Circus - Alistair MacLean

 Circus is actually one of Alistair MacLean's novels I haven't actually read before, let alone heard of!! I can't even recall having seen a copy ever in my life, so this was gladly accepted into the pile of books I borrowed from my local library earlier this week. If you have read any of my preceding reviews on any of Alistair MacLean's novels, you will notice that most of them war based, as I have read very few of his other types of thrillers.

 Circus then is very much classic MacLean. The premise here is very solid, and it could be made into a very good movie with the right script writer, and director at the helm. The only thing that was a bit far fetched was the idea of the 'anti-matter'. Apparently an un-named Eastern European country has developed anti-matter for weapons use, and the US wants to steal the formula and get into this new area of the arms race.

 The idea of anti-matter is far fetched but it does anchor an otherwise excellent thriller. The cover is a fair indication of what transpires in the novel, and for me it is a good example of MacLean's prodigious imagination. Here he uses a circus aerialist, who is recruited by the CIA to break into the infamous high security prison in the fictional city of Crau. It also houses a research facility where a German scientist, who has defected eastwards, has developed the anti-matter. The prison is connected to a nearby power station by a 300 yard long high tension power cable.

 Well it is obvious how the recruited agent is to get into the prison. But MacLean, as usual, starts of this novel with the usual twists, turns, cross and double crosses, and several murders. It is his usual espionage novel, and this one is very good because the traitor is deviously hidden until a few pages from the end, ( and it wasn't who I expected at all! ). But typically of MacLean, and this is a criticism, he builds up to the action point of the novel well but he finishes it all too rapidly. The prison break in is in only the last fifth of the novel, and yet is the whole point of the story. The build up is superb, being valid and suspenseful, but all too often MacLean has a rushed feel to how he winds up his novels, and Circus is no different.

 The other thing I've noticed with MacLean, after having read a few of his novels consecutively, is his constant use of the word 'indeed. He indeed uses it alot, and indeed it is indeed a bit painful after a while. Indeed it is, indeed. The other thing is he used a similar premise from The Golden Gate where, instead of pistols being used, two innocuous pens with poison and gas are substituted. It smacks a bit too much of James Bond and 'Q's' gadgets, and I didn't like how he used them in two consecutive novels. Circus being written the year before The Golden Gate ( Golden Gate being published in 1976 ). But those criticisms aside, Circus is a good read with a very original premise.

 It is, like all MacLean's novels, extremely readable and I sped through its 286 pages several nights ago. As MacLean novels go he was in his hey day in the 1970's, and this has all his classic hallmarks which made him one of the 20th Centuries most popular authors. The anti-matter angle is a bit too far fetched for my tastes, but overall the premise is very solid with MacLean's deviousness in introducing a well disguised traitor into the mix. My only real problem is that the novel ends with an all too rushed feel, which somewhat degrades the superb buildup to what should have been a longer, more exciting climax than what he delivered.

 In short MacLean at his best, and still a worthy read even though somewhat flawed and dated in feel. Amazon has this with 4 1/2 stars out of 5 from 9 reviews. It is a fair grade as it is a good example of MacLean at his very best.

Explorers Of The New Century - Magnus Mills

 I picked this off the shelf for its brevity, and at 184 pages it is brief! So brief in fact that I managed to read it in the time I got home, until my dinner hit the table! So it is short, concise.....and somewhat strange.

 The novel starts out as an abstract look at the Scott/Amundsen race to the South Pole. Whilst neither of those explorers are actually named, the reader is left in no doubt who the characters are based on. But here things get murky because there is no date mentioned, the continent they are on isn't named, the landscape and climate certainly aren't Antarctic like, and then wham, right in the middle of it all a strange twist takes place.

 I won't go into the twist and spoil the novel for you who may venture into reading it, suffice to say...wt? came to mind!! I've read a number of reviews elsewhere and wt? is a common comment! I don't mind the Scott/Amundsen race to the Pole analogy, but the 'Mules' of the WT? thought were too much, and unfortunately Mills finishes the novel with it all unexplained. I may just be extremely thick ( hence 'an intellectual mediocrity'! ), but this was unsatisfying, because really the twist had no real seeming point.

