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    Strindberg's Star
    Unavailable
    Strindberg's Star
    Unavailable
    Strindberg's Star
    Audiobook13 hours

    Strindberg's Star

    Written by Jan Wallentin

    Narrated by Graeme Malcolm

    3.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    A multilayered international thrill ride at breakneck pace, reminiscent of The Rule of Four

    The Arctic, 1897: Nils Strindberg crashes his hydrogen balloon during the mysterious Andrée Expedition to the North Pole.
    Germany, 1942: Gruesome and inexplicable experiments are performed on concentration camp prisoners.
    Sweden, present-day: Cave diver Erik Hall finds a dead body wearing an ancient ankh, buried deep in an abandoned mine. Religious symbol expert Don Titelman seeks out Erik to study the ankh-but finds Erik dead. Don is the prime suspect, and soon he's being chased across Europe to escape a secret society that will do anything to get their hands on the ankh. . . .

    In this international bestseller, each of these fascinating strands weaves together to create a mind-blowing cross-genre thriller that includes arctic explorers, a secret railroad network, Norse mythology, Nazis, and ancient symbols-and a shocking secret that's been hidden for centuries.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPenguin Random House Audio
    Release dateMay 24, 2012
    ISBN9781101566282
    Unavailable
    Strindberg's Star
    Author

    Jan Wallentin

    I was born in Uppsala 8 April 1970, but grew up in Linköping, a medium sized city in the southern part of Sweden. After graduation at Katedralskolan in Linköping, I studied a wide range of subjects at Linköping University and Lund University: religion, philosophy and law (1991-1994). I went to filmschool in Stockholm (1994-1996), and after that I studied at Stockholm University, the Department of Journalism, Media and Communication (JMK) (1996-2000). I have a Bachelor's degree with a major in Media & Communication Studies, and a Master's degree in Journalism. I worked as a news reporter covering domestic news at TV4 in Stockholm (2000-2001). After that I worked for nine years as a news reporter at Sveriges Television, the Swedish Public Broadcaster and the major TV company in Sweden (2002-2010). In June 2010 I quit my job, due to the international success of Strindberg´s star, and since then I've been working full time as an author. I don't really have time for any specific interests right now, besides writing, because most of my spare time goes to taking care of three fairly wild children.

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    Reviews for Strindberg's Star

