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Loading... The Ends of the Earth: (The Wide World - James Maxted 3) (original 2015; edition 2015)by Robert Goddard (Author)
Work InformationThe Ends of the Earth by Robert Goddard (2015)
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Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. No current Talk conversations about this book. My review is for the whole trilogy, not just the 3rd instalment. I have the e book combo of the 3 books all in one digital file. Goddard is one of my very favourite authors so it is hard for me not to rate this book 4 or 5. It is certainly an outstanding achievement, worthy of a 5 rating. All of his books are full of unexpected twists and turns that keep you in suspense. This trilogy may well be his masterpiece. However, I did not realize that it was all one novel spread over 1200 pages at first, otherwise, I might have given it a miss. Way too long for my limited attention span. I wondered whether this was meant to be a spoof on spy novels or a reductio ad absurdum of them. There is definitely an absurd number of twists, turns, back-stabbings and double-crosses, nearly in every chapter. Also, way too many deaths, many of which I felt were unnecessary. At first I enjoyed the suspense & action, then got jaded and started to think "Oh no not again!" As another negative, I hated the way the second book ended, so much so that I almost didn't read the 3rd book. I persisted but didn't enjoy the 3rd one, mainly skimming through parts of it just to get it over with. I felt, in the end, that it was a great story, admirable for Goddard's ability to keep the plot interesting and the characters fascinating over 1200 pages, which never dragged by the way. Still, I felt that he got a bit carried away, that it could have been condensed to one 600 page novel without much loss. I just hope that the 3rd book is the end and we aren't going to see a sequel. ( ) Unreadable Imagine, if you will, that you planned to write a complex and exciting novel or a film set in several exotic places and with a large and varied cast of characters. To prepare for the job, you start a story outline. First this happens then that happens. This character and then that one are introduced. The story shifts locations, time, POV, flashbacks emerge, motives are identified. This character dies here; those characters fall in love. The story line grows longer and longer and bits of dialogue occur to you. Maybe you are using Scrivener and write the dialogue in little notes. Suddenly you are offered a super full-time job. Before abandoning the novel, you compile the outline and dialogue you have written and send it off to a publisher and for some reason that publisher agrees to print the book. That expanded outline could be this book. I received a review copy of "The Ends of the Earth: A James Maxted Thriller" by Robert Goddard (Grove Atlantic) through NetGalley.com. The Ends of the Earth by Robert Goddard ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️❤️ 9/2/16 I cannot find enough superlatives for this series, simply brilliant. From the first page of the first book to the last page of the final book just gripped me and wouldn't let me go! If you want an in-depth Thriller / Suspense set in an authentic historical context this is the Trilogy for you. Only sad it has all come to an end! The Ends of the Earth completes Robert Goddard’s historical thriller trilogy, one of the most brilliant and intricate spy novels I've ever read. James 'Max' Maxted, an ex-World War One flying ace, out to avenge the murder of his father in 1919. As we begin this book, the reader is not sure what his situation is after a fantastic cliffhanger in Book 2, Corners of the Globe. Max's friends have already arrived in Japan and are waiting for Max but he hasn't shown up yet. They have plans to finally capture the treacherous German spy master, Fritz Lemmer. Needless to say, there are numerous crosses and double crosses ahead of them and not everyone will make it out alive. These books have been entertaining, interesting, and surprising, filled with suspense and shocks in every chapter. I highly recommend reading this trilogy in order. I can't see how it can be enjoyed other than as one long, continuing story, which I found spellbinding. I'm sorry that the trilogy is over, but Robert Goddard has a huge inventory of well written and compelling novels that I can read while I wait to see what he has in store for us down the road. " no reviews | add a review
Belongs to SeriesJames Maxted (3)
"Internationally bestselling author Robert Goddard has been called "a master of the sly double- and triple-cross" (Seattle Times). In the third installment of the James Maxted thriller series, starring a dashing Royal Flying Corps veteran turned secret service operative, the truth about allegiances has never been less certain. The Treaty of Versailles has finally been signed, officially ending the World War I peace negotiations, and the action shifts east, to Tokyo, where a team assembled at Max's behest anxiously awaits his arrival on the docks. Max had arrived in Paris soon after the end of the Great War to investigate the suspicious death of his father, a British diplomat named Sir Henry, and soon plunged into a treacherous game of cat-and-mouse with the people behind his father's death: German spymaster Fritz Lemmer and the dark horse of the Japanese diplomatic contingent, Count Tomura. It is in Japan--where Sir Henry worked as a young government agent--that Max hopes to finally uncover the whole truth behind his father's murder and take down Lemmer's spy network once and for all. But what Max's cohort doesn't know is that his own storyline seems to have come to an end in a villa outside Marseilles. Stuck in limbo, the team decides to pursue their only lead--right into Lemmer's den. Loaded with death threats, knife fights, a kidnapping or two, and a coded list that has the power to dismantle whole governmental hierarchies, The Ends of the Earth is a masterful work of historical cut-and-thrust that tests the bonds of family and country to their very limit"-- No library descriptions found. |
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Google Books — Loading... GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)823.92Literature English & Old English literatures English fiction Modern Period 2000-LC ClassificationRatingAverage:
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