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State of Siege
 
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State of Siege (Paperback)

by Eric Ambler (Author)
4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)

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2 new from CDN$ 54.12 6 used from CDN$ 2.00

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All in all Steve Fraser had enjoyed his three-year stint in the former Dutch Southeast Asian colony of Sunda, and he’d been well compensated. But now he was looking forward to a last weekend in the capital before heading home. But Sunda was newly independent, and not entirely stable. An opposition faction with fundamentalist Islamic leanings was set on overthrowing the provisonal government. And instead of enjoying a sybaritic weekend with the Eurasian beauty Rosalie, Fraser finds himself trapped with her by a fanatical group who’ve taken over the country’s radio station and made their headquarters in his friend Jebb’s apartment. As the government launches a counterattack, the couple’s survival depends on their ability to dodge bullets and the shifting loyalties of the coup’s liuetenants. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.


From the Back Cover

“A superior Ambler tale of intrigue.” --San Francisco Chronicle

“As good as Ambler’s very best.” --The Observer

“A sophisticated , assured novel of third world politics where lives, as well as ideas, are armed and ideology creates a dangerous terrain.” -The Times

“All the elements that Ambler has dveloped to such an art are here.” --Chicago Tribune
 --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.
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4.5 out of 5 stars (2 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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5.0 out of 5 stars Ambler on the Post Colonial World, Feb 10 2004
By Marco Antonio Abarca (Colorado) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
This review is from: State of Siege (Paperback)
Eric Ambler became famous with the suspense novels he wrote in the late 1930's. He saw the evil of facism spreading throughout Europe and used contemporary events as the backdrops for his stories. His stories incorporate the struggle between the liberal values of the Western Democracies and the warped values of the facist police state. With perfect hind sight, we know that Eric Ambler got it right. He was no appeaser and had no problems in knowing and saying that Nazi Germany and Facist Italy were deeply evil states.

After the Second World War, Ambler's first books picked up many of the same themes he developed in his pre-war stories. The locale shifted from Western Europe to the newly Communist Eastern Europe and Balkans. Ambler knew evil when he saw facism and he recognized it again in the newly totalitarian Communist police states. Ambler was no fellow traveler and once again history showed that he was right in his assesment.

State of Seige was written in 1956 and takes place in a newly independent Southeast Asian nation. An Islamic Fundamentalist military coup is taking place, and an English engineer gets front row seats to the proceedings.

This book was published two years after the French defeat at Dien Bien Phu and during the middle of Britain's sucessful anti-communist struggle in Malaysia. With his usual nose for being in the right place at the right time, Ambler gives us his take on the newly indpendent nations of Southeast Asia. Without giving too much away, Ambler once again got it right in his assesment of history.

As usual, Ambler's writing is elegant. State of Seige is a straight forward story and lacks the usual Ambler twists and turns. It is both a great suspense story and an opportunity to see how an English writer viewed the end of colonialism. It is an interesting take on the post colonial world worthy of Graham Greene or Jean Larteguy.

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4.0 out of 5 stars Very good novel of suspense and intrigue., Sep 15 2000
By D. R. Schryer (Poquoson, VA United States) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   
Eric Ambler may not have invented the novel of suspense and intrigue but he certainly perfected it. Ambler's novels are analogous to Hitchcock's movies in that they present a sustained atmosphere of suspense, tension, and even fear with little explicit violence. Like Hitchcock, Ambler was quite simply the best there was in his genre and no one currently on the scene can seriously compete with either of these two masters.

State of Siege is not one of Ambler's best book, but it is quite good nevertheless. If you're looking for a good suspense novel and you don't require that it be drenched in gore, give this one a try. I think you'll come back to Ambler again and again.

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