Apparently even the greatest authors have a price. On Wings of Eagles is based on real events: 2 American businessmen are put in jail with non formalized bribery accusations in the middle of the Iran Khomeini's Iran revolution, and they managed to escape back home. The story is told as told to the author by the main characters, one of which, Perot, pretty much commissioned the book. As a result the book reads like a puff job, where Perot and his executives are hailed as heroes for actions that are quite troubling. Faced with the incarceration of two of his executives, Perot decides to bypass the US government, and instead forms his own militia rescue party (using retired US army soldiers) and send them in Iran, to risk their life, ready to kill innocent civilians, endangering the US-Iranian relations (and the lives of the thousands of American in Iran at the time) in the middle of an extremely delicate situation (i.e. a full blown revolution), to save his two executives. The executives, at the end, are saved by the action of "Rashid", a smart Iranian employee, and by a lot of luck. I love Ken Follett work because it helps me to better understand history. This book does not shed any light on the Iranian revolution (but for a quick paragraph or two in the whole book). It focuses entirely on the event as seen from Perot, and it is clear that the only thing that matter to him was to save his two executives, at any coast, completely disregarding the well-being of the Iranian civilians and the other American in Iran. The story is adroitly written, but I found it very disturbing. I strongly recommend the following review, that I believe really touch all the important strengths and weaknesses of the book: http://www.danielpipes.org/7958/on-wi... .

I read this years ago, when it was new. Re-reading for one of my book groups.
It got better after the first 100 pages, which were tedious. At the end I had tears in my eyes.

I give this a four star rating only because I can’t put in partial stars. In reality, I would give this a 4.5 rating.

I have two confessions: first, if I am going to read history, I prefer non-fiction to fiction. Second, how the narration is done is important! There are some books that focus on a particular historical event that I’ve tried and I just can’t finish because the narration is poor. A potentially exciting or interesting event in history is reduced to textbook-like factoids and the magic that is in history is lost.

Fortunately, this book checks both of those boxes. Ken Follett is an amazing writer. I’ve only read his fiction before reading this one, so I wasn’t sure how his talents would translate. I was not disappointed. He has the ability to take details and weave them into a cohesive and engaging story.

The subject matter of this book is interesting enough on its own. But like I said, not all writers can capture the essence of historical events. Follett does it masterfully. This book is a real life thriller from the 1979 Iranian revolution, brought to life from the perspectives of several of the people involved. If this sounds like your type of book, I definitely recommend!

I had high hopes for this one, as Ken Follett's Pillars of the Earth is one of my favorites. Being grounded in fact, this book just didn't soar. It stumbled. Often.

There was way too much background material, and a cast of hundreds. We had to learn what each character was like, what his wife was like, what his kids were like, what the family pet was like... Jesus, Ken, didn't your editor suggest you trim this down some? Nearly 400 pages of this?

Then, to top it all off, they escape by walking out of prison! After that they either drive over a border or take a flight out of the country. Wow, what suspense!

I can only recommend this to someone interested in the time period or a real Ross Perot fan. Everyone else, steer clear!

The book is simply AMAZING. The terrifying story is amazingly explained and described by Follett.
I 100% recommend this book to everyone who is interested in real-life historical events in (relatively) recent years.
The only downside of this book is in the translation from English to Dutch, which contains numerous spelling and grammar mistakes.

I used to work for Ross Perot, I hadn't read the book before I met him and he gave me a copy. I was amazed at the true story of escape from Iran. This is a must read given the politics of Iran today. Excellent page turner of a book.

Las alas del águila está basada en hechos reales acaecidos en el turbulento Irán de 1979, en plena Revolución Islámica. La historia sigue el desesperado intento de un empresario estadounidense (Ross Perot) por rescatar a dos de sus empleados arrestados en Teherán; retenidos más como rehenes comerciales, ya que no se habían presentado cargos contra ellos y, sin embargo, se les había fijado una fianza de una cantidad sin precedentes. En su desesperación, recurrió a estrategias ilícitas y nació la "Operación Hotfoot", encabezada por un coronel retirado de los Boinas Verdes.

Follett es especialista en crear muy buenas ambientaciones y aquí nos sumerge en el caos y la tensión de una ciudad al borde del abismo. La historia es un verdadero relato del ingenio y la determinación de un hombre por cumplir su promesa, pero también una reflexión sobre la fragilidad de las relaciones internacionales y el precio de la libertad.

Lo que más resalta en la novela son sus personajes, dónde nos muestra sus miedos, esperanzas y dilemas morales. La precisión histórica y el ritmo ágil hacen de la lectura una experiencia inmersiva. Si los hechos son como se relatan, es de destacar la tenacidad de Perot a pesar de todas las adversidades que se encontró, así como la valentía que mostraron los rehenes.
Sin embargo, solo nos muestra una perspectiva americana, ya que la caracterización de los personajes iraníes es algo superficial.

Sobre el final… A pesar de ser conocido, la tensión constante me mantuvo pegada a las páginas, hasta sentir una sensación de verdadero alivio.


