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troutgirl's review against another edition
If every generation gets the espionage novel it deserves and needs, then Gen X has found its Le Carre. Olen Steinhauer turns his spy, Milo Weaver, into a killer stand-in for all those loving parents who also guiltily realize they might in fact be their most authentic selves when unhealthily obsessed with their work.
It's a pleasure to see Steinhauer handle the many tricky technical details of his narrative with such casual aplomb. For the story to run properly, Milo needs to be as clueless as the reader and something of a blank slate, yet capable (effortfully) of feats of tradecraft involving duct-tape and guns. Anyone who saw the movie _Munich_ can appreciate how difficult it is to keep the necessary melange of luck, muscle memory, and adrenalized fear on the bubble without tipping over into either superhuman or slapstick.
Almost all of the emotional heft and realness here is carried by female characters ranging from Milo's 7-year old stepdaughter to his compartmentalizing wife to the homeland security agent who chases him. I appreciated how Steinhauer made them subtly resist becoming too adorable and too pat. They surprise you with their prickly individuality, the male characters generally a little less so as they pursue their vices.
It's hard to see how an overt charmer like George Clooney is going to come across as Milo in the movie, and I sort of hope it doesn't happen. It's also hard to see how Milo will figure into another 2 novels in this projected trilogy, but I very much hope it does happen. _The Tourist_ is aces at cranking up the sense of emotional strain in the reader, but at a meta-level it always makes me so happy and optimistic to see a promising writer find the groove of a lifetime.
It's a pleasure to see Steinhauer handle the many tricky technical details of his narrative with such casual aplomb. For the story to run properly, Milo needs to be as clueless as the reader and something of a blank slate, yet capable (effortfully) of feats of tradecraft involving duct-tape and guns. Anyone who saw the movie _Munich_ can appreciate how difficult it is to keep the necessary melange of luck, muscle memory, and adrenalized fear on the bubble without tipping over into either superhuman or slapstick.
Almost all of the emotional heft and realness here is carried by female characters ranging from Milo's 7-year old stepdaughter to his compartmentalizing wife to the homeland security agent who chases him. I appreciated how Steinhauer made them subtly resist becoming too adorable and too pat. They surprise you with their prickly individuality, the male characters generally a little less so as they pursue their vices.
It's hard to see how an overt charmer like George Clooney is going to come across as Milo in the movie, and I sort of hope it doesn't happen. It's also hard to see how Milo will figure into another 2 novels in this projected trilogy, but I very much hope it does happen. _The Tourist_ is aces at cranking up the sense of emotional strain in the reader, but at a meta-level it always makes me so happy and optimistic to see a promising writer find the groove of a lifetime.
stonela's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.25
bethpeninger's review against another edition
3.0
I love me a good spy story. I am fascinated by espionage - part of my fascination with it is the reality of it. How realistic is the whole spy thing really? I think there is a memoir written by a former CIA, I should find it and read it to satisfy this burning curiosity I have. But I have digressed.
I came across this series because the third book was granted to me as an ARC. That time has come and gone and so I thought I would read the series in order.
Milo Weaver is an operative for a secret department hidden within the CIA. He and a select few are called Tourists and they travel the world meting out justice...from their perspective. It's not a lifestyle that lends itself to family or friends or roots. He is a perpetual traveler. And frankly, he's sick of it. Or he was sick of it. Now he mostly rides a desk at the office in Manhattan and has spent years chasing an assassin who just refuses to be caught. But all that changes when this assassin finds Milo and the intel he shares sends him right back out into the field. But things are different, both in Milo's personal life and in the field and this out-of-the-blue assignment calls into question so much of what Milo thought he knew.
A super entertaining book, enough so that I am definitely picking up the rest of the series. It's not a book or series, I will gush about but not all books need to be that. This feeds my fascination with espionage and is entertaining. That's good enough for me!
I came across this series because the third book was granted to me as an ARC. That time has come and gone and so I thought I would read the series in order.
Milo Weaver is an operative for a secret department hidden within the CIA. He and a select few are called Tourists and they travel the world meting out justice...from their perspective. It's not a lifestyle that lends itself to family or friends or roots. He is a perpetual traveler. And frankly, he's sick of it. Or he was sick of it. Now he mostly rides a desk at the office in Manhattan and has spent years chasing an assassin who just refuses to be caught. But all that changes when this assassin finds Milo and the intel he shares sends him right back out into the field. But things are different, both in Milo's personal life and in the field and this out-of-the-blue assignment calls into question so much of what Milo thought he knew.
A super entertaining book, enough so that I am definitely picking up the rest of the series. It's not a book or series, I will gush about but not all books need to be that. This feeds my fascination with espionage and is entertaining. That's good enough for me!
rebeckyy's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
kchisholm's review against another edition
3.0
After five, multi-award nominated crime fiction novels, Hungary based, American born novelist Olen Steinhauer has turned his hand to contemporary espionage in THE TOURIST.
