Forsyth è un maestro del genere spy-story, autore di romanzi come: "Il giorno dello sciacallo", "I mastini della guerra", "Dossier Odessa", "Il Quarto Protocollo" e molti altri. E' indubbiamente uno dei miei scrittori preferiti in questo genere e lo metterei con Ludlum, Le Carrè, Cruz Smith, direttamente sul podio.Questa storia è meravigliosa, uno dei migliori dell'autore, se non il migliore, documentato tramite una fittissima ricerca dove si riesce a mischiare molto bene realtà e fantasia, prendendo le mosse dalla storia reale del super cannone; l'inizio è molto analitico entrando nel dettaglio di tutte le problematiche relative alle forniture di armi e tecnologia da parte di USA ed Europa all'Iraq di Saddam nel periodo in cui si cercava di usare l'Iraq per mettere i bastoni tra le ruote all'Iran.La storia: poco prima dello scoppio della Guerra del Golfo, l'agente segreto inglese Mike Martin scopre che le truppe di Saddam dispongono di una misteriosa e potentissima arma denominata "Il pugno di Dio", un ordigno in grado di rovesciare completamente le sorti del conflitto. Nonostante l'incredulità dello Stato Maggiore, Martin riesce a infiltrarsi a Baghdad e a preparare un audace piano di sabotaggio.Spionaggio, azioni dietro le linee, tanta tecnologia e spiegazioni da manuale nel più puro stile Forsyth. Ho letto tutti i suoi libri e questo è diventato subito il mio preferito perchè è avvincente, interessante e verosimile.Consiglio vivamente la lettura di questo libro, sia per la parte puramente romanzata, ma anche per quella storica di ricerca, da ottimi spunti di riflessione su quello che era, ormai parliamo di una decina d'anni fa, lo scacchiere mediorientale.Forsyth è un maestro indiscusso di questo genere.
The first few chapters of Forsyth's Persian Gulf War espionage thriller are a little wooden - stock characters, cliched dialogue - but once the plot is established and takes over, that's all you care about. I'm not one who likes the blending of fact and fiction in these types of novels, and I was constantly googling to see what characters were invented, whether Iraq actually did have a nuclear weapon in 1990, and how Scuds compared to the al-Husayn missiles. There are some brutal torture scenes. Not everyone lives to see the end of the book. With the exception of Margaret Thatcher, its female characters don't come off well. Its twisty turns, particularly at the end, make it a slightly above average thriller.
Do You like book The Fist Of God (1995)?
I had loved Forsyth's The Day of the Jackal, the first book I read from this author, and also the first one I read through Bookcrossing. So it is no wonder that I also really liked this one. Even though the theme is very different (The Day of the Jackal is about an attempted murder of General de Gaulle and this one is about the first Gulf War and the liberation of Kuwait), they both share an attention to detail, accuracy of information, suspense and a great ability to mix historical facts with a fiction plot. A really well crafted and hard to put down book. I read its nearly 600 pages like a breeze and I am not a particularly fast reader.
—Pequete
My first Frederick Forsyth book and a very enjoyable read. The book covers the build-up to the Gulf War in 1990-91, with a couple of alterations in the weaponry possessed by Saddam Hussein. The huge amount of research that has clearly gone into this, plus the factual writing style (which reminded me a lot of Tom Clancy, which is a big compliment) created a narrative that seemed very believable. It was also interesting reading with the knowledge of what happened in 2003 in Iraq, the lack of knowledge of the weapon inspectors etc.Basically I would recommend this book for anyone interested in the Gulf War, or someone who just enjoys a well-researched thriller
—Cormac Healy
Not Forsyth's best work but it certainly bears all of his usual features -- a focus on Cold War and post Cold War geo-political confrontations, well researched detail, complex plot lines and some truly menacing villans. One of Forsyth's recurrent tricks is that of creating lead characters who possess an exceptional combination of boldness, physical prowess, chutzpah and the capability of deadly violence when necessary; the one he introduces here one of his most intriguing characters, Mike Martin, who appears again in a later book "The Afghan". As in many previous books, Forsyth manages to construct fictional stories populated by real people whom we immediately recognize -- in this case Saddam Hussein. He does it so seamlessly that it's easy to lose sight of where real events end and fiction takes over.One criticism: Forsyth is overly fond of including minute detail about his subject matter -- things such as weaponry, the inner workings of intelligence and military organizations etc. This speaks well of his diligence in research and adds realism, but it makes some of his books unnecessarily lengthy and this is one of them.
—Jim Puskas
