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Post by ripper on Dec 1, 2017 20:27:58 GMT
Yay! Alistair Maclean was one of those writers (along with Ian Fleming, Agatha Christie and Dennis Wheatley) handed down from my dad/grandfather/uncle whose work was de rigeur until NEL and the prurient side of adolescence took him away (until my 20s when the old firm would make a nostalgic comeback). Not necessarily a great writer, his output varied wildly ( I would almost swear The Last Frontier was written by someone else) and the later books fell well short of his glory days, but I'd never be without a copy of Puppet On A Chain, my first Maclean, and one of the first books I read that (so I thought) let me peek in the adult world. Sexist drivel nowadays methinks it would be dismissed as, but I'll never tire of it. The Hay Dance is weirdly sinister and unfortunately never made it into the film (cut to make an AA certifcate so, like Caravan To Vaccares beyond my reach at the time). I recently caught up with the film version of Fear Is The Key for the first time in years and promptly lucked onto a copy of the novel - both very good thrillers, the '72 film adhering very closely to the '62 novel. The rest I can pretty much take or leave, but have an affection for Caravan To Vaccares - the Fontana novels with their memorable photo covers (CTV featuring a man in a pierrot costume being menaced by an unrealistic bull) were a staple part of WH Smith browsing as a youngster (although almost every newsagent seemed to have a paperback section, or at least a twirly rack) which never tempted me to sample Desmond Bagley or Hammond Innes. Recently reread The Satan Bug which was pretty interesting. I did try to read every one of his novels a good few years ago, and it does flag up the variation in style. HMS Ulysses (based on his wartime experiences) I found particularly harrowing and wouldn't want to go back there. Still have a few hanging around. Film 4 keep showing Bear Island which makes me want to go back to the novel, and wouldn't mind giving Breakheart Pass (novel and film) a rematch - a western??? How could I have forgotten Breakheart Pass? I only re-read it a couple of months ago. It is a change of scenery and period for MacLean but he still employs the 'withheld knowledge' ploy familiar from many of his other novels. I saw Fear is the Key on a double bill in 1972, though I am blowed if I can recall what was the other film. It's a good one, and so is the novel. Agreed that HMS Ulysses is very intense. I have read it once, meant to re-read it but never quite gotten round to it. After The Cruel Sea it is probably my favourite fictional work on the Arctic Convoys and naval fiction in general.
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Post by cauldronbrewer on Dec 2, 2017 23:57:07 GMT
I went through a Maclean phase sometime during my teen years. Partly that was due to my parents showing me the films for Ice Station Zebra, The Guns of Navarone (which my spellcheck insists on rendering as The Guns of Nazarene, a potentially interesting concept in and of itself), and Where Eagles Dare. And partly it was due to Iron Maiden's musical adaptation of Where Eagles Dare (the lead track on Piece of Mind, in case anyone's interested). I remember liking the two Navarone books and Where Eagles Dare. Even as a teenager, I thought the late-career River of Death seemed rote.
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Post by ripper on Dec 3, 2017 8:12:46 GMT
I went through a Maclean phase sometime during my teen years. Partly that was due to my parents showing me the films for Ice Station Zebra, The Guns of Navarone (which my spellcheck insists on rendering as The Guns of Nazarene, a potentially interesting concept in and of itself), and Where Eagles Dare. And partly it was due to Iron Maiden's musical adaptation of Where Eagles Dare (the lead track on Piece of Mind, in case anyone's interested). I remember liking the two Navarone books and Where Eagles Dare. Even as a teenager, I thought the late-career River of Death seemed rote. I don't like his later books nearly as much as the earlier ones.
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Post by Shrink Proof on Dec 3, 2017 17:54:12 GMT
Well that's very weird. I hadn't noticed this thread before; spent the day out walking the Highland hills (not all of them - you know what I mean...), and on the return trip we stopped for coffee at Torguish House, a completely weird biker-friendly B&B with a bizarrely random antiques department (old phone boxes, several vintage Fordson tractors, 4-foot tall plastic ice cream cones, former Swedish Army 4WD vehicles, that sort of thing), got home, had a look at the Vault and there it was.