The action in this book centres around Milo Weaver - CIA Agent, Tourist, father and husband. Starting out in 2001, Milo, nursing a serious pill-popping addiction and a strong desire to suicide in the line of duty, is in the middle of a botched attempt to stop a hitman. Flash forward 7 years and Milo's got a wife, a child, and a personal interest in tracking down the hitman behind that nearly fatal, and life changing encounter. Out of active duty and in a desk job since then, Milo wasn't expecting the "Tiger" to hand himself over voluntarily. A deathbed conversation with the Tiger turns Milo's perceptions upside down, and set him on a path unexpected.
There are a number of elements in THE TOURIST that stand out. Milo, as a highly flawed, complicated central character in what is after all, an espionage novel, seems very realistic. A man with faults and flaws, he is poignantly aware of his own limitations - particularly when it comes to the ease with which he lives his professional life, compared to the way that he handles the personal. Obviously the situations in which he finds himself are not those which the average person is going to have to deal with, so a certain suspension of disbelief is going to be required on the part of the reader. There are some downsides to this characterisation however, the most notable one being the difficulty of focusing a great sense of moral and personal outrage, when the enemy is a little closer to home than would normally be the case. THE TOURIST gets into interesting territory in this area, a direction I found quite fascinating, but then I prefer the enemy to be less than straightforward. There's also a good sense of pace, with a nice sprinkling of rushing around, without it being too over the top. Mostly, however, there is a very elegant balancing of the tension, and the threat with some nice touches of reality, delivered with some very tongue in cheek humour. (What would be more hairy for your average burnt-out, long term spy - an encounter with a shadowy enemy or Disneyworld. Still can't decide!)
Where THE TOURIST may be slightly less satisfying for some readers is in the area of plot, where things are very busy. Lots of things happen, lots of characters (good and bad) come and go, and there's some question marks frequently on whether or not everything is / could / needs to be connected. Other readers may appreciate exactly this aspect. A spies life doesn't seem like one that would be tidy and neat, with one job wrapped up nicely and the paperwork done, before the next bad situation comes along. I liked the approach, and I particularly liked the way that Milo often had no idea what was happening, as well as me!
The element that ticked the biggest box for me, and the one that made THE TOURIST an interesting book was the portrayal of the mindsets of officialdom. Alongside the concept of the enemy within, perhaps more prevalent than an external threat, this gave considerable pause for thought.
The action in this book centres around Milo Weaver - CIA Agent, Tourist, father and husband. Starting out in 2001, Milo, nursing a serious pill-popping addiction and a strong desire to suicide in the line of duty, is in the middle of a botched attempt to stop a hitman. Flash forward 7 years and Milo's got a wife, a child, and a personal interest in tracking down the hitman behind that nearly fatal, and life changing encounter. Out of active duty and in a desk job since then, Milo wasn't expecting the "Tiger" to hand himself over voluntarily. A deathbed conversation with the Tiger turns Milo's perceptions upside down, and set him on a path unexpected.
There are a number of elements in THE TOURIST that stand out. Milo, as a highly flawed, complicated central character in what is after all, an espionage novel, seems very realistic. A man with faults and flaws, he is poignantly aware of his own limitations - particularly when it comes to the ease with which he lives his professional life, compared to the way that he handles the personal. Obviously the situations in which he finds himself are not those which the average person is going to have to deal with, so a certain suspension of disbelief is going to be required on the part of the reader. There are some downsides to this characterisation however, the most notable one being the difficulty of focusing a great sense of moral and personal outrage, when the enemy is a little closer to home than would normally be the case. THE TOURIST gets into interesting territory in this area, a direction I found quite fascinating, but then I prefer the enemy to be less than straightforward. There's also a good sense of pace, with a nice sprinkling of rushing around, without it being too over the top. Mostly, however, there is a very elegant balancing of the tension, and the threat with some nice touches of reality, delivered with some very tongue in cheek humour. (What would be more hairy for your average burnt-out, long term spy - an encounter with a shadowy enemy or Disneyworld. Still can't decide!)
Where THE TOURIST may be slightly less satisfying for some readers is in the area of plot, where things are very busy. Lots of things happen, lots of characters (good and bad) come and go, and there's some question marks frequently on whether or not everything is / could / needs to be connected. Other readers may appreciate exactly this aspect. A spies life doesn't seem like one that would be tidy and neat, with one job wrapped up nicely and the paperwork done, before the next bad situation comes along. I liked the approach, and I particularly liked the way that Milo often had no idea what was happening, as well as me!
The element that ticked the biggest box for me, and the one that made THE TOURIST an interesting book was the portrayal of the mindsets of officialdom. Alongside the concept of the enemy within, perhaps more prevalent than an external threat, this gave considerable pause for thought.
tarheeltegan's review against another edition
3.0
Meh. I love spy thrillers, but this one was rather too heavy on the plot for me, and not enough action. I didn't really like Milo all that much, and the end didn't really feel resolved for me.
bioniclib's review against another edition
3.0
Tourism isn't for amateurs anymore. Milo Weaver works for the CIA and is a Tourist; which is an international spy. If you like spy stories, this is a good read. Chapters are bite sized chunks and the writing is fast paced. It's got all the usual global political machinations that you find in spy novels. Nothing spectacular about this one, but it isn't cliche either.