Icon [Hardcover]

Frederick Forsyth (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1, 1996

From the master of the novel of international intrigue comes a riveting new book as timely and unsettling as tomorrow's headlines.

It is summer 1999 in Russia, a country on the threshold of anarchy.  An interim president sits powerless in Moscow as his nation is wracked by famine and inflation, crime and corruption, and seething hordes of the unemployed roam the streets.

For the West, Russia is a basket case.  But for Igor Komarov, one-time army sergeant who has risen to leadership of the right-wing UPF party, the chaos is made to order.  As he waits in the wings for the presidential election of January 2000, his striking voice rings out over the airwaves offering the roiling masses hope at last--not only for law, order, and prosperity, but for restoring the lost greatness of their land.

Who is this man with the golden tongue who is so quickly becoming the promise of a Russia reborn?  A document stolen from party headquarters and smuggled to Washington and London sends nightmare chills through those who remember the past, for this Black Manifesto is pure Mein Kampf in a country with frightening parallels to the Germany of the Weimar Republic.

Officially the West can do nothing, but in secret a group of elder statesmen sends the only person who can expose the truth about Komarov into the heart of the inferno.  Jason Monk, ex-CIA and "the best damn agent-runner we ever had," had sworn he would never return to Moscow, but one name changes his mind.  Colonel Anatoli Grishin, the KGB officer who tortured and murdered four of Monk's agents after they had been betrayed by Aldrich Ames, is now Komarov's head of security.

Monk has a dual mission: to stop Komarov, whatever it takes, and to prepare the way for an icon worthy of the Russian people.  But he has a personal mission as well: to settle the final score with Grishin.  To do this he must stay alive--and the forces allied against him are ruthless, the time frighteningly short....


From the Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Trapped in a snowbound cabin or on a long flight, there's nobody more reliable than Forsyth for guaranteed diversion. His narrative engine is one of the best in the business; his characters spring quickly to life; he blends research and imagination into high drama. Icon is set in the Russia of 1999, where an ultra-nationalist zealot you might recognize from Nightline is about to become head of state. When his dangerous agenda leaks out, no Western government wants to take action -- so a private task force including ex-CIA agent Jason Monk is sent in to derail the demagogue. It's all in the grand tradition of previous Forsythe winners, from The Day of the Jackal, The Odessa File and The Dogs of War through The Fourth Protocol and The Deceiver.

From Publishers Weekly

While for sheer reading excitement Forsyth has yet to top his fiction debut, Day of the Jackal, published a quarter century ago, his later novels (The Fist of God, etc.) display a mature mastery of storytelling melded with a deep knowledge of realpolitik. Here, contemporary Russian crypto-fascists prove every bit as villainous as their Communist predecessors whom Forsyth portrayed in The Fourth Protocol and The Deceiver. It's 1999, and ultra-nationalist Igor Komarov's victory in the upcoming Russian presidential election seems assured. But within Komarov's party headquarters, an elderly janitor accidentally discovers Komarov's secret plans for Russia, laid out in a document that comes to be known as the Black Manifesto?a blueprint for a return to dictatorship, military expansionism and genocidal ethnic cleansing. The manifesto soon comes to the attention of British intelligence, but both they and the CIA are restrained by their governments from taking official action. So with the backing of an organization of international VIPs, former British Secret Service chief Sir Nigel Irvine mounts his own covert operation to subvert Komarov. Ex-CIA operative Jason Monk, who once ran highly placed agents in the Soviet Union, will be Irvine's point man. As usual, Forsyth interweaves speculation with historical fact, stitching his plot pieces with a cogent analysis of both Russian politics and the world of espionage?particularly the legacy of the real-life Aldrich Ames, a Soviet mole who tunneled deep into the CIA. Shifting back and forth in time and space among a large cast of characters, Forsyth expertly builds suspense toward a climactic New Year's Eve skirmish in Moscow. It's another strong performance by a writer who knows exactly what he's about, and who here catalyzes narrative with another memorable protagonist, the stealthy and daring Monk. Major ad/promo; BOMC main selection.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 464 pages
• Publisher: Bantam; 1St Edition edition (October 1, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 055309128X
• ISBN-13: 978-0553091281
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.4 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (83 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #873,306 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Frederick Forsyth is the author of fifteen novels and short-story collections. He lives in England.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Shaky ending mars fine start, October 21, 2003

By 

Bill Slocum (Norwalk, CT USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Icon (Mass Market Paperback)

Frederick Forsyth will never write a book as good as "The Day Of The Jackal" or "Odessa File" again. That's not a knock. Few authors ever get that lucky or brilliant once, let alone twice, especially their first two times off the blocks.

