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The Looking Glass War
- Narrated by: Michael Jayston
- Series: Smiley, Book 4
- Length: 9 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged Audiobook
- Categories: Mystery, Thriller & Suspense, Thriller & Suspense
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A Murder of Quality
- By: John le Carré
- Narrated by: Michael Jayston
- Length: 4 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
George Smiley is one of the most brilliantly realised characters in British fiction. Bespectacled, tubby, eternally middle-aged, and deceptively ordinary, he has a mind like a steel trap and is said to possess 'the cunning of Satan and the conscience of a virgin'. Miss Ailsa Brimley is in a quandary. She's received a peculiar letter from Mrs Stella Rode, saying that she fears her husband – an assistant master at Carne School - is trying to kill her. Reluctant to go to the police, Miss Brimley calls upon her old wartime colleague, George Smiley.
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A Murder of Quality
- By jenny on 29-03-2022
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Call for the Dead
- By: John le Carré
- Narrated by: Michael Jayston
- Length: 4 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
This novel, set in London in the late 1950s, finds George Smiley engaged in the humdrum job of security vetting. But when a Foreign Office civil servant commits suicide after an apparently unproblematic interview, Smiley is baffled. Refusing to believe that Fennan shot himself soon after making a cup of cocoa and asking the exchange to telephone him in the morning, Smiley decides to investigate – only to uncover a murderous conspiracy.
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Enjoyable first book in the series
- By Bevan Lewis on 22-10-2015
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The Honourable Schoolboy
- The Karla Trilogy, Book 2
- By: John le Carré
- Narrated by: Michael Jayston
- Length: 20 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
George Smiley has become chief of the battered British Secret Service. The betrayals of a Soviet double agent have riddled the spy network, and Smiley wants revenge. He chooses his weapon: Jerry Westerby, "The Honourable Schoolboy", a passionate lover, and a seasoned, reckless secret agent. Westerby is pointed east, to Hong Kong. So begins the terrifying game.
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So good, Reading them all.
- By Anonymous User on 28-01-2020
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Smiley's People
- The Karla Trilogy, Book 3
- By: John le Carré
- Narrated by: Michael Jayston
- Length: 14 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
George Smiley was summoned from his dubious retirement by two seemingly unconnected events - an old woman in Paris is promised the return of a daughter she will never see, and a handover is to take place on a steamer in Hamburg.
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A satisfying conclusion to a great series
- By David Robinson on 15-07-2015
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Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
- By: John le Carré
- Narrated by: Michael Jayston
- Length: 12 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Mr George Smiley is small, podgy, and at best, middle-aged. He is disillusioned, wrestles with idleness, and has been deserted by his beautiful wife. He is also compassionate, ruthless, and a senior British intelligence officer in short-lived retirement from the Circus, the British Secret Service organisation situated in London. But Moscow centre has infiltrated a mole into the Circus, and it's more than likely the perpetrator is Karla, Smiley's old adversary and his opposite number in Moscow.
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Sigint and comint
- By j on 13-01-2021
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The Spy Who Came in from the Cold
- By: John le Carré
- Narrated by: Michael Jayston
- Length: 7 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Alec Leamas has ended his time in Berlin. Or his time has ended him. The last of his Eastern agents has been killed, like the others, by the Abteilung. Back at the Circus, Leamas is put on the shelf. He turns to drunkenness and dishonesty and finally disappears from view, a seemingly broken man. But unknown to anyone except George Smiley and his master, Control, Leamas has been given his toughest mission ever. He will have to be himself but more so.
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Third reading and listening ....still most brilliant.
- By david x kelly on 09-03-2016
-
A Murder of Quality
- By: John le Carré
- Narrated by: Michael Jayston
- Length: 4 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
George Smiley is one of the most brilliantly realised characters in British fiction. Bespectacled, tubby, eternally middle-aged, and deceptively ordinary, he has a mind like a steel trap and is said to possess 'the cunning of Satan and the conscience of a virgin'. Miss Ailsa Brimley is in a quandary. She's received a peculiar letter from Mrs Stella Rode, saying that she fears her husband – an assistant master at Carne School - is trying to kill her. Reluctant to go to the police, Miss Brimley calls upon her old wartime colleague, George Smiley.
-
-
A Murder of Quality
- By jenny on 29-03-2022
-
Call for the Dead
- By: John le Carré
- Narrated by: Michael Jayston
- Length: 4 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This novel, set in London in the late 1950s, finds George Smiley engaged in the humdrum job of security vetting. But when a Foreign Office civil servant commits suicide after an apparently unproblematic interview, Smiley is baffled. Refusing to believe that Fennan shot himself soon after making a cup of cocoa and asking the exchange to telephone him in the morning, Smiley decides to investigate – only to uncover a murderous conspiracy.
