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Pantheon
 
 
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Pantheon [Kindle Edition]

Sam Bourne (Author)
2.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (39 customer reviews) |
Print List Price: £12.99
Kindle Price: £5.99 includes VAT* & free wireless delivery via Amazon Whispernet
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Kindle Edition £5.99   -- --
Hardcover £7.09   -- --
Paperback £4.87   -- --
Audio, CD, Audiobook, CD, Unabridged £15.19   -- --
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Product Description

Review

***** ‘Shifting his focus from hi-tech present day conspiracies to a very dark chapter of the second world war, Bourne has proved he can more than rub shoulders with the likes of John Le Carre and Robert Harris.’ Mirror

‘Pantheon is a propulsive, satisfying novel which burns with moral indignation, earning Bourne his place at the thriller-writers' high table.’ Guardian

‘Ingeniously constructed … a page-turner which maintains the tension’ Observer

‘An intelligent thriller with a vividly drawn wartime atmosphere’ Independent

‘A compelling story that combines the personal traumas of war, its headline dramas and the tragic tension that can arise between them. A disturbing delight.’ A D Miller, author of SNOWDROPS

Review

***** ‘Shifting his focus from hi-tech present day conspiracies to a very dark chapter of the second world war, Bourne has proved he can more than rub shoulders with the likes of John Le Carre and Robert Harris.’ Mirror

‘Pantheon is a propulsive, satisfying novel which burns with moral indignation, earning Bourne his place at the thriller-writers' high table.’ Guardian

‘Ingeniously constructed … a page-turner which maintains the tension’ Observer

‘An intelligent thriller with a vividly drawn wartime atmosphere’ Independent

‘A compelling story that combines the personal traumas of war, its headline dramas and the tragic tension that can arise between them. A disturbing delight.’ A D Miller, author of SNOWDROPS

See all Product Description

Product details

  • Format: Kindle Edition
  • File Size: 544 KB
  • Print Length: 421 pages
  • Page Numbers Source ISBN: 0007413637
  • Publisher: HarperCollins (16 Feb 2012)
  • Sold by: Amazon Media EU S.à r.l.
  • Language English
  • ASIN: B0061RRLTE
  • Text-to-Speech: Enabled
  • Average Customer Review: 2.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (39 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #4,783 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)

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More About the Author

Sam Bourne
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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
By HJK VINE™ VOICE
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review (What's this?)
This is the first Sam Bourne novel that I have read - so I cannot compare it with his others.

The story is set at the beginning of World War 2 and moves from Oxford, England to Yale, America.

Our hero, James Zennor is an Oxford don who has fought in the Spanish civil war. He returns home one day to find his wife and young son missing, leaving only a note declaring her love. The rest of the novel is his hunt to find them.

I am very interested in novels around World War 2 and this one certainty started off really well and I would have given 4 or even 5 stars for the first third to a half of the book.

It is a "gentle" thriller - ordinary people caught up in something sinister - there are no gadgets or fancy weapons and communication is face-to-face, by letter/note or the old land-line telephone - and travel across the Atlantic is by sea.

Many of the events portrayed in the book are based on historical facts - though not the main ideas of Eugenics as portrayed here.

As with any thriller one starts to doubt everyone and nothing is always as it seems - however as there are not many characters - one starts to doubt them all - it is not as complicated as many thrillers - but maybe more believable.

Towards the second half it seemed to loose momentum though it did pick up for the GRAND FINALE and that is why I did not want to give it an unconditional 4, but it is certainly worth more than 3.

Overall it was an enjoyable read.
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16 of 19 people found the following review helpful
Disappointing 12 Feb 2012
By Sid Nuncius HALL OF FAME TOP 10 REVIEWER
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review (What's this?)
I was expecting this to be a very good book. Sam Bourne is the pseudonym of Jonathan Freedland, an excellent journalist and broadcaster whose work I enjoy very much. Sadly, the same cannot be said for his fiction.

Set in 1940 the main protagonist is James Zennor, an Oxford don wounded in the Spanish Civil War, physically and mentally scarred and unable to join up and fight the Nazis. His wife and son vanish and he eventually traces and follows them to Yale in the USA where he realises that Something Suspicious Is Going On and that He Does Not Know Whom He Can Trust. This, basically, is the plot of the first 300 (yes 300) pages of the book. There is a great deal of scene-setting in flashback, details of the Spanish Civil War, stuff about the contrast between life in Britain in 1940 and that in the USA and, frankly, a huge amount of superfluous verbiage. There are endless paragraphs where Zennor repeats to himself what we already know and speculates about perhaps this or maybe that and it all adds up to very little. It is phenomenally slow and even the bits where something actually happens didn't really grip me. I found that there were several "oh, please" moments and the "revelations" were largely visible from a long way off. When the Dastardly Plot is finally revealed it is self-evidently repugnant, but we still have to have its repugnance explained to us through yet more of Zennor's internal monologue, and I began to feel seriously patronized at this point.

