Customer Reviews

Tool of the Trade

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I picked this book up in a used bookstore as I am a fan of Haldeman's Forever books and enjoyed it immensley. The premise is a basic spy story, a KGB spy placed in America and awaiting activation who happens to end up being a sort of double agent with the CIA. Basic spy stuff and while interesting, it is nothing spectacular.

Oh, I forgot to mention this spy in question has invented a device (a watch) that can control people's minds, hypnotize them in a sense. Which mixed in with a spy book makes a great read. If you see this book in a used store or if hopefully it gets reprinted, grab it!

Ever daydream you can control other peoples minds?

Well, this isn't a porn story! (grin)

It's a fast paced delightful action thriller. Would make a very entertaining movie.... oh well, sad that it's out of print.

The KGB has planted Nick in the in deep cover as a professor who makes a powerful discovery. The CIA/KGB/FBI and the cast of Friends (OK, not them as well), are after the secret, but he has his own plans to sort out the mess that the world is in.
A satisfying book, that works on more than one level.

Nick, the main character, has invented a device the size of a watch (pictured on the book's cover), which allows him to issue an absolute order (must be obeyed). The limitation is the target must be able to hear him (and he must be able to speak with the watch turned on). What would you do with absolute power?

As a small detail, Nick is a multi-lingual KGB sleeper agent who's made a happy life as a college professor in America. His superiors and the CIA take actions which look like they are activating him, but then his wife (who he loves) is abducted...

Liked the book, the hypnotic device reminded me of Lelouch's ability in Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion Complete First Season.

If Tool of the Trade were a newer book, it would be easy to call it a cliche. However, much of what Haldeman wrote in this novel was relatively new. Unfortunately the characters are fairly shallow, as is the plot. The invention of a watch that could be used to force people to one's will is not a terribly fresh idea, even in the 1980s. That the protagonist would use it in the ways he does, does not endear him to the reader. His wife is as eager to manipulate people, perhaps in a less violent manner, but to bend them to their will as much as he does.

The ways in which the two of them use the watch is on one hand naive, and on the other arrogant and sometimes cruel. Their machinations to accomplish their ends are often bumbling and their luck unbelievable. Some of the road blocks feel manipulative meant to make the next scene possible rather than as a natural sequence in the events. This is the first Haldeman novel I have read. I do intend to try a few more in hopes of finding something that has more sophistication, which I suspect is in much of his work.