A Thousand Suns Paperback – October 1, 2009

This author is amazing. He gave great personification to a file in a box in a short chapter. He made the reader actually feel for an inanimate object. The book is well written and even though I'm only halfway through, I must say that I am a new Alex Scarrow fan.

I really really enjoyed this book. However, I must complain a little. The description led me to believe that the book was about a modern day hero, uncovering a secret and being in a life and death situation. Well, I guess that happened, but the majority of the book is about what had happened during World War Two. It was a great story, great premise, exciting to the end, but I think I was expecting something different. Still all in all, a good read, I look forward to more by this author.

Enjoyed reading it, nice plot. Read two books now of Alex Scarrow. As with the Candleman, Alex Scarrow knows how the bend historical facts to plausible fiction.

I really enjoyed A Thousand Suns. It's hard to believe it's a debut novel as the plotting is very assured and mature.This is the parallel story of a last ditch effort by Germany to win the war in its last weeks interspersed with the contemporary story of the discover of a B-17 bomber sunk in shallow water off the coast of Rhode Island. Except the pilot of the bomber is clearly wearing Luftwaffe clothing!I found the past story utterly compelling and entertaining. Initially in the background, it comes to the forefront as the book progresses. I found the contemporary story to be interesting, although a skeptical reader may have one or two quibbles about the coverup's credibility.The characters, particularly the WWII ones, are very well drawn. The plot is a clever idea at its worst point and brilliant at its best. For someone who had mostly written video games before, the author can write with authority and commanding detail about the past. I'm amazed this is a first book for the author. He has immense confidence during most of it.If you like historical fiction, particularly speculative fiction, this is a great read. I haven't read anything this imaginative about WWII since Philip Kerr's Hitler's Peace. And this is a better book than that in many respects.

I am personally amazed by Alex Scarrow's first novel, A Thousand Suns, which upon completion I felt that it was from a veteran author.The story is about a discovery off the coast of New York. The reader is guided back and forth between the Nazi Germany and today's United States and the emotions, ideas, opinions very well woven into the book's pages. The faces, places and scenes in the book are well known to everyone, from Adolf Hitler to the burning streets of Berlin, from Luftwaffe to President's Office. These elements in the book sink the reader to the story more and helps him visualize everything without much effort (such as seeing the tired face of Hitler or the bombed and devastated streets of Stuttgart). Plus, the plot of the story, the completed but an untested Atom bomb is not an impossible point, but rather a point where Nazis have neared, if not completed.It is, in my opinion, a definite must-read. Not for the World War 2 fans but also for the action/war readers as well. If you are the WW2-type of person like me, don't be surprised if you finish the book in one day, totally immersed in it; this is highly probable.A thousand congratulations to Alex Scarrow. This is an incredible debut.

Although I enjoy the premise of the book, the writing is filled with technical errors - layout of the B-17, operation of the flight controls, instruments used to make the bomb.- P-51s don't have cannon- Flaps, not ailerons are set for takeoff- Navigator's position is forward the cockpit, not aft- High altitude improves fuel management, not low altitude- Even with extra fuel tanks, the B-17G could not fly the mission as described, especially against prevailing winds.As well, it is not believable that such a mission would be genned up at the last minute with so little planning, even in desperation.Scarrow's characters use anachronistic jargon in the two timelines, as well as his use of English (British) terminology by his American and German characters, can be distracting.I would think that using someone with aviation and military experience to read over the manuscript would avoid some of these issues. Hopefully, his later works improve in these areas.

A Thousand Suns by Alex Scarrow is a tale about a modern journalist who finds himself in trouble as he unravels the mystery of a sunken WWII German plane of the coast of Rhode Island. The novel flips back and forth between the modern antagonists who are trying to cover up its discovery after 60 years and also back to 1944 with the German crew who flew the plane in the first place.I found the authors perspective fascinating as I read, giving an interesting story of the German crew and their actions and thoughts of their mission as they knew the war was coming to an end. Hitler also makes a cameo, and as a history teacher I found this fictional novel to be well researched.The direction of the tale is that the past meets the present.... but at what cost? I recommend this novel for any history buff with an open mind. I think you'll be conflicted about the German characters' destiny.

Englishman Alex Scarrow's debut novel starts slowly, hits the odd patch of uneven writing, and stumbles occasionally with factual details, especially Americana. (A character asks if another is "on or near Rhode Island".) But these are quibbles. If you enjoy action, history, military settings, and emotion-filled character development, read this book. Scarrow has crafted a rip-roaring tale that had me up till 2 am this morning.