The Afghan

forsyth does it again!

i don't know where this man gets his info but he's done his homework again. i very informative 'text' written in novel form about the history and culture of the mideast mixing with the west. character development was a bit soddened with perhaps too much background info but entertaining, nonetheless. this is a heavy subject not to be taken lightly. in drawing parallels, not intended by the author, one can see the mismatched arab cultures, vastness of religion and translations of the holy koran - not too dissimilar to the holy bible of christianity and the terrible things christians did to each other and the outsiders not too far ago. the christians did less than holy things to others - just like what's happening with islam today. a definite read - especially to those who think they know (but do not - really!).

Good Read for Current Times - I Recommend

It took a couple of chapters to get "into" the story and where it was going. It likely provided some insight into the anonomous and edicated life of the Navy Selas and was a good plot and story.

Not up to his standards

Forsyth became the permier action/adventure writer with "Day of the Jackel" and followed it up with the exciting "Odessa File." He's been coasting since then. This title shows his penchant for detail without bogging the story line down, but it lacks the tension of those two works. You never connect with the characters and the ending is a let down.

I found this to be the page burnner I heard about.

This book was filled with very believable characters whit very human flaws. The book is filled with suspence because the antaginist and portaginist both are not super humans. And it show that all the high-tech support is only as good as the person in control. This stor goes int detail how ruthless the bad guys can be and in the blink of an eye, they could win.

Another masterpiece from Mr. Forsyth

In yet another wonderful book, Mr. Forsyth covers international terrorism at its best. In this book, British and American intelligence agencies receive a terrible message: an Al-Qaeda strike is imminent. But they have no clue when, where and who will cause the strike. There is no clear clue. Security authorities do not have sources of information inside Osama bin Laden's organization. It is impossible to infiltrate someone from the western hemisphere, unless...
Izmat Khan is an afghan and he is a high official from the Taliban. He has been held at Guantanamo prison for five years. Colonel Mike Martin is a veteran with 25 year experience at the most dangerous war places in the world. He is a British official, born and raised in Iraq. In a try to avoid the attack, the intelligence services will try what nobody ever thought about doing: they will try to make Mike Martin impersonate Izmat Khan. If ou are picky, you will find minor flaws on how Mike is examined by the Taliban guys to find out if he really is Izmat or if he is lying... but generally speaking, this is another masterpiece from the master of suspense. If you like to read in the edge of your seat, this is the book you cannot miss in your permanent library. It took me around 13 hours to read this book. I give it a 5 stars.

Don't miss it!!

This is an exciting, stimulating, adventurous book, written by an outstanding writer - one of my very favorite authors. He writes lucidly and well and avoids the usual foul language and sex-drenched scenes so common to this genre. You will not want to put this one down. And, perhaps, one day you'll want to read it again. He's that good.

Forsyth does it again!

After so many years, Frederick Forsyth still has that magic that leads to escapism. A most convoluted story line, but believable, well executed - and a thrill a minute.

Sad Decline

Forsythe practically defined the genre with The Day of the Jackal and the Odessa File.Sadly, his last couple of nevels don't quite measure up overall. The Afghan was well researched and frankly, put much of the current events of that region into perspective for me. The plot was disjointed and the technique of having multiple events taking place and dovetailing at the end was unwieldly and hard to follow.

Just skip to the last 20 pages of the book.

3/4 of this book is about the middle east people, with names that you cannot pronounce, that are mentioned in the book, but are not in the book. Make sense? It didn't to me either! It is a hard read, even if you can make it to the end of the book, it's not a happy ending.

Very well written book

Forsyth has renewed. He shows a lot of understanding to the Afghans and Arabs and criticizes Americans and English alike. The end was not happy but the book is well worth reading.

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Worth Reading

This was my first Forsyth novel and it didn't disappoint. While the actual plot seems to take a backseat to the character development that consumes the first half of the story, it was the backstory that I found most interesting. A few over the top, unbelievable events threatened to ruin it for me but didn't. All in all, worth reading for the way it weaves fact and fiction.

A lot less than I expected

I am used to awaiting Forsyth's new releases. One of my favourite writers, indeed. Sometimes I get a little disappointed, as it happened this time. As usual, the plot is defying and intricate. But the book is flabby, the end is an anticlimax and, frankly, that F-15 thing was the worst 'McGuffin' I've ever seen. Anyway, Mr. Forsyth's still miles ahead of, say, Ludlum. Keep writing, and I'll keep reading.