“...nunca había comprendido el significado de la libertad hasta que la había perdido”.

“...si pasas la vida preocupándote por todas las cosas malas que pueden pasar, pronto te convencerás de que es mejor no hacer nada”.

“El éxito tiene mil padres, pero el fracaso es huérfano”.

They say “Truth is stranger than fiction” but, in this case the truth has proven to be the source for an excellent story by Ken Follett. Some reviewers found the book very tedious and slow-moving but it tells how things actually occurred and, if you put yourself into their situations at the time, you will appreciate it more.

This book probably deserves a 4 for the writing quality and overall storytelling, but I do have to place a personal cap on how highly I rate books on subjects I don’t align with.

Follett did a good job at making this book as neutrally patriotic as possible, but the subject matter makes that difficult. This book is very masculine. All of the important people are men (which I fully understand this is a true story, therefore that’s just a simple fact as to how these events took place), there’s a slight bias placed toward traditional values, there’s obviously pro-military and America-centric overtones, and a bit of xenophobia. Not to mention we’re talking about a billionaire pulling strings that of course no normal person could pull. Many parts of this book feel like a “puff job,” and I would’ve liked an unbiased perspective on WHY Iranian-American conflict was heightened. This story read like “America good, Iran bad,” which is dangerously hyperbolic and quite frankly offensive to the readers intelligence.

I understand the phenomenal loyalty exhibited by Ross Perot to his employees that he felt personally responsible for. I think in general this recon mission is phenomenal and amazing, when you don’t consider how incredibly dangerous it could’ve been for the thousands of other Americans attempting to flee Iran at the same time. Also, just personally didn’t love the whole “I’m going to leave my wife and small children behind because I want to be a hero with my boys” level of decision making.

This started out quickly and then got a bit tedious for me but I wanted to finish it. That being said I gave it four stars because what a great story. Whether or not you appreciate his politics or not what he did was something to be honored.

While he was working for IBM, Ross Perot noticed that IBM was selling computers to companies that were good at their core business but were not good at computers. So, he founded Electronic Data Systems (EDS) to run the computers and provide software support for these businesses. Having become very successful in the domestic market, in the late 70s, EDS expanded into international markets. One such market was Iran, where the Shah was trying to set up a modern social security system and needed data centers and software support to do so. At first, things went well but in 1978, there was an oil bust, and the Iranian government began to run out of money. Furthermore, as unrest grew, the government destabilized, changing hands several times until the Shah left Iran. In the midst of this, Iran stopped paying EDS, and after several months of working for free and hoping for a better resolution, EDS terminated its contract and its operations in Iran. At that point, the two top EDS men in Teheran were arrested without being charged and with bail set at $12.5 million, roughly the amount of money the prosecutor thought EDS had been paid up to the time it terminated the contract. During subsequent negotiations with EDS, he threatened to raise the bail amount to compensate Iran for the time the data centers had not been operating since the contract had been terminated for non-payment.

EDS, convinced that the entire situation was a form of business blackmail, was pursuing multiple angles in its efforts to free the two prisoners. These included trying to persuade people in the State Department as well as other government agencies to apply diplomatic pressure on the Iranian government, communication with banks to arrange for payment of the bail, if that became necessary and a jail break option, a variant of which is what actually got the men out of Iran. While that last item may sound extreme, Perot’s attitude was quite simple. Those men had gone to Iran on his orders, and he had a duty to bring them home. He was a demanding boss who expected his people to be loyal, but he also reciprocated that loyalty.

During the Vietnam War, Perot had actively supported efforts to get better treatment for American POWs, and he had even sponsored a welcome home party for the special forces unit that had almost flawlessly executed the Son Tay raid to free POWs only to find out that the intelligence on which the raid had been based was flawed. The prisoners had been moved only weeks beforehand. When Perot asked retired Colonel Arthur "Bull" Simons, the leader of the Son Tay raid, to lead a team to bust the prisoners out of the Iranian jail and spirit them out of Iran, he agreed without hesitation. Then followed the selection of a team of EDS staffers, mostly combat veterans, the planning of a raid on the prison and finally, travel to Iran. Not long after their arrival in Iran, the two prisoners were moved to a more secure prison, and the rescue team had to rethink their plans. The prison break idea was a no-go, but they still needed to know how to get the prisoners out of Iran if they managed to get out of prison. Even if they could be bailed out, they wouldn’t be allowed to leave Iran and would still be subject to re-arrest. Whichever way the EDS staffers got out of prison, a covert departure from Iran would be required. As Teheran descended into chaos after the exile of the Shah, an Iranian EDS employee convinced a mob to storm the prison, and the EDS prisoners managed to escape. At this point, the rescue team was able to put into action its plans for spiriting the two out of the country, and everyone made it home safe and sound.

Since this account is a historical event, I hardly consider my summary a spoiler. The book reads like a thriller, and some of the misadventures the rescue team and escaped prisoners experienced were absolutely bizarre and hysterically funny. As I have occasionally said before, if it weren’t for reality to give them ideas, fiction writers would be totally screwed.