by Alistair MacLean
Alistair MacLean was one of my late Dad’s favourite authors & I read many of MacLean’s books when I was young. My favourite was Where Eagles Dare. I’m fairly sure I haven’t read this title before. I think I would remember the plot idea, as for me it was a very original one.
A nuclear submarine, the Dolphin, answers a distress signal to investigate what has happened at a weather monitoring station. Aboard the Dolphin is the mysterious Dr Carpenter, & it soon turns out he has a very close connection to the Drift Ice Station Zebra…
This book was an uneven read for me – slow moving in parts, with a lot of Dialogue as an Explanation and a large caste of characters who often had similar speaking styles. I had a lot of trouble telling them apart & in the end I gave up. The peacock-like mutual admiration that some of them feel for each other was a turn off, & the book shows it’s age being that there isn’t a single female character.
But the parts of the books that worked really worked & had a lot of action & excitement.
No longer my genre & while I would like to read Where Eagles Dare again, I can’t imagine that I will read any of MacLean’s other books.
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