Turns out that Torguish was Alistair Maclean's childhood home as his father was minister at a local church - there was a photo on the wall of him signing books in a Glasgow bookshop, fag in hand. Small world, ain't it?
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Post by Dr Strange on Dec 3, 2017 19:10:48 GMT
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Post by ripper on Dec 4, 2017 9:45:39 GMT
Well that's very weird. I hadn't noticed this thread before; spent the day out walking the Highland hills (not all of them - you know what I mean...), and on the return trip we stopped for coffee at Torguish House, a completely weird biker-friendly B&B with a bizarrely random antiques department (old phone boxes, several vintage Fordson tractors, 4-foot tall plastic ice cream cones, former Swedish Army 4WD vehicles, that sort of thing), got home, had a look at the Vault and there it was. Turns out that Torguish was Alistair Maclean's childhood home as his father was minister at a local church - there was a photo on the wall of him signing books in a Glasgow bookshop, fag in hand. Small world, ain't it? Synchronicity strikes again I remember seeing those big plastic ice-cream cones outside cafes and the like in the 70s and 80s.
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Post by ripper on Dec 4, 2017 9:49:21 GMT
Interesting article. I generally agree with the author's take on MacLean's books, and how they declined in quality later on, but that is not a phenomenon unique to MacLean.
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Post by franklinmarsh on Dec 4, 2017 15:04:57 GMT
Thanks Dr S. On the not as good as the old ones ticket, I found a Book Club version (i.e. hardback - ptui!)of Santorini on Saturday at the hospital book stall, which I'd never read. Investigating chapter one this morning, it looks like a good thick ear thriller featuring characters and dialogue from the late 1950s/early 1960s unfortunately in a book first published in 1986. Good stuff so far with Brit NATO ship The Ariadne, stuffed to the gills with electronic hardware, pootling around the Aegean when, who'd have thunk it, they receive an SOS from a yacht on fire just as an unidentified aircraft plunges into the sea nearby. Foul play must surely be involved. Looking forward to more anachronistic adventure. Not sure it'll scale the comedy highlights of Seawitch, but, either way, I hope to be entertained.
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Post by franklinmarsh on Dec 5, 2017 19:37:08 GMT
Yipes! Seems like the boat contained four ne'er-do-wells, two corkers (one blonde, one brunette in the time honoured POAC stylee) and three corpses - despite life boats, dinghies and life belts, the occupants had made no attempt to abandon ship. The 'plane has a more outrageous cargo - something like 14 or so H-bombs (ulp!) and (Aiieee!) a couple of mini A bombs that'll set the others off. An admiral and a couple of boffins have made it to the Ariadne and one of the eggheads has confirmed that, to add to their troubles, they're right next to the island of Santorini - which boasts not only a rarin' to go volcano, but also sits atop some tectonic plate edges - so if the bombs go off, it's pretty much good-bye world. Exciting, eh? Erm...not the way Ali is churning it out. After the thrilling (sort of) opening, he's lapsed into late period endless talk, in an old-fashioned fashion, that has me screaming for someone to DO something....
