The Fox

Mr. Forsyth used to write great espionage novels. I couldn't read this one as he was more concerned with putting his own political views at the forefront and insulting, to me, his American readers. Will never read this writer again.

This had an interesting premise, with solid research and plenty of informative detail, but it was lacking a cohesive story to weave it together. Basically, it's an analysis of current global politics and how the UK might utilize cyber-attacks against geopolitical foes, and the book just jumps from one incident to another without an actual storyline to hold it all together. It often reads more like a detailed outline than a finished novel. Fortunately, the book is very short and Forsyth's style is terse, so it reads very quickly.

It was ok (that's being generous) BUT don't like the idea I paid $15 for a short story. 286 pages? All the list of characters described at the beginning and none of them fully fleshed out. It appears that Mr. Forsyth was in a hurry to put out a book so he gave us a nice, little short story. Too bad, I can easily imagine it being a real espionage book if he went into more depth instead of sweeping through the storyline like he was in a real hurry. Too bad, Mr. Forsyth, it's a big letdown. You had a good story line but you blew it...

Highly up to date with the latest geopolitical events woven skillfully into the plot. Those who believe the official (US/UK) versions of things will enjoy themselves thoroughly. Those sceptical of postcolonialist and hegemonic politics, will frown at the glorification of Her Majesty’s services at the expense of people from other lands. Simplistic and lacking in cultural nuance, this book will make you turn the pages with boyish anticipation, whilst the feeling of being manipulated is gnawing. Usually, age is accompanied by wisdom and the growing appreciation of hues and shades. Regretfully, Forsyth’s worldview does not venture beyond the main colours, and stays within his comfort zone of the self-righteous conservative, erroneously confident of being part of a superior caste, which belittles those thinking differently, and which abhors change. Trump and May are portrayed with tedious, almost sycophantic complacency. Whilst a black-and-white world has morphed into a kaleidoscope of complexity, Mr Forsyth sticks to a still-winning conformist formula of well-researched, action-packed Union Jack-applauding fiction. It does the job, and predictably so.

I think this is the first novel I've read by Mr. Forsyth but "Day of the Jackal" was supposed to be a pretty big deal and I was looking for something fun. "The Fox" is not a big deal and it is not fun. Here's the story line: an introverted, probably autistic teenager in the U.K. is, like, magic brilliant - emphasis on magic - when it comes to circumventing firewalls and every other imaginable cyber security measure. So the Brits recruit him. They make a list of every threat in the world - Russia, Iran, North Korea, etc., etc. - and they get this kid to hack the bad guy systems and shut everything down. The skies turn blue again. But then the kid goes for a hike, bumps his head, and is no longer magic brilliant. Oh, well. Nobody cares because not one character in this book is deeper than a sheet of tissue paper and the only thing we every learn about the kid's talent is that it takes a couple of hours of pecking at the keys of his computer and then, poof, he's in. Nothing intriguing, nothing insightful, just poof. What a waste of time..!

Don't waste your money. Forsyth has written some thrilling novels in the past but this is not one of them or anyway close to those gems of the past. The reader will find a great deal of detail about espionage agencies of different would have been an icing on the cake had the rest of the story been that interesting too. The start is gripping, although nothing new as many young boys and girls with birth issues have some other extraordinary gift. But thats about it. The story gets nowhere and tortuously jumps from one plot to another one.

As a life-long fan, I’ve read every Freddy Forsyth book, including his short stories and autobiography, “The Outsider: My Life in Intrigue.”While I mostly enjoyed this modern story of espionage applied to modern geopolitical events (USA, Israel, Russia, and state-sponsored terrorists--Iran and North Korea), I was so deeply disappointed by the ongoing cheap shots at President Trump, Teresa May, and gullible Americans in general.Forsyth had never before, as I recall, imposed his political view so overtly in his stories of espionage and intrigue. He couldn’t avoid himself, and really detracts from the story. That's 1-2 stars right there.This is a short book, and almost a short-story. In this story, the Union Jack is almost flawless in the hands of unelected career intelligence professionals, the Americans are tolerated, and the Russians are duped at evert turn like Spy vs. Spy.The book has an ending that is plausible given today’s world events. Maybe even a smile.To this day, my favorites remain Forsyth’s “The Day of the Jackal” and “The Devil's Alternative”

I don’t know if other readers absolutely love Frederick Forsyth as much as I do, but I think this book is one of his very best !! ... “The Fox” has a very, very unique and original premise and the book is built around this uncommon plot ... Throw in some very clever, not to mention dastardly, machinations between spy versus spy, and it all combines to make this difficult to put down .... The only small, minute, microscopic problem is that this is a short novel ... BUT (there’s always a but) the plot, the writing and the incredible page-turning tension of the story makes it an excellent read... For what it’s worth to anyone reading this, BUY THIS BOOK!! ... I don’t usually fall over myself recommending A book, but I’ll gladly admit, this is one of those times ...

So dissatisfied with this.You could tell what was going to happen a mile away.A few military,political facts and figures coupled with lazy coincidences.That just about sums it up.I've been buying Frederick Forsyth' s books since The Day Of The Jackal,so I was a big fan.The only reason I finished it was to see how the hacker finished up.TV soap operas are more convincing than this dross.DO NOT BUY THIS RUBBISH.I don't know how FF can sleep at night.

