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    Satori
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    Satori
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    Satori
    Audiobook12 hours

    Satori

    Written by Don Winslow

    Narrated by Holter Graham

    3.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    It is the fall of 1951, and the Korean War is raging. Twenty-six-year-old Nicholai Hel has spent the last three years in solitary confinement at the hands of the Americans. Hel is a master of hoda korosu, or "naked kill," is fluent in seven languages, and has honed extraordinary "proximity sense"-an extra-awareness of the presence of danger. He has the skills to be the world's most fearsome assassin and now the CIA needs him.

    The Americans offer Hel freedom, money, and a neutral passport in exchange for one small service: to go to Beijing and kill the Soviet Union's commissioner to China. It's almost certainly a suicide mission, but Hel accepts. Now he must survive chaos, violence, suspicion, and betrayal while trying to achieve his ultimate goal of satori-the possibility of true understanding and harmony with the world.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHachette Audio
    Release dateMar 7, 2011
    ISBN9781607886938
    Unavailable
    Satori
    Author

    Don Winslow

    Don Winslow is the author of twenty-five acclaimed, award-winning international bestsellers, including seven New York Times bestsellers (Savages, The Kings of Cool, The Cartel, The Force, The Border, City on Fire and City of Dreams). Savages was made into a feature film by three-time Oscar-winning writer-director Oliver Stone from a screenplay by Shane Salerno, Winslow and Stone. Winslow's epic Cartel trilogy has been adapted for TV and will appear as a weekly series on FX. Additional Winslow books are currently in development at Paramount (The Winter of Frankie Machine), Netflix (Boone Daniels), Warner Brothers (Satori), Sony (City on Fire, City of Dreams, City in Ruins) and Working Title (“Crime 101”) and he has recently written a series of acclaimed and award winning short stories for Audible narrated by four-time Oscar nominee Ed Harris. A former investigator, anti-terrorist trainer and trial consultant, Winslow has announced that City in Ruins will be his final novel.

