Customer Reviews

Tapestry of Spies

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

This excellent novel certainly covered a lot of bases.Against the backdrop of the Spanish Civil War, Florry, a former colonial policeman and once a promising scholar is recruited by British Intelligence to prove his university friend Raines is a Communist spy, and assisinate him. There is so much more to the story than that,I was very interested in the way Hunter "borrowed" plots and characters from other great works, Homagae to Catalonia, For Whom the Bell Tolls, Burmese Days, and of course the better than fiction story of Kim Philby. This portrayal of the British Empire dealing with both the Communist and Fascist rise to power, and the ultimate tragedy of the fall of the Spanish Republic, I've got to say,the man certainly did justice to a complex and difficult story.The influence of university and the friendships made there,the pride and obligations of the British,the ruthlessness of those in Intelligence, the hopes of Revolution. A good novel dealing with difficult subjects and a time people are still trying to understand.

I found this book by chance at a hotel when I was 14. Someone left it there, I never heard of Hunter before but I read it anyway. It was quite good. Juilan being gay was a nice suprise and I think the reason why people fail to like this book is becuse they say they don't like the story, or it's not up to par. Well this isnt a typical thriller, I normaly read fantasy, but even I can tell that this historical fiction is clearly NOT about the story. It's about Robert, Juilan and Sylvia, even Levitsky and Mink. It's a about hate and love and respect. Between people. It's a chartcter study. And it's very well writen. Good work Mr.Hunter I'll be sure to read more of your books in the future. Nice poetry, Im a poet myself and thats another reason I liked the book. And for the critics who are Hunter fans, mabey this just isnt your type of book. But it IS very good.

Stephen Hunter's A Tapestry of Spies (original and better title Spanish Gambit) is good in its own right, but if you know anything of the life and works of George Orwell, you can see that Hunter's extensive knowledge of those materials, as well of various spy scandals that rocked England after WWII (Philby & Burgess), you can read this book as a response to Orwell's classic 1984. The main character, Robert Florry is clearly Orwell manque. He is Eton failure who end up in the tropics, where he participates in the judicial murder of a imbecile (A Hanging), returns to England, where the MI 6 forcibly recruits him to go to England and spy on Julian Raines, a brilliant poet and putative Bolshevik agent. Florry's arrival in Spain, via a torpedoed ship, introduces the character of Levitsky, the master spy, and Sylvia, a young woman seeking adventure in the Spanish Civil War. Other books appear in this one besides 1984 and A Homage to Catalonia, which seem to be Hunter's main influences. There is also a retelling of Hemingway's For Whom the Bell Tolls, including smelly partisans and bridge than must be destroyed.

I suppose if you've come to this book having read Hunter's Bob Lee Swagger novels, you'll be confused and maybe disappointed. But I suggest you read Orwell and Hemingway, and then you'll really understand the final scenes in the book between Florry and Sylvia, and an American Bolshevik.

Unlike the other Stephen Hunter books which I picked up and couldn't put down, this one I put down and couldn't pick up. Finally, on a long business trip, this was the last bit of reading material I had left.

In this book, there are too many characters and plots going on at the same time, and none are handled well. There are bits in the book that have no relevence later, and I wonder why they were added except to increase word count.

I do not recommend that you buy this book. Instead, buy "Hot Spring" or like me, wait until it is released in paperback, as I thoroughly enjoyed the series about Earl and Bob Lee Swagger

Like "the master sniper" and "the second Saladin" this book is no page-turner and lacks growing suspense and a complex plot. I was really disappointed.

It seems as if Stephen Hunter's books are not on the same high level if the main character is not Bob Lee Swagger.

As loong as Bob Lee Swagger is in it you can buy any of the books. But leave this one on the shelf.

I read the one review of this book where it was rated as a 1 but it doen't appear that the writer went on to read the book as he thought it was a release of THE SECOND SALADIN under a new name.It is not. It is a new release of the Spanish Gambit.The Second Saladin is being Re-released in 1998 and is a great book. I read the book-Tapestry of Spies cover to cover over a period of a week.Usally I read A Hunter book in 2 days at most ,burning out my eyes,but this book is Hunter's attempt to write your typical high school english class novel.It is slow,with characters who come and go,plots that end without any resolution,and just seems nowhere near as focused as the usual Hunter book.I guess that it does give you a feel for Spain in the civil war,but it is a mood book and not the type of book that people expect when they buy Stephen Hunter.The book resembles a classic but as Mark Twain said -A Classic is a book that everybody praises but nobody reads.

Hunter is a bit of a crazy but he is a helluva writer. This one would have been
five stars but there were just too many suspension-of-disbeliefs required for my taste. Loved Hot Springs so this one ranked as "almost as good".

I love historical novels. The Spanish Civil War was pretty much ignored in public school(70's-80's for me) so learning some historical facts, checkable easily nowadays, is fun. The characters are complicated as most people are. A bit more violent than I like, but some of the situations described were necessarily violent. I guess combining greed and wars do that. Finding out the truth of the foundation of the missing gold puts 'Oh my God' spin to the whole story.

Excellent. Great story set in the 1930's with espionage and counter-espionage. Simon Vance does an incredible justice to the story or possibly making it even more appealing to the listener. Again excellent. Thank you as well Simon!

Contray to most of the reviews I've read about this book,(most of them bad)I have found this to be typical of Stephen Hunter,well written,absorbing,a first class novel.I can see where this wouldn't bode well for some younger readers,as perhaps they wouldn't grasp the time frame that this was written in.An excellent novel.