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The joy brigade de Martin Limón
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The joy brigade (edició 2012)

de Martin Limón

Sèrie: Sueño and Bascom (book 8)

MembresRessenyesPopularitatValoració mitjanaMencions
363676,356 (3.4)3
Seoul, early 1970s: US Army Sergeant George Sue¨o is on a mission of extreme importance to the South Korean government, as well as the US Army. Kim Il-Sung has vowed to reunite North and South Korea into one country before he hands control of the government over to his son, which means North Korea is planning to cross the DMZ and overpower the American-allied South Korean government. Sue¨o's mission is to obtain an ancient map of the secret tunnels that run underneath the DMZ. To do so, he will have to infiltrate the North Korean Communist inner sanctum.… (més)
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Unlike the other books in the series, this one was simply your run of the mill stuff they tend to crank out these days. The other books were hard to put down and I read some of them straight thru. This one I had to force myself to read. I think I will quote Sherlock here: Boring. It's the same stuff I could get out of any number of 99 cent books on a certain site. I was very very disappointed. I loved the other 7. This one. Not so much. ( )
  pjh1984 | Mar 31, 2013 |
First Line: Yellow floodlights loomed out of thick fog.

It's the early 1970s in South Korea. US military police officer George Sueño is being sent on a very important mission. Kim Il-Sung intends to reunite North and South Korea before he hands over control to his son. This means that North Korean forces are planning to cross the DMZ and overpower the South Korean government. Sueño's mission is to prevent this by sneaking into North Korea to obtain an ancient map that details a network of secret tunnels that runs beneath the DMZ. To do this, he must go undercover into the heart of Communist North Korea.

His mission-- almost impossible to begin with-- is further complicated due to his skepticism and to the fact that the keeper of the map is Doc Yong, a former lover who had to flee South Korea the year before. The plan rapidly begins to unravel. Rhee Mi-Sook, a leader of the North Korean secret police, is hot on Sueño's trail, and it's all his contact, Hero Kang, can do to keep them one step ahead. Things are looking bleak indeed when Sueño is captured. Is he going to survive long enough to find out what a group of women called the Joy Brigade has to do with this mission?

Limón is an expert angler because he hooked me immediately. There's no setting the scene or long explanations of what's going on. Sueño has started out on the mission on the first page, and he's scared to death. This character is no Superman. He's a normal guy who gets scared, doesn't like pain, and prefers not to take unnecessary risks. However, he's in the military, so he has to follow orders. At least he has an incentive named Doc Yong to keep him going-- not that he has much of an alternative since things begin to go wrong very quickly.

This author portrays Koreans with great sensitivity. On the run and hiding in the rural areas of a hostile country, Sueño finds no difference between the Koreans of the North and those of the South. The real difference lies in how the people of the North have been systematically brutalized by the government that's supposed to have their best interests at heart. Reading these books set in the 1970s will help any reader to understand the North Korea of today.

More than once Sueño has to place his trust in people who are his sworn enemies. More than once he has to put himself in danger in order to do what's right. Rhee Mi-Sook, the beautiful North Korean secret police officer who's tracking him down, is a complex and compelling character. Her government has twisted her into a brilliant sociopath, and I wouldn't mind seeing more of her in future books.

Is there torture and sex in this book? Yes, but none of it is graphic or gratuitous. Through it all Sueño must keep focused on his objective. He doesn't dwell on what happens. It's happened, and he must keep on going. Since he's the one telling the story and he doesn't want to dwell on pain or humiliation, we don't get buried in the details. Since I'm not a fan of pain or humiliation myself, my imagination worked just fine with what it was given, and I appreciated Limón's light and controlled touch.

