Extremely bad

I read this book because it was chosen by my book club - I don't think I would have bothered to finish it otherwise.

The plot is ridiculous and lunges around especially towards the end - it felt like a badly written James Bond movie. The nuclear strike was averted by just 1 second - that sort of timing is not dramatic - it's just annoying.

The characterisation was quite two dimensional and, in the case of Hemingway, quite nauseating - his accomplishments are just too unbelievable - standing on a 1 inch ledge in a gale force wind for 6 hours and being able to kill people with your fingers? Hai-ya!

I don't think these extremes are necessary to make an interesting character or story and the use of them just makes the book seem ridiculous.

I also found the writing very clunky and badly phrased. Some of the dialogue perhaps is accurate for the characters but the same inarticulate leaden style is in the narrative - I just found it to be very naive.

As for the educational aspects - I found that, at times, patronising. Worse though is that it spoiled the continuity of the writing. Perhaps if the elements were less convoluted then it may have made the going a bit easier? I really don't want to wade through so much instruction whilst reading escapist fiction.

On the whole I thought it was very poor and I would encourage anyone else to leave it well alone.