-
-
Enjoyable first book in the series
- By Bevan Lewis on 22-10-2015
-
The Honourable Schoolboy
- The Karla Trilogy, Book 2
- By: John le Carré
- Narrated by: Michael Jayston
- Length: 20 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
George Smiley has become chief of the battered British Secret Service. The betrayals of a Soviet double agent have riddled the spy network, and Smiley wants revenge. He chooses his weapon: Jerry Westerby, "The Honourable Schoolboy", a passionate lover, and a seasoned, reckless secret agent. Westerby is pointed east, to Hong Kong. So begins the terrifying game.
-
-
So good, Reading them all.
- By Anonymous User on 28-01-2020
-
Smiley's People
- The Karla Trilogy, Book 3
- By: John le Carré
- Narrated by: Michael Jayston
- Length: 14 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
George Smiley was summoned from his dubious retirement by two seemingly unconnected events - an old woman in Paris is promised the return of a daughter she will never see, and a handover is to take place on a steamer in Hamburg.
-
-
A satisfying conclusion to a great series
- By David Robinson on 15-07-2015
-
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
- By: John le Carré
- Narrated by: Michael Jayston
- Length: 12 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Mr George Smiley is small, podgy, and at best, middle-aged. He is disillusioned, wrestles with idleness, and has been deserted by his beautiful wife. He is also compassionate, ruthless, and a senior British intelligence officer in short-lived retirement from the Circus, the British Secret Service organisation situated in London. But Moscow centre has infiltrated a mole into the Circus, and it's more than likely the perpetrator is Karla, Smiley's old adversary and his opposite number in Moscow.
-
-
Sigint and comint
- By j on 13-01-2021
-
The Spy Who Came in from the Cold
- By: John le Carré
- Narrated by: Michael Jayston
- Length: 7 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Alec Leamas has ended his time in Berlin. Or his time has ended him. The last of his Eastern agents has been killed, like the others, by the Abteilung. Back at the Circus, Leamas is put on the shelf. He turns to drunkenness and dishonesty and finally disappears from view, a seemingly broken man. But unknown to anyone except George Smiley and his master, Control, Leamas has been given his toughest mission ever. He will have to be himself but more so.
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Third reading and listening ....still most brilliant.
- By david x kelly on 09-03-2016
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The Secret Pilgrim
- By: John le Carré
- Narrated by: Michael Jayston
- Length: 13 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
The Berlin Wall is down, the Cold War is over, but the world's second oldest profession is very much alive. Smiley accepts an invitation to dine with the eager young men and women of the Circus' latest intake; and over coffee and brandy, by flickering firelight, he beguilingly offers them his personal thoughts on espionage past, present, and future. In doing so, he prompts one of his former Circus colleagues into a searching examination of his own eventful secret life.
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Alright, I guess.
- By Shawn Pickard on 04-07-2018
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A Legacy of Spies
- By: John le Carré
- Narrated by: Tom Hollander
- Length: 8 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Peter Guillam, staunch colleague and disciple of George Smiley of the British Secret Service, is living out his old age on the family farmstead in Brittany when a letter summons him to London. The reason? His Cold War past has come back to claim him. Intelligence operations that were once the toast of secret London and involved such characters as Alec Leamas, Jim Prideaux, George Smiley and Peter Guillam himself are to be scrutinised under disturbing criteria by a generation with no memory of the Cold War.
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outstanding
- By Hugo on 08-01-2019
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The Russia House
- By: John le Carré
- Narrated by: Michael Jayston
- Length: 13 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
It is the third summer of perestroika. Niki Landau, philanderer and travelling rep, attends the first Moscow audio fair and is asked by beautiful young Katya to take a parcel back to England. It’s addressed to Barley Blair, jazz-player and drinker, and contains information vital to the defence of the West. But times and heroes are changing. And Barley Blair is a man who makes his own rules of engagement.
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Enjoyable listening
- By Anonymous User on 02-02-2018
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A Perfect Spy
- By: John le Carré
- Narrated by: Michael Jayston
- Length: 20 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Magnus Pym, counsellor at the British Embassy in Vienna, has suddenly vanished, believed defected. The chase is on for a missing husband, a devoted father, and a life-time secret agent. Pym's life, it is revealed, is entirely made up of secrets. The race is on to find the perfect spy.
