Icon (novel)
Encyclopedia
- This article describes the novel "Icon". For the biography of Steve JobsSteve JobsSteven Paul Jobs was an American businessman and inventor widely recognized as a charismatic pioneer of the personal computer revolution. He was co-founder, chairman, and chief executive officer of Apple Inc...
, see iConICon: Steve JobsiCon: Steve Jobs, The Greatest Second Act in the History of Business is an unauthorized biography by Jeffrey S. Young and William L. Simon about the return of Steve Jobs to Apple Inc in 1996...
.
Icon is an thriller novel by British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
author Frederick Forsyth
Frederick Forsyth
Frederick Forsyth, CBE is an English author and occasional political commentator. He is best known for thrillers such as The Day of the Jackal, The Odessa File, The Fourth Protocol, The Dogs of War, The Devil's Alternative, The Fist of God, Icon, The Veteran, Avenger, The Afghan and The Cobra.-...
. Its plot centres around the politics of the Russian Federation in 1999, with an extremist party close to seizing power. Published by Bantam Books
Bantam Books
Bantam Books is an American publishing house owned entirely by Random House, the German media corporation subsidiary of Bertelsmann; it is an imprint of the Random House Publishing Group. It was formed in 1945 by Walter B. Pitkin, Jr., Sidney B. Kramer, and Ian and Betty Ballantine...
in September 1997, (ISBN 978-0-553-57460-9), Icon became a New York Times Bestseller.
Plot summary
The story, set in late 1999 and early 2000, revolves around Russian presidential candidate Igor Komarov, head of the right-wing Union of Patriotic Forces (UPF).A highly popular and charismatic politician, victory was all but guaranteed for Komarov and the UPF. However, a secret document, later known as the Black Manifesto, was stolen from his secretary's empty office at UPF headquarters by Leonid Zaitsev, the elderly janitor
Janitor
A janitor or custodian is a professional who takes care of buildings, such as hospitals and schools. Janitors are responsible primarily for cleaning, and often some maintenance and security...
and ex-soldier, who happens to skim through the document while cleaning. The document contains extremely sensitive information regarding Komarov's future policies as president. The policies, such as restoration of slave camps, creation of a one-party state, destruction of political opponents, invasion of the neighbouring republics and genocide of Russia's ethnic and religious minorities, including Chechen
Chechen people
Chechens constitute the largest native ethnic group originating in the North Caucasus region. They refer to themselves as Noxçi . Also known as Sadiks , Gargareans, Malkhs...
s and Jews, reveal the intentions of Komarov and his fascist UPF party.
The Black Manifesto is taken to Great Britain
Great Britain
Great Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles...
, where it is translated and shown to influential Western
Western world
The Western world, also known as the West and the Occident , is a term referring to the countries of Western Europe , the countries of the Americas, as well all countries of Northern and Central Europe, Australia and New Zealand...
leaders. Sir Nigel Irvine, the former head of the SIS
Secret Intelligence Service
The Secret Intelligence Service is responsible for supplying the British Government with foreign intelligence. Alongside the internal Security Service , the Government Communications Headquarters and the Defence Intelligence , it operates under the formal direction of the Joint Intelligence...
, comes up with a plan to thwart Komarov's victory. Searching for a suitable man to carry out this plan, Carey Jordan, former Deputy Director of Operations at the CIA, recommends Jason Monk, a former recruiter and runner of Soviet agents for the CIA.
In parts of the novel, there are flashbacks to earlier years, detailing Jason Monk's background, and recruitment of several Soviets as U.S. agents. These include government figures and a physicist
Physicist
A physicist is a scientist who studies or practices physics. Physicists study a wide range of physical phenomena in many branches of physics spanning all length scales: from sub-atomic particles of which all ordinary matter is made to the behavior of the material Universe as a whole...
. However, CIA mole Aldrich Ames
Aldrich Ames
Aldrich Hazen Ames is a former Central Intelligence Agency counter-intelligence officer and analyst, who, in 1994, was convicted of spying for the Soviet Union and Russia...
soon betrays these agents, along with all other CIA agents in the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
. Nearly all are rounded up by the Soviets, and are either executed or sentenced to hard labour after lengthy interrogation and torture by the ruthless Anatoli Grishin.
Colonel Nikolai Ilyich Turkin, the first Soviet to be recruited by Monk, develops a close friendship with him after Monk saves his son from dying of a tropical disease. He is, however, the last of the CIA assets to be rounded up by the Soviets, and the capture takes place right in front of Monk, who can only watch helplessly. Turkin is interrogated and sent to a labour camp. There, dying of typhoid, he pens a letter to Monk detailing his interrogation and torture at the camps, and bids a final farewell. Monk, filled with anger and grief, attacks a bureaucrat known to have aided Ames, and this leads to his expulsion from the CIA.
In 1999, he leads a quiet life in the Turks and Caicos Islands
Turks and Caicos Islands
The Turks and Caicos Islands are a British Overseas Territory and overseas territory of the European Union consisting of two groups of tropical islands in the Caribbean, the larger Caicos Islands and the smaller Turks Islands, known for tourism and as an offshore financial centre.The Turks and...
, taking tourists on fishing trips. Approached by Sir Nigel Irvine, he at first refuses to carry out the mission, having sworn never to return to Russia, but agrees when he is given the chance to take revenge on Grishin.
He returns to Russia and rounds up a ring of influential figures to his cause by showing them the Black Manifesto, and, with the aid of the Chechen mafia
Mafia
The Mafia is a criminal syndicate that emerged in the mid-nineteenth century in Sicily, Italy. It is a loose association of criminal groups that share a common organizational structure and code of conduct, and whose common enterprise is protection racketeering...
