Customer Reviews

Fist of God

5 star:		(60)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I don't normally read spy thrillers of this type, and this was the first of Forsyth's books I've read, but I loved it! I grabbed this book from my husband one day when I was bored, and was drawn in immediately by the tense prose and gripping plotline. I won't give a synopsis, you can get that above. But I will say I read this almost straight through from start to finish.

No one seems to know how much of this novel is really true, and in the end, that doesn't matter, because it's writen so well that it might as well be true. The plot is crafted around a war that really happened, and the author spoke with those who had taken part in the war, giving his work an authenticity hard to match. If you're looking for an intelligent novel of this genre, then this one is hard to beat. Don't hesitate!

There is a reason why so many other reviewers rave about this book. Just like his earlier works, from "The Day of the Jackal"' to "The Devil's Alternative", he keeps the reader turning the pages. Even though we know going in that Iraq loses in the end, it is an incredibly compelling story. It may be Forsyth's best read ever.

F. Forsyth is a master of suspense novels, taking factual bases and turning them into riveting stories. This is as great as any of his earlier works. The plot twists are stunning.

His research is the equal of Tom Clancy's. His writing style is so much tighter, and there does not seem to be a single wasted word. If you have an early morning meeting, or something else that must be done, DO NOT start this book.

"The Fist of God" is an international/military thriller based on the first Gulf War in 1991 (and the prelude in the last half of 1990), when the USA and a large number of coalition countries forced Iraq to withdraw from Kuwait. I liked the book a lot, especially the first half. The last half of the book begins to drag, and one ends up feeling that it is too long and that Frederick Forsyth himself was a bit tired of it by the time he reached the end.

This story works very well at two levels - a high level conflict and various individual conflicts. The high level conflict involves Iraq's invasion of Kuwait and the build-up to the Gulf War and the decisions being made by President Bush Sr. and Margaret Thatcher and the CIA and the British MI6. This conflict is very exciting, even though we know the final result: a coalition victory and Iraq's withdrawal from Kuwait.

The individual conflicts consist of the fights between the various good guys and the Iraqi soldiers and agents of the Iraqi secret service and Iraqi counter-intelligence. There are also some Israeli Mossad agents involved just to make things more complicated.

At the individual conflicts level the main good guy is Mike Martins, a British SAS soldier who is recruited by MI6 and who is inserted into occupied Kuwait and later into Baghdad. Mike Martins' adventures are certainly exciting enough, but it seems too contrived that the same hero gets sent on three different missions. In particular, pulling Mike Martins out of Kuwait to send him to Baghdad has the negative effect of making the Kuwait operation seem unimportant. Similarly, his escape from Baghdad just at the time when someone is needed for a third mission is too big a coincidence.

The basic story involves the British discovering that Saddam Hussein has some kind of secret weapon, code-named "The Fist of God". So then the British (and Americans) have to determine exactly what kind of weapon it is, and where it's located. The story is a bit farfetched, but not totally implausible, so it's easy to get involved and feel a desire to keep reading to find out what's going to happen next.

One thing I liked a lot was that certain historical facts are mixed into the story, although perhaps not in a completely accurate way. For example, the Canadian weapons expert Dr. Gerry Bull and his death in Brussels in the spring of 1990 are woven into the story. Similarly, the Manhattan Project (the American nuclear weapons effort during WW II) and the Oak Ridge laboratory play a role in the story, and I found the information presented to be very interesting.

Among the things I wasn't so happy about was the emphasis on the British involvement in the Gulf War. Yes, the British did play a significant role, but still the Gulf War was basically an American show. But to hear Frederick Forsyth tell it you'd almost think the Americans couldn't have gotten anywhere without the British, and he even has a scene where Margaret Thatcher tells President Bush to pull himself together and do something about Saddam Hussein!

Another negative aspect is the description of the third mission that the hero, Mike Martins, is sent on in chapter 22, the second-last chapter of the book. Frederick Forsyth tells about this operation in such a dry and factual style that it's almost like reading a telephone directory. I definitely got the feeling that Mr. Forsyth had gotten tired and just wanted to wrap up the story.

Still, I liked "The Fist of God" a lot, and recommend it, especially if you're interested in a fairly modern thriller interwoven with a major real-life conflict.

Rennie Petersen

Frederick Forsyth has for a long time been the hand that has penned some of the greatest espionage thrillers ever written. But with the Fist of God, he definitely defines himself as the master of his craft. He weaves fact with his own fiction so deftly that you never know whether the Gulf War might actually have been the way it was in his book. The escapades of Mike Martin will keep you turning the pages right until the end, a brilliant climax of the best literary tension blended with credible action. A definite read for all Forsyth fans.