 The only thing I could figure was it smelt of the Nazis pre-war plan to transport all of Europe's Jews to Madagascar as an answer to their notorious, 'Jewish Question'. But Mills takes it further as one of the surviving 'Mules', comes to realise the reason for the expedition, and slowly turns the expedition in her favour. She and her fellow 'Mules' are initially maligned, ( being at no time identified race wise ), yet she eventually comes to be called 'Princess', and is carried on a litter into her new realm. She has turned the tables on her detractors. It all smells of,  class, racism, bigotry, etc, and yet it is never revealed to be the point. I get he is driving at a 'humanity' angle but he just doesn't bring enough light of his ideas.

  It is all so strange, and frustrating, because even though I like abstract, I don't like the fact that Mills has muddied the abstractness so much as to leave the reader totally confused. In all honesty any reader will be dismissive of the novel over all. I really can't figure it out, or come to any satisfying, or even any half way coherent conclusions about what this novel is about, or saying!! It starts out as any explorer novel would, and when the twist hits I had a double take, and had to read it again!! It took me by surprise, and I then couldn't stop reading as I wanted to get to the 'what's it all about finale'. Sadly there isn't one as such, and it leaves a somewhat bad taste in the mouth at the unsatisfactory ending.

 Strange, very strange. It is an interesting premise but somehow Magnus Mills stuffs it all up. He muddies the waters so much, to the point where there really is no rational rhyme, or reason to the novel at all. Every review I have read on this novel says the same thing. Wt? is it about??!! Overall I can't say, ' yes read this novel', and yet it is worth reading just to see how an author can quite literally 'fuck it up'!!! Since it is a very easy read, I do say give it your consideration, as you'll read it in a matter of a few hours. It is a good example of how to leave your audience hanging, and ultimately alienated.

Amazon has this with 4 out of 5 stars. I personally give it 3/5, solely because of its inconclusiveness after a good start.

King Solomon's Mines - H. Rider Haggard

'The Most Amazing Book Ever Written'.

Banners around London in 1885 advertising the novel.

 As Richard Matheson's, 'I am Legend', by itself influenced the zombie genre, Henry Rider Haggard's 1885 novel, King Solomon's Mines', is also an incredible influential work. With its eventual publication, ( it took Haggard six months to find a publisher ), King Solomon's Mines single handily created the 'Lost World' genre, which saw the likes of Edgar Rice Burrough's 'The Land That Lost Time', Arthur Conan Doyle's 'The Lost World ( catalyst for 'Jurrassic Park' ),  Rudyard Kipling's, 'The Man Who Would Be King', and even Lee Falk's, 'The Phantom', published within the genre. More recently Michael Crichton's, 'Congo', was added.

 But possibly its most influential claim to fame can be that the novel's main protagonist, Allan Quatermain, became the template for Indiana Jones. Haggard though based his original character on real life British big game hunter and explorer Frederick Courtney Selous.  Haggard himself had extensive knowledge on Africa, the continent the novel is based in, from being a 19 year old who witnessed the Anglo-Zulu, and First Boer War. He became impressed by South Africa's immense mineral wealth and ruins of ancient African ruins.

 His experiences and observations aided him well for he wrote this, his third novel, after a bet with his brother, who said he couldn't write a better novel than Robert Louis Stevenson's 1883 novel, 'Treasure Island'. Haggard considered it a poor book and proceeded to write King Solomon's Mines in a space between six weeks to six months. At first he couldn't find a publisher, but six months later he did and it was an instant sensation with printing presses unable to keep up with demand.

 The novel was the first novel written in English about Africa. When published sales banners around London praised it as 'The Most Amazing Book Ever Written'. It immediately captured the public imagination and became a best seller. For it's era it was missing the ornate language and writing style of the late 19th Century, and yet even today is a satisfying read literally wise. Haggard after the success of this novel went onto a successful thirty year writing career, particularly with 1886's 'She'.

