"This was the best of the best"
For first time writer Jason Matthews, his insight made this book superb. A times I felt this could be used as a training manual for becoming a spy. Also, Jeremy Bobb was a perfect fit to narrate this story.
I have listened to 200+ audio books and "The Sparrow" will go down as one of the top 10.
This story should lend itself well to a follow-up or sequel, I can only hope.
"Wow!!!"
Just the kind of spy novel I was hoping for ... intrigue, trade-craft, and all modernized in a way and context that feels so authentic!
I enjoyed the narration, but the story, it's twists and turns, are the hero here. It was really interesting to get the little little insights into the more practical matters of spying. Thanks Mr. Matthews! When is your next novel coming out?
"Hoping for a thriller, got a cookbook"
Monotone narrator, anticlimactic "espionage" cookbook. Download Mitch Rapp instead. Very mislead by all the 5 star reviews, but I guess people like investing 12 hours into a book before something exciting happens. One of the few books that the reviews didn't line up with my tastes.
"Really good Putin era espionage novel"
Very with the times espionage tale, very believable IMHO, not many far fetched moments in this book. The first book of his I've found and was a pleasant surprise, wasn't expecting too much going into it. Highly recommend for contemporary espionage fans.
"A GREAT disappointment ...."
A number of great reviews pushed me to buy and read (or rather to "listen to") this book . What a disappointment ! The story moves along stereotypes : "our" guys are all good, corageous smart & fighting for a better world (except a couple of top CIA bureaucrats) ; "theirs" guys (the Russians) are so unbelievably stupid, mean and corrupt (except those of are willing to betray their country). Modern Russia is like URSS (the Evil Empire) , if not worse. The reader does not develop empathy for the main characters as they are lacking depth and originality ; the plot moves fast , but gets boring after a while.
On surface it sounds and looks like a Le Carré cold war novel , but it is only a pale imitation. Stay away !!
"Good for a debut but with some blunders"
No but still it was fascinating.
I almost never write reviews but I had to write one for the Red Sparrow by Jason Matthews. Regretfully, grudgingly, I'm giving this book 4 stars although many parts of this book deserve solid 5 stars. This is a very good espionage thriller, superbly written in a literary sense, with riveting, sometimes even mesmerizing plot, strong characters, either positive or negative, and appropriate, well-timed insertions of humor. In a word, all what in my opinion any good book should have. All this evoked from me strong associations and sentiments. And yes, it' true that this book is reminiscent of some of the early John Le Carre's works although I think it's somewhat better. And I think in its politics it's closer to Tom Clancy. However, despite all this I gave this book only 4 stars because there're many significant sometimes even ridiculous and preposterous blunders:
1. This is supposed to be a spy thriller so the recipes at the end of each chapter were really annoying. This is NOT a cook book.
2. I didn't like the author frequently using pseudo-russian words especially when many of them were totally wrong. Some of them didn't even sound like Russian, more like Polish or Czech. And I would know since I'm half Russian myself and Russian is my native language. E.g.: the author uses "Russian" word "dushka" almost on every page, figuratively speaking. First of all, to my knowledge, there is no such word in Russian. There's a word "dushenka" which roughly means sweetie or darling but the last time it was probably used in 19th century so obviously it's very obsolete. And it's only one of such numerous examples.
3. Author's obvious prejudice against Russia and Russians unfortunately somewhat diminished this book making it condescending and sometimes even unrealistic and ridiculous. And it's when judging from the text events in the novel occur in the early 2014. E.g.: SVR, Russian foreign intelligence service, uses Russian made PAZ buses to transport its cadets from Moscow to Sparrow school. Once more, last time I saw a PAZ bus it was in the 80s. If they still exist then it's only on very distant rural routes, like "in the deep of Siberia". Furthermore, these buses would have never been used to transport Russian intelligence operatives in Moscow. Another ridiculous example representative of author's prejudiced attitude towards Russia: when he writes about SVR Helsinki station he describes that there were only a couple of computers but on every desk was an 80th era typewriter. I accept that Russia may be technologically inferior to US but this is simply ludicrous: I mean, we live in the 21st century and Russians aren't medieval barbarians.
And these aren't the only such occurrences.I don't want to spoil the novel for other readers so in conclusion I will only say that I got a strong feeling that the author's main purpose was to write this book as soon as possible and along make it highly commercial. Actually, that's what the publisher's blurb says. So he wrote a pretty good outline and then threw in a mishmash of various bits and pieces. And yeah, forgot to do his due diligence on the research. It could've been much better. It has a lot of potential. But still, overall it's a good novel. I recommend it to anyone who likes espionage fiction. Hopefully, Mr. Matthews will improve in his future books of this genre. I will look forward to them.
"A chapter turner "
Loved the production — including recipes at each chapter ending — stayed up all night listening to the last chapters
"Fascinating read...."
I enjoy Spy novels and this was right up there. Jeremy does a great job with the characters slightly changing tones and accents so you feel as if you’re getting to know them. I read reviews about the movie and a few critics said it was a typical plot and predictable. Maybe the book is different because I was awaiting every next word wondering which way it was going to go. Sometimes I was right and sometimes I was wrong...right up to the end. Worth the 18 hours and wish I had been on a vacation so I wouldn’t have had as many interruptions. Looking forward to seeing the movie and hoping they captured these characters well.
"Kept me listening"
Loved this audio. It was a fast moving spy novel with a few good twists, one was that the heroine has an ability to read auras-quite helpful in the spy business! Others have likened it to Homeland and I can see that as a good comparison. The ending was not what I expected, so that was a positive,since often you can guess right from the beginning. The one part I thought was bizarre was the recipes for different foods discussed throughout the book. Was there a point to that I missed? I wonder if the movie will be able to do service to the book? All in all, I was sad when it ended and highly recommend it.
"Get It - you'll love It!"
Love and death, loyalty and betrayal set in a richly layered world where past habits and the as yet unaccustomed post-Soviet reality is entwined with CIA operatives. Enter a sensitive and gifted ballerina and a disappointing son of a monied Virginian family. This is a listening delight and an intricate tale that refuses to collapse into the predictable clicheès of lesser writers.