The New Statesman
•67% Informative
Continuation novels have been a thing since Kingsley Amis’s Colonel Sun, written under the pseudonym of Robert Markham , in 1968 .
Ian Fleming had published 11 Bond novels before his death, at the age of 56 , in 1964 .
There have now been more than 50 continuations of the James Bond novels.
And now here is a new George Smiley , written by John le Carré's youngest son, Nick Harkaway .
The story is intricately interwoven with the existing books, looking back constantly to The Spy Who Came in from the Cold.
Nick Harkaway's back-story expertise is impeccable.
He has successfully imitated Le Carré’s roundabout method of narrative delivery and nicely pastiched his prose style.
The publishers go to the legal limit in claiming this is actually a John le Carré novel.
Sisman ’s conclusion was subtler: “The more we can understand this complex, driven, unhappy man, the more we can appreciate his work. And in the end it is the work that survives.” Complete on the shelf Karla’s Choice : A John le Carré Novel Nick Harkaway Viking , 320pp , 22 Purchasing a book may earn the NS a commission from Bookshop.org , who support independent bookshops.
VR Score
56
Informative language
48
Neutral language
35
Article tone
semi-formal
Language
English
Language complexity
46
Offensive language
not offensive
Hate speech
not hateful
Attention-grabbing headline
not detected
Known propaganda techniques
not detected
Time-value
long-living
External references
3
Source diversity
3
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