 The novel opens with protagonist and narrator, Allan Quatermain, writing in a very easy conversational style. Through Quatermain Haggard not only tells a fictional story of a lost land called 'Kukuanaland' and the lost mines of wealthy, wise, Solomon of the Bible fame,  he also expresses to the reader the prevalent colonial views of the era. It is a typical novel of the late 19the Century as most novels did have a real life element of realism as a backdrop to the storyline.

 For its time it is quite open on the question of race as Haggard refuses to use the word 'nigger' for Blacks,( but does call them 'Kafir' ). He makes it quite clear that the blacks were like whites in having good and bad eggs. One can quietly read between the lines as Haggard all but says that he thinks most blacks are better people than whites, and says they also were entitled to be called 'gentlemen',o and general respect. When you read this it is surprising the novel was so popular with what must have seemed almost blasphemous in the 1880's.

 Haggard's knowledge of Africa is obvious as he vividly describes hunting game for meat, and elephants for ivory. The fearsome 'tetsi 'fly get a mention, ( can't be an African novel without one could it?! ), as well as the heat, dust, and general landscape of South Africa. For it's day the African continent must have seemed like a different planet, and the reader can instantly see why this novel captured the public imagination in 1885.

 But the story is the real key here and for its time it was a ripper! As I read it though I couldn't escape a feel of quaintness about it. But this is due to our modern world of instant communications etc, making us more worldly wise than those of the 1880's. It has dated somewhat but not to the point of irrelevancy or un-readability. Even though it hasn't the convoluted writing style associated with the era it is still a challenging read. At 200 pages it isn't a long novel as such, but the text is very small and it took me two nights to finish.

 I have wanted to read this novel for some time and it didn't disappoint. I like 19th Century literature, and whilst this has a dated feel, if you sit back and look at how this novel was received in an era when little was known about Africa, it then becomes an outstanding novel. For its time it fused the real Africa with the myth of King Solomon's Mines, and added a twist with the mine being within a 'lost land'. To have read this in 1885 must have been an extraordinary experience, and even though it may be more familiar to us today, the novel is worth reading as this is where Indiana Jones, and Jurassic Park were born!! There have even been no more than six film adaptations made of this novel!

 Quaint for it's datedness. But it is an extremely influential novel who resonance still sounds today, which is why it has endured. Recommended on so many levels!

The Golden Gate & Partisans - Alistair MacLean

 After having read The Guns of Navarone several weeks ago I was in a kind of an Alistair MacLean zone, so it was with pleasure that these two novels were in my library the other day. Suffice to say with their easy readability I read them in two successive nights!

 The first novel, The Golden Gate, was written in 1976 and is classic Alistair MacLean. As I read this I was impressed by how MacLean pre-dated Tom Clancy by two decades because this novel smacks of 1990's Clancy at his best, ( albeit without the meticulous attention to detail ). MacLean wrote in a very concise manner, and whilst it appears somewhat simplistic, he manages to pack a lot into such short novels.

 The Golden Gate is 365 pages long and I managed to read it in one night. The plot revolves around a master criminal who kidnaps the President of the United States on the Golden Gate Bridge. It is classic MacLean and here he is at his imaginative best. As stated the whole plot could have been lifted straight from a Tom Clancy novel as both authors had vivid imaginations, and could write taut, tense thrillers, very well. MacLean isn't regarded as one of the 20th Centuries best, and most popular authors, for nothing.



Cover of the edition I read.



 Even though this novel is now 35 years old it is still surprisingly fresh, and much of the technology used in it is still identifiable to more modern readers. In any respects it is amazing that with many of his novels having been adapted to film that this one hasn't either. Maybe closing the Golden Gate Bridge to film a movie is the reason!!...but still it has a good plot and would adapt to film well.

