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The Terrible Game
214 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1958
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
August 25, 2014
The Terrible Game tells the story of a young man asked by his country to travel to a secluded medieval country and participate in a brutal life-or-death competition in order to secure a military stronghold that will lend a strategic advantage to any nation that manages to gain a foothold. Within this basic plot we find the archetypal young male hero challenged to overcome extraordinary odds by completing a perilous series of tests using his superior strength and intellect. This is a theme that can be traced back to the impossible tasks assigned to Perseus and Hercules of Greek mythology. The media representation of war has long been a part of the social manifestation of masculinity. The Terrible Game is a great examples of this cultural definition of masculinity through its relation to war and nationalism.
Acting as a motivating backdrop to the book is the impending threat of war, and the preparations needed in order to give the hero's country (America) the strategic edge it will need in the event of another global conflict. In The Terrible Game, young Yale student Jonathan Burr's mission is to enter and win The Terrible Game of Ott, a medieval physical endurance trial requiring the completion of several feats of strength and agility while one hundred armed men attempt to chase down and kill the competitor. The winner of the Game of Ott is granted one request, and so Jonathan must win so that he may convince the geographically isolated country to allow the US to station their latest high-tech weaponry, the Atomic Howitzer, in Buranulke as a first strike against Russian supply shipments over the Trans-Baikal Railway, "the most important connecting link between European and Asiatic Russia."
The Terrible Game was published ten years after World War II in 1956, at the beginning of the Cold War between the Eastern and Western Blocs, and is directly influenced by the cultural awareness that large stockpiles of massively destructive weapons were now considered integral to preventing another global war. As such, the male hero of this narrative embraces his duty to ensure that America always maintains the military edge.
Dan Tyler Moore served as a spy himself during World War II, and after retiring from a career in the Office of Strategic Services (precursor to today's Central Intelligence Agency) made a lucrative living as an author and public speaker. Moore's literary output was based primarily on his past professions, with his short bibliography consisting of a few spy novels and books on secret codes, con men, and public speaking. The strong bond between Jonathan Burr and his father that hinges strongly on military tradition and patriotic servitude is possibly influenced by Moore's own relationship with his father, Lieutenant Dan Tyler Moore (February 9, 1877 – April 14, 1941), a military attaché to President Theodore Roosevelt who ruptured a blood vessel in Roosevelt's left eye during a boxing match, resulting in a blindness in that eye which was kept secret from the public.
For the most part, The Terrible Game is little more than a standard action-adventure espionage pulp novel, with a big emphasis on combat. Much of Moore's laborious attention to the details of fighting stances and parachuting can be rather dull (nearly as much time is spent on training and preparation as is on actual combat), and much of the book's second half focuses heavily on the medieval armaments of the Buranulke combat forces against modern military technology, which is somehow vastly superior because of the surrounding terrain.
Then there are other aspects of the novel that are a bit... unusual. The Burr family in the book has a strange preoccupation with ants as a metaphor for military heritage that eventually leads to emblems and flags bearing the symbol of the Black Ant, not exactly the proudest animal symbol to find on your family crest. Besides their fascination with ants, the all-male Burr household's wrestling training involves several pages of Jonathan and his father dressing up in a series of leather thongs and lubing their bodies with olive oil. There is also an awkwardly foreshadowed (and rather incredulous) subplot regarding bloodlines that not only has little to do with anything, but is also dropped moments after the revelation is made, so that it almost feels as if it was included solely to make the reader question the author's motives.
Overall, The Terrible Game is a solid piece of men's adventure novel writing, and those who are into more fantasy-based tales of espionage and combat will easily overlook some of the parts that readers like myself may find a little silly.
Acting as a motivating backdrop to the book is the impending threat of war, and the preparations needed in order to give the hero's country (America) the strategic edge it will need in the event of another global conflict. In The Terrible Game, young Yale student Jonathan Burr's mission is to enter and win The Terrible Game of Ott, a medieval physical endurance trial requiring the completion of several feats of strength and agility while one hundred armed men attempt to chase down and kill the competitor. The winner of the Game of Ott is granted one request, and so Jonathan must win so that he may convince the geographically isolated country to allow the US to station their latest high-tech weaponry, the Atomic Howitzer, in Buranulke as a first strike against Russian supply shipments over the Trans-Baikal Railway, "the most important connecting link between European and Asiatic Russia."
The Terrible Game was published ten years after World War II in 1956, at the beginning of the Cold War between the Eastern and Western Blocs, and is directly influenced by the cultural awareness that large stockpiles of massively destructive weapons were now considered integral to preventing another global war. As such, the male hero of this narrative embraces his duty to ensure that America always maintains the military edge.
Dan Tyler Moore served as a spy himself during World War II, and after retiring from a career in the Office of Strategic Services (precursor to today's Central Intelligence Agency) made a lucrative living as an author and public speaker. Moore's literary output was based primarily on his past professions, with his short bibliography consisting of a few spy novels and books on secret codes, con men, and public speaking. The strong bond between Jonathan Burr and his father that hinges strongly on military tradition and patriotic servitude is possibly influenced by Moore's own relationship with his father, Lieutenant Dan Tyler Moore (February 9, 1877 – April 14, 1941), a military attaché to President Theodore Roosevelt who ruptured a blood vessel in Roosevelt's left eye during a boxing match, resulting in a blindness in that eye which was kept secret from the public.
For the most part, The Terrible Game is little more than a standard action-adventure espionage pulp novel, with a big emphasis on combat. Much of Moore's laborious attention to the details of fighting stances and parachuting can be rather dull (nearly as much time is spent on training and preparation as is on actual combat), and much of the book's second half focuses heavily on the medieval armaments of the Buranulke combat forces against modern military technology, which is somehow vastly superior because of the surrounding terrain.
Then there are other aspects of the novel that are a bit... unusual. The Burr family in the book has a strange preoccupation with ants as a metaphor for military heritage that eventually leads to emblems and flags bearing the symbol of the Black Ant, not exactly the proudest animal symbol to find on your family crest. Besides their fascination with ants, the all-male Burr household's wrestling training involves several pages of Jonathan and his father dressing up in a series of leather thongs and lubing their bodies with olive oil. There is also an awkwardly foreshadowed (and rather incredulous) subplot regarding bloodlines that not only has little to do with anything, but is also dropped moments after the revelation is made, so that it almost feels as if it was included solely to make the reader question the author's motives.
Overall, The Terrible Game is a solid piece of men's adventure novel writing, and those who are into more fantasy-based tales of espionage and combat will easily overlook some of the parts that readers like myself may find a little silly.
June 9, 2018
Hooray! Another book mystery solved, title-wise. I had to make up my own title for this one(Himalayan Death Game) because I couldn't remember the title of this book, one of my favorite reads at the age of 12-13 or so. Obtained via the Scholastic Magazine Books mail order program through my Jr. High(8th grade) English class with Miss Inman. I came upon this by accident while looking for trivia questions in my Halliwell movie book. The name of the movie is "Gymkata" and much of the plot of the book was "adjusted' by the needs of Hollywood. I'm not sure the cover image is correct for my edition but there are only two to choose from. Close enough. The other review on G'reads pretty well sums up the plot of the book.
August 3, 2025
I was reading this because it was the basis for the movie Gymkata. And doing that, I came into this book with all the wrong expectations. This book actually takes itself very seriously and is steeped in history. Not really what I wanted. So I'm putting it down. Maybe I'll come back. Maybe not.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews