The problem I have with historical fiction is that I always figure there must be plenty of amazing true stories from the same time period, so why not read about those? Jackdaws brings attention to the Special Operations Executive, the British military division responsible for secret operatives sent behind enemy lines. According to a note in the book, fifty women really were sent into France as spies during World War II. So what are their stories? I'm sure they're as fascinating, or even more so, than anything anyone could make up.

Well, putting my own prejudices aside, the book was good. It held my interest enough that I looked forward to reading it each night, but not so much that it kept me up later than I wanted. It's the kind of book that does well as a TV substitute. It reads like a movie, it's entertaining, and it's a bit suspenseful.

Just like a movie, though, there was what I would consider superfluous romance that distracted from the action and actual plot.

Frequently when a book includes foreign words or references to political or military organizations, I'm annoyed that the reader is assumed to have sufficient knowledge of the references; I appreciate it when additional context is given, or when a foreign phrase is subtly translated. However, I dare say that Ken Follett goes overboard: Is it really necessary to explicitly define the word "suffragette"?

Finally, near the end, I think the main character Flick made two uncharacteristic moves - she made a decision against her better judgment, and she didn't react quickly enough given the circumstances. I wonder why Follett weakened her character after spending so much time before and after developing her character. Maybe just to show that she's human and makes mistakes, too.

Anyway, I wasn't blown away by the book, but it's easy reading and the kind of book that's good for passing the time. Since Ken Follett is such a prolific writer, I'll probably pick up more of his books from the library from time to time.

Normalmente, as mulheres não organizavam sabotagens; mas Pearl Witherington, uma correio britânica treinada, tomou as rédeas e dirigiu um grupo da Resistência com cerca de dois mil homens, em Berry, com valentia e distinção depois de a Gestapo ter prendido o seu organizador. Recomendou-se que recebesse a Cruz de Guerra, embora se dissesse que as mulheres estavam impossibilitadas disso, por essa razão atribuíram-lhe o título de membro civil da Ordem do Império Britânico, que ela devolveu, dizendo que «não fizera nada civil.»

M.R.D. Foot, EOE em França (Londres, 1966)


Bem, este é daqueles que não dá muito em que pensar, mas serviu para me por a ler quase 500 páginas em dois dias e, certamente, deu para distrair de coisas mais sérias (e não, não sou insensível à ironia).
Inspirado numa história verídica sobre um grupo de mulheres que combateram ativamente na Segunda Guerra Mundial - com alguns apontamentos também a lembrar que na Resistência combateram muitas outras mulheres (tal como crianças, velhos, homossexuais e outros elementos grandemente marginalizados e esquecidos pela narrativa oficial), este livro é um thriller puro e duro, cheio de ação, momentos dramáticos, um grupo de heroínas sui generis - e uns quantos factos históricos bem apanhados ali pelo meio -, enquadrado pela ação das Operações Especiais Britânicas durante os finais da Segunda Guerra Mundial. No que concerne a detalhes, é tudo muito óbvio e muito cliché, mas suponho que os escritores a metro não se podem dar a grande luxos no âmbito da profundidade psicológica etc.
Não vou ser ingrata, aquilo que me trouxe a Ken Follett foi a necessidade de entretenimento: missão cumprida. No entanto, acho que se dispensavam as descrições de tortura detalhadamente gráficas - é preciso sadismo para a praticar, mas imagino que quem retira prazer da sua escrita/descrição não deva andar muito longe disso. E eu não gosto lá muito de servir de terapeuta a um sujeito que fatura milhões... Trate isso, Sr. Follett. Vá por mim.

A team of undercover British female spies parachutes into occupied France to infiltrate and sabotage Nazi efforts during WW2. The premise is almost too good to mess up. And yet Follett nearly succeeds in messing it up! 2.5 stars. Gripes below.

