Red Sparrow: Jason Matthews (Dominika Egorova 1)

So good! The best book I've read in a long time.I was captivated and enthralled by this book, and impressed by the author's evident, in-depth knowledge of the intelligence services and their methods. The product description on Amazon summarises just how great this book is, so I do not need to add to this other than to mention the wonderfully descriptive, original metaphors that had me reading many of them more than once, just to savour them.I have learned only recently that this book will soon be released as a film. I think the plot and the action should translate very well, and Jennifer Lawrence is ideally suited to the role of Dominika. However, I doubt that cinematography and acting skills can entirely replace the eloquence of the book. Nevertheless, I look forward to seeing the film.I have already added the next book in the Red Sparrow trilogy to my Kindle.

I loved this book. It is peppered with Russian words and phrases, which took a bit of getting used to and slowed up my reading to a certain extent, but the twists and turns in the plot were great. It was an added interest to know that the author had actually been a part of that clandestine world. I particularly appreciated the recipes at the end of each chapter, relating to something the characters had just been eating in whichever country they happened to be operating at the time. This was a novel addition and greatly added to my enjoyment. I will definitely be reading the rest in the series.

This book would be more aptly titled "Red Herring".Factually inaccurate on so many levels, without any sign of coherent writing flow.pg15...."and Vanya went back to Yasneneco first as Third Deputy Director, then second, until last year, when he moved into the First Deputy Director's office, across the carpeted hallway from the Director's office..."...what...? If this was an isolated paragraph I'd be happy enough. But the whole book seems to be written in this lumpy and confused narrative, who's meaning and context can only be fully absorbed after 3 or 4 readings of the same paragraph. I paid for entertainment. I got the exact opposite. Chore-some at best.I managed just 25 pages of this drivel, before throwing it in the garden. Sorely disappointed.How this could even be considered on the same comparison scale to a Le Carre is beyond belief.

Having recently, seen the film which I really enjoyed, I bought the book as in my experience the book is always better than the filming I was not wrong. This is a superb spy thriller slightly different to the film but that is not important. This is well written with great characters plenty of twists and turns and leaves you wanting to read the the next in the trilogy which I will definitely be doing, I can only hope it continues in the same excellent way.One slightly surprising thing is the inclusion of receive at the end of each chapter, very unexpected but being a foodie a nice surprise and some nice recipes to try.

Can’t believe the five star reviews. I read a lot of books and don’t like to give up on any book...and I didn’t on this but I was so so close.Actually the first half of the book is ok but it turns into a real ordeal to finish the second halfThe characters are cliched and I got no chemistry between Nash and Dominika. The convoluted ending went on and on and wasn’t particularly exciting.

Red Sparrow is an imperfect thriller, but nevertheless worth reading.The basic premise is that two agents embark on their careers - Nate Nash is a young CIA agent, posted to Moscow and desperate to make an impact - and Dominika Egorova, enveigled into becoming a honey-trap agent by her wicked uncle in the Russian SVR. Inevitably the two hit it off.The story is a constant flow of agents and double agents, rooting out moles and trying to use counter-espionage to double-down on double-crossing deals. It’s quite a slow moving novel which allows plenty of space for conveying the day-to-day life in modern Russia, in intelligence jobs and in embassies around the world. It also gives adequate space to ensure the complexities of the various plots and schemes are fully understood - there’s none of the last-minute breathlessness that blight so many thrillers and leave readers wondering what happened.But there are flaws too. The slow pacing does include quite a bit of repetition. Characters are re-introduced (right down to appearances) every time they pop up in another point of view. There’s also quite a degree of salaciousness. Yes, Dominika attended Sparrow School to learn how to seduce foreign agents, but there’s a fine line between authenticity and pornography. Similarly, some of the violence feels overdone. These aspects are likely to appeal to teenage male readers but may irritate other readers.And then there’s Dominika’s synaesthesia. She can see the colour of people’s auras which gives her a special insight into their mood/character. I never quite bought this - and given that people’s auras never seem to change colour, it may be a useful tool for baselining a relationship but doesn’t seem to offer much for telling how someone is behaving in a specific situation. Ah well, it’s a bit of fun.Then there are the recipes at the end of each chapter. The idea is that a food mentioned in the chapter has its recipes included in a text box before the next chapter. At first this is endearing, but after a while it feels distracting - plus there’s a suspicion that some of the foods are only mentioned in the text because of the need to have a recipe.Overall, though, the drama outweighs the negatives and the story is worth reading. I like the idea of a modern Russian secret service trying to recreate the empire of the Soviet era or, perhaps even, the czarist era. The ending manages to be both reassuringly predictable but also shocking.Good holiday reading - especially while touring through the Stans.I will persevere with the other novels in the trilogy.

Cardboard characters in contrived and utterly unrealistic and unbelievable situations, hardly relieved by bursts of violence and/or sex porn. To cap it all, the author peppers each page with Russian words to show off expertise — much to my snorting contempt, he gets his useage wrong about 80% of the time. Pathetic and avoid like the plague. (It’s rare that I don’t finish a book. This one will be binned as it doesn’t even deserve a trip to the charity shop.)