Frederick Forsyth Books

As all the good stories books, this one has a strong message in each story that put you to think before you are going to do a "bad" think to anybody, because what you are doing to others it could reverse to you, good or bad things, these stories are to think about.

Generally, I like Forsyth's work a lot: The Day of the Jackal and The Odessa File are among the greatest thrillers of all time. But I'm afraid I didn't care much for this one. The story isn't very tightly plotted, and so with the lack of character development that has always been a weakness of Forsyth's, the narrative drags along intolerably at times. There is too much coincidence for the plot to be credible, and the wealth of technical details overwhelms rather the educates the reader. Even with all of these weaknesses, this novel is serviceable enough as beach or airplane reading. Still, The Afghan is disappointing when you realize what brilliant books Forsyth turned out in the past.

I enjoyed this book. It keeps you interested with the level of "insider" details. I intended to wait and read this at the beach later this summer, but once I started to read it, I got hooked. It is not Forsyth's best effort. (The Day of the Jackal was so great, I doubt he'll ever match it.) That said, for a great escape that does fit with today's reality, I recommend this book.

anytime you read a book about terriorism, it is scary....there are so many ways......this book moves fast, but is just missing something, not sure what. not a bad read....

Excelent book, the classical style of fosyth whit a lot of storys at the same time and is magnificent read the book and see how all the stories converge. A lot of historical information that you believe that all is true.
Excellent like always

Being familiar with the region (both Pakistan and Afghanistan) with numerous visits, I found the first few chapters extremely enchanting and the descriptions authentic. But halfway in the novel (from the faked escape of Martin on his arrival in Begram), so many details were flawed, and really I wasn't able to focus on the story. The conclusion was so dull (precisely as expected) and uninteresting.

In this departure from his usual storytelling, Forsythe, who is a friend of Andrew Lloyd Webber, continues the story begun in the musical. I found the preface, in which Forsythe critiques the Leroux original and gives us the reasons why ALW abridged that story to create the plot of his play, to be very interesting. He points out some of the inconsistencies in the original, with his explanations as to their meaning. The main part of this story takes place in 1906. In this version of the Phantom, we find Madame Giry, on her deathbed, confessing her sins, including how she helped Erik to escape France to begin a new life in the United States. The storytelling shifts to Erik, who describes his escape from Paris, his arrival in the USA, and the making of his vast fortune. Forsythe interweaves actual events and personalities of the era into the plot, which is told by using the alternating viewpoints of the principles involved.

While I found the premise of the story to be interesting, the overall plot feels rushed, several of the incidents and people could use some fleshing out, and the side plot involving Darius and Father Kilfoyle is distracting and unnecessary. It is a quick read. And while I would not consider this the worst book of the POTO genre, don't go out of your way to purchase this title, unless you need it to complete your "bucket" list.

I am a huge Phantom of the Opera fan, both the Leroux novel and the Webber play. This book was written by a close friend of Webber so I thought this would be one of the better "spin off" continuation type novels. I actually found it to be pretty lacking. I didnt find any of the intriguing mystery I expected in this Phantom, just a guy full of himself and bent on revenge it seemed but nothing too special. The ending was kind of a surprise but I agree, not really all that believable. Plus, the whole tangent on the money god and all that detracted from the main story (at least for me) and just ended up boring me until it got back to Christine and the original tale. If you want a REALLY awesome spinoff of the Phantom novel, read PHANTOM by Susan Kay. I found the history she creates for Eric brilliant.

I never thought I could enjoy a follow up as much as I did this one. I was always intrigued to find what happened to The Phantom of the Opera since he dissapeared. Well now I know. To tell you how good I found it...I read it (completelly) on a plane trip from Amsterdam to Miami!!!! Did not sleep at all !!
I love the theater and therefore I think that is one of the main reasons why I loved this book
A must read!

While the notion for this book is an interesting idea, it looses all of the mystery and romance that was evident in the original novel. Carrying off where The Phantom of the Opera left off, Christine is now married to Raoul and has a son named Pierre. The Phantom has come to New York where he is quickly amasssing a fortune in the stock market and other business ventures with his cold-blooded partner, Darius. Told from various points of views, similar to the original novel, the book first digresses from the original novel when a section is told from the Phantom's point of view. At that moment the mystery of Erik is dissipated. There is almost no suspense. The author chooses to insert a strange money-god that Darius serves and the conflict between him and the Irish priest that tutors Pierre is a distracting side note. There are some plot twists, and a surprising ending. However I find the ending hard to believe and I was disappointed. I don't know what I expected, but this novel had none of the spark of the original. It's a quick and somewhat entertaining read, but in order to enjoy it detach it from any notions of The Phantom of the Opera.

This was more of a review of Forsyth's works than a biography. I am sure he "authorized" this because it reveals so little about him.

Una buena y entretenida novela, de nuevo la magia de Forsyth relatando y mezclando datos reales y ficticios (historicos y tecnologicos) que hacen de ella una atractiva lectura. Solo el desenlace se desarrolla con cierta premura que anuncio cierta falta de recursos para llevarla a un final mas interesante.

La historia transcurre durante la guerra del Golfo. Gira en torno a un arma secreta en poder del regimen iraqui. Lo aliados deben encontrarla y destruirla antes de invadir Iraq para evitar su utilizacion. La obra es entretenida, pero muchos sucesos importantes de la historia se producen como una serie de casualidades y no a traves de argumentos convincentes. Esto la transforma en una obra simple y poco creativa. No la recomiendo.

