Rating: 
Summary: This is what I think!
Review: This book is not even literature unless you are a NRA freak! I was expecting an historical novel with regards to the political situation in Cuba during the early 1950's as it related to CIA involvement and activities in the country. Instead, it was a preposterious shootout with improbable situations involving a bunch of sadistic gun slingers and torturers. I can't imagine the author sitting in front of the word processer trying to figure out the most bloody and disgusting murder and torture scenes possible. And then we're treated to pages of gun descripitions and operations - it reads like the old Field and Stream magazine. I'm interested in good literature and not junk like this. The author has a long way to go to publish an historical novel as distinctive as "The Quiet American". Save your money for Field and Stream!
Rating: 
Summary: Here we go again!
Review: This is a classic case of male fantasism at its highest. Merely a sequel to HOT SPRINGS, using some of the same characters in a more exotic locale some seven years later, but his "Big Noise" is nastier and on a much grander scale.Mr. Hunter was winner of a Pulitzer Prize in 2002 and seems on a downhill slide. He does pepper this one with luminaries such as Ernest Hemingway and Desi Arnaz, and the orator/attorney Castro who went on to take Cuba and keep it. He was clearly a man of destiny. This continuing saga of Earl (a big man like J. Edgar Hoover) shows the sordidness of life in the fifties there. Much of the action takes place at Carnival in 1953. He had settled down in Arkansas after the fiasco at Hot Springs and even come to terms with the memory of his brutal father -- so much so as to move his wife and son to the family farm and carry on with his life. Teaching his nine-year-old to kill innocent animals, just as his dad had started him on the road to death and destruction, he is lured to another adventure from which he may not return. Apparently lacking some common sense, he faces down the evil gangsters in a corrupt world of lust, gambling, Russian takeovers, and petty criminals. Triumph, revenge, justification, and retribution were the goals of this gunfighter. The Russians were treacherous, always ready with blackmail. Everybody respects the warrior, right? I hope Mr. Hunter will move on and get out of this hole he has made. Everybody's a 'pawn in someone else's game' at times. If this man can't be a bonafide hero in his own right, let him rest.
Rating: 
Summary: A good adventure thriller set in 1950s Cuba
Review: This is a good one. Besides Hunter's continuation of the Swagger family history, a plus in itself, it is also replete with historical and semi-historical material which brought back memories. In one incident, Gunter sort of "took a shot" at Papa Hemingway--made him out to be a drunken boor--and maybe he was, but I loved Hemingway's writing, and thought better of him. It reminded me a little of what Steinbeck did to the memory of Doc Ricketts, in Cannery Row and Sweet Thursday. Ir made Steinbeck very unpopular with the people in the MOnterey area that I knew who knew and admired Ricketts.
But, all this is really beside the point: if you are writing about that period in Cuba, and you leave out Castro and Trujillo, you may as well have written about Long Island. He works them in nicely--especially Fidel.
So, this is another great novel from the mind of Stephen Hunter. It is well-written, as are they all, and entertaining, exciting, suspensefull, and makes you come back for more.
Very good. even if he does knock the Navy from time to time.
Joseph (Joe) Pierre, USN (Ret)
Rating:
Summary: Hunter bites off more than he can chew
Review: This is the third in a series of Earl Swagger novels. In Hot Springs, Swagger battles crime bosses in a action packed thriller in which 1940's Hot Springs came alive. It Pale Horse Coming, Swagger battles evil prison guards and brings justice to many long suffering people. In Havana, I'm not really sure what happens. In Havana, Swagger is sent to Cuba to safeguard a congressman who is taking a trip their. In reality, the CIA wants Swagger to kill Castro. But then there are other story lines: the communist sniper, the mafia hitman Frankie, the Cuban secret policeman, and the mafia. Havana felt like a puzzle that was thrown together haphazardly. Early in the book, each short chapter is dedicated to a different story line, and for the longest time, none of the stories are connected. Its hard to get into a book when you have to start from scratch with each chapter like you are reading a new book. Another problem with Havana is that the stories are somewhat related, but not all. Usually in a novel, all story lines will meld into one coherent story, but here you have the hitman with the Cubans, the Russian with Swagger, the CIA in the mix. Too much is going on. Hunter does do a great job of bringing pre-Castro Cuba alive, and that alone was worth reading the novel for. My final complaint is: who is the bad guy. In the last 2 Swagger novels, he clearly knows who is evil and he takes care of them with ease. In Havana, every reader will know that Castro survives, yet 2/3 of the novel is spent chasing after Castro. Only at the end of the novel does a new enemy appear and by then, I don't hate them enough to care for Swagger to kill them. Also, I question Swagger's motives for killing them when it appeared to me there were more evil characters who deserved killing.
Rating: 
Summary: My first Swagger novel; a great ride
Review: This was my first experience with Stephen Hunter's fiction writing and with Earl Swagger, and I didn't come away disappointed. Hunter has created a simple, but loveable character in Earl Swagger who -- in his simplicity -- is probably everything that young men aspire to become: A hero. Hunter does a great job of creating a hard-boiled good guy who isn't ham-fisted or cliched. An admirable task. More than that, Hunter has carefully and successfully walked the tightrope of writing a fictional story using a historical character as an integral figure in the plot. When a lesser author attempts this task, the effort often comes across as forced and incredible, forcing the reader further outside of the imaginary world that's been crafted. Here, however, Hunter's use of Fidel Castro blends perfectly with the story at hand and lends a true depth to the plot. Prehaps the only shortcoming of this book is that the plot elements are entirely predictable and ordinary. That is not to say that the story itself isn't wonderfully entertaining, only that there wasn't an element to the story that threw me for a loop or kept me on the edge of my seat. In a way, that's perhaps appropriate for a story starring a character that's a wonderfully straightforward as Earl Swagger. The rich characterization makes up for any shortcomings in originality of plot.
Rating:
Summary: Not His Best
Review: While this book is worth the read it is not as good as his other works. It starts well and ends well but the middle really lags. If you want a good Hunter book read "Point of Impact".
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