So here's an interesting one: Minternational quite rightly placed The Thirty Nine Steps as a great book, but not so much Greenmantle. I think Buchan's first Hannay novel is also a fab read (ritually slaughtered by most TV productions), but actually I feel Greenmantle is the best of Hannay's adventures, and is unlike all the others. Most of the five novels follow a roughly standard thriller motif (though' standard' is a bit of misnomer, as Buchan helped to invent it). But this second Hannay story is a much broader and unexpected canvas - and alarmingly contemporary in many ways: an evil force has realised it can stir up the Muslim world to holy war by religious means, thus tipping the balance of WWI.
We also have some established characters from the first novel, whom it is nice to see again; but the addition of new, interesting men - the mysterious, almost supernaturally gifted Sandy, or Peter Pienaar - who have large parts to play in later novels.
The huge quest, the travels, the local culture and the complexity of the plot, make Greenmantle, for me a quite unusual Buchan novel, and probably my favourite (so far!)
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3 comments:
Wow - another Buchan! He's getting the praise he deserves...
I think your reasons for choosing this one are spiffing. I enjoyed it a lot but sometimes felt a bit disorientated by the scope. And I'm not so sure if the mystical elements worked for me in this setting. But a great read all the same.
And there are later Sandy Arbuthnott novels, which I have a great curiosity about, as he seemed a not very Buchan-like character in many ways. A kind of Gandalf Lawrence of Arabia figure...
Cor, never knew about the Sandy novels - that sounds interesting. Find them in time for my birthday, there's a good chap....
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