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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
About life,death,honor, right, wrong, justice, prinicples, 24 Sep 1998
By A Customer
I would compare it to Chesterton's The Man Who Was Thursday. Sometimes it seems like a silly game, at other times it's the answer to deep philosophical questions. You must suspend your belief a little and accept the premises. The Assination Bureau is based on certain rules. It tries to perform social rights by doing what could well be considered wrongs: executions of anti-social baddies. But there's a big difference between murder-for-hire (no matter how "justified") and capital punishment by a real government. Playing by the rules of the game, London sets up a clever situation where the organization must destroy itself to be true to its own principles. But as men of principle and reason they whole heartedly embrace their own destruction. Should rationality be held to be of a higher importance than life? Is playing by the rules more important than survival? When does rationality become irrational or irrationality look rational? Though not always convincing, this book asks and answers many interesting questions.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Strangely satisfying, 2 May 2008
"The Assassination Bureau, Ltd"'s premise is an intriguing one: The Assassination Bureau is an organisation aimed at eliminating those it deems deleterious to society as a whole. Anyone can engage its services but only if the target is adjudged suitable to the Bureau's goals will the assassination be carried out. Once given, the order to assassinate cannot be rescinded. The Bureau faces its greatest challenge, its glorious zenith and its deepest depth all at one when the latest designated victim turns out to be the founder and head of the Bureau itself.
This is a profoundly odd book. Certainly anyone expecting a "Call of the Wild" or "White Fang" will be disappointed. Although there is plenty of adventure to be found here, London seems more interested in making a philosophical point rather than in developing his characters or precisely elucidating their actions, many of which occur "off-stage", while the principals prefer to discuss the issues of "right action" and other moral issues. There are also many elements of farce: the assassins themselves are, outside their roles in the bureau, mild-mannered, donnish types, while their deskbound chief - who has at the outset of book never assassinated anyone - is a ferociously strong and mysterious Russian.
Matters are further complicated by the fact that London himself abandoned the project, leaving others to complete it.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Men of principle--even if it kills them, 20 April 1998
By A Customer
This book reads a little bit like a precursor to the novels of Ayn Rand. A group of men espouse almost impossible ideals, and then try to live up to them at any cost--or in this case, kill or die for them. The title refers to a group of well educated idealists at the turn of the century who are contract murderers, but only if they agree that the murder is morally justified. A potential client visits them and offers a contract--to kill the head of their agency. Strangely, the executive, Ivan Dragomiloff, finds this to be justified, sends out the order for his own death, and then spends the rest of the book in a deadly cat-and-mouse game with the men he has trained so well. This book was made into an entertaining, but not very deep, movie, around 1970, starring Oliver Reed, Telly Savalas, and Diana Rigg.
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