Andrew Lloyd Webber wants to write a sequel to his wildly successful musical Phantom of the Opera, and gets Frederick Forsyth to write this. I have it on good authority that Forsyth is actually a good author, and the book itself is not written badly. I am admittedly no fan of Andrew Lloyd Webber, so I'm blaming him for the general wretchedness of this book. It has some interesting details in it, but for the most part, it's just bad. It's full of plot cliches (I don't usually talk TO a book, but found myself saying "Come ON" a lot), and the resolution is so unlikely and fast and tidy (far too tidy for the climax-a major character is killed. Everyone, including a child, is sad but moves right on) as to be completely aggravating and insulting to the reader.

Plus, of course, as several other reviewers pointed out, Forsyth spends a considerable amount of time bashing the original book. He may, in fact, have legitimate criticisms, but it comes off as petty, particularly in light of the general underwhelmingness of this book.

The book is written in such a way that Sir Lloyd Webber won't even have to trouble himself to figure out how to plot the show or where to write solos. Hell, there are a couple of places where it already rhymes. I'm sure that was supposed to be clever or a prayer or something, but it just winds up looking even more like the bald attempt to provide a plot for a playwrite desperate for a boost his flagging career.

At the end of the day, there just isn't much point to this book. There's no charm or magic, and I don't know that I needed to know what happened after Leroux's book ended. Certainly if THIS is what happened, I didn't need to know it. What a waste of time and paper.

In this departure from his usual storytelling, Forsythe, who is a friend of Andrew Lloyd Webber, continues the story begun in the musical. I found the preface, in which Forsythe critiques the Leroux original and gives us the reasons why ALW abridged that story to create the plot of his play, to be very interesting. He points out some of the inconsistencies in the original, with his explanations as to their meaning. The main part of this story takes place in 1906. In this version of the Phantom, we find Madame Giry, on her deathbed, confessing her sins, including how she helped Erik to escape France to begin a new life in the United States. The storytelling shifts to Erik, who describes his escape from Paris, his arrival in the USA, and the making of his vast fortune. Forsythe interweaves actual events and personalities of the era into the plot, which is told by using the alternating viewpoints of the principles involved.

While I found the premise of the story to be interesting, the overall plot feels rushed, several of the incidents and people could use some fleshing out, and the side plot involving Darius and Father Kilfoyle is distracting and unnecessary. It is a quick read. And while I would not consider this the worst book of the POTO genre, don't go out of your way to purchase this title, unless you need it to complete your "bucket" list.

I am a die hard Phantom Phan. I have been for about 15 years now. I view every form of Phantom movies/plays/performances and literature I can get my hands on.

My 1st experience with reading this was an ARC (advanced reading copy) a friend that worked at a bookstore scored for me. I was SO excited for a new POTO book endorced by Webber to come out!

Blech! If you care AT ALL for the main characters, this is NOT the book for you.

I actually enjoy the different variations on a theme, this is not variation of a theme, it's butchery of a theme.

The "author" starts the book stating how horrible he thinks the original Leroux version is. If you dislike a book so passionately, WHY write about the characters??

I just found out in the news today that ALW is going to work with Forsyth for his upcoming sequel to be out in 2009 / 2010. I'm heart broken. ALL excitement about seeing a sequel on stage has deflated out of me.

I am shocked that a professional author with many credits to his name could goof this badly. The story stinks for the most part and could have been so much more with a little more thinking.

Then there is the manner in which it is written. The story is told by many voices and they all repeat what has been said before from a different but not very interesting angle, with little new information so it gets very B O R I N G.

The end is unsatisfying for the most part. I can't believe the rumor that Andrew Lloyd Webber plans to do a sequel from this garbage--if so, good luck with that project, dude.

A real switch for Frederick Forsyth. A logical, entertaining sequel to "Phantom of the Opera".

I was a Marine Corps Scout Sniper for many years and am well read on the history of the subject. This book just isn't very good. It is historically inaccurate and plays fast and loose with the facts. The chapter on Zaitsev surprised me. Everyone knows the guy wasn't real and was made up for Russian propaganda mills. The author acknowledges the dispute but says he will assume Zaitsev was real and writes an entire chapter on a fictional person. He also says that Russian snipers with experience in Chechnya were hired as mercenaries by the israelis to shoot Palestinianse. Why? Because Israel doesn't have any good snipers. Yeah. I happen to have some personal experience in that area and all i can say is don't waste your time.

It's difficult to know where to begin with this book, but the authors' statement that it was formulated in a pub after several drinks explains a lot. It is riddled with inaccuracies and irrelevant text, much of it in the form of quotes from novelists such as Remarque and Fleming, neither of whom were renown for their expertise on firearms. [Fleming disliked guns and had to have the workings of the Walther PPk pistol explained to him.]
The chapter topics are curious as well, the death of Nelson [the result of a lucky shot by a French marine and not sniping in even its remotest sense] receives six pages, whereas the Great War, from whence came all current sniping knowledge, receives a scant four. Neither do the authors appear to understand even the basics of firearms technology - musket balls are undersized, not oversized. Priming powder does not fall out of the pan on flintlocks [the frizzen closes over it to prevent this]. Percussion ignition did not happen in the 1790's and British cartridges were never lubricated with animal fat, beeswax and tallow were used.
The dismissal of the abilities of the Enfield P14 rifle are curious too, for it was not introduced as a sniping weapon until AFTER the Great War had ended, yet the widespread use of the Short, Magazine Lee-Enfield as the primary Commonwealth sniping rifle during the war is bafflingly ignored. There is even a little short story at the end of the book, possibly to make up for the lack of hard substance.
One could go on, but frankly, life is too short to read bad books. Save your money, there are better publications out there.