 Certainly a good thriller and Alistair MacLean at his best. Tense, suspenseful, with a good plot and premise, this is still a good solid novel, with a freshness to it. Maybe dated in terms of detail when compared against say Tom Clancy who wrote novels of similar premises, but worth a read when you want something quick and easy whilst still satisfying.

 Amazon has this with 3 1/2 stars out of 5 from 10 reviews. That is probably fair due mainly to its age, and nothing more.

Partisans.

Cover from the first edition.

 Amazon has this 1983 novel with 2 1/2 stars out of 5 from again, 10 reviews. By this stage of his career MacLean was an alcoholic and his novels suffered accordingly. Even devoted fans saw a decline in his novels. Apparently as he declined in the 1980's ( dying in 1987 due to his alcoholism ), he wasn't selling anywhere near the amount of novels he did in his heyday. Because of this his novels have been out of print in the U.S for many years, and yet have continued to be re-printed in the U.K.

 I remember reading this novel when about 12 or 13. When picked this up last night I couldn't re-call if I had actually read it, but as I got into it things felt vaguely familiar. When I looked for a picture to use here I immediately remembered the original cover though! Both covers I have used here are surreptitious as the novel has no war action what so ever. The car hitting the mine is nonsense, by 1983 not to mention the Stuka attack!

 MacLean may have been past his best in 1983, yet this is still a fine novel which displays his particular forte superbly, namely the cross, double cross and trust mis-trust he was so deft at writing. This may not be considered vintage MacLean and yet I really enjoyed this novel. But it has flaws. In premise the characters are meant to be a polyglot of Yugoslavs and Italians. And yet none of them read as Yugoslavs! They are more like British characters, and unfortunately the premise of subterfuge and mis-trust within the polyglot of wartime Yugoslavs is hard to buy into. The plot, etc, is superb, but with no Yugoslav feel what so ever.

  But that aside, even though Maclean was past his best, he could still  produce a novel with more twist and turns than any other writer of his generation. Partisans is flawed but still a worthy read. Unfortunately it isn't a war novel as such being more an espionage novel, and it lacks any action. The end is somewhat lame, and overall MacLean failed to capture the deceit and mis-trust inherent within Yugoslav politics during the war.  At times the suspense is rather weak and there isn't enough of the hardness I'd expect from those living and working in the shadows. It is all a bit too nice and cheery at times, and shows how MacLean had  somewhat lost his grip on the events he was attempting to write about.


  Not Alistair MacLean at his best but still a creditable novel even though flawed with a real lack of grit and feel of the shadowy world of espionage. The plot is solid and classic MacLean but it isn't dirty, or tense enough in feel to really satisfy. One for MacLean aficianados only? Possibly, but I grew up reading him as a boy and for me it is a real pleasure, and trip down memory lane, re-visiting the novels of one of the last centuries biggest and best novelist. Even past his best he still could write a reasonable novel.

Thunderbolt From Navarone - Sam Llewellyn

 Whew, all done and dusted!! All 856 pages of the four Navarone novels are now under my belt as I finished off Sam Llewellyn's final novel, Thunderbolt From Navarone, only moments ago. As a novel it far surpasses his last novel even though it is only 180 pages long!

 Unfortunately even though it isn't a bad novel full of plenty of action, Llewellyn has laden this novel with one or two cliques that cheapen it somewhat. Firstly in the first chapter a German ship is sunk called the Kormorant by a British submarine called the Sea Leopard. Both names are from novels published from around the same time, and the nod to them is unmistakable. The second cheap clique is the use of the number M-109 on the MTB the team use to get to Kynthos. If you know your history you will be aware that President John F. Kennedy served on a PT boat in the Solomons Campaign with the number PT-109!! Cheap and un-necessary I'm afraid Mr. Llewellyn.

