Sri Lanka It's Happening

January 21, 2007

After writing HMS ulysses, Alistair Maclean should have quit. He never wrote anything to beat his first novel. Some of his later work like the Guns of Navarone are very readable but not in the same class as the HMS Ulysses. Some of the other books like Athabasca are totally unreadable and i didn't go past page 50 of that. That's unusual for me. I always try to finish a book I start on, now matter how bad it is.

In many of his later work there is a recurring theme; appearences can be decieving. The guy who appears to be the hero at the start of the book turns out to be villain and the villain turns out to be the hero.

Until now, I had not read any westerns by Alistair Maclean and I didn't think this Scotsman is capable of writing a western. Breakheart pass isn't your usual western but the villain does turn out to be the hero towards the end. His usual twist in the tale; the hero's partner turning out to be a traitor is missing. In this one the partner ends up dead.

That doesn't mean breakheart pass is a bad book. It's pretty good for an afternoon read.

Posted by raditha at January 21, 2007 4:10 PM