Επιχείρηση «Ίκαρος»

by Robert Ludlum, Κώστας Μπαρμπής (translator)

Όταν ξένοι και ντόπιοι τρομοκράτες καταλαμβάνουν την πρεσβεία των ΗΠΑ στο Μασκάτ, ο Έβαν Κέντρικ προσφέρεται να πάει να τους αντιμετωπίσει. Αφού πρώτα μεταμφιέζεται, παρουσιάζεται με τ’ όνομα του διεθνούς Σαουδάραβα τρομοκράτη Αμάλ Μπαχρουντί, ο οποίος το προηγούμενο βράδυ είχε σκοτωθεί στο Ανατολικό Βερολίνο και ο θάνατός του κρατιόταν μυστικός από την KGB. Ο Κέντρικ καταφέρνει με την μεταμφίεσή του να τους ξεγελάσει και φροντίζει να συλληφθεί και να κλειστεί σ’ ένα στρατόπεδο συγκέντρωσης τρομοκρατών.

Genres: Fiction, Thriller, Mystery, Espionage, Suspense, Adventure, Action

952 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published February 20, 1988

About the author

Robert Ludlum was the author of twenty-seven novels, each one a New York Times bestseller. There are more than 210 million of his books in print, and they have been translated into thirty-two languages. He is the author of The Scarlatti Inheritance, The Chancellor Manuscript, and the Jason Bourne series--The Bourne Identity, The Bourne Supremacy, and The Bourne Ultimatum--among others. Mr. Ludlum passed away in March, 2001. Ludlum also published books under the pseudonyms Jonathan Ryder and Michael Shepherd.

Some of Ludlum's novels have been made into films and mini-series, including The Osterman Weekend, The Holcroft Covenant, The Apocalypse Watch, The Bourne Identity, The Bourne Supremacy and The Bourne Ultimatum. A non-Ludlum book supposedly inspired by his unused notes, Covert One: The Hades Factor, has also been made into a mini-series. The Bourne movies, starring Matt Damon in the title role, have been commercially and critically successful (The Bourne Ultimatum won three Academy Awards in 2008), although the story lines depart significantly from the source material.

Reviews

[Deathbysexiness · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this for the first time over ten years ago. Its a quite dense tome, and my copy had very tiny type-script lettering but I remember thinking that R.L. must be really smart to have written something like this, I was so impressed by his depth of imagination and flair for the dramatic ( what can I say, I was 13). Now years later, I'm still impressed, by his flamboyance and blatant over-the-top hero!

I keep returning to this book every couple of years, and its like its new again..and I can't help but cast the characters I think should play it because it reads like a movie - albeit an old, Hollywood, CIA-Espionage movie.

[Brian · Rating 1 out of 5]

This novel is frustrating, insubstantial and very very improbable. A caucasian US Congressman dons dark makeup to pass for an Arab, infilrates a terrorist organization in Oman, convinces them he is a fellow terrorist, and somehow foils their plot. All this despite his obvious non-native accent which isn't even mentioned by Robert Ludlum. He then keeps the entire caper a secret until one covert agent recognizes him from a photograph.

The only interesting plot involves a secret star chamber-like organization scheming to select the next US President. Once again logic holds no sway in this universe because the secret organization is apparently risking their lives and reputations for entirely altruistic reasons, with no personal benefit expected or desired from the new administration.

Please stay away unless you enjoy smacking your forehead with the palm of your hand every 20 pages.

[Marc Diepstraten · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm re-reading Ludlum. He's often copied, borrowed from, outright stolen from, but nobody comes close. He crams more ideas in one book, than any other writer out there. Story unbelievable? Who cares! It is a fun, well written wild ride of a book, and at 770+ pages over all too soon. Nobody does (did) it better. Highy recommended.

[Tahazen · Rating 1 out of 5]

I lasted about 50 pages (approx. a tenth of book). Had to mercifully put it down. It's bad.

