experience with Trevanian has been a mixed bag big winners and equally big losers, In my opinion, this one falls into the losers category, It is a dull, dark, sordid tale of assorted criminals and their activities, A total waste of time,
A FirstRate Thriller from a Legendary Master
Jonathan Hemlock, the art professor and mercenary who first excited readers with his daring exploits in The Eiger Sanction, returns in an even more masterful adventure in The Loo Sanction, Trevanians second thrilling spy novel.
Hemlock has gone to England to rest, but his vacation is interrupted when the head of British Intelligence needs his highly skilled services.
Jonathan must take over the mission of an agent whose murder was so bizarre and terrifying that no other agent was willing to replace him.
His task: to locate a set of secretly made films that incriminate a number of highranking British officials, His target: a top underworld figure who delights in debauchery and torture, Facing this threat, Jonathan is drawn into a labyrinthine network of intrigue and depravity, As all the pieces in the dangerous puzzle begin to come together, Jonathan is trapped, almost fatally drugged, and forced to attempt one of the most daring escapes ever conceived.
The Loo Sanction is sure to keep readers frantically turning pages until the thrilling climax,
Also available as an eBook
Look for these other Trevanian classics from Three Rivers Press: Shibumi, The Eiger Sanction, The Main, and The Summer of Katya.
A fun thriller. Slightly dated just because of the technology, but it still reads really well, Loo Sanction was a disappointment, but Trevanian sets a high bar with Shibumi and Eiger, There are many memorable lines that help make up for an otherwise underwhelming and somewhat complicated plot, Trevanian's attempts at spy spoofing overall come across as 'trying too hard', Hemlock had the potential to be a great franchise so it's unfortunate his final appearance is so lackluster, The parody is broader here than in The Eiger Sanction and that may be why it's less "edge of the seat".
It's still a good, fun, read, There is an art theft in this novel, and according to Trevanian, com, after the Italian version of this novel was published there was an art theft in Milan using the method described in this book.
Ilk Jonathan Hemlock kitabindaki dag tirmanisindaki yogun his zorluk bu kitapta bulunmuyor, Ama bu kitapta da Villain karakter cok guzel gelistirilmis yine harika bir cerezlik okuma, Everyone is no doubt familiar with the movie "Eiger Sanction" based on a book of the same name by Trevanian, pseudonym for a university professor who wrote a series of very popular genre novels.
Miffed that critics and many readers did not get the spoof intended in the Eiger Sanction, he wrote the Loo Sanction which is not only a very successful spy thriller but a broad lampoon of British and American academia and the espionage community.
The puns surrounding the word "loo," the name of the British section that evolved into MIlike sanction operation are ubiquitous and the scene in which Hemlock is giving a lecture on film criticism to a packed house of grad students while being approached by a evil set of agents is both hysterical, parodic and masterfully written.
I was listening to this book while mowing and must have been a sight chuckling out loud and I tried to mow a straight line around trees.
Jonathan has been blackmailed by killing a man in his apartment and leaving evidence of Jonathan's culpability into helping the "Loo" bring down Maxwell Strange I can't believe the names assigned to characters are coincidental who runs a sexual debauchery house called "The Cloisters.
Given the current scandals in the Catholic Church, perhaps Trevanian was prescient, The Cloisters has been making films of the peccadilloes and sexual perversions of men high up in the government not threatening overt blackmail, but the threat they might is omnipresent.
Jonathan is charged with recovering the films and bringing down Strange not shutting down the Cloisters, since it will then become a Loo operation and used to make the Loo selfsufficient budgetarily and of course will be used judiciously to keep the country on the proper path and finally settle that pesky "Irish problem.
"
There is a delightful scene as the Vicar and Jonathan walk through the countryside in the rain to discuss his proposed task.
"Oh dear, you really should be more careful where you tread in a cow pasture, much like Paris streets," said the Vicar as they discuss Jonathan's task.
"It does seem odd that a man who was so expert at mountain climibing should find a walk in the country so fraught with difficulty.
Permit me to hold this barbed wire up for you, oh well, you said you were not particularly fond of this jacket.
" "
He is quoted in his Wikipeadia entry as saying the following of his fans: "The Trevanian Buff is a strange and wonderful creature: an outsider, a natural elitist, not so much a cynic as an idealist mugged by reality, not just one of those who march to a different drummer, but the solo drummer in a parade of one.
"
Masterfully read by Joe Barrett, He does the Vicar with exactly the right amount of pretentoiusness and smug arrogance, The book is a nice mix of intelligent lampoonery with traditional thriller/hero/action, Trevanian's sequel to his classic sitelinkThe Eiger Sanction is awful, Absent are the humor, adventure, and allout fun of that previous work, The plot is obvious with physically disgusting characters that nauseate the reader, Of course, there's Jonathan Hemlock's characteristically macho sexuality, along with outofthisworld sexy fully naked women, but they're not even slightly erotic this time.
I have no problem with an author quickly capitalizing on momentary success to make a lot of money in a sequel: go for it! But.
