Product Description

It is 1999 and Russia is on the edge of total implosion. Social and moral order has collapsed and what small semblance of control there is, is being imposed by mafialike criminal gangs. While public opinion in the West is largely indifferent, the political analysts are less sanguine - Russian meltdown will make the disintegration of the Balkans look like the collapse of a cup-cake. Out of the chaos, however, a single charismatic voice is starting to be heard - that of Igor Komarov, a visionary patriot who claims he can restore Russia's greatness and bring prosperity to the masses. He even woos Western political leaders with a rather more realistic analysis of the way forward for Russia. Komarov is set to win the next election when a document is smuggled into the British Embassy in Moscow. It's called The Black Manifesto and it appears to show Komarov's secret agenda - his political blueprint is really "Mein Kampf", the rebirth of Russia will be as a New Third Reich with Komarov as Fuhrer. But can the document be authenticated? And what can the Western Alliance's most secret Trilateral Commission do about it if it is? They need to find another voice the masses will listen to and obey rather than Komarov - an icon they can cleave to and trust. Once, not that long ago, he was called the Tsar. And so develops a thrilling and increasingly frightening adventure - Jason Monk, ex-CIA, who used to run agents into the Soviet Union, is recruited and slips back into Russia, into the desperate Moscow world of poverty, luxury, gangsters and prostitutes and underneath it all, the titanic power struggle to ensure the outcome of the forthcoming elections.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #131099 in Books
• Published on: 1997-07-03
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 540 pages

From the Back Cover
Russia 1999.

A once great nation teetering on the brink of anarchy.

A charismatic new leader offering hope to his country's disillusioned people - and an olive branch to his fellow world leaders.

A secret document smuggled to the West sends a chill down the spines of all who read it...

An ex-CIA agent returns to Moscow - his mission to prevent, at all costs, the tragedy of history repeating itself...

About the Author
Frederick Forsyth
Frederick Forsyth is the author of nine bestselling novels: The Day of the Jackal, The Odessa File, The Dogs of War, The Devil's Alternative, The Fourth Protocol, The Negotiator, The Deceiver, The Fist of God and Icon. His other works include The Biafra Story, The Shepherd, a short story collection, No Comebacks, and a sequel to The Phantom of the Opera, The Phantom of Manhattan. He has also collected together an anthology of flying tales, Great Flying Stories, which includes stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Roald Dahl, Len Deighton and H.G. Wells.

Customer Reviews

Too contrived and too cynical, but an interesting scenario
"Icon" was published in 1996, but the story takes place in 1999. In other words, the story describes a fictitious near future, which allowed Frederick Forsyth to create three years of fictitious world history leading up to a fictitious crisis in Russian politics.

In 1999 the presiding Russian President, modeled somewhat on Boris Yeltsin, dies of a heart attack. An interim president is appointed and presidential elections are scheduled for the end of the year. The leading candidate is Igor Komarov, an ultra-right-wing populist politician whose political program includes getting crime under control and improving living standards for the average Russian.

In reality, Igor Komarov is insane, and intends to make himself dictator and abolish democracy in Russia. He also intends to exterminate Jews and Chechens and other minorities, revitalize the Russian military and try to restore the old Soviet Union by re-occupying the former Soviet satellite countries.

In other words, Hitler II is about to become President of Russia.

This is an interesting scenario, and perhaps not totally improbable. And it is upon this interesting scenario that Frederick Forsyth brews an equally interesting story about how the British and the Americans go about trying to sabotage Igor Komarov's election.

Unfortunately, the whole story becomes rather contrived. A complex plan is concocted (the obvious simple solution is rejected for reasons that don't make sense) and then everything slowly but surely falls into place. One keeps reading not so much because you want to know if the good guys or the bad guys will win, but because you're curious about exactly how complicated a scenario Frederick Forsyth has dreamed up!

The bad news is that the plot is so contrived that the story becomes unrealistic. We all know that in reality that very complicated plans never work as expected - something always goes wrong at some point, but not in "Icon".

Another problem is that there is a cynical element in the story. An innocent person is sacrificed in a completely unnecessary way. Also, some of the flashbacks seem to be unnecessarily cynical.

The best parts of this book are actually the very detailed and interesting pieces of background information. For example, the story of Aldrich Ames, who betrayed many CIA agents to the Russians, is fascinating. The political situation in Russia and daily life in Moscow in the mid- to late 1990's is also intriguing, as is the information about the KGB and the Kremlin, etc.

I was torn between giving three or four stars to "Icon". What tipped the scales downward was the ridiculous "Council of Lincoln", in which Frederick Forsyth indulges in some major-league name-dropping. A secret club with Margaret Thatcher and George Bush Sr. among the members? Good grief!

Still, "Icon" was a fairly interesting read, although perhaps not so much for the reasons that Frederick Forsyth intended.

Rennie Petersen

A notch above the usual spy novel trash
When I read a spy novel by the likes of Frederick Forsythe or John Le Carré, the excellence of such a work reminds me how much trash is written by other authors in the same genre.

Forsythe unfolds the events in ICON's first half by switching back and forth between two timelines. The first, in 1999, finds the British Embassy in Moscow coming into possession of the "Black Manifesto". This document, written by Igor Komarov, reveals his secret plan for his rule of Russia once he wins the presidential election scheduled for January 2000. Since Komarov is far ahead in the polls, and his Manifesto espouses both military aggression against surrounding countries and genocide against certain Russian minorities, the Brits are understandably worried. The second timeline, from 1983 to 1994, follows the upwardly mobile career path of CIA officer Jason Monk, as he becomes case officer for several key spies within the Soviet military, intelligence and scientific communities. Over time, Monk watches helplessly as his agents are betrayed by the real-life CIA turncoat Aldrich Ames, and subsequently captured, tortured and executed by the sadistic KGB Colonel Anatoli Grishin. The second half of the book has Monk, separated from the CIA since 1994, returning to Russia in 1999 on behalf of Western interests to discredit Komarov and destabilize his campaign for the Russian presidency. In the process, he matches wits with Grishin, now serving as Komarov's Chief of Security.

One of the strengths of this novel, besides the intricate plot and fine cast, is the (apparently factual) history of the Aldrich Ames betrayal, an absolute fiasco on the part of the CIA. This sort of background information adds immeasurably to any novel, yet isn't a part of many. In my mind, this writing technique is one of the reasons why Forsythe is at the top of his profession.

ICON proceeds at a crisp, clear and riveting pace. It was a book that was difficult to put down in deference to life's more mundane responsibilities. My only criticism, and one that prevents me from awarding 5 stars, was the heavy-handed ending lacking the finesse of what came before. It was as if Forsythe suddenly found himself faced with a publisher's deadline, and he had to achieve closure quickly. The final confrontation between Monk and Grishin was both clumsy and anticlimactic. Despite these closing flaws, however, the novel is top drawer.

Everything you could want in a political thriller.
An absolutely inspired book and most definitely one I wish I had written. The plot twists are ingenius and certainly kept me guessing. This is a book which can read over and over again. I have-twice.