Customer Reviews

Esau

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(9)
2 star:		(13)
1 star:		(10)

 

 

Philip Kerr is a writer of undeniable skill, but in Esau, his novel combining an expedition in search of the Abominable Snowman with an espionage/thriller subplot, he stretches credulity to the limit and leaves the reader longing for a more coherent story and more believable characters. The hero, for example, in order to satisfy his curiosity about a change in funding recommended by the National Geographic Society for his proposed expedition, breaks into the headquarters building in downtown Washington, DC so that he can rummage through the office of one of the decision makers. Does Kerr really expect that readers will think that risking a felony B&E charge to satify one's curiosity is normal - or even OK? There's a lot of over the top stuff like this in the book, and it makes it hard to relate to.

There is no question that Kerr is a writer of great talent in some ways. His prose is beautiful to the ear and he pulls off occasional passages as insightful and resonant as anything being written today. But Esau, taken as a whole, seems like a great idea gone awry.

"Never judge a book by its cover" (Except this one)

The first book I read by Mr. Kerr was "The Shot". I enjoyed the book and was impressed by the skill with which he was able to spin a new tale about a subject that has been beaten to death, revived, and beaten again, for almost 40 years. Had `ESAU" been the first of his works I had read, it most probably would have been the last.

The cover of the hardback does not give away the subject, the paperback is different artwork, and it is pretty blatant in exposing the story. If you are someone who is interested in the "Yeti, Abominable Snowman, Sasquatch, ESAU" you will enjoy the book. As he has done with the subject of "The Shot" he creates a new situation and adds great detail. I cannot stomach the subject so I never would have finished the book but for Mr. Kerr's writing.

I enjoy well-researched reading. Mr. Kerr does his homework and that was what kept me reading. Every time I was going to give up, some detail appeared and it was enough to keep me going. The ending can be anticipated a bit past the halfway mark, but again his style kept me reading.

Mr. Kerr writes some great dialogue. In this work I particularly enjoyed a lecture by a college professor, both for the way he wrote it and the information it contained. On the other end of the character spectrum he had a few CIA types that were awful, not one line of their story/subplot was needed, and the behavior by one at the close of the book was completely out of place, gratuitous, the real low water mark in the book.

So, I have read 2 of his books and it was 1 great read and then this very marginal work. So off I went and read "A Five Year Plan". Best of 3 would decide whether I bought anymore of this Author's work.

I read it and the review should be just behind this one.

It may be junk-science, but Philip Kerr can do one thing that most of his thriller brethren cannot; write lucid prose. Essentially, this book races through a plot with no obvious filler or hokey phrasings that are common to most generic thrillers. It's a well-constructed story, the action coming directly from the needs of the plot, and the characters behaving appropriately, if dramatically.

I enjoy books by James Rollins, Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child, and other adventure writers. So I decided to pick up Esau from the bargain bin and give it a try.

I was surprised, Mr. Kerr was able to create an adventure that made me keep turning the pages to see what would happen next. There were a couple of different story lines here, and they were all very interesting. Most of this book is far fetched, so be prepared to leave reality at the door.

The characters were interesting, and they made you want to find out what would happen to them. I thought that Kerr was good at creating a realistic scene in his writing and really seemed to have a great deal of knowledge about climbing.

I would recommend this book to all fans of Rollins, or Preston + Child. Good read that kept me interested.

Jack Furness is a mountain climber and by accident he comes upon a skull while climbing the Himalayan Mountains. And he just happens to have a girl friend that is an paleoanthropologist, Stella Swift. After smuggling the skull back to the good ol' US of A he gives Stella the skull. Which just happens to be the most unusal skull she has ever seen. She is so excited by this discovery she wants to go back to the Himalaya's with an expedition to look for more bones right away.

In steps the good ol' CIA with funding, under a pretense of needing to go to the Himalayan's for a weather testing expedition but needing a guide and have to leave within the next 2 weeks, if you let me go along I'll pay. So they get their funding and are off to the Himalayan's.

And the fun has just begun. The expedition has all the latest technology, of course and all the comforts of home...well almost. They set out on a seek and find mission and stumble upon some very unusual foot prints the first night out. The graphic descriptions are vivid and makes me not want to be there. Very detailed and realistic discriptions. They even throw in a yogi to boot.

This is the first time I have read this author and will read him again. A great thriller, fast paced and a quiet enjoyable read. Don't know what the complaints were about, I have none.

I was looking forward to reading this book. From the back of it it sounded really interesting and it was a good read up until they actually started the expedition. there was no suspence and almost no buildup at all. Once the plot started rolling, the book was no longer captivating. The end was kind of entertaining however. it might be worth reading once

Once I got about half-way through, I found the book to be quite a page-turner, but not before then. Given the research on the himalayas, mountain-climbing, and anthropology behind the book, I expected to find it more plausible, but frequently found myself doubting the believability of the story. I'm no expert on mountain-climbing or CIA operatives, but Kerr creates a pretty convincing portrait of the Himalayas as the most inhospitable place this side of Antarctica and then expects us to believe that an ape-like creature can survive there indefinitely. I felt like Kerr didnt' do all his research-- a little on ecology and the needs of animals at the top of a food chain would have helped. Plausibility aside, it was a pretty gripping narrative. Nonetheless, I think I'll stick with the American Michael Crichton

As always, Kerr has done an incredible amount of research for writing a book. The science and political backgrounds presented here make the story very realistic even for those who find the idea of a Yeti far-fetched. Unlike some of his other books, the technical rarely impedes the flow of this story.

However, endings are Kerr's weakness and this book is no exception. We are introduced to two fascinating Yeti characters who are the stars of the story and yet Kerr has them walk out of the story never to be heard from again, and this is significantly before the end of the book.

The ending itself is very contrived and convenient and is of a much lower quality than the rest of the book. This seems to be Kerr's unfortunate hallmark, and it is really too bad.

In sum, I can't recommend this book despite the promise it holds. No one likes a let down after hundreds of pages.

Great writers, like great movies, have my ocasional permission to recur to cheap thrills. Philip Kerr is such a writer. If you're interested in a flowing, imaginative, superbly researched, Indiana Jones like adventure, you've found heaven. Skip John Darton's boring Neanderthal and come where adventure (and the real Yeti) really is. Esau is his name.

This was the first book that I have read by Philip Kerr. The book had a pretty interesting story line, but the writing was sub-par. His use of words didn't reach out and grab you. The suspense was their minus the imagery of necessary to be a good book.