The fist of God has a decent story, with a little too much super-agent antics, featuring an agent in Iraq that has everything going for him a little too smoothly to be realistic.

The story invloving the secret weapon is in fact almost non-fictional, since anybody who knows the story of Gerald Bull will pretty much be able to guess what the weapon and how it would be used right from the start.

The main problem for me, as usual with Forsyth, is that the characters are virtually non-existent, and there is zero characterization (how do they even look like?!) Another problem is that most characters seem to be mindless drones that can't figure out what the reader has long ago. They are supposed to be intelligence officers, but really can't figure out 1+1.

The strong point is the research, and an impressive (although superficial) account of espionage, the structure and workings of various intelligence and control bodies during the Gulf war, and the description of coalition military might, all of which would greatly satisfy readers who enjoy this sort of fiction.

The writing is workmanlike, and lacking the wit, humor and intelligence of Le Carre's. Still, a strong novel.

Just before finding "The Fist of God" in a pile of beach books while on vacation, I read Forsyth's latest book "The Afghan" - see my Amazon review please. As soon as I picked up Fist I felt like a found a old friend. Here was Mike Martin in his best yet SAS role - before his retirement! This book is all about the intelligent and special ops that led up to the first Gulf war - we take back Kuwait but leave Saddam running Iraq.

Forsyth may be singlehandedly responsible for the 2nd Gulf war. If George Bush, George Tenet and Donald Rumsfeld got this book mixed up with their intelligence reports then it is possible that this is where the threat of weapons of mass destruction originated after the first Gulf war. The book is very credible from the design of the Calutrons to the excellent camouflage developed by the Russians. Not without errors - US pilot training in 1983 did NOT still have the T-33 but the T-37. I flew a T-33 in training in 1966. At that time it was replaced in Undergraduate Pilot Training with the T-37. And ,when listing the planes that did major damage to the Iraqi armored columns, Forsyth left out the A-10 Warthog - the deadliest tank and convoy buster in the inventory. The A-10 brought a new dimension to the term "shooting gallery"!

Overall, this book is a very worthwhile read. Get a copy and put it on your night stand. After the first five pages you will not be able to put it down!

I've been reading a few of Forsyth novel such as 'The days of the Jackal', Odessa File and Dogs of war. But this one has to be my favourite. Being a former military man myself, it really interest me how accurate and knowledgable the author was on the military intricate strategy in mass desert warfare which are made up of alot of separate operations which have the same objective...to make sure the fist of god was never operational. There was really no hard concrete evidence it exist, but there was also no hard concrete evidence that it didn't. As the saying goes 'Absence of evidence, is not evident of absence. I watch and observed the gulf war event with great interest and as much as possible with out prejudice and bias to any side. This book does bring the other (fictionally ?)missing puzzel which make up the bigger picture of how the conflict was negotiated with extreme prejucide. On the books, the character build up of the key people in the novel was most impressive, giving the reader an almost sympathetic attachement with the character along the journey of the story. The author's ability to tie in all the individual character to one plot in the end, produces an adrenalin climax and a good closure. Highly recommended to those who missed the actions, you know who you are.

Definitely a captivating read, Fist of God is a great way to relive the Gulf War. Forsyth's writing is fast-paced and laboriously researched. At times, however, the length of the book and the depth of the detail become mildly irritating. As a first time Forsyth reader, I found the author's habit of detailing every scene an unnecessary waste of space and words. Overall, however, this story about espionage during the Gulf War and Saddam Hussein's attempt to beat the odds very compelling - - at times it becomes very difficult to distinguish fact from fiction. Definitely recommended to anyone interested in getting a taste of Forsyth.

After reading "The Day of the Jackal" for the first time in over 25 years, I decided to read "The Fist of God" for the third time to see how the two stacked up. Both are superb pieces of work, but I think I'm going to give a slight edge to "Fist". Not that comparisons need to be made.

The novel covers the period from the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait, and ends about when the ground troops invaded the country to take it back. In between it tells a story to try and explain why Saddam Hussein just let the forces come in and do this. He could have temporarily backed out, and re-invaded at a later time, when momentum to build more forces would not have been as high. Was this just a bad military move, or did he have something extra up his sleeve?

Whether or not this secret is true or not is not important, although it would not be unbelievable if true. What makes it a great novel is all the places it takes us during this period. This was a big event that happened not too long ago, that still has world-wide ramifications to this day.