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Dreary
- By KillerRooster on 01-07-2022
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A Small Town in Germany
- By: John le Carré
- Narrated by: Michael Jayston
- Length: 13 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
The British Embassy in Bonn is up in arms. Her Majesty's financially troubled government is seeking admission to Europe's Common Market just as anti-British factions are rising to power in Germany. Rioters are demanding reunification, and the last thing the Crown can afford is a scandal. Then Leo Harting - an embassy nobody - goes missing with a case full of confidential files. London sends Alan Turner to control the damage, but he soon realises that neither side really wants Leo found - alive.
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Poor Le Carré, great Jayston.
- By Anonymous User on 18-03-2020
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The Little Drummer Girl
- By: John le Carré
- Narrated by: Michael Jayston
- Length: 20 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Lured by Israeli intelligence into the world of espionage, Charlie, a young actress, is plunged into a deceptive and delicate trap to ensnare an elusive Palestinian terrorist.
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Terrific
- By Amazon Customer on 15-11-2020
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The Tailor of Panama
- By: John le Carré
- Narrated by: Michael Jayston
- Length: 13 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Harry Pendel is the charismatic proprietor of Pendel and Braithwaite Limitada of Panama, through whose doors everyone who is anyone in Central America passes. Andrew Osnard, mysterious and fleshy, is a spy. His secret mission is two-pronged: to keep a watchful eye on the political manoeuvrings leading up to the American handover of the Panama Canal on 31st December 1999; and to secure for himself the immense private fortune that has until now churlishly eluded him.
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The Pigeon Tunnel
- Stories from My Life
- By: John le Carré
- Narrated by: John le Carré
- Length: 11 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
'Out of the secret world I once knew, I have tried to make a theatre for the larger worlds we inhabit. First comes the imagining, then the search for reality. Then back to the imagining, and to the desk where I'm sitting now.' The Pigeon Tunnel, John le Carré's memoir and his first work of nonfiction, is a thrilling journey into the worlds of his 'secret sharers' - the men and women who inspired some of his most enthralling novels - and a testament to the author's extraordinary engagement with the last half century.
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A writer, actor,story teller of rare talent & compassion.
- By john m blandford on 31-07-2018
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Silverview
- By: John le Carré
- Narrated by: Toby Jones
- Length: 6 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Julian Lawndsley has renounced his high-flying job in the City for a simpler life running a bookshop in a small English seaside town. But only a couple of months into his new career, Julian's evening is disrupted by a visitor. Edward, a Polish émigré living in Silverview, the big house on the edge of town, seems to know a lot about Julian's family and is rather too interested in the inner workings of his modest new enterprise. When a letter turns up at the door of a spy chief in London warning him of a dangerous leak, the investigations lead him to this quiet town by the sea.
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One of the best
- By Linda on 09-11-2021
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A Most Wanted Man
- By: John le Carré
- Narrated by: Michael Jayston
- Length: 11 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
A half-starved young Russian man is smuggled into Hamburg at dead of night. He has an improbable amount of cash secreted in a purse around his neck. He is a devout Muslim. Or is he? He says his name is Issa.... Annabel, an idealistic young German civil-rights lawyer, determines to save Issa from deportation. In pursuit of his mysterious past, she confronts the incongruous Tommy Brue, the 60-year-old scion of Brue Frères, a failing British bank based in Hamburg.
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Disappointing
- By Amazon Customer on 17-06-2019
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The Night Manager
- By: John le Carré
- Narrated by: Michael Jayston
- Length: 19 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
The night manager is Jonathan, a veteran of clandestine operations. In flight from a failed marriage and his own past, he has taken refuge in the luxury hotel trade. Yet he finds no escape from his demons. Driven by a desire for atonement and by an inherited patriotism, Jonathan allows himself to be recruited as a British secret agent with a mission to expose the murderer of the woman he himself betrayed. His odyssey takes him across Britain and Canada to the Caribbean and the jungles of Panama. But there are more treacherous jungles still in Whitehall and Washington.
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Lost at Sea
- By Anna Spencer on 07-11-2017
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Our Game
- By: John le Carré
- Narrated by: Michael Jayston
- Length: 12 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
At 48, Tim Cranmer is a secret servant in retirement, free to devote himself to his manor house, his vineyard and his young mistress, Emma. But a rival in love disappears with Emma, and Tim sets off in pursuit.
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John le Carre excels. Again.
