Athabasca (novel)
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Athabasca is a novel by Scottish author Alistair MacLean, first published in 1980. As with the novel Night Without End, it depicts adventure, sabotage and murder in the unforgiving Arctic environment. It is laid in the oilfields and oil sands fields of Alaska and Canada and includes a considerable amount of technical detail on the operations.
Plot introduction
When the operations manager of an oil company operating in
Jim Brady himself arrives to direct operations but to no avail. Then the company's operations at the
Despite assistance by the
Background
Producer Peter Snell who made Bear Island was the one who suggested MacLean set a novel in the area near Lake Athabasca.[1]
Reception
The Los Angeles Times called it "sterile, ponderous, preposterous, ungrammatical, repetitious, ridden with cliches and devoid of suspense. Banal, bromidic and bewildered."[2]
The New York Times said " aside from the old master's handling of the mise en scene he is not at his best here "arguing the lead characters "are sketchily and unappealingly drawn, and the people they deal with are cardboard cutouts" although it liked the ending "So we wind up in fine style, but only after a plodding start. "[3]
The book became a best seller.[4]
References
- ^ Webster, Jack (1991). Alistair MacLean: A Life. Chapmans. p. 216.
- ^ MacLean in Alaska: cold comfort Roraback, Dick. Los Angeles Times 19 Oct 1980: o4.
- ^ CRIMINAL BEHAVIOR: [review] Ellin, Stanley. New York Times 28 Sep 1980: A.14.
- ^ PAPERBACK BEST SELLERS; MASS MARKET: [List] New York Times 25 Apr 1982: A.26.
External links