Prince of Fire - Dark Publications

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Product Description
Few recent thriller writers have excited the kind of critical praise that Daniel Silva has, with his novels featuring art restorer and sometime spy Gabriel Allon.

Now Allon is back in Venice, when a terrible explosion in Rome leads to a disturbing personal revelation: the existence of a dossier in the hands of terrorists that strips away his secrets, lays bare his history. Hastily recalled home to Israel, drawn once more into the heart of a service he had once forsaken, Gabriel Allon finds himself stalking an elusive master terrorist across a landscape drenched in generations of blood, along a trail that keeps turning in upon itself, until, finally, he can no longer be certain who is stalking whom. And when at last the inevitable showdown comes, it's not Gabriel alone who is threatened with destruction-for it is not his history alone that has been laid bare.

A knife-edged thriller of astonishing intricacy and feeling, filled with exhilarating prose, this is Daniel Silva's finest novel yet.

Customer Reviews: Read 66 more reviews...

5 out of 5 stars

Silva is superb. February 22, 2005
66 out of 71 found this review helpful

Daniel Silva has followed up his terrific trilogy with another outstanding novel. "Prince of Fire" brings back Gabriel Allon, a gifted art restorer and master spy who has settled down in Venice with the lovely Chiara, whom he hopes to marry. After a tempestuous life filled with tragedy and violence, Allon is trying to find the peace of mind that has thus far eluded him. A huge bomb destroys the Israeli embassy in Rome and sinks any hope that Allon can live a placid life free of bloodshed.

Ari Shamron, who is now seventy-five, was once the head of Israel's secret service and Gabriel's mentor. He is now a special advisor to Israel's prime minister. Shamron visits Gabriel in Italy and informs him that Palestinian terrorists have uncovered Gabriel's true identity and may be targeting him for assassination. He urges Gabriel to come out of retirement and lead a team that will hunt down a Palestinian mastermind named Khaled al-Khalifa. This man is believed to be responsible not only for the attack in Rome, but also for two earlier blasts in Buenos Aires and Istanbul that killed over one hundred Jews.

"Prince of Fire" is intricate, fast-paced, and absorbing. Without sermonizing or pontificating, Silva explores the politics of hatred in the Middle East. He skillfully traces the trail of terror that has left this region in a constant state of fear and mourning for so many years. As we have come to expect from Silva, he writes exciting, suspenseful, and unpredictable action sequences that contain fascinating details about how spies operate.

All of Silva's characters are well drawn, but Gabriel Allon is in a class by himself. He has suffered great personal losses from which he can never completely recover. Although he has repeatedly hunted down and slaughtered the enemies of his people, Gabriel remains a compassionate man who values human life. In this book, he is confronted with a terrifying moral dilemma, and one particular scene in which he must make a split-second, life or death decision is simply electrifying. "Prince of Fire" proves, once again, that Daniel Silva has mastered the art of writing espionage thrillers with intelligence, depth, and heart.

4 out of 5 stars

"He was no one, he lived nowhere...the eternal wandering Jew." February 23, 2005
32 out of 42 found this review helpful

In his fourth novel-adventure, art restorer Gabriel Allon is recalled to action by the Israeli intelligence service for which he once worked. A massive truck bomb at the Israeli embassy in Rome and the shooting of fleeing victims has left fifty-two dead. When the Israelis obtain a computer disk from the terrorists' house outside of Milan, they discover recent photos of Gabriel Allon and his lover, notes about his real identity, and details of his sanctioned killing of Black September members, along with the second in command in the PLO. Yassir Arafat himself ordered reprisals against Allon, which resulted in the death of Allon's son and the maiming of his wife in a car bombing.

Believing the Rome bombing to be connected to the bombings of a Jewish Community Center in Buenos Aires in 1994 and the bombing of Istanbul's main synagogue in 2003, Allon and his mentor, Ari Shamron, an advisor to the prime minister of Israel, soon focus on three generations of a single family. Sheikh Asad led the Arab Revolt in 1936, unleashing deadly attacks all over Israel, until he was assassinated on orders of Yitzhak Rabin. The Sheik's son, Sabri, a friend of Yassir Arafat, accepted his father's terrorist mantle, until he was eliminated. Sabri's orphaned son, young Khaled, adopted by Yassir Arafat, is believed to be behind the recent spate of bombings of Jewish buildings around the world. Allon is now assigned to find and execute him.

The novel, the fourth in the Allon series, is filled with familiar main characters from the past, both in Allon's personal life and in his life as part of the Israeli security service. These familiar "faces" and the numerous references to Allon's previous adventures add depth and important historical background to this novel. The past relationships of characters and their interconnections are written clearly so new readers will not become confused, as Allon and Shamron try to find Khaled and prevent another attack, this time in France.

