The ice floe has turned upside down and trapped the two men, while the Sealab crew tries to rescue them in a submarine. Jedynym, ale znaczącym minusem produkcji (nie treści) jest dla mnie to, że przy superprodukcjach narracja pierwszoosobowa średnio sprawdza się, bo wprowadza spory zamęt. Their motive is spy-related, but Maclean only reveals it in the second to last chapter and it’s a MacGuffin (e. The sequence of these events and the culprits of the massacre at Ice Station Zebra are unmasked, following the revelation of Dr Carpenter being a member of MI6, the British Intelligence wing, and the eventual clever frustration of the culprits' plans (and eventually saving the skins of the US- UK bloc).

On arrival, they find the base almost burned to the ground and the scientists nearly dead from hypothermia. There is precious little time for reflection or character development, not when there are Reds to outwit and icy tundras to cross. A British doctor, Carpenter, arrives at the dock in Scotland where a nuclear submarine, the USS Dolphin, is preparing to sail. In fact, the killer is revealed during the course of the book, as the author does drop a clue that would reveal the guilty party.The Soviet interest in recovering the lost spy satellite is shown early in the film when a spy ship disguised as a fishing trawler waits outside Holy Loch when the Tigerfish sets sail. At the time that the novel was published, under-the-ice operations by US Navy nuclear-powered submarines were prohibited until SUBSAFE measures had been implemented following the loss of USS Thresher. I felt that the pace of the book did not run hand in hand with the amount of information presented and digested in the plot. For action it has crash dives, paratroopers, Russian spies, off-course satellites, and a troop of Marines, the average age of whom seems to be fourteen.

A British Meteorological drift station set up in the Arctic- Ice Station Zebra, has gone completely off the grids. After completing this novel, whose plot line parallels real-life events during the Cold War, MacLean retired from writing for three years.

IMO, this story would be more entertaining as a movie - and because there is a movie based on the book I plan to see it, even though I've heard that the book is far better.

Instead, it’s a race-against-time between the Russians and US to the base (which is completely destroyed with no survivors) to pick up a downed satellite. War Is Hell, but It Pays Off for MacLean: War Pays Off for MacLean War Pays Off for MacLean War is Hell, but It Pays Off for Alistair". Mind you, there is a tonne of technical, scientific, submarine related jargons that I had a bit of a tough time following. Following a terrible accident at the station which rests on the ice just 300 miles form the North Pole, a rescue operation is launched.

I like the interplay between the characters in this one and the descriptions of the ice pack actually made me feel COLD they were so good. A contrast in the style, or even in the simple portrayal of tumultuous war-like times, are two books, Anne Frank's Diary of a Young Girl, and the last Harry Potter book, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. After Ferraday hands over the empty container, a brief firefight occurs when the deception is discovered. While still under the ice, a fire breaks out in the engine room and the sub is forced to shut down its nuclear reactor.