    3.5/5

    8 ratings8 reviews

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    • 2/5
      A frenetic and somewhat silly story of a supernatural object that opens a gateway to the underworld. There are two factions vying for possession. Much like the two in the Da Vinci code book, Don and Eva are chased all over the world. Despite the overtones of the paranormal, a lot of the story is rooted in historical fact - Dandan Oilik is real as are the atrocious "medical" experiments at Ravensbruck, August Strindberg, Sven Hedin, Karl Maria Wiligut, the castle Wewelsberg and what he did there in cooperation with Heinrich Himmler. That takes crazy to an all new level, let me tell you.Eva is an obvious problem from the start. She arrives too conveniently and enthusiastically participates in Don's flight and subsequent shenanigans. Then there are her own weird physical manifestations. I was waiting to see how her treachery would take shape, but it was a long time coming. Too long. Despite the breakneck pace, the book could use some editing. Long info-dumps and strange dialog could be cut. Ditto with lots of repetitive things like reminding us that Eva was wearing high heels. The bits with psychic Elena and her creepy keeper Vater were a little more interesting, but I couldn't see where it was going except that she was being set up as a savior (I kept seeing Vader despite the wheelchair). The denouement is opaque and weird and difficult to envision which was strange considering how clear all the action leading up to it was. And it never did explain anything satisfactorily. Like where did the Ahnk come from and what was the underworld supposed to do or give us? Oh sure some modern Inventions and developments are supposedly credited with visions from that place, but not convincingly. I didn't get it or why all these people wanted it. And conversely, why it needed to be hidden for so long. Weird. Don himself is a fuck up and I couldn't warm to him despite his "charming" self-deprecating personality. Probably it was the self-medicating that did it. I couldn't see how he could continue to be conscious half the time, never mind a puzzle-solving, globe-trotting mover and shaker, although there were long periods where he wasn't popping pills or shooting up, which was also strange. Entertaining, but ultimately empty and it will go to another home soon.
    • 4/5
      I won this from the Goodreads First Reads Giveaway.It took quite awhile before I felt the book really got interesting. The last 100 pages were exciting and I had a hard time putting it down. Overall I really did enjoy the book.
    • 4/5
      This book was pretty good and kept you guessing about what was going on.I would have like a little more details on exactly where the star and Ankh came from and more on what the underworld actually was but it was a good story which gave enough to keep you interested and not disappointed in the end.
    • 2/5
      The book started off very slowly and I had put it down several times. When the story did pick up, although I was enjoying it, I couldn't help but feel that there was something missing. This is a translation of the original novel so perhaps things got lost in translation? I did notice that grammatically there were errors and the dialogue at times seemed choppy. There were many characters, some fully developed others devoid of any true essence. The protagonist Don Titleman becomes an enigma to the reader. Here is a man who should by all rights be dead of an overdose yet it's the very same uppers and downers that get him through this adventure. It's amazing how clearly and cleverly he can think after popping a few pills. Yet, I liked him. The author is able to convey the hopelessness our main character experiences and you begin to wish they would just leave him alone. As I mentioned, this is a foreign novel translated in to English. The author is Swedish and thus uses places and areas that are familiar to him. For an American reading the story there are no familiar landmarks or cities. Places of interest are primarily Swedish or German preventing my connection to any of the novel's locales. I found myself wondering how much more I would've enjoyed the book if it was set in Washington, DC, New York or California.
    • 3/5
      I liked the historical aspects of this book the most. I was a little worried when the description mentioned Nazis, because they are overused when it comes to stories with secret artifacts, but I thought Wallentin used them cleverly in her story. I liked the multiple voices as the story goes back and forth through time. The story of the ankh and star is revealed at a nice pace and that is what kept me reading this book. The history of the ankh and star, from their discovery to present day, I found very inventive. That being said -The most disappointing part of this book is the actual secret - what the ankh and star actually lead to. I can't really go into detail without major spoilers, but I couldn't really understand the connection on how the foundation ends up using this secret and and what the secret actually is. At first I thought it was the secret that wasn't grandiose enough for me, but I realized it was actually the reaction of the people who discover it and how they use it. Some of the what they discover from this secret is used for awful things, especially during World War II by the Germans, but I think I just expected a secret society to use such a secret to a grander scale.The characters were a mix for me. We get quite a few character viewpoints, though Don Titelman is main character. I could never really connect with him. I never really understood why he was so messed up. His Jewish grandmother told him stories when he was eight of the Nazi's cruel experiments on her. He also discovered her secret stash of Nazi memorabilia that completely freaks him out. The stories she told him were awful, but I couldn't understand Don's over sensitivity to them. He ends up becoming addicted to prescription drugs and becomes a professor who is an expert in Nazi symbolism. And he has photographic memory, a fact that is thrown out there in the middle of the book. His character was just too irrational for me. The character I liked the most was Eva. She's smart and calm, though I was suspicious of her throughout the whole book.I'm giving this one three stars, because I liked the historical aspects of this book a lot and the story behind the ankh and star.ARC provided through NetGalley.
    • 3/5
      [Full disclosure: I won an advance reader copy of this book on Goodreads' First Reads giveaway.]Strindberg's Star by Jan Wallentin features two mythical objects and tells of the lengths a secret society will go to in order to seize ownership of them.Amateur diver Erik Hall finds one of the artifacts in a abandoned mine shaft. Lost for a century, the ankh has resurfaced and immediately draws the attention of the shady organization that has been looking for it. Erik quickly falls victim to those who seek the ankh. Thrown into the mix is Don Titelman, an unlikely hero who spends most of his days in a drug-induced haze. Together with his would-be lawyer, he flees Sweden to get to the bottom of the mystery of these objects that now plague him. The novel moves between characters quite a bit. In part one, we visit Erik, Don, an intern, a photographer, and a few others. It is all written well enough for the reader to be able to hold them separately and not get confused, though. This character shuffling tones down a bit in parts two and three and the novel is the better for it. Don is perhaps the most well drawn character. His confusion and curiosity come through nicely. Everyone else seems to play a bit part, even Eva. She features in a greater part of the story, and yet it’s hard to feel very close to her. This book also incorporates a lot of historical events into the story, showing the muddled past through a focused lense. It adds a new layer of meaning to the atrocities of the past, from the trenches of World War One to the concentration camps of World War Two. The novel is very well researched. All the events mesh seamlessly and real as the actual events. Overall, this book was quite a ride. Well paced, it grabbed my interest from the start and held on. Much like Don, I needed to see the mystery through to the end. And the end of this novel is indeed very satisfying.
    • 5/5
      I don't remember having this much fun reading an adventure story since first devouring the stories of Jules Verne. This is what an adventure story should be. It is loaded with action, exotic locals, deliciously evil villains, and a not too heroic, slightly neurotic, unsympathetic character who holds the parts of the story together. More specifically, he is holding the secret to Strindberg's Star, an otherworldly talisman shaped like an ankh surrounded by a star. This object of legend and desire has been the center of a quest for well over a hundred years. The star, a reputed key to the underworld and untold secrets, has reappeared after being lost for a century. From the depths of a water filled cave in Sweden, across Europe to the dank crypts surrounded by memories of the dead from two wars, deep into the freezing Russian winter, and across the vast ice covered reaches deep in the Arctic Circle the search goes on. Will the ankh finally reveal it's secrets or be lost for all time? This book was provided for review by the well read folks at Viking Press.
    • 4/5
      This was extremely hyped when I visited Sweden in the fall of 2010, and was marketed as Jules Verne meets Indiana Jones. To be honest, it's more Jules Verne meets Dan Brown in that Wallentin weaves a fictional story around historic facts (although Wallentin is a better writer than Brown!). The premise is a search - across Europe - for a mysterious navigation tool that will point the way into the Underworld. It's not a deep piece of literature, but for an adventurous romp that'll introduce you to Nazis, secret societies, Jewish history, Nordic mythology, Arctic exploration, and a healthy dose of the supernatural, it really hits the spot.