Review: Tragic, Thought-Provoking, and Intense - WHAT A BOOK!
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 12 4, 2013
This was definitely one of my favorite spy/government/thriller novels that I've read in recent years. It wasn't packed with common cliches and normal spy thriller plot lines, which is possibly due to its very real and relevant story that could honestly affect any of the tens of thousands of people who actively work in the War on Terror. It was a very raw take on human struggle, and ideological differences, the like of which you rarely see in modern fiction. It was brutal and unafraid, showing that the author either has an intimate understanding of human struggle, potentially in a military way, or at least has connected with someone in the past who has clued him in to the visceral horrors of conflict.More than the action of the story itself, I really enjoyed the characters, particularly what they offered to the reader in terms of excitement, unpredictability, and attitude. I truly appreciate the focus on character development, because too often, this genre is somewhat hackneyed, and the characters always seem slightly the same. With The Girl from Kandahar, I feel that Ward spends an appropriate amount of time getting the readers invested in the story, rather than simply attracting them with pure action or drama. I read one of Ward's other books, and I remembered how much importance he put on the quality and realism of his characters; he has carried that on into this book as well, which made a number of the plot twists and events even more believable, simply because I already believed in the characters. It takes a very talented writer to swiftly progress a novel in an interesting way, while still maintaining that loyalty to solid and full-bodied characters, but Ward manages to do it! The book may be tragic at times, but it is gripping nonetheless! A Great Read!