Ice Station Zebra

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When you are out at sea and your life depends on the guys around you, you quickly develop a family type relationship.

He has woven science, a whole lot of it, and a bit more, history, geography, propaganda with fiction into such a rivetting whodunnit murder story that it makes it so hard for you to put it down. Also, MacLean may have been influenced by press reports about the nuclear-powered submarine USS Skate visiting Ice Station Alpha, located on Ice Island T-3 in the Arctic, on 14 August 1958, as part of the International Geophysical Year (IGY) . A modern reader might guess at a few revelations here or there, but the ride to the climax is a smooth one.It is somewhat dated now, but it has some great elements of epionage, murder, plot twists, and heroics.

The submarine sails beneath the thick Arctic pack ice but is unable to break through with its conning tower. At the time of the film's release Variety's brief review praised it, highlighting the performances: "Film’s biggest acting asset is McGoohan, who gives his scenes that elusive ‘star’ magnetism. The film's climax involves a superpower confrontation between Soviet paratroopers and the US Marines at Ice Station Zebra itself, but concludes on a much more ambiguous note than the novel, reflecting the perceived thaw in the Cold War following the Cuban Missile Crisis. In June 1967, Laurence Harvey and Patrick McGoohan joined the cast as the Russian agent and British agent, respectively.The nearly fatal flooding of the forward torpedo room, before the intermission, is the only time in the film where the submarine is shown to be in jeopardy, unlike the novel where a fire in the engine room nearly kills the entire crew.

The novel was influenced by the heightened atmosphere of the Cold War, and has some parallels with real events. After Ferraday hands over the empty container, a brief firefight occurs when the deception is discovered. It is only at the ultimate ending when Carpenter rounds up the lot, and like a skilful cold-war era Hercule Poirot delivers the conclusion.A USN Nuclear Submarine dashes to the Arctic to rescue a British meteorological team trapped on the polar ice cap. Beyond the name change, the film's submarine has a design similar to the first nuclear-powered submarine, Nautilus, rather than the more streamlined, teardrop-shaped vessel, either the contemporaneous Skipjack or Permit design, that was described in the novel. On board is Dr Carpenter, a mysterious Englishman, who is tasked with discovering what exactly occurred at the station. Before getting to the novel itself I feel compelled to explain what drove me to grab an “old” Alistair MacLean classic.

A classic adventure tale, although the narrator kept a lot of screts from everyone including the reader.The two and a half years he spent aboard a wartime cruiser were to give him the background for HMS Ulysses, his remarkably successful first novel, published in 1955. Their motive is spy-related, but Maclean only reveals it in the second to last chapter and it’s a MacGuffin (e. A series of prefab huts built to house the residents and the equipment have caught fire,and the one remaining intact hut houses the seven starving, frostbitten and wounded survivors. One can only read "he said savagely," "he said gently," "he said admiringly," and so on in every paragraph before it gets annoying.