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I just finished the book and I was amazed by something I find fleeting in other recent readings- I actually enjoyed it to the point that I didn't want to lay it down. I am now waiting for the next novel the Paper Soldier to hit the US market, but it looks like it might be a wait for that. If you like a fluid, satyrical, well appointed read then this is a good book to work on. He's definitely one of the best of his generation, and look forward to more wonderful writing in the future from him.
You might also learn a few things about how to avoid bad taste in home decor and fashion. You can relax, knowing it might sound a bit outlandish, might stretch the borders of your imagination just a bit, but if you the listener are like most of us, you welcome the opportunity to get away from the everydayness of your life and listen. Reading this book was like sitting back and hearing a close friend tell you about a really cool dream he had. This book has helped me cope with a bad case of the winter blahs and has whet my appetite for reading other thrillers. You can look forward to relishing the funny descriptions and asides, the beautiful use of language, and the interesting information that you learn along the way about a variety of subjects. Not the mention the suspenseful plot and the delightfully drawn characters. Unfortunately, I think it has spoiled me quite a bit. It will take quite awhile for me to find another thriller of this caliber.
The last sentence, however, is a wonderful punch line that makes up for many of the flaws of this novel. When Lang takes action to protect her, you don't quite understand why.
In a thriller involving rogue CIA officers, murderous gun merchants, and MI-6, this style is a refreshing change from better known authors in the field, and carries you through a good quarter of the book. This is a first novel from 1996 by Hugh Laurie, currently best known as TV's Dr House, and narrated by a character who sounds exactly like House, except he is ex-British military.
House voice, is not real enough for the reader to care what happens to him, and his love interest in not compelling either. Beyond that, however, in spite of action on an increasingly larger scale, there is no suspense or increasing tension.
Thomas Lang, the action hero with the Dr. Not only does the style make the plot unclear at several points, but Lang's almost instant recovery from injury on at least two occasions including a gunshot wound is not credible, especially in a novel that strives for realism everywhere else.
Trying to answer these questions drives much of The Gun Seller, eventually working its way to a point where Lang has uncovered a plot to engineer an act of terrorism as part of a marketing strategy for a new attack helicopter.Laurie is best known these days as "star of the FOX-TV series House," to borrow from the cover blurb, but once upon a time he played the role of P.G. This 2008 edition includes a brief interview with author Laurie and a few prompts for book club discussion. According to the interview, Laurie himself has completed a screenplay adaptation for United Artists, and one imagines the story crossing media rather easily.The predominant weakness is that Laurie's sense of humor starts on page 1 and ends on page 340. Lang declines, and decides to warn the target instead.
Typically, this is only something I run into with particularly dense material, but (no offense, Mr. The target, Alexander Woolf, is a wealthy and powerful man. Who is Woolf, though, and who wants him dead. Americans reading The Gun Seller will likely be tempted to think of it as an indictment of the post-9/11 Bush administration's rhetoric and doctrine, but it is important to remember that this was first published in 1996. Still, with the third act of any story relying on rising tension and action, the humor tends to deflate these crucial story elements. Similarly, fans of the TV series adaptation featuring Laurie will likely picture him in the role of Lang, and Stephen Fry as the dry, scheming Solomon.
There are spatterings of taking things seriously, but the wall-to-wall comedy sometimes gets in the way of a genuine action-thriller. I read this over a few nights, and another problem I ran into was that, for some reason or another, each successive night required me to go back mentally to what had last happened so that I knew what was going on now.
Ian Fleming declared that he was a writer, not an author, and that his novels were intended strictly to entertain and not necessarily make the reader a better person. Thomas Lang is an ex-military Brit who is approached out of the blue with the offer of a hit contract.
Laurie) The Gun Seller isn't quite on par with Plato's The Republic. Wodehouse's Bertie Wooster in Jeeves & Wooster.
Fans of Wodehouse will immediately recognize Laurie's affinity for the esteemed author in the relationship between Lang and fellow agent David Solomon (who even addresses Lang as "master" and "sir"). I attribute this lack of staying power to the saturation of humor.Of course, if you want a genuine action-thriller, there are plenty of other books by plenty of other authors that will fulfill this demand.
Laurie is an heir to this approach and The Gun Seller is a worthy debut.
I can't remember the last time I've bought a book this entertaining. I giggled a lot and I fell head over heels in love with Thomas Lang. Hope Laurie's second book comes out soon.
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