Book Review of Thirty-Nine Steps

The story “Thirty-Nine Steps” written by John Buchanan talks about an ordinary person called Hannay, trying to stop World War I. Hannay one day meets Scudder, a spy who knows about an event set by Germans that will start a war. Hannay lets Scudder in and takes care of him, but just a few days later he dies. Hannay runs away from his house and hides, but Black Stone has been trying to find him and kill him because he knows their plan. He soon goes to a military place and talks with the commander. Once he had talked with the commanders they tried to make a plan to stop black Stone. But Black Stone had sent spies to go and intercept their plan, in which they had done, and once they got their plan, the spies ran away. But before they could leave Hannay had distracted them, but they failed to catch all three and soon World War I started. Hannay had faced many risks and problems throughout the story, but used his skills to maneuver or fix them. He had also used his braveness and courage to try and stop Black Stone from succeeding in their plan.

Hannay had to face insecure and threatening issues to finish his mission of stopping Black Stone. Hannay not only just has to face physical problems, but also mental, such as breaking ciphers not many people can do. Hannay faces the challenges of people finding him and arresting him, because people think that he had killed someone. He had also been captured by Black Stone, and was out by himself in a room, he had to escape. He also faces hunger and thirst, because he is out in the wild, and does not have money on some parts. He had also faced new surroundings, and new people such as Sir Harry, and he was in the wild after jumping off the train. Not only just the physical part but also challenged the mental part like when he had to break a cipher made by Scudder. Many different people need to take risks, to do something, like a firefighter may risk his life, and go into a fire to help someone. A policeman could get shot if a robber or a bad guy has a gun, putting their life on the line, rather than just letting it go. Hannay faces many risky problems, and he puts his life on the line to stop bad guys and save people from dying. 

When Hannay faced these threatening risks or issues, he had a skill to accompany him and take advantage of. Hannay uses his skills and techniques to help him in his advantage of maneuvering the Black Stone. Hannay uses his quick reaction to change as workers and work for other people, but not only did he use that he had influenced them to let him borrow their clothes and they can go home. He uses his knowledge to make a bomb and escape the policemen that were very close to finding him. He uses his athleticness to help him run on foot from place to place, with no stopping. He also used his skills from South Africa when he blew up the dynamite he did not get injured because his body was accustomed to the explosion made by the dynamite. We may need to use our own skills to help us get away from people, or stop someone from being bad. We may have to have our athleticism to follow someone in a hurry, and use our knowledge to hide from the person you may be following. Hannay had used his skill to keep him alive from Black Stone and cops.

Hannay uses his bravery and courage to help trying to stop the Black Stone from starting a war. Hannay uses his bravery to help his nation and try to protect it, even though he could have done many other things, he had decided to save his country first. He had first put his life before the nations and stopped Black Stone, even though he could have gotten killed and he couldn’t have faced Black Stone. He even confronted them to the military even though he could have gotten killed easily because Black Stone has many more people, and it is a long adventure for the military. He had blown up a house to escape and not get killed from the impact even though it could. He had even jumped off a train and walked the rest way there with barely food or water in hand. Even though he had done enough at the end, he decided to join the military because he couldn’t stop the Black Stone from getting their plan. When we have courage and bravery we can do a wide variety of things, like saving a stray dog or cat, even though the animal could hurt you. Hannay uses his bravery and courage to help him accomplish the goals he had to stop Black Stone. 

The story “Thirty-Nine Steps” talks about Hannay who is assigned by Scudder to stop Black Stone starting a war. He uses his skills and efforts to stop them. He first finds many different situations like getting captured and being chased by police and Black Stone. He also not only saw physical problems but also mental problems like breaking ciphers that are really difficult. But he uses his skills to help him run and maneuver them, and escapes with dynamite from a house he was captured in. He also had used his skill to help him not get injured, even though he could have gotten seriously hurt many times, or even dying. Hannay also uses his bravery and courage to help him, to blow things up, stealing things and even having to lie to others and get hurt if they find out. The story “Thirty-Nine Steps” is a great story and it talks about an amazing adventure.