A review by hayesstw
The Ends of the Earth: by Robert Goddard
3.0
This is the third book of Robert Goddard's spy trilogy. I've just finished reading the second and third books one after the other, so will comment on the series as a whole rather than on each volume separately.
It's quite an enjoyable read, even though it has more plot holes than a colander and more loose ends than a bowl of spaghetti. It's not up to Goddard's usual standard, where the books are more carefully and believably plotted. Most of his best books are written to a formula in which a mystery in the past influences events in the present. There are echoes of that here, but in this book the "present" is itself in the past, as the main action of the story takes place immediately after the First World War, during and following the peace conference at Versailles, though it is influenced by events that had taken place nearly 30 years before.
But in most of Goddard's other books the protagonist is usually an ordinary person who gets involved either accidentally, or in an unsuspecting way. Here, however, the protagonist is James "Max" Maxted, wartime flying ace and and James Bond-type swashbuckling hero. The second volume starts off reading like a sequel to [b:The Thirty-nine Steps|2713421|The Thirty-Nine Steps (Oxford Bookworms Stage 4)|Nick Bullard|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1347634489s/2713421.jpg|44362132], which was set before the war, and this one is set after it. One of the characters even mentions The Thirty-Nane Steps. Perhaps the mention of the book is a hint that [a:Robert Goddard|16246|Robert Goddard|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1238359023p2/16246.jpg] is self-consciously writing a pastiche and a parody of the spy story genre, with hints of [a:John Buchan|3073|John Buchan|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1298680099p2/3073.jpg], [a:Ian Fleming|2565|Ian Fleming|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1364532740p2/2565.jpg] and [a:Robert Ludlum|5293|Robert Ludlum|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1208465267p2/5293.jpg]. Perhaps the real challenge to the reader is to work out which bit is imitating whom. And perhaps in some parts he's even parodying himself.
It's quite an enjoyable read, even though it has more plot holes than a colander and more loose ends than a bowl of spaghetti. It's not up to Goddard's usual standard, where the books are more carefully and believably plotted. Most of his best books are written to a formula in which a mystery in the past influences events in the present. There are echoes of that here, but in this book the "present" is itself in the past, as the main action of the story takes place immediately after the First World War, during and following the peace conference at Versailles, though it is influenced by events that had taken place nearly 30 years before.
But in most of Goddard's other books the protagonist is usually an ordinary person who gets involved either accidentally, or in an unsuspecting way. Here, however, the protagonist is James "Max" Maxted, wartime flying ace and and James Bond-type swashbuckling hero. The second volume starts off reading like a sequel to [b:The Thirty-nine Steps|2713421|The Thirty-Nine Steps (Oxford Bookworms Stage 4)|Nick Bullard|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1347634489s/2713421.jpg|44362132], which was set before the war, and this one is set after it. One of the characters even mentions The Thirty-Nane Steps. Perhaps the mention of the book is a hint that [a:Robert Goddard|16246|Robert Goddard|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1238359023p2/16246.jpg] is self-consciously writing a pastiche and a parody of the spy story genre, with hints of [a:John Buchan|3073|John Buchan|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1298680099p2/3073.jpg], [a:Ian Fleming|2565|Ian Fleming|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1364532740p2/2565.jpg] and [a:Robert Ludlum|5293|Robert Ludlum|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1208465267p2/5293.jpg]. Perhaps the real challenge to the reader is to work out which bit is imitating whom. And perhaps in some parts he's even parodying himself.