Billion-Dollar Brain
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In this thriller featuring anti-hero Harry Palmer, a crazy millionaire threatens world security when he decides to wage his own private Cold War.
--This text refers to an alternate
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
12 of 12 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
The unnamed spy whose adventures were first chronicled in 'The Ipcress File' goes to Helsinki to meet Olaf Kaarna, a journalist claiming to have uncovered a British Military Intelligence operation in the area. He finds Kaarna in his flat, a hatpin sticking out of his back and covered in raw egg.
Kaarna's killer is an agent of 'Facts For Freedom', an organisation dedicated to the destruction of Communism, run by a rabid right-wing millionaire called General Midwinter and controlled by an advanced computer network called The Brain. Using stolen viruses from Porton Down, Midwinter plans to start an uprising in Latvia. But he is being swindled by one of his own men, Harvey Newbegin, a man with a taste for dangerous but beautiful women...
For my money, the best thing Deighton has ever done. Back in the '60's, spy stories where the Russians weren't the baddies were rare. Indeed with the benefit of hindsight this could now be viewed as the first anti-Vietnam War tract. Midwinter is a xenophobe prone to making 'God loves America' speeches while the 'all-powerful super-computer' idea preempted HAL 9000 from Kubrick's '2001: A Space Odyssey' by a few years. A return appearance by Colonel Stok ( last seen in 'Funeral In Berlin' ) is especially welcome. But what makes this so much fun is the wonderfully witty prose. Yes, there's a lot of coffee drinking and clandestine meetings in offices but if one book perfectly summed up the turbulent '60's as a whole, its this one.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Len Deighton is a superb writer and this book is, without doubt, his best work.
I don't know how many times I've read it, but it's so good that I can happily read a chapter at random and still feel fulfilled.
The plot is both a rock-solid Cold War tale and an engaging interplay of believable characters. Deighton was described by one critic, in the 1960s, as the poet of the Spy genre: never a truer word.
Ultimately, it's the beautifully crafted characters and the delightful writing style that make this book the Gold Standard that it is.
I highly recommend it.
I don't know how many times I've read it, but it's so good that I can happily read a chapter at random and still feel fulfilled.
The plot is both a rock-solid Cold War tale and an engaging interplay of believable characters. Deighton was described by one critic, in the 1960s, as the poet of the Spy genre: never a truer word.
Ultimately, it's the beautifully crafted characters and the delightful writing style that make this book the Gold Standard that it is.
I highly recommend it.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
W.O.O.C (P) is a discreetly-located spying agency of the British Ministry of Defence, headed by a Mr. Dawlish. In Spy Story he is the owner of a pre-WW II car, in this book also an expert on garden weeds. Its premises in Charlotte Street encompass floor after floor of ostensibly unattractive or failing businesses, behind whose doors the agency works, with the Dispatch Section always booming with brass band music. Dawlish is the only staff member with an office with two windows.
A nameless but likable spy tells his story in the I form. He is sent on his way to Scandinavia by Dawlish to find out more about alleged rumours and conspiracies that could be detrimental to the UK, the US, the Soviet Union, even world peace. Dawlish's brief: "Find out more. If possible, infiltrate!" His tour includes, initially, Helsinki, Leningrad, Riga, New York and San Antonio, Texas. There he is introduced to the billion dollar brain, a series of high-capacity mainframe computers, which are purported to have been programmed to prevent human error in intelligence gathering and -operations. It is owned not by the US government, but by a right-wing organisation headed by a naturalised, formerly Latvian general. If the planned operation targeting Latvia is successful, rows and rows of primed and linked mainframes will take on the rest of the Soviet Union...
The(not very plausible) plot is nevertheless amusing and so are the characters and dialogues. KGB Colonel Stok captures the British agent on home soil and sends him home because he needs to know more, by following the British spook's next moves. But not before expressing his admiration for the British WW II war effort and reciting at length from his favourite writer in English, the 18th-century Scottish poet Robert Burns. The enigmatic, extravert Finnish girl Signe, her lover Harvey and the spy himself are interesting characters too. Descriptions of the different venues are also authentic.
Len Deighton is also a renowned war historian. The terrible facts included in BDB about Latvian collaboration with Germany during WW II and its eagerness to play the role of executioner on the Nazi's behalf is most probably based on pure fact. Latvians, among other nationals, should read and enjoy this book and provide comment.
A nameless but likable spy tells his story in the I form. He is sent on his way to Scandinavia by Dawlish to find out more about alleged rumours and conspiracies that could be detrimental to the UK, the US, the Soviet Union, even world peace. Dawlish's brief: "Find out more. If possible, infiltrate!" His tour includes, initially, Helsinki, Leningrad, Riga, New York and San Antonio, Texas. There he is introduced to the billion dollar brain, a series of high-capacity mainframe computers, which are purported to have been programmed to prevent human error in intelligence gathering and -operations. It is owned not by the US government, but by a right-wing organisation headed by a naturalised, formerly Latvian general. If the planned operation targeting Latvia is successful, rows and rows of primed and linked mainframes will take on the rest of the Soviet Union...
The(not very plausible) plot is nevertheless amusing and so are the characters and dialogues. KGB Colonel Stok captures the British agent on home soil and sends him home because he needs to know more, by following the British spook's next moves. But not before expressing his admiration for the British WW II war effort and reciting at length from his favourite writer in English, the 18th-century Scottish poet Robert Burns. The enigmatic, extravert Finnish girl Signe, her lover Harvey and the spy himself are interesting characters too. Descriptions of the different venues are also authentic.
Len Deighton is also a renowned war historian. The terrible facts included in BDB about Latvian collaboration with Germany during WW II and its eagerness to play the role of executioner on the Nazi's behalf is most probably based on pure fact. Latvians, among other nationals, should read and enjoy this book and provide comment.
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