The Man from Barbarossa [Paperback]

John Gardner (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1, 1992

Russian terrorists kidnap a man suspected of Nazi war crimes--and get the wrong man. The rebels threaten to kill their captive unless ten million dollars and the real war criminal are delivered to them within 72 hours. Only the KGB's newest secret weapon could possibly stop their plan--Comrade James Bond. HC: Putnam.

Editorial Reviews

From Kirkus Reviews

Gardner rouses himself for more elaborate plotting than usual in his tenth stint as Ian Fleming's stand-in, but Gardner's James Bond, on loan to the KGB for some antiterrorist housecleaning, has aged a lot less gracefully than Sean Connery. A dissident Russian cabal calling itself The Scales of Justice (SoJ) has kidnapped somebody it claims is Josif Vorontsov, notorious second-in-command at Babi Yar, from his home in New Jersey and threatened to assassinate high-level brass hats until the government takes Vorontsov off their hands and places him on trial for war crimes. When the Kremlin denies that SoJ has the real Vorontsov and refuses to recognize his extradition, SoJ begins taking out high-level brass hats, and the KGB asks British Intelligence to let them have somebody--guess who--able to infiltrate SoJ by substituting for two English-speaking recruits. Gardner lays some promising trails--Bond working for the KGB, Bond partnered by Mossad agent Pete Natkowitz, two interloping French agents (one a natural bedmate), the news that SoJ intends to videotape its own free-lance war-crimes trial, and all the usual seductions, killings, double-crosses, flashbacks, and intimations of The End (this time by hard-liners bombing Washington while the US is busy bombing Baghdad)--but the going keeps getting muddier, as if somebody else had finished the book over a third martini (shaken, not stirred). Bond saves the world, gets the woman and the Order of Lenin, and turns in a less muffled performance than in last year's Brokenclaw, though still below average for Gardner's series. Let's not talk about how far below Fleming's average. -- Copyright ©1991, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: Berkley (January 1, 1992)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 042513234X
• ISBN-13: 978-0425132340
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 4.1 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,250,125 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The Man From Barbarossa, May 5, 2011

By 

rsasdr (chicago) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Man from Barbarossa (Hardcover)

John Gardner's Bond novels received pretty mixed reactions from Bond fans, and I can understand people's disappointment if they read his books expecting a big adventure like the Bond movies or the original Fleming novels. The majority of Gardner's novels don't follow the standard Bond formula. Rather than have Bond investigate some billionaire whose planning something evil, Gardner frequently has Bond embroiled in complex espionage plots and pitted against assorted communist agents and terrorists. And instead of describing food and locations in minute detail, Gardner gives details of real-life intelligence agencies, weapons, tradecraft, and the political climate of the time.

All of these elements are especially evident in The Man From Barbarossa. Bond is reluctantly assigned to an operation run by the KGB, along with Israeli and French agents. Posing as a camera crew set to film a mock war crimes trial, their mission is to infiltrate of the high echelons of the Scales of Justice, an underground group responsible for spreading a wave of terrorism across the crumbling Soviet Union. Of course, not is all as it seems, and Bond unravels a plot by a rogue Russian general to seize power in the Kremlin and supply Iraq with nuclear weapons on the eve of the First Persian Gulf War, as well as wipe out Washington, DC. Along the way, Bond confronts traitors on his team and a battalion of Russian spetsnaz.

There's very little action in this book, and it all comes at the end of the book. But Gardner still weaves a complex and intriguing plot that slowly unravels and reveals itself through the three hundred pages. While holding the reader's attention, you'll also never really be quite sure where the story is going next and will keep turning the pages to find out what happens next.

On the downside, the characters are not particularly well drawn out. The problem is that there are probably too many characters crammed into too small a book. Most characters simply aren't given enough time to develop or stand out. This is due mostly to the structure of the story. characters come in for a section of the book, then disappear for a large chunk of it, before being re-introduced.

Don't read this book if you're expecting an action-packed James Bond adventure. You will be disappointed. However, if you want a complex Cold War espionage/political thriller (which happens to have a character named James Bond) along the lines of Craig Thomas, then you can do a lot worse than The Man From Barbarossa. Icebreaker; No Deals, Mr Bond; Win, Loose, or Die; and Death is Forever, also by John Gardner, are also worth checking out if you like that type of thing. For more traditional Bond stories, stick to License Renewed and For Special Services.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Not quite the Bond I expected, November 2, 2005

By 

Andrew W. Johns "ResQgeek" (Alexandria, VA USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Man from Barbarossa: Ian Fleming's Master Spy James Bond (Hardcover)

Let me just start by saying that I'm a big James Bond fan. I generally enjoy the movies, and I've read all of Ian Fleming's original novels. So when John Gardner started writing James Bond novels, I was thrilled. However, they never quite held my interest the same way Fleming's stories did. After reading the first few of Gardner's contributions, I simply stopped reading James Bond novels. So, when this book came to me, I decided it might be worth taking another look at Gardner's version of 007.

Unfortunately, The Man from Barbarossa left me with a continued lukewarm feeling. This book is long on exposition, and more than a little short on action. Bond remains passive through much of the book, while the events unfold around him. While the ultimate crisis described in this story certainly has potential as a first class thriller, the initial elements surrounding the kidnapping of the war criminal and the operations directed towards uncovering the "Scales of Justice" simply don't build up sufficient suspense to move the story along. While the plot might make for an intellectually challenging puzzle, that's not what I expect from a James Bond story, and so I'm left feeling a bit disappointed.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Gardner's finest, May 29, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: James Bond in John Gardner's the Man from Barbarossa (Eagle large print) (Paperback)

Amazing! THE MAN FROM BARBAROSSA is full of wild action-packed stunts and action. James Bond is forced to fight against a secret group called The Scales of Justice who want to control Russia and wish to film an legal trial of a spy. If you're searching for thrills, this is the book for you. It is fulled of action, and the besat part is when James Bond fights the men in the house. Disagree with the one and two stars and go for the five, You will be happy with results if you read John Gardner's best. Others best include the action-fulled ICEBREAKER, NO DWEALKS MR BOND and COLD FALL and BROKEN CLAWS.