On its face this sounds like it’s high on the women’s power scale, right? No! It’s oddly misogynistic and patronizing. Although described as clever, in many ways the heroine Flick is a wilting flower who regularly cries on the job, needs her boss’s paternalistic validation and, despite her military rank, hugs her underlings. It is irrelevant that this story takes place in the 1940s. This woman would not do these things. Don’t even get me started on the part where her love interest (who is also her boss, gag) literally flies in to save her from danger. Follett is a man writing from a woman’s POV but apparently does not understand real women in the least. Sorry, not sorry, bro.

Do people think of Follett as a good writer? Here are two paragraphs that are one page apart:

“Flick was bitterly disappointed. This was no good. Greta would have just as much of a German accent when she spoke French.”

“Flick was painfully disappointed. Greta would have been the last piece in the jigsaw, the woman who made the team complete. Now the mission was in doubt again.”

Come on, Kenny. In addition to the laughably half-hearted attempt to use Word’s built-in thesaurus (bitterly disappointed/painfully disappointed), this is the same uninspired paragraph!

Finally, I found a typo, which tbh was the biggest thrill I got from the book. Chapter 40, second paragraph, “He wanted [to] be in Reims.” This is likely the editor’s mistake, but I’m kind of fired up and am happy to slap Ken with the [sic].

Es una novela interesante, con intriga atrapante y con casos reales de mujeres que fueron Utilizadas en la resistencia Francesa de punta de Lanza, Follet investigó y realizó una Excelente Ficción.
Follett explora la psicología humana mostrándonos la complejidad de las relaciones humanas y cómo nuestros sentimientos por los demás pueden influir en nuestras acciones.

Con todo, Alto riesgo es un buen thriller de guerra. Cualquiera que disfrute de una historia trepidante ambientada durante la Segunda Guerra Mundial disfrutará de esta novela.
La novela se centra en Flick (también conocida como Felicity), que dirige a un grupo de agentes secretas femeninas a la Francia ocupada para desactivar una central telefónica demasiado importante. Y si eso no fuera lo suficientemente difícil, los nazis saben que ella vendrá.

Es emotivo, conmovedor e increíblemente descriptivo. Jurarás que estuviste allí y no podrás dejarlo.

J'ai dévoré ce roman, écouté en une dizaine d'heures au cours de séquences que j'entrecoupais avec frustration. J'étais totalement captivée par l'histoire, comme devant un film de guerre, au scénario plein de suspense, entre frissons, angoisse, terreur et émotion.
J'ai aimé sa mise en scène, ses personnages, même ses envolées sentimentales ont fini par m'attendrir (je roulais des yeux quand Betty et Paul roucoulaient tendrement...). Bref. Ken Follett possède un vrai talent de conteur. Et ça passe très, très bien en format audio : on ne voit pas le temps passer. On trépigne après chaque piste, on enchaîne les chapitres... C'est terriblement addictif. Et l'hommage rendu aux héroïnes de l'ombre est, par sa simplicité, d'une grande noblesse.
http://blogclarabel.canalblog.com/arc...

I cannot begin to say how disappointed I was in this novel from Follet. Flimsy, stereotypical characters - the cute blond beauty (gag), the gutsy Romany, the older and younger lesbians and the drag queenand the dashing American, not to mention the handsome diabolical German interrogator - and some unbelievable conversations and situations. I know he is trying to pay tribute to the real women spies, but this is ludicrous. The only thing that kept me reading to the end was the hope for improvement. Didn't happen.

Either KF is a dirty old man or he's taken the adage "sex sells" to heart. For a spy novel, there was an awful lot of flirting and crushes and sex — each instance intended to be more shocking than the last. Rather, each was more ridiculous than the last, resulting in sighs and eye rolling. Lots of eye rolling.

When the author wasn't writing amateur porn and got around to writing the spy part of his spy novel, things didn't pick up as much as you'd think. The plot never gets any serious momentum. It's best described as a formulaic cliche: bad guys on the trail of the good guys (or girls in this case) with lots of close calls, but everything turns out just pat (a little too pat) in the end. All the right characters live, all the wrong characters get what's coming to them, and all the characters you feel neutral towards die. You know, to pull at the reader's heart strings and give the plot that necessary hint of realism. Bleh.

