Enigma: Amazon.ca: Robert Harris: Books

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Customer Reviews

43 Reviews

5 star:		(18)
4 star:		(18)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

Average Customer Review

4.2 out of 5 stars (43 customer reviews)

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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Communicates the Challenges, Captures the Thrill, Oct 22 2001

By

Robert D. Steele (Oakton, VA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Enigma (Mass Market Paperback)

For captivating true life signals intelligence there are several books one can go to, including those by James Bamford on the American system (Puzzle Palace, Body of Secrets) but for really getting into the enormity of the challenges and the thrill of the individual code-breakers when they succeeded, this is the book I recommend.

It completely ignores the enormous contributions made by the Poles (who gave the English two Enigma machines at the beginning of the war) as well as the heroic deeds of Tommy Brown (youngest George Medal winner at 16, survived with code materials taken from a sinking German ship), but I have found no better novel to communicate the absolute goose-bump emotional roller-coaster that the Bletchley Park gang experienced.

If anything, this novel convey a human side to code-breaking that offsets the modern-day obsession with massive computers.

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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Read Harris and Understand, Jun 8 2001

By

"de-mon" (Heidelberg, Germany) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Enigma (Mass Market Paperback)

Harris has described a time in history when Britain still was able to produce genius but lacked the wherewithall to capitalize. The book describes the hardships of fighting World War II on a shoe string and the heroism of the various cogs in the wheel. It is one of my five favorite books and I have read it many times over, finding something new each and every time. Highly recomended.

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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Great book!, Dec 3 2000

By

Robert Steele "Culture vulture" (London, England) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Enigma (Mass Market Paperback)

Robert Harris has done it again, after the triumph of Fatherland he has written another masterpiece thriller about the British codebreakers during The Battle of the Atlantic. Harris's hero Tom Jericho is a great mathematician and codebreaker at Bletchley Park who is out of the game due to a nervous breakdown, but is called back to Bletchley Park when the Allies find out that the Germans have changed their codes all of a sudden. The reason Jericho is called back is that since he broke the Germans's code last time, his superiors think he can do it again, but there is another element that puzzles Jericho: The girl he was having a relationship with, Claire Rommily, has stolen some cryptograms and disappeared into thin air! Suddenly the Forign Office begin an investigation on her, is there a spy in Bletchley Park? Jericho (with the help of Claire's housemate Hester Wallace) intends to find out just that. It would be a crime for me to give away any more. One of the things I loved the best in this book is Tom Jericho's character, he is a normal human being. Not Superman (as some of my favourite authors tend to do, Tom Clancy, Frederick Forsyth, Robert Ludlum etc.). He is not particularly good looking(although I hear that Dougray Scott has been cast as him), suave or strong. I believe that with this book, Harris has proved himself to be the succesor to John LeCarre in passing on moral messages without actually writing them out loud! Please continue to delight us Mr. Harris!

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Most recent customer reviews

2.0 out of 5 stars Enigmatic technology and confusing plot
The seven sections of the book are introduced by one definition from "A Lexicon of Cryptography". These should have been in the front of the book rather than dispersed since most... Read more

Published 24 months ago by S Svendsen

4.0 out of 5 stars Solid writing--great plot
ENIGMA' by Robert Harris, is a mix of history and fiction blended nicely together to make a very interesting book. Read more

Published on Feb 27 2005 by D.Haines