- By Anonymous User on 19-07-2019
Publisher's Summary
Once, the distinctions were clear: the Circus handled all things political while the Department dealt with matters military. But over the years the power and influence had passed to the Circus. Now suddenly the department had a job on its hands. Uncertain evidence suggested Soviet missiles being put in place near the German border, while vital film had gone missing and a courier was dead. The Department had to find an old hand to prove its mettle. Fred Leiser, German-speaking Pole turned Englishman and a qualified radio-operator, must be called back to the colours and sent East…
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What listeners say about The Looking Glass War
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- B L Cornwell
- 19-06-2020
Bleak but compelling, fantastic narration
Great novel superbly read. Sadly close to the reality of espionage and warning of the consequences of government bungling.
1 person found this helpful
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- Miss cakes
- 30-07-2022
Michael Jayston. I love you
I have been getting through Le Carre and loving them but Michael Jayston's beautiful narration has spoiled hard copy books for me. I prefer to hear his dulcet tones than read it myself. In terms of story, this wasn't my favourite, but still a good yarn, but Jayston's voice made it worthwhile.
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- Lisa Schack-Evans
- 05-09-2021
Great story
A great story, well narrated by Michael Jayston, whose voice adds so much to it.
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- Steve Hocking
- 03-01-2018
Great presentation
I enjoyed the presentation of the story, the narration was superb. The story I enjoyed less. It’s a tale from another era, it’s engaging but ultimately sad and depressing. It’s not one I would ever want to revisit. For die hard fans only.
11 people found this helpful
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Overall

- Kindle Customer
- 14-03-2013
The Looking Glass War
This is another brilliant novel by le Carre. It is beautifully written and narrated, to the extent that you almost feel that you are there. I really enjoy the sense of history, little comments like working out the conversion from yards to meters, that really draws you into the book. The plot, as always, is suspense filled and engaging and is revealed through the eyes of several different charters, with different priorities and view points about the unfolding events. Le Carre has the ability to make the reader care abut his characters, regardless if the reaction is positive or negative and writes in a way that most often inspires sympathy for opposing characters turning things that are seen as faults by one character into an understandable reaction due to background and situation by another. I usually prefer to read fantasy but picked up a Le Carre in my teens and the sheer quality of his writing keeps me unable to put his books down, despite this being and area I am usually uninterested in reading.
20 people found this helpful
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- FD
- 23-10-2017
Not one of Le Carré’s best
This is a rather protracted novel. What would have been an excellent short story has been over extended with the result that rather a lot of nothing happens for much of the book. The narrative arc shares some similarities with The Spy Who Came in From the Cold, but I found it far less compelling.
5 people found this helpful
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- Timothy C
- 27-06-2018
Better than the reading by Le Carre!
Seeing the mixed reviews I nearly didn't buy this, especially as I already had the earlier edited version (on cassette) narrated by the author himself - which is ok but not earth shattering... I'm so glad I took the plunge. Michael Jayston is a superb reader, with excellent voice characterisation. The writing is first rate, and although not a thrill fest, the detail in the story is totally believable. Best advice - don't visit East Germany wearing hair oil!
2 people found this helpful
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- eatough1999
- 22-11-2017
Dull
I usually enjoy le Carré, but try as I might my mind wanders off.. giving up on this one.
3 people found this helpful
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- Kim
- 21-07-2015
Coming into form
Where does The Looking Glass War rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?
about midway
Who was your favorite character and why?
Harry, he was the most realistic.
Have you listened to any of Michael Jayston’s other performances? How does this one compare?
yes, it's on a par, he is an excellent reader.
Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?
no
Any additional comments?
This comment is spoiler, don't read if you have yet to enjoy the story!
I felt the story's premise was good, but the lead character had no good reason for killing the guard which led to his demise and the failure of the mission, which seemed to be a put up job by the Russians anyway, but this was never clarified, perhaps intentionally. However it seemed a bit contrived towards the end, still very good, but not up to the standard of drama later achieved in the likes of tinker tailor and smiley's people.
3 people found this helpful
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- Harry Attwell
- 29-06-2022
Fantastic
Another brilliant entry to the Smiley canon. Michael Jayston is a wonderful reader and at times makes you feel like you're listening to a radio drama, not just a novel.
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- Lisa
- 17-12-2021
didn't enjoy that much
Not one of Le Carre best seems an awful lot about nothing very blasphemous throughout
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- Serenitykevin
- 21-11-2021
As good as any other Le Carre
If, like me, you are a fan of these then you will not be in the least disappointed.
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- Megan
- 24-10-2021
Brilliant in a different way from his other books
At first I thought this was one of le Carré’s weaker books. Smiley plays only a minor role. It seems slow moving at times and with second rate spies. But that turns out to be the point. It is extraordinarily brilliant.
And Michael Jayston’s narration is outstanding as ever.
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