, whose leader owes Monk his life, he begins a series of schemes aimed at derailing Igor Komarov's presidential campaign.
Background
The book features real-life spy Aldrich Ames as a character. Ames, a Central Intelligence AgencyCentral Intelligence Agency
The Central Intelligence Agency is a civilian intelligence agency of the United States government. It is an executive agency and reports directly to the Director of National Intelligence, responsible for providing national security intelligence assessment to senior United States policymakers...
operative, had exchanged secrets to Soviet agents for money; his actions figure in the plot of Icon. Several real-life political figures are also characters in the story, and the plot features them meeting at Jackson, Wyoming
Jackson, Wyoming
Jackson is a town located in the Jackson Hole valley of Teton County, Wyoming, United States. The population was 8,647 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Teton County....
for a secret conference.
The idea is that Russians need a personified icon
Icon
An icon is a religious work of art, most commonly a painting, from Eastern Christianity and in certain Eastern Catholic churches...
to be their head to live in prosperity, peace and stability. To achieve such, "the good guys" work to restore the monarchy, and select Prince Michael of Kent
Prince Michael of Kent
Prince Michael of Kent is a grandson of King George V and Queen Mary, making him a cousin of Queen Elizabeth II. He is also the first cousin once removed of Prince Phillip. Prince Michael occasionally carries out royal duties representing the Queen at some functions in Commonwealth realms outside...
as the new Tsar
Tsar
Tsar is a title used to designate certain European Slavic monarchs or supreme rulers. As a system of government in the Tsardom of Russia and Russian Empire, it is known as Tsarist autocracy, or Tsarism...
. Michael of course is a grandson of Grand Duchess Helen Vladimirovna of Russia
Grand Duchess Elena Vladimirovna of Russia
Grand Duchess Elena Vladimirovna of Russia 17 January 1882 – 13 March 1957, sometimes known as Helen, Helena, Helene, Ellen, Yelena, Hélène, or Eleni, was a Russian grand duchess as the daughter of Grand Duke Vladimir Alexandrovich of Russia and Duchess Marie of Mecklenburg-Schwerin...
, born of the line of maternally Orthodox
Eastern Orthodox Church
The Orthodox Church, officially called the Orthodox Catholic Church and commonly referred to as the Eastern Orthodox Church, is the second largest Christian denomination in the world, with an estimated 300 million adherents mainly in the countries of Belarus, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Georgia, Greece,...
descent, and descending from Greek royals and Russian Romanovs. In the plot of the book, Michael (then 59 years old) is regarded to be of a suitable age to ascend the throne, compared to his older and younger relatives. In the end of the book, he is installed to the throne as Tsar Mikhail Jurjevich, and his son (i.r.l Lord Frederick Windsor
Lord Frederick Windsor
The Lord Frederick Windsor , popularly known as Lord Freddie, is a British financial analyst, and the only son of Prince and Princess Michael of Kent...
, then 20 years old) as Tsesarevich
Tsesarevich
Tsesarevich was the title of the heir apparent or presumptive in the Russian Empire. It either preceded or replaced the given name and patronymic.-Usage:...
(presumably as Tsarevich Grand Duke
Grand Duke
The title grand duke is used in Western Europe and particularly in Germanic countries for provincial sovereigns. Grand duke is of a protocolary rank below a king but higher than a sovereign duke. Grand duke is also the usual and established translation of grand prince in languages which do not...
Fyodor Mikhailovich of Russia, though the name was nowhere mentioned in the book).
The novel can be seen as a continuation of Forsyth's previous novel, The Fist of God
The Fist of God
The Fist of God is a 1994 novel by Frederick Forsyth, mixing known fact with fiction to tell a story of the coalition forces in the Persian Gulf War racing against time to discover the true nature of Saddam Hussein's secret weapon, 'The Fist of God.'...
; one of the minor characters in Icon, a banker named Nathanson, is described as the father of a pilot who was shot down in the closing hours of the 1991 Persian Gulf War
Gulf War
The Persian Gulf War , commonly referred to as simply the Gulf War, was a war waged by a U.N.-authorized coalition force from 34 nations led by the United States, against Iraq in response to Iraq's invasion and annexation of Kuwait.The war is also known under other names, such as the First Gulf...
, an event that occurs in Fist. Sir Nigel Irvine had previously appeared in The Devil's Alternative
The Devil's Alternative
The Devil's Alternative is a novel by British writer Frederick Forsyth first published in 1979. It was his fourth full-length novel and marked a new direction in his work, setting the story several years in the future rather than in the recent past.-Plot summary:The story opens with the discovery...
and The Fourth Protocol
The Fourth Protocol
The Fourth Protocol is a novel written by Frederick Forsyth and published in August 1984.-Explanation of the novel's title:The title refers to the 1968 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, which contained four secret protocols. The fourth, of the protocols, was meant to prohibit the non-conventional...
.
Film adaptation
In 2005 a filmIcon (film)
Icon is a Hallmark Channel original television film directed by Charles Martin Smith and based on the novel by Frederick Forsyth. The film premiered on the network May 30, 2005...
loosely based on the book was made, starring Patrick Swayze
Patrick Swayze
Patrick Wayne Swayze was an American actor, dancer and singer-songwriter. He was best known for his tough-guy roles, as romantic leading men in the hit films Dirty Dancing and Ghost, and as Orry Main in the North and South television miniseries. He was named by People magazine as its "Sexiest...
as Jason Monk.