A sad deterioration over the years has culminated in this.A Forsyth fan expects a labyrinthine plot, a slow build, expert research and knowledge and a twisting resolution. This provides none of these. The plot is entirely linear, a mere series of set-pieces. Research is no better than a Google-search afterthought, and Forsyth's habit of displaying his political leanings is like a punch in the face here. The ending is almost as if he'd run out of time in an exam, and had to bullet point the last tenth of the book.Remember when the first chunk of Fourth Protocol characterised two protagonists who playing no more part than a plot device, tantalised and make you read just one more chapter? The whole book was based on a fantastically interesting foundation. None of that here, none. Only the main character has any vague characterisation, there's a wholly pointless love story crow-barred in, and then only for five sentences. We're expected to believe his thinly-veiled representations of Theresa May and Donald Trump are respected around the world for their intelligence and indomitability. Sorry Freddie, you sort of managed that with Thatcher, but it doesn't hold water here.From his previous works, I truly believe he had expert knowledge of espionage, mercenaries, the KGB/CIA/Mossad/MI6, the Middle East & Africa, military technology, terrorism, world leaders and the corridors of power. From this book, I don't think his knowledge of computer security, database tech, autism, love or what constitutes a believable coincidence is any better than mine.He's been a novelist a long time, and has written several thrillers which must make other authors weep. In no way does this cheapen or lessen Jackal, Fourth Protocol, Dogs of War or even those written late 80s to early 90s. What it does do is show that as time passes, he just seems to make a bit less effort.It would probably merit three stars and a take-to-the-charity-shop from another author, but this is the author of Day of the Jackal. The heights reached previously make this look a whole lot worse. After you've read it, try not to think of it as one of his.

Frederick Forsyth’s return after a fiction hiatus of five years sees his thriller The Fox published before it’s really ready. It seems rushed, for reasons I’ll go into soon, and is sadly unsatisfactory, and I believe the blame can be shared equally between Mr Forsyth and the publisher.The publisher should do better. The list of books by Forsyth is impressive, with The Outsider following on from The Kill List, below which are two Non-fiction books listed, The Biafra Story and Emeka. Don’t Bantam Press know that The Outsider is non-fiction, being his autobiography?The story is about a young man, Luke Jennings, with Asperger’s Syndrome who has hacked into the US security system. Together with his family (mother, father, brother) he is arrested and sequestered in a safe place. Rather than prosecute him, both the Americans and the British decide to utilise his considerable gifts to tilt the balance of power – to interfere with Russian, North Korean or Chinese computer-linked weapons systems.Forsyth’s page-turning ability is apparent as he peppers the story with facts and details about the clandestine and political world, even including most recent events, such as the Skripal poisonings in Salisbury and the summit meetings with North Korea. As usual, Forsyth employs his omniscient third person narrative, creating that immediacy of a reporter viewing events unfolding. Unfortunately, that technique here leaves little room for emotion. In truth, I felt that the book reads more like a film treatment than a novel.The utilisation of Luke is serious wishful thinking, breaking down foreign firewalls virtually at the drop of a hat. Luke’s technical shepherd who directs the lad’s hacking activities is Jeremy Hendricks, who (to tick a box) ‘was gay but made no mention of it, choosing a quiet life of celibacy’ (p13). As for characterisation, we don’t really get to know Sue Jennings, Luke’s mother, or even Luke, ‘The Fox’ for that matter. We learn a little about Sir Adrian, even delving beneath his skin. But that’s all. The majority of characters – and there are over 30 listed (with organisations too) beginning on p303 – are ciphers. There is no emotional content, so as a reader I didn’t experience any tension when threats were described to silence Luke. Really, Luke is the main character, the reason for the story, Hitchcock’s McGuffin, yet he does not come alive, so then the threat of his death falls flat: it should create concern at least.Since reading the book, I’ve looked at the reviews. They fall into two categories: excellent thriller, couldn’t put it down and the obverse, highly disappointing with a cop-out ending. I regret to concur with the naysayers.

Sadly, for me at least, the weakest book by Forsyth.When compared to his greats, characters and their depiction seems lazy, and by and large the plot lacks the intrigue and twists for which the author is renowned. I read on, but couldn’t help but feel cheated at the randomness of the final chapter. It’s almost as if the author couldn’t work out where to go next, got bored, and just pushed the book over a cliff...The Fox falls a long way short of his earlier works (up to mid 80s), most of which have been revisited several times.

This would be a kind of nearly ok book if it was written by anyone else. The Master couldn't have been responsible for this.Coincidence after coincidence bring us to an unbelievably lazy Deus Ex Machina ending.The technology descriptions are inaccurate. Every time a supposedly "impossible" task is achieved by the young wunderkind, his minders gasp and exclaim "He's done it again! He has crossed the air gap! He has bypassed the firewalls. Hurray!!!". There is absolutely zero attempt at describing how this has been achieved, with a ridiculous attempt at explaining why we can't see the methods because the young man is unable to communicate properly with anyone beside his mother who conveniently doesn't understand what her son is doing and is too interested in boning the handsome special forces captain to learn or even attempt to bridge the gap between the troubled genius and the intelligence services.Whoever wrote this for Mr Forsyth must have spent 15 minutes on Wikipedia reading about cyber security and learned a couple of words that would make it look like the author had the beginning of a clue about the subject. They failed.This book is really bad actually. I take back what I said at the start of this review. I'm going to delete it off my kindle just in case anyone accidentally reads it from there. I could not bear to be responsible for that.