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Review
'A magnificent storyteller' Sunday Mirror
‘The most successful British novelist of his time’ Jack Higgins
‘Alistar MacLean is one of the few people writing today who has a story to tell.’ Daily Express
Product Description
Reissue of the gripping tale of sabotage at sea, from the acclaimed master of action and suspense.
In the heart of the Aegean Sea, a luxury yacht is on fire and sinking fast. Minutes later, a four-engined jet with a fire in its nose-cone crashes into the sea.
Is there a sinister connection between these two tragedies? And is it an accident that the Ariadne, a NATO spy ship, is the only vessel in the vicinity - the only witness?
Only Commander Talbot of the Ariadne can provide the answers as he uncovers a deadly plot involving drugs and terrorism - leading to the heart of the Pentagon.
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"Santorini", published in 1986, is the last sad evidence of this prodigious talent in decline. The book is static and talky, with no adventure, no suspense, no tension. And, worst of all, virtually all of the action takes place "off screen" and is reported to our nominal heroes as they converse in brave understatement meant to convey the greatest heights of modest heroism. Upper lips don't get any stiffer than those of Commander Talbot and his Number One Officer.
In "Santorini" MacLean expends all of his energy laying on very thick the cataclysmic consequences that would result from the explosion of the atomic and hydrogen bombs that lie in the hold of an aircraft lying at the bottom of the sea. This is typical of his latter work: he tries to create suspense by escalating to nearly world-ending destruction the consequences that would befall mankind if the villain has his way. At the same time, in the latter books, MacLean creates heroes that appear to be supernaturally talented and cunning - so much so, that never for a moment does the reader believe that the villain - a "genius", according to the author - has a chance of succeeding.
In his latter works, his tendency to hyperbole clearly gets the better of him. His protagonists are supermen, and his villains are the earthly manifestation of evil, making Satan himself seem like a choirboy by comparison. Their boundless evil provides justification for the ruthless tactics of the protagonists. In the black-and-white moral universe of MacLean's latter stories, the only way to defeat such villains is to replicate their ruthlessness in the name of "good". This is not a very becoming trait in a writer, especially when it is dwelled on as much as MacLean tends to in some of this books. "Goodbye California", for example, is an ugly piece of work that - if it could for a moment be taken seriously - would deserve the label "fascist literature".
There is laziness about even his early work that simply goes out of control in the latter books. In "Santorini", for example, every character uses the word "inevitably" - not because it makes sense for them to do so, but simply because the author is too lazy to come up with dialogue that distinguishes one character from another.
"Santorini" ranks below such abysmal efforts as "Goodbye California", "Floodgate", "Athabasca", and "Partisans", and stands, to my mind, as the worst of an outstanding writer's work.
Anyone interested in good adventure stories should steer clear of MacLean's latter work. Read the outstanding tales he wrote in the 1950s ("HMS Ulysses", "The Guns of Navarone", "Fear Is the Key") and the 1960s ("The Satan Bug", "The Dark Crusader", "When 8 Bells Toll").
Many of his best books took place on ship. His first, HMS ULYSSES, still stands, in my opinion, as one of the gritiest and most stirring examinations of everyday life and death on a British ship at the height of the war. It feels almost like DAS BOOT...you can almost smell the grease, the fear, the steel and the heroism that arises from the fact that there really was no other option. Other books, like GUNS OF NAVARONE, SOUTH BY JAVA HEAD, etc. etc. were a bit more interested in outrageous entertainment, but they were entertaining. They felt carefully plotted, and if MacLean wasn't the best writer out there...he was a good plotter. Old-fashioned in the extreme...no sex, no cursing, no gory details. But brisk, witty and exciting.
As MacLean grew older, and his audience turned to newer writers...his writing became both flacid and desparate. His plots and the stakes his heroes played for often dealth with saving the world from annihilation. But his knowledge of modern life was sketchy at best. In SANTORINI, in 1986, he still calls nuclear weapons "atom bombs." There seems to be no understanding of computers. No true grasp on any believable geo-political condition we might recognize.
His writing, never one for brilliantly observed characterizations, is totally devoid of any distinction between characters. Everyone talks EXACTLY the same...Brits, Americans, Greeks. Presidents, sailors, admirals and criminals. They are the same...if they didn't have different names we wouldn't know who was talking. The "situation" that the characters are dealing with is indeed earth-threatening...but no one seems terribly upset or in a huge hurry to deal with it. And MacLean only seems to have the sketchiest idea of how the mechanics of what the characters do work.
I imagine the book was written out of force of habit. MacLean was probably old and disinterested...but still under contract, or trying to leave more money for his heirs, or something. But what he also left is a completely forgettable book, one to be avoided at all costs.
I'm very saddened to say this, because in the 50s and 60s...he was the master of what he did. Read one of those old novels, and even though it will feel old-fashioned, you'll know you're in the hands of skilled craftsperson.
Characters were never Maclean's strong point, but here they're cardboard thin. Grave, solemn heroes who can do no wrong and never raise a sweat, a villian who is easily identifiable and has no purpose other than to be a "bad guy", heroines whose only role is to be "classic Greek beauty" love interests. It's notable that nearly every single character here has a name that Maclean has used before: Talbot, Carrington, Andropolous, McKinnon.....if an author can't even give his characters original names, you know you're going to get cardboard cut-outs. And the plot goes nowhere, we don't even find out what the villian's purpose was; one of the protagonists is forced to narrate "well, we THINK his plan was this...." but nobody seems to know, least of all the reader.
'Santorini' is a tired, uninteresting book that does more harm than good to the Maclean legacy. What a sad way to bow out.
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