Not vintage Forsyth

I am a big fan of Fredrick Forsyth and was counting down days to buy this new release. Forsyth's 'Fist of God' is one of the masterpieces just like his 'Day of the Jackal'. In particular Fist of God is fabulous because it created an adernaline pumping mystery around a war that was in most parts unevenetful. Given his mastery of this medium I was expecting Forsyth to give me the best read of all times now that he had a subject as riveting as Al Qaeda terrorism to write about. As I started reading the book I was in fact elated to see the return of the Martin brothers (the heroes of Fist of God). However Mr. Forsyth lets us down. His portrayal of detail and his unparallel knowledge of the locales, characters and intelligence agency structures not withstanding, the book does not seem riveting. The plot seems not as interesting as those from his previous books. The action seems to get predictable and mundane. The end was a let down. I was just hoping for so much more. There are also some errors. Karachi is in Sindh not Baluchistan for example. There were other errors too about some references from Pakistan. Coming from any other author, I would not have had any higher expectations but not from the great Fredrick Forsyth. I am hoping that Mr. Forsyth reads the reviews of his readers and if so I would like to request that he write another book on the Al Qaeda terror theme which reminds us of vintage Forsyth

Confusing and Boring

Have read most of the reviews on this book and I agree: Forsyth has turned out some great books in the past. This is not one of them. Confusing names, places. Not worth going to the last part to see how it ends. I gave up two-thirds of the way through.

Read this novel and worry.....

If you do not understand what is reality in Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan or Lebanon, read this book. It is an eye-opener on how soon the world will be totally dominated by Islam and its various factions (Al-Queda, Hezbollah, etc). I will not, hopefully in my lfetime, see the free world crumble under the thumb of Islam. The novel is, again, Frederick Forsyth at his very best, fact/fiction splendidly mixed.

Forsythe getting a bit tired these days

The book brings back an old Forsythe character - Mike Martin, British SAS and paratroops officer who can pass for anything from an arab to an afghan because he had a grandmother from India and resembles her, and moreover was brought up in Iraq, among Iraqi kids, speaking fluent arabic. So now he has to pose as a Taliban fighter who is cooped up in Gitmo, and who - coincidentially enough, he fought alongside in their war against the russians (where the afghans were the heroic underdogs and the CIA was eager to press stinger missiles and such on them.. remember that Rambo movie?) - even saved the man's life. Oh, and met a very young pair of future Al Qaeda leaders, Osama bin Laden and Ayman Al Zawahiri, while he was at it. Some people have all the luck - while authors have deus ex machina, which works very well when they run out of luck. That Forsythe has to string so many coincidences together - Mike Martin would meet the guy he is supposed to impersonate, and also meet OBL so that he can remind him of that meeting decades later and prove his identity .. and then get drafted onto the very mission he's supposed to prevent. Well - that mission involves that usual and classic Forsythe plot device, the bait and switch (for example, in The Fourth Protocol, the russian spy finds a dead man of fairly similar background and gets himself an ID matching the dead man ..). This time its something that looks a bit harder to steal than a simple ID .. and it is aimed at a bunch of people catching all of whom together would be OBL's wet dream. Fine - Martin pulls it off, and sacrifices himself heroically doing so .. ensuring that we aren't going to be treated to a sequel in some future conflict where he appears to save the day. Embedded into the story like currants into a bun is Forsythe's usual minute attention to detail .. an org chart of US / UK security agencies, and a dissertation on the extremist and perverted religious beliefs that make a terrorist [no, not a fundamentalist - that's different, as Forsythe points out]. Oh well - it is worth a read if you're on a long plane ride. But it is not the kind of page turner that I remember Forsythe for. Better by a long chalk than the rest of the 'competition' in 9/11 and AQ themed thrillers though .. FF hasn't lost his touch altogether, and most of the wannabe thriller authors never had a touch in the first place.

Vintage Forsyth

Good thriller read. While the book digressed a bit off the main plotline at times, I didn't mind because the digressions were about interesting real historical and political details.THE AFGHAN is a fabulous espionage thriller that grips the audience from the very start.

Terrible

Honestly, forsyth is probably the worst author in my opinion. He shouldn't encourage stereotyping. Just the title pretty much says if you're Afghan or middle eastern, you're a terrorist. Some people are just really stupid.

Out of the seat thriller

The Afghan is a very well tailored book by Frederick Forsythe. The story revolves around the title of the book through out and does not stray out of the subject at all. The background of the 2 main characters of Izmat Khan and Col. Mike Martin are very well handled drawing the full stop wherever needed. Also, there is never a dull moment. It keeps the reader glued on to the book till the end. A must buy

Timely and Intriguing

To me, one of the marks of a good political espionage thriller is blurring of the line between fact and fiction. The Afghan does this in spades. The first third of the book essentially gives a history and background of the political and religious climate in the Mid-East and Islamic terrorism. Without being an expert in this conflict, I don't know how much is fact and how much is fiction but I got the sense that it was all pretty accurate. In fact, I kind of felt I was reading a ABC 20/20 report. Unfortunately, this is also what kept it from being a 5 star book IMHO. It's kind of dry with all the names, organizations, and splinter groups, I almost felt I had to write down a flow chart to keep up. The second part of the book is obviously all fiction and where the thriller part comes into play. The pace picks up as does the tension. Unfortunately, pacing frantically toward the conclusion, the ending does not live up to the rest of book. It's a little predictable and anti-climatic. All in all, a good read but not necessarily a great one.