Silva is a particularly efficient novelist, writing in an exciting narrative style which keeps the tension high while he explores contemporary issues. He is a master at juggling subplots and developing his characters, especially his flawed main character, Gabriel Allon. His inclusion of real people, such as Itzhak Rabin and Yassir Arafat, gives immediacy to the action, and his background information on the continuing war between the Arabs and Jews for the land in Palestine gives a sense of context to this long-standing enmity. Beautifully paced, the novel offers glimpses of life in contemporary Israel and the historic reasons for the violence there. Mary Whipple

2 out of 5 stars

Potboiler with an Unfortunate Subtext June 27, 2005
18 out of 25 found this review helpful

This is the latest installment in an espionage thriller series by Daniel Silva. In these books, Silva is attempting to do something more than just produce entertaining books, he is attempting to educate a segment of the reading public about recent Jewish history. Silva's hero is a psychically and literally battle scarred veteran Israeli intelligence officer/assassin working as an art restorer in Italy. The actions in these books deal with important subjects such as the Holocaust, the protection of Nazi war criminals in post-war Western Europe, and the looting of Jewish assets during WWII. Silva has been using competently written thrillers to make people familiar with these topics, a laudable goal. In this book, Silva takes on the complex and bloody subject of Israeli-Palestinian relations. As a thriller, this book is moderately successful. The plot centers around the search for a particularly competent Palestinian terrorist. The quality of plotting and writing is workmanlike. This isn't the LeCarre or Furst but its not the worst either.
Silva may have intended an evenhanded look at a tragedy but what is presented is what might be called a standard Zionist (and I'm not using this term in any pejorative sense) version of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Almost all the Palestinian characters are highly negative - fanatical, duplicitious, violent - while the Israeli characters are presented as fundamentally decent people driven to violent acts by self-defense needs. There is even a highly implausible subplot involving the protagonist's wife that can be read as an allegory of Israel's largely unsuccessful search for peace with Arab partners. Given the frequently horrible behavior of Palestinian popular movements and the frequently abysmally immoral and stupid behavior of their leaders, it isn't hard to portray Palestinians in a bad light. As is usual in Silva's books, he includes some historical information but in this case its incomplete. While Silva traces the roots of the present problems back to the War of Independence, he doesn't show the full story, which would have to include Zionist pursuit, often very aggressively, of Arab lands prior to WWII. Nor does he include important contemporary elements like the religous Zionist settlers, who are no more interested in co-existence than the Palestinian radicals. Its unfortunate that Silva presents such a one-sided case, the Israeli cause is more than strong enough to withstand critical but objective scrutiny. Readers interested in this topic should look at the work of the Israeli historian Benny Morris, particularly his overview, Righteous Victims. Silva actually cites Morris's work approvingly in an appendix at the end of this book, but I'm not sure he has read Morris carefully.

5 out of 5 stars

Thinking man's adventure suspense novel February 27, 2005
16 out of 18 found this review helpful

If you are looking for intelligent action/adventure novel, then this 4th novel featuring the art restorer, Gabriel Allon is it. Those familiar with the earlier books will find this another satisfying read, and those new to it should check it out!

This time out Allon is called back into action by the Israeli intelligence - his old employer. The Israeli Embassy in Rome has been destroyed by a massive truck bomb, innocent people gunned down as they tried to flee. Over 50 brutally murdered! The Israelis obtain a computer disk from a terrorist in Milan, it has on information about Allon, his real Identity, Photos of him and his lover, and info about killings of Black September Members! The story takes off from here and I don't want to ruin any of the surprises or twists and turns!

The novel does include many characters from past novels, but I do not think it will prevent a new comer from enjoying this novel as a stand alone. In spite of the complexity of the subject matter, the writer has a clean narrative style that keeps the story easy to read and the suspense level high. Which is especially amazing considering all the sub plots! It is also interesting because the writer gives plenty of historical context to the history of the middle east conflict.

5 out of 5 stars

Now THAT'S entertainment! April 1, 2005
14 out of 14 found this review helpful

An absolutely fabulous story and without a doubt the most enjoyable book I have read in a long time. Daniel Silva has proven once again that he is a gifted storyteller and one of the best at international espionage and intrigue.

This fascinating Silva book is another in the Gabriel Allon series. For those of you who don't know, Allon is the physically underwhelming yet world renowned art restorer, who lives a double life in the Israeli Intelligence Service. Once "activated" Allon has no peer as the secret protector of Israeli security. Allon finds the really bad guys, the ones that nobody else wants to track. Allon goes where all others fear to tread and brings the bad guys to justice, whether that means the justice of the court, the justice of some form of imprisonment, or the justice of the assassin's bullet.

In this book Allon reluctantly abandons his precious work in Vienna, at the Chapel of San Giavanni Crisostomo, where he has spent months on the restoration of a famous Bellini altarpiece. His mission is a search for the terrorist mastermind behind a recent horrific and deadly bombing of the Israeli Embassy in Rome. All indications are that there is much more death and destruction to follow, so Gabriel is in a rush to find this terrorist before he strikes again. Along the way he learns that the life of his target and his own life are inextricably interwoven. The chase, which does not disappoint, covers a lot of ground and takes the reader from Rome, to Venice, Cairo, London, Paris and Jerusalem, and along the way Silva gives a factual history lesson from 1910 to the present, on the struggles between the Palestinians and the Israelis. This history lesson alone is almost worth of the price of the book!

I have read the comparisons others have made to Silva's writing and I will add a comparison of my own. In Silva I see an early Ludlum. I certainly feel the same sort of thrill reading Silva that I did more than 25 years ago reading Ludlum. Silva's books are every bit as exciting, the plots are equal to or better than Ludlum when he was at his best. Silva has my unqualified recommendation; you simply can not go wrong reading one of his books!

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