The writing is static, the characters are asinine (the protagonist is a Caucasian US Congressmen who 1. speaks a foreign language, 2. speaks Arabic fluently, and 3. represents a rural Colorado district -- because you know rural Colorado districts always elect junior politicians that are fluent in Arabic. And to top it off, the protagonist literally dons skin coloring to look like an Arab and then infiltrates the country of Oman -- ridiculous).

The characterization of the Arab World is appalling. The author tries to validate this by scattering transliterated Arabic words throughout the text showing that he did his homework but it's the same depicted Arab world that's been regurgitated time and time again: a backwards society, engulfed in religious fanaticism, the backdrop of oil and shady business sheikhs. blah blah blah.

Don't read this book.

[Katherine "Kj" Joslin · Rating 1 out of 5]

Robert Ludlum and I are breaking up. I am serious, no counseling... I am really pissed.

This book was awful, characters were flat and stereotypical. The book was WAYYYYYYYY too long and verbose, please pay someone to throw out every sentence that includes a descriptor of a person rather than a name (stated the angry pink haired, sassy lady). Honestly, I loved The Bourne books and I will likely read another Ludlum book but this one was horrible. I only finished it because I am in a reading challenge. Don't let friends read CRAPPY books!

#RobertLudlumNeededAVacation

[Carol · Rating 4 out of 5]

maybe 4 & 1/2.
The first half left me wondering how well the author portrayed the Arab world, but it moved quickly. The last half was so intriguing and thought provoking that I couldn't put the book down, and it's a very long book! I kept stopping to discuss some of the ideas with my sounding board, my husband. It's disturbing to read that there could be a government within the government (so to speak) that causes us to pit ourselves against ourselves. So often we believe what we read in the news, or possibly WANT to believe, that we miss the disturbing manipulations of hidden people in control. I see our own government being manipulated by the rich and powerful and feel hopeless in any good resolution.
This was a very, very good read.

[Thomas · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Icarus Agenda is a gripping spy novel. I am a Ludlum fan but to be honest other than his Jason Bourne series which I rated 5 stars, his other books in general are not blockbusters.
I never give away spoilers and I read this 20 years ago but after going back to Ludlum for some classic spy thrillers, I remembered exactly what I felt when I first read this book, very slow plot and some of book seems unbelievable. I always recommend Ludlum for a spy thriller and it's a good book but if you read the Jason Bourne books first you may not be so captivated. Respectfully, Thomas.

[Shaked · Rating 1 out of 5]

Has to be one of the most idiotic books I've ever read.
It twists historic events, antisemetic at some points, the dialogues are not natural, the sotry line is not believable, it's not funny when it tries to be and fails to create even for a second.
I abondened it the moment I got my hands on a different book.
This book is comparable to reality TV. It's THAT stupid.

[Sophie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I keep forgetting that I need to concentrate if I'm planning to read a book by Robert Ludlum. Seem to spend half my time confused about what is going on.

Enjoyable book in 2 halves - 1st half concentrates on a crisis in the Middle East and then the 2nd on the repercussions when the hero returns home and is catapulted to the top of political life.

[Mark Speed · Rating 1 out of 5]

So much for the suspension of disbelief. An unbelievable character in an unbelievable plot doing unbelievable things. I could only get through this novel by treating it as satire, and laughing with the author and publishers who conspired to make the critics believe it was a thriller.

[Asghar Abbas · Rating 1 out of 5]

Just nope.
Ridiculous.....everything.
Hard pass.

[itchy · Rating 3 out of 5]

eponymous-ey sentence:
p242: "...The code name is Icarus, to be taken as a warning, a fervent prayer that he will not, like so many of his predecessors have done, try to fly too close to the sun and crash into the sea...."

sva, spelling:
p27: The small circle of need-to-know officials have been alerted through ultra max modem communications.

cement:
p80: Kendrick hunched his shoulders and threw the man over his back, slamming him down onto the cement floor.

p421: The bullets, however, were not silent; one shrieked through the air above Weingrass, the second ricocheted off the cement near his head.

p594: Taut heavy chains were looped around the landing mounts and anchored in cement; no sudden storms from the sea would move the chopper unless they were strong enough to tear it apart.

spelling:
p170: To factor in a name without specific reference only spews forth encyclopedic historical data long since inserted--and updated--by photoscam.

sva:
p226: A prosperous local banker might glance out of his window and see the glistening limousines roll by and wish he were privileged to hear the men talk over their brandy or billiards, but that was the extent of his ruminations.

case:
p377: The Czech raised a third item he had taken from his attaché case; it was a Co2-propelled dart gun.

