The Looking Glass War Audiobook By John Le Carré cover art

The Looking Glass War

George Smiley, Book 4

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The Looking Glass War

By: John Le Carré
Narrated by: Simon Vance
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About this listen

John Le Carré dominates the espionage form as no other writer has since Eric Ambler was at his peak. —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

In years past, the Circus oversaw political matters while their counterpart, the Department, dealt with intelligence more military in nature. These days, however, the Circus' influence looms large, while the Department is relegated to the doldrums of bureaucracy and red tape.

With the Cold War at a fever pitch, though, a potential assignment is only ever one defector-turned-informant away. Alerted to the possibility of missile activity from the Soviets on the West German border, the long stagnant Department leaps at the chance to restore some of their cache in the intelligence community. Director Leclerc hunts down former field agent Fred Leiser and sends him beyond the wall to East Germany—tying the Department's fate to his.

The Looking Glass War follows the Circus' foil in the British intelligence community: the Department. With its nuanced portrayal of the nature of espionage—in all its contradictions—the fourth in John le Carré's George Smiley series is a compelling spy tale that brings the dangers of nostalgia front and center.

©2013 John Le Carré (P)2024 Dreamscape Media
Espionage International Mystery & Crime Political Suspense War Military Carnival Cold War
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What it's really like, not just entertainment

It's not for the easy thrills of reading a classic spy novel. It's for understanding the gritty realities underlying current spy industry and by extension, the military industrial complex. The novel reveals the hard truth of how government organizations can feed themselves on their own illusions, use people and lives as expendable capital, and be bumbling and incompetent. It is a sad commentary on how hollow the spy industry really is. And perhaps entire military and information cultures.

Le Carré himself says that, this novel is to de-glamorize the industry. To show how absolutely pointless and even destructive it is. How it takes our humanity as something like cannon fodder for a pointless war. But that is not entertainment; it is a cold stark reality. Hence, many reviewers do not like the novel.

It is important information, a reality we need to face.

It is a hard disheartening read, but worth it in order to see a side of "war" and "security" that is seldom portrayed.

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Shoddy

The problem is not that it's too negative about spying, or not entertaining; it's that its badly written - phoned in, unbelievable. It's hard to believe that Le Carre wrote it - all of his talents rendered mediocre or worse. Not even AI is capable of something this poorly imagined.

I love his work as a whole; this one was a surprising disappointment

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