The prose is competent and there is a lot of laboriously demonstrated research on show but details, particularly in the dialogue, fail to convince. For example the Master of an Oxford College in 1940 denies responsibility for something with the phrase "It's not down to me," and a hard-bitten Irish American cop who has just informed Zennor that he "don't like limeys," actually says, "Forgive my little impromptu examination just then." This sort of thing crops up frequently enough to ruin any sense of character which has been developed.

I am sorry to be so critical, but I really found this book a struggle and, in the end, a chore. I will be sticking to Mr Freedland's journalism from now on.
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20 of 24 people found the following review helpful
By Mrs. K. A. P. Wright TOP 1000 REVIEWER VINE™ VOICE
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review (What's this?)
Pantheon is a thriller set mostly in 1940 with flashbacks to 1936 and the Spanish Civil War. Our hero is James Zennor, psychologist and Oxford don. If, at this point, you are becoming worried that this will be a story full of psychobabble and flashes of incomprehensible psychological insight, worry not. It is not that sort of book. In fact, at times, you wish that poor James could have shown more psychological insight. Florence is our heroine, for want of a better word. They meet in Barcelona at the People's Olympics set up in opposition to Hitler's Berlin games. The Fascists stage their coup and the Barcelona games are cancelled. Florence shows that she is a woman with a mind of her own and James joins the International Brigade to fight the fascists. Florence returns to Spain. James is badly injured and they return to Oxford. It is at this point that the story really starts.

James rows every morning at dawn to test his wounded shoulder and to try to come to terms that he has been passed as unfit for military service. He returns from the river to find that Florence and their baby son have vanished. Have they left of their own accord or been kidnapped? James suspects the first and gets very drunk. The wife of a senior colleague finds him and pushes him into action. He sets out to find Florence and Harry. At first it appears comparatively simple, but then nothing is as it seems. People die and soon James' life is also in danger too. What starts as James' own personal disaster emerges as a potential disaster for Britain and the allies and James has to make a difficult decision.

This is a tautly written thriller which sweeps you along with its own momentum. One or two things worried me as I was reading - for example, I could not forgive Florence for her gross betrayal of James and part of me is surprised that the James we met in Oxford could either. I could understand him wanting to find his son, but I don't think he would have given Florence the time of day. When I had finished reading it and was mulling over what I had read a few more holes appeared, but they did not impair my enjoyment as I was reading.

However, I am only going to give it four stars because of the problems I had with Florence and the Florence/James relationship.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Not his best
I have been an avid fan of Sam Bourne since he released his first novel. This one was a reasonably good read but I felt it lacked something.
Published 17 days ago by Elaine Y
a well-researched tale marred by its main thesis
I much enjoyed Pantheon because I was one of the children evacuated to the United States in World War II (though not part of the Yale/Oxford initiative). Read more
Published 1 month ago by Mr. Michael Henderson
Excellent
Yet another brilliant tale of the second world war with some shocking revelations uncovered by meticulous research. Read more
Published 1 month ago by John Richard
Disappointing read
This book is not a patch on all of Sam Bourne's previous publications. It is a long way into the book before the story begins to be thrilling and even then the thrills are... Read more
Published 1 month ago by Goofy
Disappointing
The comparisons in the blurb to the likes of Le Carre and Robert Harris are misleading in the extreme (alright it maybe does stand comparison with the last Harris effort which was... Read more
Published 1 month ago by P. G. Strachan
Don't buy this book!
This is one of the worst books I have ever read, it's bland, boring unrealistic and ultimately pointless. Read more
Published 1 month ago by dw3009
New to me.
This was a new author to me and I really enjoyed reading his book. It was most enjoyable, and I will be looking for more of his books.
Published 1 month ago by penny
Sam Bourne --- Pantheon
Absolutely gripping from page 1. So many questions to be answered. Characters so mysterious but appear quite ordinary. Read more
Published 1 month ago by rhiannon
Like a second class Ludlum.
For my money Robert Ludlum did not write too many second class novels but Sam Bourne's 'Pantheon' reminded me of those early Ludlum thrillers such as 'The Matlock Paper' and... Read more
Published 1 month ago by richard Brown
dont bother
no real story, no believeable plot, nothing happens for the first half of the book, boring, tedius, slow. nothing in this book to suggest that you waste your money on it.
Published 1 month ago by mike s,
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