Mike Walker (5) (1947–)

I read and disliked this novel a few years ago. So made a second-try with the magic of a BBC Full-Cast Dramatisation. Normally the BBC can make anything seem pretty good, but there is only so much even they can do with source ingredients. By and large this is a clumsy story that mercifully ends quickly (for Dickens). It still baffles me why it is considered a great novel. If I ever approach this story again it will be through a movie or TV series as generally the worse a novel is the better show more it adapts to TV. show less

This radio play follows the lives of a handful of people in the two days before D-Day. There are whispers about an invasion of Normandy, but nobody knows anything for sure.
One of the main characters is Rob Collins (played by Benedict Cumberbatch), a parachuter, who is just out of hospital and is picked up by a driver to go to his starting point for the invasion. Other people the listener meets, among others, are two young boys for whom the war feels like a big adventure, a prisoner on his show more way to be transferred to another prison, a young navigator dealing with the loss of his brother, a girl who works as a prostitute in London and General Eisenhower preparing for the invasion. The radio play features snapshot after snapshot of these tense days, painting a vivid and sometimes suffocating picture of England shortly before D-Day.
I must admit that I did not always understand what was happening, but still I was mesmerized by the play. The actors and actresses are stellar, as is the soundscape. It is absolutely worth listening to. show less

This is the 2011 BBC radio dramatization which is 8 hours long. I wanted to get a sense of this long and difficult novel before committing the time and energy it would demand. The BBC does a good job though there is no question reading it would be the better experience. The players speak in various English accents, not Russian or German, which as an American I found confusing and weird like listening to War and Peace with Italian accented actors. I now have an idea what the novel is about, show more not just plot but the ironic connections between fascism and communism; the life of fighting on the front against the enemy; against one's own comrades; plus co-operations with the enemy. If it inspires me to take on the novel remains to be seen. show less

Very interesting premise that hours after finishing the book I am still thinking about. In fact it was a very clever ending which could be interpreted as the crew won or lost, that Daddy knew what he was doing or he just didn't care, or that the intergalatic police force or whatever had come to see the mission had been carried out or perhaps it had failed utterly. Other than that I didn't think much of it, but then its years since I enjoyed sci-fi and even more years since I read anything of show more a speculative nature. But... because the ending was such genius this three-star book gets a 5. show less