( On the 11th of August Sam Lllewellyn himself left a short comment on this review. He has pointed out several of my errors of judgement. I wish to make them clear here instead of re-writing the whole review! Mr Llewellyn HAS NOT taken a cheap shot at Sea leopard, Kormorant, and Kennedy's Pt 109 number. Look in the comments section for the rest of his otherwise pleasing comment. I'm surprised an author of any of the books I've reviwed has taken the time to read my musings. It has been an interesting experience!! ) )

 But that aside this final Navarone novel isn't too bad. It has the usual formula of following immediately on from the preceding novel and has the mission impossible with a traitor in the mix. It is probably fortunate that this is the last novel because after four novels the premise is somewhat worn thin and predictable. The premise of this novel isn't quite as implausible as the last novel as it uses the V rockets as a plot line. But like the last three novels the rockets are huge and potential war winners for the Germans, so Mallory and his team are again assigned mission impossible to go in and destroy them!

 What follows isn't too bad an action novel. It was a bit more full on than the last novels and once the bullets started to fly they pretty much didn't stop! Of course what follows is the usual formula of the Navarone novels and the climatic explosion as Corporal Miller blows the rockets to kingdom come is virtually the last paragraph of the book. But it does poke a bit of fun at the ending of the last three novels with Captain, now Admiral, Jensen speaking his immortal words, ' I have one last job. Just a small one' !!

 Certainly an improvement on Storm Force and I would say it is fortunate that this is the last Navarone novel written because it feels that Llewellyn with his cheeky poke at other novels titles, and use of JFK's PT number, he may have lost interest. It is a premise that has been stretched to its limit and without a major over haul could have become an embarrassment. The four novel omni-bus I read these novels in is daunting to some at over 4 inches thick, but each novel is easily read, and I spent probably less than 24 hours in total making my way through it.

856 pages long.

Mr. Midshipman Hornblower - C. S. Forester

 Well for my 50th post I have the first chronological novel in the Hornblower series. I didn't want to start this series until I had read all the Bond novels, but since someone else has borrowed the next few novels I need I thought I'd take a look at this very famous character. I have been wanting to read Hornblower for years especially after reading that Winston Churchill himself was a huge fan.

 Horatio Hornblower is a very famous character, but there is a problem with this novel as it isn't exactly the first novel Forester wrote. In fact it is the sixth as he wrote The Happy Return first in 1938, and then 6 subsequent novels. The novels proved so popular that Forester then wrote Mr. Midship Hornblower which saw the start of Hornblower's career as a sick 17 year old in 1948. The problem with this novel is that even though it is chronological it isn't a novel per se. It is in fact 10 short stories that are not inter-connected in anyway. I found this frustrating as I thought that it was the first novel in a series when in fact it technically isn't. Possible in hindsight it is better to read the series in the order Forester wrote them.

 Bernard Cornwell done the same thing with his Sharpe's novels. Cornwell gained the inspiration for Richard Sharpe from Forester's Hornblower, and even after one Hornblower book there is very little difference between the two series in my opinion. Cornwell starts Sharpe off in Sharpe's Rifles and finished with Sharpe's Devil. Then, like Forester, wrote Sharpe's Tiger which went into Sharpe's pre-Spain career in India. If you have read the Sharpe's novels chronologically you'll find a certain amount of dis-jointedness due this order. I get the feeling that the Hornblower novels may suffer from the same thing.

 To be honest, once I realised this was a novel out of its actual chronological order of publication I found it difficult to read, and didn't enjoy it as I might have otherwise done. In hindsight if I knew then what I do now
I would have read the first published novel and the others in that order. For me reading this as a chronological order novel is a waste of time and probably only Hornblower purists and aficianados will enjoy it.

 The background to the Hornblower novels is interesting because Forester initially was writing a script for a pirate movie in Hollywood. But Errol Flynn's Captain Blood came out before he finished his script, and with too many parallels between Flynn's movie and his script he shelved it. But he then adapted it to what became the Hornblower novels. He wrote most of the novels in America after the War in California and their influence was even felt in Star Trek which was initially pitched as 'Hornblower in space'. Certainly they are enduringly popular, and have influenced any number of imitators since. As a character his popularity and fame is only surpassed by that of  Sherlock Holmes. Bernard Cornwell even states the series is the greatest military history fiction ever written. I can't comment on that until I have read the other novels!