?!:
p558: He was a political survivor because he understood the unwritten rules of the also-ran.

It's been awhile since I marathoned political thrillers so I've somewhat lost my penchant for them. And whenever I have a paperback copy I would read that instead of an electronic one, which results to less opportunity to do so and therefore greatly impact my reading speed.

In this case, this was sidelined for months until I basically forced myself to pick it back up. The poor book was gathering dust on the arm of our sofa.

[Kip · Rating 3 out of 5]

Airplane fodder...

Ludlum writes great thrillers. Picked up this oldie but goodie on the cheap at a yard sale or something.

As I was reading this I thought, "Hmmm, this could make a good movie. Maybe two movies given the depth." When I finished it I looked around to see if there was a sequel. Imagine the representative from Colorado as the president... What I found was the prequel, currently in production as a movie! Leo DiCaprio as the lead. Ugh.

A little dated by today's standards in terms of technology and communications, but well-written and fast-paced. Kept me up well into the night after my plane trip :)

* Couldn't finish
** I had nothing else to do
*** Passed the time, would be **** for genre / author fans
**** Everyone could enjoy this book
***** Everyone should read this book, I'll read it again

[Rajish Maharaj · Rating 1 out of 5]

I really did try with this tome, but i can't bring myself to continue with it. Its slow, a little confusing and yet to see the point of the main characters actions. Evan's character does not seem plausible to be in the position he is, it juat doea not fif. Why woild the govenrment allow someone with no experience in espionage to go in to such a situation alone, its a recipe for disaster.
Also, keeps calling evan by various names which is beginning to irritate me. The story isnt really believable and cant seem to much care about it.

[Alexw · Rating 3 out of 5]

While a poor Ludlum book as his writing of political intrigue is subpar, is still worth reading for its action's sequences.

[Michael Kubat · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good writing (of course,it's Ludlum). But... Amazingly convoluted plot, and so loo-o-ong. By the time I reached page 400, I was crawling on the floor from sheer exhaustion, checking every 30 minutes how many pages I still have to battle through. (The total in this edition is 678.) More than once, I considered dropping the book, but that would probably have put a hole in the floor (just kidding). By the time I finished, I was seeing double and my tongue was hanging out of my mouth.

Not that it's not a good story with a credible plot and totally believable characters. But it should really be two separate books.

[Jim Stennett · Rating 3 out of 5]

Settle in for a long ride. No better, no worse than most political thrillers, I guess. Way dated now and probably was better in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s. For a book fair find during the Covid Lockdown, it was fine, but somebody please tell Ludlum to edit down his text! Good Lord he just drones on and repeats the same info over and over. The first 250 pages are really skip-able. Every cliche’ in the book is included... even the mafia and gun runners.

[Nicole Diamond · Rating 1 out of 5]

If it has one star I liked it a lot
If it has two stars I liked it a lot and would recommend it
If it has three stars I really really liked it a lot
If it has four stars I insist you read it
If it has five stars it was life changing

[Michael Gibson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Would give it a 3.75 rating.
An interesting novel looking at a fictional scenario where major investors behind the scenes create incidents to influence world events to achieve their own goals. Whether this is for personal gain, world stability or instability depends on which powerful groups are doing the influencing…and when. For those that end up unknowingly carry out these efforts, it makes for a turbulent life full of life-threatening danger that seems to be around every corner. Who to trust and who to go after can change at any given moment, with split-second decisions needing to be made certainly makes it an exciting ride to follow the main character’s adventures throughout the book.

