. In any case, this only adds to the enjoyment.

For anyone who enjoys thrillers and doesn't mind some violence and bloody scenes, this book is highly recommended. It is better than any other book in the genre I have read and really puts the best-selling authors, including Clancy and Follett, to shame. In a world full of seriousness, this book is a wonderful escape. I hope Warner publishes more adventures of Martin Conley.