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    Reviews for Satori

    3.5/5

    70 ratings9 reviews

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    • 4/5
      Now, THIS is what I thought "Shibumi" was going to be like! All respect to Trevanian for creating Hel, but thanks to Winslow for using him correctly! This story comes after Nicholai has killed Kishikawa-san, his father figure, and is in prison for doing so. He makes a deal to get out, then his adventure begins in Japan, proceeds to China, and then ends up in Vietnam. (for me, China was my favorite part!) He has lots of people coming and going into his life, and he struggles to find out who is friend, who is foe, and who the heck Cobra is! All the while playing a dangerous game of Go in his mind! Nice, fast paced book with lots of action, suspense, and twists! I'd love to read another one of these - from Winslow!
    • 3/5
      Kind of silly, but fun. I still can't figure out why he wanted to write this, though. Was he just a huge fan of the original?
    • 4/5
      For a long time Shibumi was one of my all-time favorite books. I re-read it a few years ago and, while I still enjoyed it, I didn't think that it had aged as well as some other books. But I've still thought of its protagonist, Nicholai Hel, as a one of my favorite characaters. So I was thrilled to read this prequel to Shibumi (though prequel is a bit of a misnomer as Shibumi includes episodes from Hel's earlier life, too. Maybe it would be better to describe Satori as simply taking place at the early stages of Hel's career and long before the principal events of Shibumi.While it has been several years since I read Shibum I feel that Winslow did an admiral job of capturing Hel's character and keeping him the intersting guy that Trevanian wrote about way back in the '70s (!). And I really liked the way Winslow brought the Cold War tensions of 1952 to life, not to mention the detail of early Maoist Peking. His descriptions of the various factions at play in Vietnam (while the French were still the dominant, though declining power) were also well done.And his ultimate surprise was ... decently surprising.A good read for anyone who enjoys Cold War era espionage novels and a must-read for fans of Shibumi.
    • 5/5
      Winslow wrote this prequel to Trevanian's Shibumi, a work I have not yet read. For me Satori recalled the movie, Batman Begins with Christian Bale. Both Bruce Wayne and Nicholai Hel have heavy Asian influence in their characters. Both are actors in their stories keeping their inner secrets to themselves while they fight evil and live by a code. As I read the story I was struck by how Winslow's words painted a quiet stillness to the scenes. Quiet but with an underlying tension which kept on building only to be released at critical points where both Hel and violence broke out. When I had read the first third of the story I had thought there was enough for 1 great thriller, but I was only a third through the novel. A master of hoda korosu or "naked kill", Hel just kept on moving from one incredible task to another in one incredible local to another. In the end I felt there was enough for three great stories which I can also see being adapted to the movies. I know I now must read the original Trevanian story, Shibumi.
    • 5/5
      In 1979 the then-mysterious Trevanian published Shibumi, which introduced the character of Nicholai Hel--assassin, Go master, world class lover, spelunker. Shibumi focuses on an incident that pulls Hel out of retirement for one last job and also tells the story of his unusual upbringing, but glosses over the years between. In 2007 Don Winslow, one of the most exciting and original voices in thrillers today, was approached by Hachette Books to take up the mantle of Trevanian and write the story of the beginning of Nicholai Hel's career, the portion of his life merely hinted at in the original book. The result is Satori.Satori begins as Hel is released from the Japanese prison in which he's been held for three years by the Americans in solitary confinement. Hel, son of a German nobleman and a White Russian baroness in exile, is basically a man without a country. Although he had worked for the American government in the period immediately following the Second World War, he was later imprisoned by the Americans for killing--out of filial duty--his Japanese foster father, General Kishikawa, who was a prisoner of war. Hel was not imprisoned for the murder qua murder as much as for depriving the Americans of a vital--if still only theoretically potential--source of information. Hel is not being released because of his exemplary behavior as a prisoner (although, Hel, being Hel, has done nothing but put his time to good use, reading, meditating, exercising, teaching himself the Basque language, perfecting his mastery of Naked/Kill techniques) but rather, because he can be of use to U.S. covert operations. They want to rebuild his face (horribly disfigured by a brutal beating received at the hands of frustrated American interrogators), give him a new identity, then send him out to assassinate the Soviet commissioner to Red China, Yuri Voroshenin. Cue the ominous music: Hel has a past connection to Voroshenin and long ago vowed revenge. He agrees to take the job, with the proviso that, in addition to the passport and monetary payment he's being offered, he also be provided with the names and addresses of the men who beat him so brutally at the beginning of his confinement.The ensuing novel is as richly textured and erudite as its source. Winslow's mastery of the material--the philosophy and strategy of Go, international politics of the Cold War, and Japanese culture, to but skim the surface--is brilliant, and his depiction of the formative years of Nicholai Hel's professional life fits neatly into the mythology created for Hel by Trevanian. If Winslow's Hel is rather humorless as compared to Trevanian's, that can be attributed to his youth and callowness; the sort of humor exhibited by the mature Hel can only be gained with life experience.Satori stands on its own merits, and can be read by a reader utterly unfamiliar with Shibumi (this reader, in fact, read the Winslow first). It gains so much more, however, when read in conjunction with Trevanian's great novel. And--dare I say?--Trevanian gains as well.
    • 4/5
      It’s been over forty years since I read Shibumi, by Trevanian – the book that this novel is based on, but Satori is pretty good on its own. The allure of the outsider forced into an assassination that will also allow him to seek revenge. The exotic Asian locations. The fast-paced action. The love interest and high- stakes situations. It’s not literature, but a fun suspense story.
    • 5/5
      Here I continue my new interest in all things Don Winslow. I was not disappointed by Satori. The main character is an interesting blend of contradictions. His name is Nicholas Hel, although he is western by appearance, he was raised in Japan and considers himself Asian by character and temperament. He has all the usual spy skills – martial arts training and the ability to kill silently with his bare hands, speaks multiple languages and has the James Bond effect on women. But the most interesting thing he really has going for himself is that he is a master strategist who has gained this ability by playing the game of Go. He is tasked with killing a high level Soviet in China and although his minders think they are sending him on a suicide mission, his ability to look ahead and strategize, means that he has a better than average chance of surviving his mission.He spends time perfecting his cover as a French arms dealer and proceeds to travel through China, Cambodia and Vietnam as he moves across the live Go board and pits himself against players who are equally canny at strategizing themselves.Winslow does a great job of researching his subjects and this means that the writing is highly detailed and believable. I am a huge James Bond fan, have read all of Ian Fleming’s books and several of the authors who picked up the Bond franchise.I have also read the Bourne books and Satori stacks up well against both franchises. In fact, I will happily seek out more books with Nicholas Hel. I will happily read the rest of what Don Winslow has written. For those interested, this novel is based on Trevanian’s Shibumi. Trevanian was also responsible for The Eiger Sanction, another favorite of mine. So in some sense, you get a two-fer – two good authors, one great character! Check them both out. 5 stars!
    • 5/5
      In Shibumi, Trevanian’s masterwork, readers are introduced to Nicholai Hel, both being given his complex history as the son of a former Russian Countess, who fled the Reds during the 20’s to Shanghai, and there raised a son who eventually learned the martial arts and the game Go in Japan, and Hel’s later years as a retired recluse in the Basque provinces on the border of France and Spain. Trevanian, however, left a large gap in Hel’s history, specifically what happened to Hel between being incarcerated as a young man in an American prison and becoming the world’s greatest assassin for years prior to his retirement. Sartori fills in part of that lengthy gap. It was a project actually started by Trevanian’s daughter and literary executor, who sought out a writer to the task and was an idea floated to and sanctioned by Trevanian before he died.

      Winslow does an absolutely fantastic job in Sartori, channeling Trevanian’s feel for the character of Nicholai Hel, much as Max Collins channeled Spillane’s spirit in completing the Mike Hammer series or that Lin Carter or L Sprague De Camp did in channeling Robert E Howard’s spirit. What Winslow offers the reader here is a focused story about the events surrounding Hel’s release from prison and his first job as a super-assassin. Winslow weaves Hel’s history into the story and creates a terrific novel that simply captures the essence of Hel and respects Hel’s spirit. The story focuses on China in the early fifties as conflicts with the Soviet Union begin to emerge and the America begins arming the French in their battle against the Viet Cong. To do a job in Red China, you need someone who can speak Mandarin like a native and understands the culture. Hel, who grew up in Shanghai, was perfect for the job. I highly recommend Sartori as a terrific thriller by itself and a welcome addition to the Nicholai Hel legend.
    • 5/5
      Essentially a prequel to Travanian's "Shibumi." Winslow comes close to Travanian's style but falls just short. Nicholai Hel is a bit arrogant with unformed opinions but perhaps that was Winslow's idea: Nicholai will mature into the Shibumi Nicholai.