. . please it is clear that this novel was written is about one week and it shows, painfully, Will readersincluding myselfever stop expecting sequels to be any good Of course not! More of a,rounded up. Hemlock is back, in England, so the title pretty much screams Trevanian's intention to sneer at all things English, artsy, amp everything else, while wrapping it in an international thriller peopled with memorable characters.
Hemlock isn't James Bond, though, He's smarter amp every bit as ruthless, if not as prone to as much action, There's plenty of murder amp mayhem taking place around him as the twisted motivations slowly emerge,
I didn't like this as much as sitelinkThe Eiger Sanction, but almost, There were several important caricatures, not true characters, amp while they served the purpose, they were also a bit too obvious.
Call it a lack of subtlety, While Trevanian's sneering take on the world is rather fun amp funny, I can't endure it for too long, I probably should have let more time slip by after the first,
I didn't care much for the end, but I think that was on me, I didn't really get it, A group I belong to will be reading it soon amp I'll be curious to see what others say, I might update this review after that, Masterful suspense
If you enjoy vicarious violence, truly magnificent scenesetting and memorable dialog, this one is
for you.
Easy to see why the author's work so often wind up on the silver screen, I had really enjoyed The Eiger Sanction when it came out and had meant to read this sequel but somehow only got around to it this year.
I bought a used copy from our local library, I'd have to say it is not nearly as entertaining as The Eiger Sanction was and I'm not surprised it was never filmed.
The first book was great escapism and the hero was in the mold of James Bond, even though the organization he worked for was very different.
In the second book everything that made Jonathan Hemlock likeable was gone, It felt like the whole thing was written by someone in a bad mood, I can't recommend it at all,
I went back in time to reread these favorite thrillers, They're a reminder that spies and odd political things have always been fodder for great thrillers, And you can depend on his research,
I always enjoy reading thrillers that have the tradecraft down, I enjoy that more than the CGI battles we see so often in films, İlk kitabın etkisini veremese de güzel bir Trevanian kitabı, Çevirisinden kaynaklı anlam güçlükleri vardı kitapta, Yeniden elden geçirilirse hoş olur, .stars
I did enjoy this book, even though it lacked the originality of the sitelinkThe Eiger Sanction.
According to Trevanian, it was a spoof of The Eiger Sanction a spoof of a spoof! Of course the title itself should give the reader a clue, "loo" being the British word for toilet! And of course we have the usual play on names, such as Vanessa Dyke, who, lo and behold, is a lesbian.
Her nickname is Van Dyke, LOL!
Trevanian's word mastery is also present in this one, starting from the first paragraph:
His pain was vast.
But at least it was finite, Sharpedged waves of agony climaxed in intensity until his body convulsed and his mind was awash, Then, just before madness, the crests broke and swirled over his limen of consciousness, and he escaped into oblivion
So that's how it feels to be impaled through your anus!
The reason I only gave this book.
comes down to this: As I mentioned at the start regarding originality, if you had a mutually exclusive choice to read either this book or the Eiger Sanction not both, I'd go with the latter.
Trevanian'dan. kitabım Hesaplaşma da az önce bitti, İnfazcının kahramanı Prof, Jonathan Hamlock bu kitapta da karşıma çıkınca şaşırdım biraz, Nedense ben
kahramanımız Prof, Hamlock'la İnfazcıda vedalaşdığımızı düşünmüştüm, Bu kitap İnfazcıyı bıraktığımız tarihtenyıl sonra başlıyor, Adamımız CII'dan ayrılmış, adam öldürme, suikastçilik işlerinden kendini emekli etmiştir, Artık tek geçim kaynağı akademisyenliktir, Kendisine yapılan bir iş teklifini kabul ederek bir yıllığına Londra'ya gelmiştir, Biz de tam o esnada yeniden karşılaşırız onunla,
Ama Jonathan'ınki gibi bir geçmiş insanın peşini kolay kolay bırakmaz, Çünkü sahip olduğu yetenekler öyle bir kalmede vaz geçilecek türden değildir, Bir çeşit kaynak israfı da diyebiliriz, Netekim o geçmiş peşine takılır ve Jonathan kendini birden bire Ingiliz hükümetinin âli menfaatlerini kurtaracak bir işin içinde bulur.
Üstelik İngiliz vatandaşı dahi değildir, Görevi kendisine verenler onun hayır deme ihtimalini ortadan kaldıracak tüm önlemleri almışlardır, Görevin zorluk derecesi on üzerinden ondur ve mücadele edeceği adamlar en az işi verenler kadar korkutucudur, Şimdi tek amacı bu aşağı tükürsen sakal, yukarı tükürsen bıyık diye tabir edebileceğimiz durumdan kendini kurtaracak bir yol bulup, günün sonunda canlı kalabilmektir.
Tabi aşk hep vardır,
Hesaplaşmayı da büyük bir keyifle okudum, Özellikle türün meraklılarına tavsiye ederim, Şimdi sırada. Mil var. .