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Summary
Summary
In this bold novel, Jason Elliot illuminates the dark recesses of the intelligence community during a crucial moment in history: the struggle to avoid a terrorist attack.
In the months before 9/11, former army officer Anthony Taverner is leading a quiet life in the English countryside. But his recruitment for a dangerous mission to Afghanistan by the British Secret Intelligence Service--better known as MI6--shatters his fragile peace and plunges him into the kaleidoscopic world of spying. Under the expert guidance of an old-school hero and veteran of the elite British Special Air Service, Taverner prepares to enter Taliban-controlled Afghanistan to destroy a cache of the CIA 's precious Stinger missiles before they can fall into the hands of al-Qaeda. In Britain and America, the intelligence community is poised for a catastrophe that must be kept secret from the public, one that Taverner must attempt to avert--all without exposing a dangerous secret all his own.
Based on real characters and drawing on the author's extensive firsthand knowledge of Afghanistan, this is a thriller of rare authenticity, providing sustained insight into influences surrounding 9/11 and raising questions about the role of intelligence agencies in historical events deliberately hidden from the public eye.
Author Notes
Jason Elliot is a notable, prize-winning travel writer , whose works include An Unexpected Light: Travels in Afghanistan, a New York Times bestseller and winner of the Thomas Cook/ Daily Telegraph Travel Book Award , and Mirrors of the Unseen: Journeys in Iran . The Network is his first novel.
Reviews (3)
Booklist Review
This intriguing first novel takes another look at the world of espionage in Afghanistan. A travel writer with firsthand knowledge of the area, Elliot effectively combines action and landscape in a thriller set prior to 9/11. Anthony Taverner, a recent recruit to MI6, the British Secret Service, is sent to Afghanistan to destroy several Stinger missiles before al-Qaeda can get its hands on them. With the help of a veteran and friend, Taverner undergoes extensive training to prepare himself for the deadly mission and the forbidding terrain. He quickly learns that the success of the mission will depend on cunning as well as conditioning: secrets abound in the spy world, and nothing is what it seems. The Afghan setting is vividly rendered, but the slow pace of the story will make it a hard sell for readers expecting something in the Vince Flynn or Brad Thor vein. For those wanting a realistic look behind the news, however, Elliot delivers the goods.--Ayers, Jeff Copyright 2010 Booklist
New York Review of Books Review
JASON ELLIOT'S first novel may be the ideal thriller for the age of "C.S.I." Forget Bondian femmes fatales and Bournian superassassins, and prepare to learn a great deal about steganographic code-making, the differences in the safety catches of various Soviet-era firearms and which side of a car to fling yourself out of should you come under roadside attack. It's safe to say that "The Network" is the first spy thriller in which the climactic action scene is decided in large part on the basis of whose vehicle has superior gear differentials. And yet, it's a lot of fun, this mix of spy chic and übergeek. An unlikely candidate for the espionage genre, Elliot is known primarily for "An Unexpected Light," a much-praised narrative of his travels in Afghanistan published a decade ago. And here he takes us back to that place and time - the innocent days when the words "Al Qaeda" and "Osama bin Laden" would have drawn blank stares at the water cooler. Elliot's protagonist is Anthony Taverner, a former British Army officer whose intelligence career foundered when his personal life sent him "spinning in a different direction." Now a divorced father and struggling landscaper, Anthony is brought back into the world of black ops through his connection to the titular Network, a loose coalition of figures in the British diplomatic, military and espionage services who are convinced that "the Western powers will no longer fight conventional wars because the enemy of the future will be more diffuse" and "grow out of the disaffected peoples of the Islamic world." Anthony's entry into this elect stems from his youth. Back in the 1980s, when the Soviet military was getting its nose bloodied by the Afghan mujahedeen, he and another restless British college student spent a few months in the country living the lives of AK-47-toting jihadists - certainly a more edifying spring break than Daytona Beach, if not necessarily more dangerous. Soon after, they were recruited to the Network by an old family friend of Anthony's, referred to only as the Baroness, With her affection for mnemonics and habit of dropping vaguely portentous pearls of wisdom, she's Kipling's Colonel Creighton by way of Yoda. Fast forward to 2000 or so, when Anthony is brought back into the great game for two parallel tasks: to destroy a cache of Stinger missiles hidden in a crumbling Afghan fortress and to find his college mate, who after a decade as a mole in a Qaeda terrorist outfit finally needs to come in from the cold. This means that Anthony must regain his fighting trim, so he reports to a kindly former commando (simply called H), who puts him through a series of physical, technological and mental tests that will disabuse any reader of the illusion that there's a Jason Bourne hidden inside us all. It's swell reading, but I wouldn't want to try it at home. Elliot is so good at describing the preparations that go into modern spycraft that when the real action begins - with Anthony heading off on short-term missions to Washington and Khartoum - you may be somewhat disappointed by the conventionality of the plotting and the cardboard nature of the new characters, particularly a C.I.A. cowgirl and a Sudanese beauty who seem to have been planted in this novel only as positioning for its sequel. But the balance is regained when Anthony finally stands in the shadows of the Hindu Kush amid the bombed-out desolation of Kabul. "The Network" won't give you any fantastic insights into Afghanistan's dissolution or Al Qaeda's broader goals, but it's a smart thriller for our time. And, as a bonus, I'll be fully prepared the next time I run into a Taliban checkpoint on the Long Island Expressway. The hero goes through a series of tests that disprove the notion there's a Jason Bourne hidden inside us all. Tobin Harshaw, an editor for The Times's Op-Ed page, writes a weekly column, The Thread, at nytimes.com/opinion.
Library Journal Review
British explosives expert "Ant" Taverner, a linguist and army veteran, is called back into service, this time by the British Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) for a pre-9/11 mission in the mountains of Afghanistan to retrieve Stinger missiles left over from the Soviet-Afghan conflict. MI6 believes that the weapons are headed for imminent use by Arab terrorists against civilian passenger planes. Taverner becomes part of "The Network," a subset of the British Special Air Service (SAS) designed to ensure supersecrecy, whose activities are not necessarily approved or even known by official MI6. Preparation for the mission includes psychological readiness training, firearms review, and unarmed defense. Verdict Acclaimed British travel writer Elliot's (An Unexpected Light: Travels in Afghanistan) debut novel is a spy thriller based on real events and real characters, featuring apparently authentic tradecraft, betrayals requisite in this genre, cliff-hanging suspense, and splendid depiction of locations. The author's style is lyrical, and he maintains a narrative discipline (first person, present tense) that few contemporary writers can do well. The complex plot with a world-saving objective, complete with a side-trip romance and lots of derring-do, will appeal to fans of literate spy fiction. Highly recommended.-Jonathan Pearce, California State Univ. at Stanislaus, Stockton (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.