• Declare

  • By: Tim Powers
  • Narrated by: Simon Prebble
  • Length: 21 hrs and 43 mins
  • 4.3 out of 5 stars (366 ratings)

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Declare  By  cover art

Declare

By: Tim Powers
Narrated by: Simon Prebble
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Publisher's summary

In his 11th novel, Tim Powers takes his unique brand of speculative fiction into uncharted territory, instilling the old-fashioned espionage novel with a healthy dose of the supernatural.

As a young double agent infiltrating the Soviet spy network in Nazi-occupied Paris, Andrew Hale finds himself caught up in a secret, even more ruthless war. Two decades later, a coded message draws Professor Andrew Hale back into Her Majesty’s Secret Service. Elements from his past are gathering in Beirut, including ex-British counterespionage chief and Soviet mole Kim Philby, and a beautiful former Spanish Civil War soldier-turned-intelligence operative, Elena Teresa Ceniza-Bendiga. Soon Hale will be forced to confront again the nightmare that has haunted his adult life: a lethal unfinished operation code-named “Declare.”

From the corridors of Whitehall to the Arabian Desert, from postwar Berlin to the streets of Cold War Moscow, Hale’s desperate quest draws him into international politics and gritty espionage tradecraft—and inexorably drives Hale, Ceniza-Bendiga, and Philby to a deadly confrontation on the high glaciers of Mount Ararat, in the very shadow of the fabulous and perilous biblical Ark.

©2001 Tim Powers (P)2011 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Critic reviews

“Dazzling…A tour de force, a brilliant blend of John le Carré spy fiction with the otherworldly.” ( Dean Koontz)
“[Powers] orchestrates reality and fantasy so artfully that the reader is not allowed a moment’s doubt throughout this tall tale.” ( The New Yorker)
“Highly ingenious…No one else writes like Powers, and Declare finds him at the top of his game.” ( San Francisco Chronicle)

What listeners say about Declare

Average customer ratings
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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Excellent historical fiction.

I am not a fan of cold war drama in general, but I absolutely love the inclusion of local myth and legend in the retelling of the actual events of post WWII Russian and British spy drama. The narrator is perfect and the author among my favorites.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Arguably Powers' best work to date.

I love the insane mash-up of history, science, pseudo-science and outright lunacy that makes up a typical Powers novel. The Drawing of the Dark, On Stranger Tides and The Stress of Her Regard are all particular favorites.

Declare beats them all. It's dense with history, World War II and Cold War spycraft, a contemptible real life villain, Arabian myth, Biblical apocrypha, a first-rate espionage thriller in the world weary vein of Cold War novelists and a longing for lost love.

It's a book to savor and a must-read for any Powers fan or anyone who read the mishmash of ideas in the paragraph above and thought the resulting gumbo sounded pretty good. Amazing book that I'm sorry is now at an end

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Interesting history

Tim Powers for some while has taken characters out of history, added a paranormal element and has told the story in that light. This one is hot and cold running war spies. It's a very fun book, but it is disjointed and hard to follow on the timeline. But the characters are a hoot and the look into a spy's life is chilling.

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  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

too slow and boring

This book wasn’t for you, but who do you think might enjoy it more?

THis book had great reviews, but it was so slow and boring the first few hours that i finally gave up.

Has Declare turned you off from other books in this genre?

no

What didn’t you like about Simon Prebble’s performance?

Just ok, nothing special

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars
  • E
  • 10-15-12

always heady... but often unentertaining?

I'm strangely happy that I read Declare. Strangely because to me, the book lost a lot of momentum after it's first third, which deal with some exciting events in the younger years of the main character. Some suspense and fascinating scenery remains, but for me the rest of the book was told in overly broad strokes. Weeks fly by between paragraphs, the personal motivations become less palpable, the imagery becomes scarcer.

Yet I'm happy I listened too, as "Declare" plays in some of history's stranger intersections. It raised questions in me, which is the mark of an at least worthwhile book. Coldwar spycraft meets ancient mythology. Nazis, communists, Catholics, double-agents... there's not a simple character in the book and even when some of the more immediate literary pleasures are lacking, I often found myself spurred to excited thought, writing down subjects for further reading. Separating the considerably researched fact from the fiction (helped immensely by the afterward) was rewarding too.

I liked but didn't love the narrator. Rather, I found him initially enjoyable yet I wondered if the overly consistent cadence to his speech was at least partly what was tiring me as I worked through Declare.

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  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • W.
  • 06-15-11

2nd book I've not finished here since 2004

Same author both times. Magic during WW2, strained and not believable and here are more words to make 15

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