A good novel keeps the reader guessing. It at least keeps the reader interested. This pile of cliche and predictability did neither. Only through misguided persistence could I slog through and finish this, and especially at the end, it was only to get it over with already.

Incredible right up to the end.

Superior thriller that takes place during WWII from Follett. High recommendation.

First off, I feel this is a 3.5 but I'm giving it 4, as some of the reviewers on here have been too harsh.

JACKDAWS takes the standard D-Day spy stories but twists it by focusing on the Historical female agents, or, as they were known, something of the unsung heroes.

This particular tale focuses on a female agent who is trying to knock down the phone lines of an SS HQ but needs to do it as cleaning ladies. So, after failing her first attempt, she heads back to the UK where she, and other govt officials, recruit several female agents for training.

All of these women are untrained and have to do a crash course in spycraft.

Thereafter, the next half of the book entails the women parachuting into France, some of them getting caught or killed and then moving in on the mission. Expect the usual "B" love story.

Story is very good in pacing, and, while some of the characters have the archetypal element, I felt he did a good job creating a diverse selection.

When he wrote EYE OF THE NEEDLE the market was less saturated with WWII stories. Now, they're all over the place, so, he has less of the market, the stories overlap more and expectations are higher for newer and newer stories.

This one is above average to good but not quite either in definition. If you want to read him for the first time, I'd recommend EYE OF THE NEEDLE.

Κωδικός: Κίσσες. Μία αληθινή ιστορία έξι ατρόμητων γυναικών που επέλεξαν να ρισκάρουν τη ζωή τους προκειμένου να βοηθήσουν καταλυτικά τις Συμμαχικές δυνάμεις στον πόλεμο με τον Ναζισμό! Γιατί, ποιος είπε ότι ο πόλεμος αφορά μόνο τους άντρες;

Η «Φλικ» είναι η κεντρική πρωταγωνίστρια. Βρετανίδα κατάσκοπος, αρχηγός και συντονίστρια της πιο ριψοκίνδυνης αποστολής που είχε αναλάβει μέχρι τότε. Να συνεργαστεί με τη Γαλλική Αντίσταση προκειμένου να πραγματοποιήσουν σαμποτάζ στο βασικότερο κέντρο επικοινωνίας των Ναζί στη Γαλλία, ελάχιστες ώρες πριν την μεγάλη απόβαση της Νορμανδίας στις 6 Ιουνίου 1944. Η επιτυχία του εγχειρήματος ήταν υψίστης σημασίας προκειμένου να καταστεί ο στρατάρχης Ρόμελ ανίκανος να συντονίσει μία ορθή άμυνα!

«Αντίπαλος» της Φλικ ήταν ο γοητευτικός, πολυμήχανος και άκρως επιτυχημένος βασανιστής, ταγματάρχης Ντίτερ, ο οποίος θα επιδοθεί σε ένα λυσσαλέο κυνηγητό προκειμένου να ανακαλύψει το σχέδιο των Μυστικών Υπηρεσιών της Αγγλίας και της Γαλλικής Αντίστασης!

Ο Ken Follet, από τους καλύτερους ιστορικούς συγγραφείς, παρέδωσε ένα αψεγάδιαστο περιπετειώδες ανάγνωσμα που με δυσκολία άφηνα στο κομοδίνο μου κάθε βράδυ! Άριστος γνώστης των γεγονότων και των τοποθεσιών που διαδραματίζονται τα γεγονότα, κατάφερε να δημιουργήσει σασπένς και αγωνία από την πρώτη, μέχρι την τελευταία, πρόταση!

Πόλεμος, κυνηγητό, θάνατος, έρωτας, αγωνία, αγάπη, τα έχει όλα και συμφέρει! Το μόνο αρνητικό; Ότι βρίσκεται εκτός κυκλοφορίας και θα πρέπει να το αναζητήσετε στα μεταχειρισμένα…

Intriguing book. Well researched, history lesson, interesting characters, fast paced.