Yes, we see the historical figures such as George Bush Sr., Margaret Thatcher, Norman Schwartzkopf, and yes, Hussein. But except for Hussein, these are minor characters. It is the ordinary characters, most of whom are very interesting that make it great reading.

Although there are many characters, the main one would be Mike Martin, who is most instrumental in pulling off the plot. He is a British soldier of Arabic ancestry who begins the war going to Kuwait to be an almost one-man underground resistance movement. When a mole is discovered in Hussein's inner circle that wants to sell the good guys information, Martin is transferred to Baghdad to get this information. He has his share of tense moments as his contribution to the war effort.

We are also taken into the world of Saddam Hussein, although we have to imagine a good part of it comes from the author's mind. Let's face it. They don't exactly have "People" magazine there, so information like this is extremely tight. But we do get to meet his generals, his cabinet, and his torturers. The tactics used to not only get information from people, but to keep the population itself properly scared out of it's mind are done in detail graphic enough to convince me that we indeed are the good guys.

And, like all good spy novels, we do get to see that it's a very dirty business, and often the good guys get their hands just as dirty as the bad ones when it comes to the tricks of the trade. It is historical fact that if the CIA had played fair with one of great designers of big guns in the world, he would have never gone to work for the bad guys. And there is also a subplot involving the loss of at least one innocent life, done by the "good guys", that makes you respect "our side" a lot less.

Like I said, I just read it for the third time. I will no doubt read it again some day.

"The Fist Of God" is one of the most exciting white papers I've ever read, wrapped around the spine of a pretty routine thriller.

It's the last days before the first Gulf War, and Iraq's Saddam Hussein seems to be courting disaster by refusing to back down from his occupation of Kuwait. Is he just nuts, or does he have a plan? SAS officer Mike Martin is sent behind enemy lines to figure it out.

Starting out with one of the great opening lines in thriller writing ("The man with ten minutes to live was laughing"), "Fist Of God" covers a lot of ground in its nearly 600 pages, from an arms scientist trying to help Iraq enter the nuclear age to Kuwaiti resistance battles to the inner councils of the Coalition High Command and Saddam's all-Tikriti amen club.

Forsyth discourses knowledgeably about the problem of Iraq, noting the factionalism among Shiite, Sunni, and Kurd; visiting Abu Ghraib prison; and analyzing how Saddam counted on Arab disunity and U.N. dithering to bail him out. He gives us an engaging tour of everything from Swiss banks (a favorite Forsyth topic) to Mossad spycraft to atomic bomb development.

Forsyth makes for impressive company; he seems to have pored over every map and read every history book in existence, and is willing to discourse with dry detachment about what he has learned. I just wish he'd channel his inner Alistair MacLean more and rediscover his leaner, yarnspinning self. What action is here is papered over with acres of explanatory commentary, and the characters, namely the shadowy Martin, are one-dimensional bores. Even when tension mounts, it's hard to care when you don't really know the people you are rooting for.

We all know that the central threat of the book, Saddam attacking Coalition troops with nuclear arms, never came to pass. Forsyth works the narrative briskly enough over that inconvenient if fortunate fact, by focusing on the real-life plots and counterplots that went on and spinning some interesting alternative ideas for how the whole thing might have gone down.

Martin starts off in Kuwait, then goes into Baghdad, his boyhood home. Forsyth has Tom Clancy's way with technology, but one wishes he did more with the backdrop of the war. Martin's leading a group of Kuwaiti children into battle is too pat and swiftly handled, and his travels through Baghdad amid air raids lack tension.

Like Alistair MacLean in "Guns Of Navarone," Martin eventually leads an SAS team to find Saddam's big weapon, but its no big thrill when his main action involves pointing an invisible laser at a hill. When the team runs into Iraqis, the foe is swiftly dispatched, a tribute to SAS fortitude but dull writing.

There's other parts of this overlong book that could be trimmed or chopped outright, like a Mossad operation to discover the identity of an Iraqi mole that never really factors into the rest of the story and just left me confused and feeling sorry for a poor Swiss secretary.

I don't know, though, it's still Forsyth, and very interesting reading. His way with the pen is still remarkable, as is his store of knowledge. "A mercenary in the intelligence world is like a whore. No tiresome candle-lit dinners and sweet nothings are necessary. A fistful of dollars on the dressing table will do nicely."

Forsyth's better than most thriller writers; he's not just in it for the money. But he seems to be straying in his eminence years from the sort of storycraft that serves his genre best.