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A review by odin45mp
Shibumi by Trevanian
2.0
This and its prequel were name dropped in a book on Hideo Kojima's favorites and influences, and I spied it in the background as a prop in last summer's Bullet Train, so I decided to check it out.
The first half, where we cut back and forth between learning of superspy/superassassin Nicholai Hel's origin story, and of The Company's desire to either put him under their thumb, or take him out. Great if slightly verbose buildup. A few pieces felt painfully dated, due to shifting geopolitics, misogyny, and racism. But there are some rather astute observations made about man's reliance on oil, destruction of nature, and how governments and organizations are willing to deal behind closed doors for the right price, and how this is dangerous and deadly.
Then we hit the second half, which slows down as we learn about spelunking and how mindblowingly amazing Hel is at sex - he can ruin sex for someone for life if he unleashes his full abilities. Stage four sex ability, or something. The action sequence in the last fifth is quite good and worthy of a Bond novel, but after we had a great and sympathetic buildup in the first half, Hel's situational awareness and sex-god status read like spy parody and took me out of the story.
I can see why Kojima loves it, between the politics and action, but it descends too far into self-parody or genre-commentary for me to recommend it. At least with James Bond novels I have nostalgia for when I first encountered them as a teen. I lack that here, and I struggle to overcome the novel's flaws as a result.
The first half, where we cut back and forth between learning of superspy/superassassin Nicholai Hel's origin story, and of The Company's desire to either put him under their thumb, or take him out. Great if slightly verbose buildup. A few pieces felt painfully dated, due to shifting geopolitics, misogyny, and racism. But there are some rather astute observations made about man's reliance on oil, destruction of nature, and how governments and organizations are willing to deal behind closed doors for the right price, and how this is dangerous and deadly.
Then we hit the second half, which slows down as we learn about spelunking and how mindblowingly amazing Hel is at sex - he can ruin sex for someone for life if he unleashes his full abilities. Stage four sex ability, or something. The action sequence in the last fifth is quite good and worthy of a Bond novel, but after we had a great and sympathetic buildup in the first half, Hel's situational awareness and sex-god status read like spy parody and took me out of the story.
I can see why Kojima loves it, between the politics and action, but it descends too far into self-parody or genre-commentary for me to recommend it. At least with James Bond novels I have nostalgia for when I first encountered them as a teen. I lack that here, and I struggle to overcome the novel's flaws as a result.