The dogs of war: Not as good

Of late I have turned to be a termite , gobbling up lot of stuff all useless of course. Hence, here I am writing about the 3rd book of Frederick Forsyth I recently finished. Titled "The dogs of War" it is a tale of treachery and double crosses. Once again Forsyth surprises by the meticulous detailed planning for the toppling of the Govt. in erstwhile African state. And as always it is full of information about the black market of weapons,African politics and the difference between Capitalist and Socialist economies. In addition, he provides a certain humorous situations in the narrative wherein the humour is at the expense of the poor uneducated Africans.

However, when it comes to the story, one is left wanting for more once you turn the last page. Lots of strings are left untouched. And the operation seems to be over very easily and smoothly. It cannot be recommended to a non Forsyth fan to turn him into one, but it is a defnite read for a Forsyth fan like me.

The Afghan: Must read

Being quite busy in the new place settling down and the fact that blogspot is blocked in my office has contributed to the delay in posting. Here I am back with another of my review on the book “The Afghan" by Frederick Forsyth which I managed to finish today.

Afghan is the latest offering from the master of thrillers and it surely lives to the high expectations I had after “The Negotiator". As is my cup of tea, it is a fiction which gives us with lot and lot of facts and edge of the seat thrill.

The story begins in Pakistan when the Brits get a hint about a Al-Qaeeda mastermind plan. The rest of the story goes about how the Brits and Americans bond together to send an imposter into the Al-Qaeda to figure out what the plan is. Giving any further insights into the story will be injustice to the book.

My favorite part of the book being the part when he talks about the two warriors, the original Afghan and the imposter. How each of them became the stalwarts in their respective fields. Esp. the portions involving the Afghan which give us a good insight

into the Afghan story, the evolution of Mujahideen,Taliban and Al-Qaeeda. These are the portions where I understood the

ideologies behind each of these forces . Some more facts which I got through this is that the so-called West friendly countries like UAE,Singapore, Malaysia etc. have their own supporters of Al-Qaeeda who are fortunately comparitively dormant.

The book is so detail in all these aspects that one starts wondering if Forsyth was ever involved in any of these. :)

Same is true with the details of the operations performed by CIA and other US forces. His knowledge of the subjects is encyclopedic.

By the time I ended up reading this, one fear starts lingering in your mind. If someone plans an attack to this precision as is done in the novel, it is really difficult to counter it.

Hats off!