- Paperback: 464 pages
- Publisher: Orion; New Ed edition (15 April 2004)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0752858920
- ISBN-13: 978-0752858920
- Product Dimensions: 11.1 x 3.5 x 17.8 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars See all reviews (26 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 417,413 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
Empire State
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Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
With Empire State Henry Porter continues his reinvention of the traditional British spy thriller. This is, in places, in the tradition of Buchan--high adventure in exotic places--and yet entirely lacks the sexism and racism of Buchan at his worst; Le Carre is an important influence, but the scepticism about British policy, let alone American, is even more radically sceptical than Le Carre at his most cynical.
The death of a presidential adviser, the murder of an airport worker at Heathrow and the mass killing of a band of immigrant workers trying to cross into Macedonia all prove part of the same complex intrigue. Harland, who dominated Porter's A Spy's Life gets involved less because of his prowess than because his back injuries have led him to a fashionable osteopath who proves complexly important.
In London, canny intelligence woman Isis deals with office intrigue, and with such technicalities as DNA samples from the insides of computer keyboards before haring off to islands in the Nile. What Porter is best at, and what we effectively get here, is just this--that sense of hard, clever legwork followed by bursts of violent action and desperate revelations. --Roz Kaveney --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Review
Henry Porter excels at set-piece openings and his third spy thriller is no exception. A meticulously written, page-turning treat. (DAILY MAIL, 23 April )
"Porter's third thriller races along... what keeps you gripped are the characters." (EVENING STANDARD )
Displaying convincing expertise in his handling of terrorist and anti-terrorist operations, Porter has produced a fast-moving thriller for our paranoid times (SUNDAY TIMES )
"Porter's third thriller races along... what keeps you gripped are the characters." (EVENING STANDARD )
Displaying convincing expertise in his handling of terrorist and anti-terrorist operations, Porter has produced a fast-moving thriller for our paranoid times (SUNDAY TIMES )
Inside This Book
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First Sentence
The passenger known as Cazuto arrived in the Immigration Hall of Terminal Three, Heathrow, in the early afternoon, carrying a raincoat and a small shoulder bag. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
The passenger known as Cazuto arrived in the Immigration Hall of Terminal Three, Heathrow, in the early afternoon, carrying a raincoat and a small shoulder bag. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
As with other Henry Porter thrillers, this is well written, crisp and pacy, and hard to put down. But this is much, much more frightening than his earlier books.
Based on recent technological developments, it poses the notion that a corrupt and corrupted government can - and most likely will - invade our privacy and manipulate us for its own political ends.
When I started to read the book, it seemed that some of the surveillance technology described and in existence was only ever likely to be used by spooks or in war - spy drones, co-ordidated access to all our on-line or electronic transactions, segregation of aliens etc.
But the horrors depicted became fact even as I read the book. Spy drones are now being deployed in the West Country, and the proposal to put everyone's health records on a data base, and later, that all our interactions with goverment should be electronic and an electronic profile obtained, is now a reality.
What will be next? On-line voting, so that exercising our democratic freedoms become, in reality, just another means of the government controlling our every thought, belief and action?
This book depicts in clear, readable, and horrifying clarity, what has begun to happen to this nation. If the technology is there, a corrupt government will use it to control us. George Orwell was right, and so is Henry Porter.
What we need now is concerted campaign to make sure the tide is turned back and we can reclaim our ancient freedoms.
Based on recent technological developments, it poses the notion that a corrupt and corrupted government can - and most likely will - invade our privacy and manipulate us for its own political ends.
When I started to read the book, it seemed that some of the surveillance technology described and in existence was only ever likely to be used by spooks or in war - spy drones, co-ordidated access to all our on-line or electronic transactions, segregation of aliens etc.
But the horrors depicted became fact even as I read the book. Spy drones are now being deployed in the West Country, and the proposal to put everyone's health records on a data base, and later, that all our interactions with goverment should be electronic and an electronic profile obtained, is now a reality.
What will be next? On-line voting, so that exercising our democratic freedoms become, in reality, just another means of the government controlling our every thought, belief and action?
