The Afghan / Frederick Forsyth

The Afghan's hero is once again Mike Martin, British Special Forces veteran who has already starred in one of Forsyth's novels: The Fist of God (Which is also summarized in this blog).

When information of a pending Al-Qaeda attack reaches western intelligence, Martin is called back from retirement.

He is about to try to assume the identity of an Al-Qaeda operative who is detained by the Americans and try to infiltrate Al-Qaeda. The Afghan, Izmat Khan, is a Muslim zealot and a worshipper of Bin Laden. Martin knows him from when he served in Afghanistan and aided the local fighters against the Russains. He is fluent in Pasthun and Arabic and has an oriental appearance. He is also adept at the arabic and Muslim customs as he grew up in Iraq.

The Americans stage a release of Khan and Martin slips in as the terrorist. He manages to make contact with Al-Qaeda and is brought into a secret terror operation, though he is kept in the dark regarding the exact nature of it.

As Al-Qaeda plan and start to execute the worst terror attack in their history, Martin is faced with the realization that he will have to stop them alone.

Review: As with all of Forsyth's work, this is meticulously researched and presented. Again, Forsyth has mellowed somewhat over the years so this novel lacks the poignancy of his earlier work, but it is still a worthwhile read. Make sure to read The Fist of God first, though, so will know all the major characters.

Fist of God / Frederick Forsyth

The fist of God is a novel by acclaimed writer, Frederick Forsyth. The novel revolves around Iraq's invasion of Kuwait in 1990.

The world is taken by surprise as Iraq takes control of Kuwait with its rich oil fields. As tales of atrocities start coming outof Kuwait the leaders of the west begin assembling a coalition in order to force Iraq to withdraw.

Iraq's dictator president, SaddamHussein, threatens to strike a massive blow at anyone who will dare stand against him and claims Kuwait as an ancient part of Iraq.

Britain and the USA find themselves without any real intelligence inside Iraq, but the Israeli Mossad lets them in on a source, codenamed Jericho, it has inside Iraq's regime. This source get wind of something called the Kubth-of-Allah, or the fist of god. What this is he is not sure, but the western allies are determined to discover for they fear that this is a terrible weapon.

British special trooper, Mike Martin, who was born in Iraq and spent a great deal of his childhood there and even has an arabic appearance, is sent on a most dangerous mission, first into Kuwait to stirlife into its fledgling resistance movement and to learn of Iraqi army deplotments and later into the heart of thestorm, Baghdad itself.

Martin overcomes great difficulties in alluding Iraq's efficient secret police and makes contact with Jericho.

Western scientists, poring over great amounts of information and correlating this with Martin's discoveries,come to a dreadful conclusion: with half a million soldiers of the coalition stationed in Saudi Arabia, awaiting the command to strike at Iraq, it is feared the Iraq has managed to develop a nuclear weapon and that it has built a supergun able to launch it. Saddam's apparent madness and his history of use of weapons of mass destruction further increase the level of fear. The lives of half a million troops are at stake as Martin struggles to find out where the supergun is located. As the coalition begins its aerial attack and the date of the ground invasion of Iraq becomes imminent, so does Martin's quest become crucial.

As with all of Forsyth's novels, the Fist of God blends fact with fiction in a seamless manner. While reading it, one cannot but ask himself whether or not this was indeed the case, and how close did the first Gulf War come to be a horrific disaster.

Overall, a very entertaining read, (though Forsyth has written better ones) and recommended to whomever likes spy novels.