Comments on: 2003 – Havana

By: Count Stagger

Count Stagger — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 19:20:49 +0000

This was a cracking novel. While the Bob Lee books are superb, I think I prefer those with Earl and the idea of Earl in Havana was a great one.

For a writer who’s not exactly a member of the socialist party, Hunter wrote about Castro and Batista reasonably fairly and didn’t try to pretend that pre-revolutionary Cuba was a nice place to be. This allowed some fairly nasty villains for Earl to come up against, especially Ojos Bellos, a particularly memorable torturer.

Recommended as always.

By: G. Jones

G. Jones — Sun, 25 Jul 2010 00:49:05 +0000

As Pete states above Stephen Hunter’s work is “unputdownable”!

By: G. Jones

G. Jones — Sun, 25 Jul 2010 00:45:03 +0000

I am fairly new to Mr. Hunter’s work,& I love everything I’ve read, I started at the beginning, & just finished Havana. Every time I finish one of his books I think it’s his best work, until I start the next one. I would like to see another Earl novel in the future!

By: pete ryder

pete ryder — Mon, 05 Jul 2010 03:06:22 +0000

I don’t agree with Tim Warner’s comments, above.
As with every other Stephen Hunter work I have read I have found it unputdownable, to the point where I will wake at 3AM and continue reading, profound in the insights into human relationships, father-son in particular, contained in the novel, complex, and in places very funny indeed.
A brilliant work among many by a brilliant writer, with a very refreshing lack of political correctness.

By: dave pyatt

dave pyatt — Fri, 11 Jun 2010 02:28:01 +0000

Interesting to see Frenchy Short, as a now CIA agent after he launched his career in “Hot Springs”. If one has read “Black Light” before or after, you realize Bob Lee runs across Frenchy’s name in investigating the sniper shooting of his father. Frenchy was running some ops in Vietnam and was known for his use of the .38 Super. Another cross over character is the official KGB man in Havana who runs Sphesnev. He later appears in “Time to Hunt” as the shadowy person associated with Ward Bonson. Julie Fenn sees his face on a remote farm and decades later is targeted by Bob’s Soviet sniper nemesis. Mr. Hunter is the only author whose books I have read at least twice (all of them).

By: tim warner

tim warner — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 14:35:34 +0000

I am finding Havana to be terribly slow-going compared to all the others I have read. I put Stephen Hunter at the top of my list as a true craftsman in the field of fiction, but I have to confess that I am somewhat disappointed by Havana. Was he having some difficulties in his life at the time of writing Havana which may have distracted him? I am certainly not complaining. I have noticed however when I taste the best in anything (i.e. Stephen Hunter’s other books)it is difficult to settle for less than the best when I know it’s available!

By: Rich Turyn

Rich Turyn — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 04:17:43 +0000

Nice book but a lightweight compared to others. Great Frenchy Short coming into his own, hilarious dastardly Cuban cop-thug, funny Castro. Well worth reading but when is the next blockbuster coming?

By: Bruce Henderson

Bruce Henderson — Wed, 06 May 2009 02:10:43 +0000

Agree w/ Todd, though I have held off reading Point of Impact because I had seen the movie….have read Hot Springs, Dirty White Boys,Pale Horse Coming, Havana, Black Light , Time to Hunt, 47th Samurai, and Night of Thunder. They really stand alone but the order above worked out fine for knowing how things were connected. Hot Springs, Pale Horse, and Black Light were really good for Earl Swagger, who is a great iconic character. For audio books, I like Beau Bridges, but particularly liked the actor who read Pale Horse (forgot his name and my tapes are lent out).

By: Todd Smith

Todd Smith — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 17:50:36 +0000

I'm a huge fan of Stephen Hunter and his Swagger sagas. Though this was a good book, it's my least favorite of them all. If you're a fan of any of Hunters books, I would suggest starting at the begining with Point of Impact, and continiue through at least until Black Light. I've read a lot of books, and to this day… nothing has given me as big a shock as the ending of Black Light (Awesome!).

By: Tom Chapman

Tom Chapman — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 01:13:46 +0000

I just discovered HAVANA at my local library. Couldn’t put it down! Mr. Hunter captured the times in Cuba with great accuracy.

I had a brief visit to Havana in 1956. We stayed at the Plaza Hotel – just like Earl S. Not long after our stay there, some wild men shot up the Plaza lobby with a machine gun. I don’t think it was Frankie Carbine and his compadre, I believe Earl had already taken care of them, but the similarities between the fiction and the real thing continue through the book.

I met a Jean-Marie Augustine several years later. Unfortunately he was a guy. He had managed Pan American Airways offices around the islands for years. He had many similar stories to tell.

I’m sure that Speshnev and Pashin are fictional characters, but I’d be willing to bet that there were real counterparts.

HAVANA has inspired me to start a study of this fascinating period of Cuban history. Thank you for an interesting book Mr. Hunter.