 Mr. Midship Hornblower for me was a disappointment, only because it isn't a novel being 10 short stories in novelised form. I think if you intend to read this series you are better off reading them in the order they were written, and not in the subsequent chronological order. Certainly influential but overall a bit simplistically written. If you have read Bernard Cornwell's Sharpe's novels then in all intents and purposes I feel that Forester's Hornblower novels are very much in the same category quality wise.

 The influence of Hornblower cannot be stressed enough and the novels have been adapted to film and television. Click here for more about this character and his legacy:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horatio_Hornblower

The Auschwitz Violin - Maria Angels Anglada

  'Anglada writes with elegance and subtlety, the brevity of the story only adding to its emotional power'.

John Boyne, author of The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas.

 At only 109 pages this is an extremely short novel, in fact it is more a novella than novel. I ploughed through it in less than 2 1/2 hours last night and still had time enough to read 140 pages of a Steve McQueen biography I then started. So what is there to say on something so short?

 Well first of all like How Many Miles to Babylon? it isn't easy! This novella is about a violin maker ( called a 'luthier' ), in on of the sub-camps that made up Auschwitz. The camp commandant finds out he is a violin maker and forces him to make a violin as he collects musical instruments. The novel focuses on protagonist Daniel making the violin under the threat of beatings, constant hunger and other deprivations. Through the camp's grapevine he discovers the commandant and the camp's sadistic doctor have made a bet as to whether Daniel can complete the violin within a set time. Daniel never discovers the time frame but he delivers up the violin and survives the war. 

 In essence the novel is about the mental struggle of life in a concentration camp, as much of the graphic nature is absent in lieu of the mental anguish of living under such conditions. Life is described through Daniel as an individual and his observations speak for the millions of victims.

 I'm constantly amazed at so much can be said with the use of so little words. This novella doesn't go into graphic details of life in the camps but it provides enough because most readers will already know something of the Holocaust. So the brevity of the deprivations means Anglada could concentrate more on Daniel's making of the violin. But it goes deeper than that as she wonderfully describes Daniel's workmanship. In making the violin Daniel is able to mentally escape for a time each day the horrors surrounding him. As he is under the commandants orders he is pretty much left alone from the guards. He certainly isn't immune from starvation and illness as he doesn't get any special treatment either.

 This isn't a particularly original novella or premise as such. There are many fictional works on Holocaust victims finding beauty amongst the horror, but Anglada has written a work of such crystalline simplicity and humanity it was hard to ignore. It is the simple premise that among the greatest crime against humanity ever committed people could still find beauty, passion, humanity, and life from everything good about mankind. Daniels' making of the violin is sandwiched in between a short narrative on how the violin survived the war, and how the man who played it to the commandant was found in Sweden and reunited with it through Daniel's daughter.

 In short Anglada has written the Holocaust and condensed it into 109 pages. She has concisely touched on all its salient details and inter-woved it into a then and now narrative. She has also opened each chapter with a real document pertaining to the Holocaust. I think anyone who has a passing or more serious knowledge of the events will recognise the brevity of Anglada's delivery, and marvel at how she could so concisely condense such vast events into only 109 pages. It is all there from survivor guilt, life in the camps, the will to live, the wish to die, the horror, starvation, disease, beatings, inhumanity, and in amongst it all the humanity shown by a very few at great risk to themselves. Anglada at one stage introduces men called Schindler and Bernadotte into her text as reminders of the good even within all the evil.

 Certainly not the best Holocaust novel I have read, but its brevity is staggering as Anglada has covered so many aspects of the events in such a small novella. It is a fine piece of writing, and whilst not totally original in premise it is still worth reading, not only for the subject matter, but as a quiet look at abbreviated writing and the skill involved in it.