I value this series for its neatly plotted action and intriguing mysteries. I value it for its portrayal of a wonderful people and their culture. But more than that, I value these books for the characters and their relationships with each other. George Sueño and Harry Bosch would get along just fine because the two of them both believe "We all count, or nobody counts." ( )
  cathyskye | Jul 31, 2012 |
The Joy Brigade is Martin Limón’s ninth thriller featuring Sergeant George Sueño, and after reading it, I am pleased that I finally discovered the series. This time around (it’s1972), George is on a secret mission deep inside North Korea where the odds are heavily stacked against him. He knows that he will be lucky to survive the mission, but he has personal reasons for attempting it – a former lover of his, Doc Yong, possesses the ancient maps he has been assigned to get hold of, and George hopes that she will return to South Korea with him once contact is made.

George Sueño is a Military Police investigator with the U.S. Eighth Army in South Korea. Because his crime investigations often involve South Koreans, either as victims or as perpetrators, he has numerous Korean contacts, speaks the language quite well, and has a keen understanding of the culture. But he is not a spy, and he knows that his chances of surviving this assignment are ridiculously low. Getting himself north of the DMZ will turn out to be the least of his problems; shaking his handlers long enough to find Doc Young and her ancient maps and to make his escape will be the big challenge.

U.S. intelligence agencies know that something big is happening in the North. It appears that the People’s Army is preparing to invade South Korea, making the longtime rumors of the existence of a massive tunnel system linking the two countries more disturbing than ever. If the tunnels really exist, it is vital to the defense of South Korea that they are located, and Doc Yong’s ancient manuscript offers the best chance of finding them in time to stop the underground invaders in their tracks.

Despite some help from well-placed anti-government North Koreans, things soon get complicated for George. When he learns that his only chance of penetrating the upper echelons of the North Korean army is to win a foreigners-only martial arts tournament, it appears that his mission will end before he accomplishes anything other than getting himself tortured and killed.

Martin Limón offers a chilling look into North Korea that is very much reminiscent of George Orwell’s 1984. It is a world of blind obedience and general despair that citizens dare not challenge. A few people, however, do have the courage to work for change from within and they, along with one memorable villain, transform The Joy Brigade into a first-rate thriller. Limón’s description of the bleakness of everyday North Korean life is particularly striking because it is so easy to imagine that conditions are much the same there even forty years later.

The Joy Brigade is the best kind of thriller - one peopled with a host of memorable characters. George Sueño in his role as a vulnerable but determined spy is easy to root for, but my favorite character of them all is Rhee Mi-Sook, a beautiful leader of the North Korean secret police. This woman enjoys her work (in numerous ways, it turns out) – and she is good at it. I am looking forward to the tenth book in the series because what happens in the last paragraph of The Joy Brigade hints that Book Ten is going to be a doozy.

Rated at: 4.5 ( )
  SamSattler | Jul 27, 2012 |
Es mostren totes 3
All I know about the Korean War I learned from episodes of M*A*S*H and this excellent series featuring Sergeant George Sueno. This eighth book in the series is definitely one of the best of the bunch.

It’s 1972, and Kim Il-Sung is planning to invade and conquer South Korea. He wants to hand a single country – his – over to his son. Sgt. Sueno is tasked to find a document essential to thwarting this plan. Sueno has contacts and connections, but he’s found out and captured. Can he escape from the North Korean prison, get to the South and stop the invasion? There’s plenty of action, and a mysterious all-woman brigade that may be one of the secrets in North Korea’s plans.
afegit per VivienneR | editaThe Globe & Mail, Margaret Cannon (Aug 23, 2012)
 

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Seoul, early 1970s: US Army Sergeant George Sue¨o is on a mission of extreme importance to the South Korean government, as well as the US Army. Kim Il-Sung has vowed to reunite North and South Korea into one country before he hands control of the government over to his son, which means North Korea is planning to cross the DMZ and overpower the American-allied South Korean government. Sue¨o's mission is to obtain an ancient map of the secret tunnels that run underneath the DMZ. To do so, he will have to infiltrate the North Korean Communist inner sanctum.

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