This book depicts in clear, readable, and horrifying clarity, what has begun to happen to this nation. If the technology is there, a corrupt government will use it to control us. George Orwell was right, and so is Henry Porter.
What we need now is concerted campaign to make sure the tide is turned back and we can reclaim our ancient freedoms.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I was surprised to see some people considered this book dull. I actually found it be the best-written and most believable of his books (I have not yet read Brandenberg). He's gotten much better at working in his exposition instead of having characters "reminding" each other so much what happened before the book began. I found this book much less confusing than his other books, with his characters more interesting and more clearly defined so it's easier telling one from another, a bit of a problem with his first two books. As for the reviewer who felt the "liberal press" dumped on the novel, I can't imagine why that would happen. Just because the bad guys are Islamist terrorists doesn't make the book an ultra-conservative tract--it's not one at all.
16 of 19 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
At first none of this book makes sense. The head of the US National Security Agency is knocked off at Heathrow. A Pakistani employee at the airport and his family are then discovered also dead in their council house nearby. Sammy Ziade in New York is delivered two postcards showing the Empire State Building from someone called Laz Khan, one posted in Turkey and the other, Iran. A group of migrant workers, including Laz, en route from Afghanistan to the EU is killed in Macedonia. Laz escapes death, but is then tortured by the Man With No Name. It falls to our old friend and the hero of Mr Porter's previous explosive novel Robert Harland and his loyal sidekick Jennifer to sort it out on behalf of the UN. To the uniniated all this might seem a parody of earlier Cold War thrillers when the action moved around the world like a mad metronome. But in Mr Porter's more than able hands the cliche of what acdemics on thriller writing have dismissed as "hectic scene shifting "becomes one of those must-read books. Some of the characters who we meet early on never appear again and their role remains unclear but generally everything falls into place. We are plunged headlong, feet first, into a brutal world where no one can be trusted and where no one has any mercy. Only Harland has any sense of decency and standing up for what is right, as opposed to what is expedient. As in his earlier novels Mr Porter has captured the flavour of the world behind the headlines.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Another excellent read
Only recently discovered Henry Porter. Good stories and well plotted. Never really know how it will end or who has done what to whom.
Published 1 month ago by J. Khambatta
Superb & believable spy thriller
This was my first Henry Porter book, and it most certainly won't be my last.
This is a superb book with well written characters, a completely believable plot and sharp... Read more
This is a superb book with well written characters, a completely believable plot and sharp... Read more
Published 8 months ago by Mr. K. J. Santi
Blah
"Empire State" opens with Vice Admiral Ralph Norquist, the head of the American NSA, landing at London Heathrow under the name "Larry Catuzo". Read more
Published 20 months ago by Craobh Rua
Really quite poor
This is one of the more dreary and uninteresting books I have read. The story and plot could have been good enough, if it were not for the convoluted manner in which this story is... Read more
Published on 23 Aug 2007 by Booke23
Pretty good
This book is not as good as the author's earlier book, 'A Spy's Life' and his latest, brilliant effort, 'Brandenburg', but it's still pretty readable. Read more
Published on 28 Dec 2006 by Sophie Masson
Very Poor
This book was very dissapointing. The story meanders along with very little to get excited about then builds towards what seems to be an action packed finish only to abruptly end... Read more
Published on 12 Nov 2004 by Chris Short
Well below par!!!
I've read all his other books and i thought this to be a pretty stupidstory. It's as though he wrote it in a couple of weeks, the characters didhave depth but it was obvious that... Read more
Published on 24 April 2004 by Kj Illman
thrilling
Unlike some critics notably in America I was not disappointed by Mr Porter's third novel. Agreed, in contrast to his first two books that explored with such aplomb war crimes in... Read more
Published on 10 Mar 2004
strong sense of realism but dull dreary and slow
The President's special envoy is assassinated while visiting London for an important meeting. It falls on the shoulders of the British Secret Service to get to the bottom of the... Read more
Published on 25 Feb 2004 by Larry Gandle
like the early mcnab
This is a smashing read which reminds me of the early Andy McNab. Sure, unlike McNab Porter has not served in the Special Forces and isn't too good on weapons systems and hand to... Read more
Published on 24 Feb 2004
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