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Post by ripper on Dec 6, 2017 13:27:58 GMT
Yipes! Seems like the boat contained four ne'er-do-wells, two corkers (one blonde, one brunette in the time honoured POAC stylee) and three corpses - despite life boats, dinghies and life belts, the occupants had made no attempt to abandon ship. The 'plane has a more outrageous cargo - something like 14 or so H-bombs (ulp!) and (Aiieee!) a couple of mini A bombs that'll set the others off. An admiral and a couple of boffins have made it to the Ariadne and one of the eggheads has confirmed that, to add to their troubles, they're right next to the island of Santorini - which boasts not only a rarin' to go volcano, but also sits atop some tectonic plate edges - so if the bombs go off, it's pretty much good-bye world. Exciting, eh? Erm...not the way Ali is churning it out. After the thrilling (sort of) opening, he's lapsed into late period endless talk, in an old-fashioned fashion, that has me screaming for someone to DO something.... I haven't read that one, FM, though it is lurking somewhere in my collection. I re-read The Satan Bug over the last couple of days after first reading it decades ago. It has the usual hero withholding knowledge thingy and another hot blonde for our man to rescue. It is a detective story for the first half then changes gear to a chase thriller after the main villan is unmasked. Lots of red herrings and suspects, and I quite enjoyed it. I have seen the film version once but wasn't too keen on it. I think first-person narratives often lose a certain something when transferred to celluloid, and that was the case for The Satan Bug imo.
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Post by ripper on Dec 10, 2017 9:47:45 GMT
After The Satan Bug I thought I would give Fear is the Key another go. I saw the film at the cinema long before reading the novel, which I last read about a decade ago. The hero is another of MacLean's typical resourceful, tough, yet flawed characters, and, inevitably he's withholding information from the reader. There's no romance for our guy this time, the main female character being in love with another. There's a pretty good car chase scene and a fair bit of the plot is set on board an oil rig off Florida. This one isn't so well known as Guns of Navarone, Where Eagles Dare and Ice Station Zebra, but I think it is among his best, and if you like MacLean it is well worth checking it out. The film version is also pretty good.
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Post by andydecker on Dec 12, 2017 20:26:21 GMT
Anybody read Alexander Fullerton? I dicovered the name while browsing naval novels. Seems he published quite a lot.
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Post by ripper on Dec 13, 2017 13:20:54 GMT
Anybody read Alexander Fullerton? I dicovered the name while browsing naval novels. Seems he published quite a lot. I think Fullerton's most high-profile series would be that featuring Nicholas Everard, which I presume would be the one you are referring to, Andy. I can't recall having read any of them, though they seem to be quite well regarded in the world of naval fiction. I think they cover both world wars as the series follows Everard's rise up the ladder of promotion in the RN.
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Post by andydecker on Dec 13, 2017 18:53:47 GMT
Anybody read Alexander Fullerton? I dicovered the name while browsing naval novels. Seems he published quite a lot. I think Fullerton's most high-profile series would be that featuring Nicholas Everard, which I presume would be the one you are referring to, Andy. I can't recall having read any of them, though they seem to be quite well regarded in the world of naval fiction. I think they cover both world wars as the series follows Everard's rise up the ladder of promotion in the RN. Thanks! You are right, it was the Everard series. I thought it interesting because of the setting in WWI. There isn't much war-fiction about that period. I have to check if Reeman has done a WWI novel, come to think of it. Since reading a Charles Todd mystery a few years ago I my interest in this era has grown.
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Post by ripper on Dec 13, 2017 20:16:37 GMT
I think Fullerton's most high-profile series would be that featuring Nicholas Everard, which I presume would be the one you are referring to, Andy. I can't recall having read any of them, though they seem to be quite well regarded in the world of naval fiction. I think they cover both world wars as the series follows Everard's rise up the ladder of promotion in the RN. Thanks! You are right, it was the Everard series. I thought it interesting because of the setting in WWI. There isn't much war-fiction about that period. I have to check if Reeman has done a WWI novel, come to think of it. Since reading a Charles Todd mystery a few years ago I my interest in this era has grown.
Andy, my understanding is that it is the first 3 of the series that cover WWI: 1. The Blooding of the Guns (Jutland) 2. 60 Minutes for St. George (Zeebrugge raid) 3. Patrol to the Golden Horn (submarine raid to sink a cruiser in the Med) I also can't think of much fiction covering WWI. Reeman has written many books but I am not aware of any set prior to WWII.
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