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Title: Guns of Navarone
ISBN: 0449214729
Author:
Alistair Maclean
Publicate Date: 1987-05-12
Publish: 1987-05-12
List Price: $5.99
Average Customer Rating: 4.5
Format: Mass Market Paperback
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Amazon Lowest New Price: $9.95
Amazon Lowest Used Price: $0.04
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| Customer Review: |
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1: My favorite MacLean adventure!
I have been a voracious reader since I was 6, and my father introduced me to Alistair MacLean at the age of 13. I believe he had two reasons that summer for doing so; one was because he himself owned about 13 of MacLean's thrillers and he enjoyed them, and the other was because I had become quite obsessed that year with anything related to WWII.
I ended up reading about 15 of MacLean's books over the next year, but my favorite remained The Guns of Navarone. I liked the characters, the terrain, and the fact that there was such limited time to turn the tides in the Allied troops' favor. I think the fact that the main characters had to go without sleep for a long period of time while still functioning in top form influenced me as well; I ended up working 11 years on night-shift as an RN and was constantly sleep-deprived despite the adrenaline that kept me alert. I often thought of "my mates" from the Guns of Navarone at 4AM as I sat charting at the Nurses Station with my endless cup of coffee!
While I eventually got tired of this type of adventure story and moved on to other authors and books, I highly recommend this author and particularly this book for teens and young adults who enjoy action. I recently discovered The Guns of Navarone was available as a Kindle book, and I purchased it to re-read as well as for old-times sake.
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2: Not Free SF Reader
A very good war thriller. A cosmopolitan team of cover operatives is sent in on a mission to disable a strategically important artillery stronghold.
All does not go quite as planned, and there is a rather large rat in the ranks, unfortunately. Highly entertaining and a sterling example of work of this type. Not to be missed for those who like this sort of thing.
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3: Makes you want to climb a mountain!
Of all the war novels that I have read, this one seems the most implausible and yet realistic. The story involves an unusual team of men who are chosen to attempt a nearly impossible task, destroying the inaccessible but super-accurate German gun fortress on the island of Navarone. With the lives of thousands of men hanging in the balance, the team lives with constant hardship and the threat of a traitor in their midst. Mr. Maclean uses every nuance to make the reader stand beside the characters. When melting snow drips on someones face, you want to wipe it away. This book is well into the category "older novel", but a new publication would certainly be well recieved.
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4: very predictable
I thought that the 'Guns of Navarone' was ok. This is only the second MacLean book that I have read. But already I have to say that it is not the best Maclean book that I could recommend. In my opinion` When Eight Bells Toll' was a more engrossing tale in that the plot constantly shifted directions. `Navarone' on the other hand is very linear, from point A to point B without a deviation along the way.
The characters in Navarone are not very well pieced together. If you take a good hard look at them, they are very generic. But this is besides the point because MacLean is writing a thriller, and one rarely ever sees the protagonist in more a superficial light in any thriller. After all this is not high literature but instead an escapist bit of fluff.
So if we were to judge this book merely on the merits of the story, you will have to admit that it is very predictable in all ways except where the main characters just barely sneak out with their skins. Maybe this book is very dated and one can feel undercurrents of unintended humor sliding into the pages as our preconceived notions come to war with the idiotic blind luck the team has upon occasion.
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5: The legendary "Guns of Navarone"
For those who know "The Guns of Navarone" only from the justly famous movie starring Gregory Peck and David Niven, Alistair MacLean's novel will be an enjoyable surprise. "Navarone" is, with "Where Eagles Dare", the Scottish-born MacLean's best known work in the United States. His story of a daring British commando raid against the fictional German-held island of Navarone is loosely based on a failed British expedition to the eastern Aegean Sea during the Second World War. The commandos must silence the guns of the title to permit the evacuation by sea of British troops trapped on a nearby island. The novel traces the commandos' dangerous journey by sea to Navarone and their struggles to survive and outwit the Nazi occupation force long enough to carry out their mission.
A strength of this novel is MacLean's portrayal of well-developed and nuanced characters. Captain Mallory, a New Zealander and pre-war mountain climber, is the leader; his deputy is Andrea, a taciturn and dangerous, yet compassionate Greek. Others are Miller, the cynical and world-weary American explosives expert, and young Stevenson, the insecure subaltern and backup climber. We are given enough of the background and voice of each of the major characters to understand why they are the way they are. MacLean took care to populate the story with an interesting supporting cast of British and German military personnel and Greek villagers. In the process, he conveys a sense of the desperately bitter partisan warfare that must have taken place in Nazi-occupied Greece.
A second strength is MacLean's ability to weave a complicated yet compelling story. The opening chapter sets the tone with almost brilliantly concise description and dialogue. Mallory, obstensibly spirited out from a behind the lines mission in Crete for a rest, discovers that his boss has a more important mission for him. Mallory's hastily put-together team must surmount a series of hair-raising challenges and make some tough choices along the way. In precise, often understated prose, we experience with the commandos the physical and mental fatigue of a dangerous and morally ambiguous mission. MacLean vividly portrays a harsh world of war and betrayal, in which even the best choices have brutal consequences.
This book is highly recommended to the reader looking for an enthralling adventure story, one told with style and substance. This is no mindless summer beach read. "The Guns of Navarone" is MacLean at his best, a pure pleasure to read.
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