[Grada (BoekenTrol) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Finished this book today. It was a nice read that took me a long time to finish (used it as a bedtime book).
I liked the story, I liked the whole atmosphere. It was a Ludlum like I expected. Many storylines, lots of characters. A plausible plot, for the most part.
A few action scenes (chapters) were less to my liking because they were too much, too good to be true or whatever term you want to use for it.

But the story isn't finished yet, even though I've read the last page. So hopefully I can get the rest in another book, although I don't count on it. This book is not part of a series.

[Frederick Tan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good read.

[Thomas Pulaski · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book. Read it years ago and went back to reread. Still awesome! Time to add more Ludlum to my 'to-read' pile.

[Peter · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some years ago I had a Robert Ludlum phase where I pretty well devoured everything that he had written and on the whole I enjoyed the vast majority of them particularily the Bourne trilogy. This was the first book of his that I have read since that period and on the whole I felt that there was little change in the style but for me this book was just a little over long.

A secret group called Inver Brass fed up with corruption at the highest political levels of Government decide that they need someone to run for Vice President. They decide that Evan Kendrick a freshman Congressman from a rural backwater of Colorado is their man. A year earliar he had gone to Oman to help in the release of 200+ American hostages and to bring down a man calling himself the Mahdi whom Kendrick believes, correctly, has funded the hostage takers and caused the deaths of virtually all his company staff some years previous. Inver Brass leak details of the successful Omani mission to the national press and so up Kendrick's profile with the American public. It is the start of their campaign to get him on the 'ticket'. However, another group, these backers of the present Vice President, want to stop Kendrick. So the battlelines are drawn.

Kendrick was a well thought out character as were most of the others involved but in the end I just felt that the second half of the book was not as strong as the first. That said, the idea that an untrained politician would just be dropped into an Arab country and solve a hostage situation that had baffled the spy services of many other countries took an almighty leap of imagination. However, to believe that Arab and Jewish agents would and could work together to solve terrorism was just too big of a leap for me. Also the idea that one man, admittedly an honest one, could solve all off democracy's problem was a bit of a stretch as well.In the end the second half of the book became an exercise in wishful thinking for me. Which was a real shame as it had the makings of a really good book.

The book was first published in 1988 so the plot was a little dated but that was only to be expected.Ultimately I felt that the ending was just too neat and that the book had been written with an eye on a movie deal as it tried to tick off all the boxes to make it appeal to a jingoistic American audience. A decent read but not a great one IMHO.

[Alta Cloete · Rating 3 out of 5]

Vic Nel is nie die deursneespeurder van soveel spanningsromans – ‘n gekwelde siel met drank- en huweliksprobleme wat juis vanweë sy menslikheid lesers se verbeelding aangryp - nie. Nee, Vic het alreeds daardie grense oorgesteek en hy het eintlik niks meer om te verloor nie. Daar is onskuldige bloed aan sy hande en klaarblyklik nie meer veel gevoel in sy hart nie.
Die storie word relevant vir vandag gemaak deur Vic se verlede – voor 1994 – wat sekerlik geen mens van vlees en bloed onaangeraak kan laat nie. Die karakter Vic – die ‘uithaler’ van ‘ongewenstes’ voor 1994 – moet nou in die Nuwe Suid-Afrika ‘n sinvolle lewe probeer aanmekaarsit. Dit laat mens onwillekeurig wonder oor soveel (blanke Afrikaner-)mans wat ‘n nuwe rol moes vind na die eerste demokratiese verkiesing. Goeie mense wat met die oogklappe van apartheid grootgeword het binne ‘n bestel waar van jou verwag is om bevele uit te voer en onafhanklike denke nie noodwendig aangemoedig is nie. Soldate, regeringsamptenare, vele ander gesigloses. Dit sou interessant wees om te kon vasstel hoeveel hedendaagse misdaad aan soortgelyke karakters as Vic se stryd om oorlewing gekoppel kan word. Natuurlik kan mens maar net spekuleer hieroor.
Vic verdien met die aanvang van die boek sy brood en botter (en drank) in die skadudeel van die stad deur as lyfwag vir prostitute op te tree. Die uitbeelding van die meisies is vir hierdie vroulike leser van die treffendste aspekte van die andersins baie ‘manlike’ boek. Dinge loop egter skeef en stuur sy lewe in ‘n nuwe rigting. In die proses word ‘n hele aantal nuwe karakters aan weerskante van die spektrum van geregtigheid bekend gestel. Hier is nie veel sprake van tradisionele ‘goeie’ en ‘slegte’ karakters nie; hierdie ‘helde’ ken almal die donker kant van die lewe en niemand se motiewe is baie suiwer nie.
Kodenaam Icarus is ‘n spanningsroman vol aksie, met nie veel klem op die persoonlike ontwikkeling of emosionele lewe van die karakters nie. Die belangrikste karakters is harde manne met ‘n robuuste woordeskat wat nie vir geweld skrik nie.
Die einde laat die moontlikheid van ‘n opvolg oop en lesers wat Kodenaam Icarus geniet het, kan hopelik uitsien na nog avonture van Vic Nel.

