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Summary
Summary
In this classic Cold War thriller, #1 "New York Times" bestselling author Ken Follett puts his own electrifying twist on the space race between the U.S. and the Soviet Union.
Author Notes
Ken Follett was born in Wales, United Kingdom on June 5, 1949. He received an Honours degree in philosophy from University College, London. He began his career as a newspaper reporter for the South Wales Echo and later with the London Evening News. He decided to switch to publishing and worked for a small London publishing house, Everest Books, eventually becoming Deputy Managing Director.
His first bestselling novel, Eye of the Needle, was published in 1978 and won the Edgar Award. His other works include Triple, The Key to Rebecca, The Man from St. Petersburg, Lay Down with Lions, The Pillars of the Earth, The Third Twin, The Hammer of Eden, Code to Zero, Whiteout, World Without End, The Century Trilogy, and A Column of Fire. Many of his novels have been adapted into films and television miniseries. He has won numerous awards including the Corine Prize in 2003 for Jackdaws. His nonfiction works include On Wings of Eagles.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (4)
Publisher's Weekly Review
After dabbling in his last few books in historical sagas and various thriller subgenres, Follett returns to his espionage roots with this absorbing, tightly plotted Cold War tale about skullduggery in the early days of the space race. Set in 1958 shortly after the Soviets beat the Americans into orbit, the story tracks the frantic movements of Dr. Claude Lucas, who wakes up one morning in Washington, D.C.'s Union Station, dressed as a bum. A victim of amnesia, he has no recollection that he is a key player in the upcoming launch of Explorer 1, the army's latest attempt to get a rocket into space. While Lucas slowly unravels the clues to his identity, the CIA follows its own agenda. The agency, led by Lucas's old Harvard buddy Anthony Carroll, has its own murky reasons for wanting Lucas to remain amnesic, and will kill him if he tries to interfere with the launch. Follett (The Hammer of Eden) does a wonderful job of keeping readers guessing about Lucas; is he a spy trying to foil the launch, as the CIA apparently believes? From the nation's capital to Alabama and Cape Canaveral, Lucas manages to stay one step ahead of his pursuers, steadily learning more about his memory loss, his wife, Elspeth, and his college friends Carroll, Billie Josephson and Bern Rothsten. Suspense junkies won't be disappointed by Follett's man-on-the-run framework; tension courses through the book from start to finish. Yet where the story shines is in the chemistry between Lucas and the four other major characters. As told through a series of well-chosen flashbacks, all the old college chums are now working or have worked as spies. The dilemma, skillfully posed by Follett, is figuring out who's friend and who's foe. (Dec. 4) Forecast: In his first hardcover for Dutton, Follett is wise to return to his forte of espionage thriller, and to base this novel on a real event, the unexplained delay of the 1958 Explorer 1 launch. Given the promotional hooplaDwhich includes a 425,000 first printing and $400,000 ad/promoDplus first serial to Reader's Digest; status as a BOMC, Literary Guild and Doubleday Book Club main selection; simultaneous audios from Penguin Audio; and the sale of movie rights to Columbia Pictures, this book has a good chance of dancing with the charts. (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Kirkus Review
From veteran spymeister Follett (The Hammer of Eden, 1998, etc.), the story of a the space race that never gets off the ground. Amnesia is the engine Follett chooses to drive his latest and, not unexpectedly, the worn-out thing sputters. Dr. Luke Lucas, waking up on the cold, hard floor of a public toilet in Union Station, Washington, D.C.headachy, nauseous, shabbily dressedwonders how he got there. Well, thereby hangs the tale. Its January 1958, midCold War, and the Soviets have already orbited Sputnik . The Americans, intent on catching up, are set to launch the first US space satellite. Rocket scientist Luke is central to the success of the effort, in part because of his brilliant mathematical mind, but also because hes accidentally stumbled on a plot to keep Explorer I from ever leaving its Cape Canaveral pad. Determined to block Lukes attempt to block their attempt to block a launch, Communist agents have hijacked him and administered memory-robbing drugs, which explains his rude awakening. If that doesnt work, they plan to knock him off him. Why not simply kill him and be done with it? More efficient, true, but a certain strategically placed CIA mole happens to have been Lukes Harvard classmate, and at first he chooses friendship over pragmatism. So, though Luke no longer knows what he knew, the games afoot as our hero, in hiding, strives to retrieve enough of his memory to figure out why old pals and former lovers are now bent on betrayal, while the desperate Commies seek him here, there, and everywhere. Full of misplaced Cold War nostalgia and dreary, threadbare characters. And really now, amnesia? In this day and age? With a straight face? First printing of 425,000; $400,000 ad/promo; first serial to Readers Digest; film rights to Columbia Pictures; Book-of-the-Month Club/Literary Guild main selection; TV satellite tour
Booklist Review
Follett has written a string of best-selling thrillers over the past 20 years, but none of them has matched the electricity of his breakthrough novel, Eye of the Needle (1978). His latest, however, may change that. As with Needle, this cold-war thriller uses a time-driven espionage plot to generate remarkable tension. The plot hinges on the activities of four former Harvard classmates, one of whom, Claude "Luke" Lucas, is a scientist working on the launch of the first American satellite, Explorer I, in 1958. With Sputnik safely in orbit, the Russians hope to sabotage the American launch and take control of the space race. When Luke wakes up in a toilet in Washington's Union Station with autobiographical memory loss, it's clear the game is afoot; will he be able to reconstruct his identity in time to figure out who's behind the Russian plot and save the launch, scheduled for that same night? As the story unfolds, Follett jumps between the present, January 1958, and December 1941, when Luke and his Harvard friends were about to be swept up in the maelstrom of World War II. Follett's strength as a writer has always been plot over characters; his people are alive enough not to undermine our commitment to the story, but, finally, they take a backseat to the tumult of the action. Don't look for ambiguity here, or for le Carre's specialty, espionage as metaphor for the problem of identity, but frankly, as the launch clock ticks down to zero, you won't be thinking about identity. A classic page-turner on a classic theme: cold-war skulduggery. --Bill Ott
Library Journal Review
With Eye of the Needle and the numerous novels that followed, Follett established himself as a master of the thriller. This latest tale of Cold War espionage is one more bit of evidence. In a narrative that moves smoothly between the World War II years and 1958, when the Soviet Union began the space race by launching Sputnik, Follett reminds us of an almost forgotten time when the very thought of Soviet successes in space terrified us. Scientist and former OSS agent Dr. Claude ("Luke") Lukas knows that something terrible will happen to a coming space launch, but he has been drugged and now suffers from amnesia. What follows is the taut and exciting story of Luke's attempt to find his identity and stop an unknown disaster from occurring. Recommended for all popular fiction collections. [Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 8/00.]DRobert Conroy, Warren, MI (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.