"Icon" suffers from a beginning that suggests otherwise. You read the first 300 pages and they grab you in a way few books ever do, with alternating suspense yarns set years apart, each somehow building on the drama of the other. You agonize for poor Jason Monk as his Soviet assets are undone one after the other by real-life traitor Aldrich Ames, kind of what Benedict Arnold might have been had the Revolutionary figure succeeded in not only giving up West Point to the Redcoats, but Fort Ticonderoga and Philadelphia as well. The fact that its now well after 1999 and the ultra-nationalist movement in Russia has not taken control doesn't lessen the sense of fear and loathing Forsyth gets across as he slowly sets up the principal story with a nice sense of balance, nuance, and loving detail. You think to yourself: "Can it be? Did Forsyth find his wellspring once more?"

Then it all goes to pieces in Part 2, along with the chief villians. After drumming in their diabolical competance in Part 1, Forsyth apparently allows them to forget their medication in Part 2. Not only do they act ridiculously, but Monk the hero, like the protagonist in "Fist Of God," seems to anticipate everything that happens in such a way to alleviate any creative unease the reader might feel. The book that starts so promisingly ends not with a bang but a yawn.

Even at the very end, when Forsyth reveals a key trick in his narrative, he does so in such a rote way as to raise more questions than answers. Clearly he went for a "He was my father" type finale, but what we get instead is another of those coincidences that pock the narrative's second half.

I love Forsyth, even lesser Forsyth. There's a lot to enjoy here, especially in the first half, and people who like their resolutions tidy and suspense-free may enjoy the rest as well. But I sort of wish the master could have taken more time to sort out the second half of his story with the same apparent care he bestowed on the first.

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A notch above the usual spy novel trash., April 19, 2000

By 

Joseph Haschka (Glendale, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Icon (Mass Market Paperback)

When I read a spy novel by the likes of Frederick Forsythe or John Le Carré, the excellence of such a work reminds me how much trash is written by other authors in the same genre.

Forsythe unfolds the events in the book's first half by switching back and forth between two timelines. The first, in the year 1999, finds the British Embassy in Moscow coming into possession of the "Black Manifesto". This document, written by Igor Komarov, reveals his secret plan for his rule of Russia once he wins the presidential election scheduled for January 2000. Since Komarov is far ahead in the polls, and his Manifesto espouses both military aggression against surrounding countries and genocide against certain Russian minorities, the Brits are understandably worried. The second timeline, from 1983 to 1994, follows the upwardly mobile career path of CIA officer Jason Monk, as he becomes case officer for several key spies within the Soviet military, intelligence and scientific communities. Over time, Monk watches helplessly as his agents are betrayed by the real-life CIA turncoat Aldrich Ames, and subsequently captured, tortured and executed by the sadistic KGB Colonel Anatoli Grishin. The second half of the book has Monk, separated from the CIA since 1994, returning to Russia in 1999 on behalf of Western interests to discredit Komarov and destabilize his campaign for the Russian presidency. In the process, he matches wits with Grishin, now serving as Komarov's Chief of Security.

One of the strengths of this novel, besides the intricate plot and fine cast, is the (apparently factual) history of the Aldrich Ames betrayal, an absolute fiasco on the part of the CIA. This sort of background information adds immeasurably to any novel, yet is not a part of so many. In my mind, this writing technique is one of the reasons why Forsythe is at the top of his profession.

The book's action proceeds at a crisp, clear and riveting pace. It was a book that was difficult to put down in deference to life's more mundane responsibilities. My only criticism, and one that prevents me from awarding 5 stars, was the heavy-handed ending lacking the finesse of what came before. It was as if Forsythe suddenly found himself faced with a publisher's deadline, and he had to achieve closure quickly. The final confrontation between Monk and Grishin was both clumsy and anticlimactic. Despite these closing flaws, however, the novel is top tier.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars book is much better than the May 2005 TV movie version, June 5, 2004

By 

mackattack9988 "mackattack9988" (United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Icon (Hardcover)

Forsyth actually wrote Icon in 1996 and set it in the Russia of 1999, a country he projected would be plagued by a vast criminal underworld, increasingly disillusioned with the new democracy and capitalist systems, and subject to a return to Communist and other totalitarian rule. That makes Forsyth's work even more impressive with hindsight, in a similar way as for The Devil's Alternative and The Fist of God - describing specific elements or trends that in fact appear quite familiar later on. The Jason Monk character is one of Forsyth's more memorable ones, and he is developed a little differently than the norm with the way the book is written in two parts. There is also a reappearance of some characters in previous Forsyth books, something which works well in Icon but is not something which Forsyth often does. Icon isn't quite at the level of Forsyth's best work, but it is certainly good enough to demonstrate his ability to tell a good story and spin an entertaining yarn involving international intrigue.