[Jeff Mayo · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is the worst Ludlum novel I have read so far. It is a sequel, of sorts, to The Chancellor Manuscript. This plot is extremely convoluted. A congressman from Kansas, white, American to the core, is revealed as someone who in his past was able to pass himself off as Middle Eastern, infiltrate a terrorist organization, convince them he was one of them, and then outsmart them at every turn to rescue hostages. He then disappeared. But now that he has been revealed his life is at risk again and he must outsmart them a second time. The secret organization from The Chancellor Manuscript is back, this time with a traitor in their midst. The protagonist here is not at all believable, neither are any of his exploits. It is preposterous and at nearly 700 pages, too full of unnecessary plot twists and turns that in the end have nothing to do with the story.

[Tom · Rating 4 out of 5]

12/23/09 This looks like my next read. Mom got me an autographed copy a number of years ago -- well before I appreciated the value of reading. I'll let you know what I find.
12/26 I wouldn't have recognized the names of most of the places in this book 30 years ago, when it was written, but with the new world order, I'm becoming too sadly familiar with terrorism and its locales. Even 20 years later, terrorism hasn't changed much!
1/11 This is a long book! I hope to finish by the end of January! Good though!
1/27 Finished! Awesome read. Great story about international terrorism that is even more relevant today than it was 30 years ago. This has the suspense that you'd expect in current mystery thrillers and perhaps even more depth. I definitely would recomment this one.

[Jason Frasca · Rating 5 out of 5]

Extremely well-crafted, masterpiece of a thriller. Of note, it took me approximately 100 pages to really get into, but I consider this an investment given the overall length of this writing - but more importantly, its overall successful execution.


This is an interesting blend of espionage and politics, with aspects of middle east and Mediterranean turmoil. I found this in a used bookstore. Beyond its excellence in narrative is its prose and delicate word choice. This story takes place in the 90s, but I am surprised to say the story line could easily take place present day with very little that would need changed.


I highly recommend. This is the first I've read of Robert Ludlum, but won't be the last

[Nick Lo · Rating 4 out of 5]

My first Ludlum, which at 900+ pages, was a meaty start (in fact I read a few other books while reading this one). I was a little nervous there'd be a jingoistic undertone to the story but nope, there is a lot of exploration of all sides, particularly with regards to character development. Like a few other reviewers I was fairly ho-hum that the blue-eyed lead character, US Congressman Evan Kendrick, would've made a convincing Arab, but I ran with it and I'm glad I did. It became one of those books where as you get to the end the world has to just stop while you find out what happens next.

I'll be reading more Robert Ludlum...

[Paul Magiera · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book was terrible. I loved the Bourne series, but this book was unclear. Ludlum kept going off on all these different tangents and then he would get too wordy on his descriptions. I agree with KJ Joslin "the book was WAYYYYYY too long."

[Chloe Stowe · Rating 3 out of 5]

Take out the romance angle and there's a good story here. (Please note that this is coming from a romance author so...)