John tells his story with skill and a knack for pithy phrases such as 'Her face was as plain as a blister' ... The author offers facts about North Korea that may surprise some readers ... Star of the North builds to a gripping climax ... It’s an exciting ending to a novel that, in addition to being highly entertaining, suggests the difficulties we face in dealing with a small, distant nation with values and beliefs so different from our own.
The storylines of these three characters interweave, providing an exhilarating, intriguing plot. The novel ends with a fiery chase brimming with unusual twists and turns. Through it all, the reader is unexpectedly educated about realities in the hermit realm of North Korea. John offers a fresh, informed look at the oppression, corruption and widespread misery caused by Kim Jong-il, father of Kim Jong-un, North Korea’s current totalitarian dictator. The novel, grounded in facts, is intellectually stimulating because of this new, and sometimes maddening, information about life in this regime. This is a smart, sophisticated, topical spy story hard to put down.
How these characters’ lives unpredictably intersect is told with drama and flair by Mr. John, a Londoner whose flexible style is equally at home describing a dictator’s luxury train or the psychic depths of an icy gulag. While CIA agent Jenna, with her seductive allure and her hand-to-hand combat skills, comes close at times to seeming like a female James Bond, Star of the North is saved from caricature by passages of the grimmest realism and welcome bursts of humanism and hope.
John moves between Jenna’s perspective, that of a North Korean official sent to negotiate with the west, and that of a North Korean woman disillusioned with the regime in a fascinating, disturbing insight into this secretive country, from its labour camps to its executions. And Williams is a gratifyingly competent protagonist to follow.
Conceived on the author's 2012 trip to North Korea, this well-researched, fast-paced, and pertinent thriller will keep readers' attention from start to finish. Readers of all sorts—whether spy fiction fans, thriller aficionados, or book junkies looking for a fantastic read—will enjoy.
The lives of these people collide in a harrowing thriller that exposes an amazingly corrupt regime that embraces savage brutality and nearly every kind of lucrative criminal enterprise. John concludes with a fascinating 10-page bibliographic essay supporting his claims, but Star of the North would be a superior thriller even if it was pure fiction.
This outstanding thriller from John (Flight from Berlin) brings to life the seldom-seen underbelly of North Korea ... John excels at drawing the everyday details of life in a closed society—the drug use of the lower classes, the paranoia and fear of those who have gained access to the upper ranks, the omnipotence of the Bowibu, the state security force. Those seeking a realistic, highly readable look at North Korea will be richly rewarded.
Welsh novelist John (Flight from Berlin, 2009), who visited North Korea in 2012, offers an informed look at the oppression, corruption, and widespread suffering under Kim Jong-il, father of Kim Jong-un. But as entertaining as the converging plots can be, the book is too lightweight to be taken as seriously as it wants. And the author is a bit too understanding of the murderous Kim and his need to launch rockets. A sometimes-suspenseful but never gripping novel about North Korea circa 2010.
