Six Days of the Condor

Mad Dogs was one of the best thrillers I read last year, and Three Days of the Condor is a favourite film of mine, so it’s great to see Six Days back in print and finally get the chance to read it. First, though, there’s a bonus novella, condor.net, a sequel explicitly updating and re-imagining Six Days. In its relentlessly paced 44 pages Grady crams an epic, insanely complex, action packed tale of mass murder, betrayal and intrigue in the post-9-11 espionage world into a ridiculously small package, and makes it look easy. Awesome, jaw-dropping stuff. Six Days follows, stately and slightly old-fashioned by comparison but still packing a punch. Though unfairly overshadowed by the iconic brilliance of the film, this grandaddy of show more paranoid conspiracy thrillers still manages to show the others how it’s done. Worth picking up for condor.net alone, and for heaven’s sake look out for Mad Dogs, about a gang of insane CIA agents on the run, framed for the murder of their group therapist. It’s pure genius. show less

Okay, a slightly mixed review. Initially what I liked most was the preface where the writer explained the book and what it inadvertently causes (the book was made into a movie, the Soviet Union thought the clandestine office within the CIA was real and made one of their own), but then as I started reading (spy thriller is really not my thing) I got hooked and couldn't put it down. Now I am considering all things Grady, especially in the Condor realm.

This spy thriller moves so fast you may be finished with it before you realize it's almost as far fetched as last night's dream.

Ronald Malcolm, code name Condor, works for the CIA, but the closest he comes to cloak and dagger stuff is reading spy novels. That's his job -- reading and analyzing the latest spy fiction to see if he can find anything in it the real spies haven't thought of yet. The most exciting part of his day is watching a certain beauty pass his window every morning.

But then one day while he is out of his office on an errand, some men show up with a machine gun and kill all of his associates in Section 9, Department 17.

The rest of the novel is one long, breathless chase, as Malcolm runs for his life from both the unknown show more killers and from the CIA, which has a traitor in its midst. show less

One of the few book to movie pairs in which the movie is much better than the book. The book has all the hallmarks of a young man's first novel. Unlikely plot burdened with outrageous coincidences, strained dialog, hackneyed phrases, and more. Still, the plot moves along like a thriller should, not as well as the movie moves, but good. I read it years ago when it first came out and liked it more, but then i was young too at the time.

"Who guards the guardians?"

So, a part of the CIA attacks another part of the CIA, and the Condor is caught in the middle, literally "Malcom" is in the middle!!! And then, he goes to work! This is a short, slam bang action thriller with lots of alphabet agencies and multiple pawns being moved around D.C.! A nice, quick summer read!

I can see why the book might have been influential in its day, but it doesn't hold up the test of time. Malcolm is a dick and way to capable for being untrained. He also seems to have no feelings. There's hardly any suspense or plot. Women are just props to be sexualized.

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Title: Six Days of the Condor
Series: ----------
Authors: James Grady
Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Thriller
Pages: 159
Words: 56K

Synopsis:

From Wikipedia.org

Ronald Malcolm is a CIA employee who works in a clandestine operations office in Washington, D.C. responsible for analyzing the plots of mystery and spy novels. One day, when he should be in the office, Malcolm slips out a basement entrance for lunch. In his absence a group of armed men gain entrance show more to the office and kill everyone there. Malcolm returns, realizes he is in grave danger, and telephones a phone number at CIA headquarters he has been given for emergencies.

When he phones in (and remembers to give his code name "Condor"), he is told to meet an agent named Weatherby who will "bring him in" for protection. However, Weatherby is part of a rogue group within the CIA, the same group responsible for the original assassinations. Weatherby tries to kill Malcolm, who manages to escape. On the run, Malcolm uses his wits to elude both the rogue CIA group and the proper CIA authorities, both of which have a vested interest in his capture or death.

Seeking shelter, Malcolm kidnaps a paralegal named Wendy Ross whom he overhears saying she will spend her coming vacation days holed up in her apartment. Knowing no one will notice her absence, Malcolm enlists her aid in finding out more about the forces after him. She is shot and seriously wounded in the process, but survives.

It is then revealed that the rogue group was using the section where Malcolm works to import illegal drugs from Laos. A supervisor stumbled onto a discrepancy in the records exposing this operation, thus necessitating the section's elimination.

Everything works out in the end and the badguys all get theirs and Malcom gets the girl.

My Thoughts:

I have seen the movie, 3 Days of the Condor starring Robert Redford, several times but had never read the book. So when Dix reviewed the movie a couple of months ago and we got talking about the book in the comments it seemed like the moment was right to hunt down a copy for myself and read it.

There is a reason the movie is better known than the book. My first clue was that the introduction by the author was almost 15% of the book. He kept talking and talking and it was more of a mini-autobiography than a simple introduction. It wasn't bad, but it was NOT what I was expecting.

Once we get to the actual story, it was very similar to the movie. One of the days is spent with Ronald being sick with the flu. You can see why that day got axed from the movie. Then there is Ronald's obsession with big breasted women. He's a guy so I completely understand, but I don't particularly need to know that Ronald gets to work on time every day just so he can watch a girl walk to work and comment on her sartorial choices. Plus, the girl he hooks up with to stay under cover is apparently a horny nympho and jumps his bones every chance she gets. Eye roll.

You can tell this was dated and written by an amateur. In one of the chapters Ronald is supposed to meet up with somebody he knows to bring him in. The traitor gets involved and Ronald shoots the traitor in the leg with a 357magnum and the traitor shoots the guy Ronald trusts in a bid to make it look like Ronald is the traitor. Now, he does that with a 22 pistol. And it takes almost until the end of the book for the forensics guys to figure this out. For feth's sake!

The one thing that I did like about this better than the movie was how the good guys win. In the movie the Condor is pretty much told that he's powerless against the Machine and it doesn't matter what he does because he'll just be ignored or ground up. In the book the traitors are caught and killed.

Overall, I'm glad I read this but if someone were to ask me whether they should read the book or watch the movie, I'm going to go for the movie. It is just a better, tighter story.

★★★✬☆ show less