Eisstation Zebra
I must be procrastinating with aplomb, as it has only taken a few weeks to finish Alistair MacLean's[*] Eisstation Zebra. Combine submarines, guns, satellites and, of course, ice, and you're all set for a rivetting thriller, with more murders than an Agatha Christie novel, just waiting to be turned into a movie, that's hardly aged at all[**]. Oh, wait, they did that already, sort of.
What I enjoyed was that it hardly mattered that I only knew 85% of the words. Submarines, gunes, satellites, ice: what more do you need? (Girls, I suppose.) What I found distracting was the repetition of phrases from a few lines or paragraphs before:
"Es ist offenbar überflüssig, hinzuzufügen", sagte ich, fügte es aber trotzdem hinzu, "daß der Mörder sich momentan in diesen vier Wänden befindet."
I wonder if that was in the English version. Previously I think I'd only read the "Guns of Navarone", in high school English class, and I don't remember that being so rich in dialogue. (No girls, either, that I recall.)
I shall have to see what other delights lie underneath the dust in our local library.
* The Dale Brown of the 1960's?
** Well, sure, Communism is dead and the Cold War is over. Apart from that, okay?
What I enjoyed was that it hardly mattered that I only knew 85% of the words. Submarines, gunes, satellites, ice: what more do you need? (Girls, I suppose.) What I found distracting was the repetition of phrases from a few lines or paragraphs before:
"Es ist offenbar überflüssig, hinzuzufügen", sagte ich, fügte es aber trotzdem hinzu, "daß der Mörder sich momentan in diesen vier Wänden befindet."
I wonder if that was in the English version. Previously I think I'd only read the "Guns of Navarone", in high school English class, and I don't remember that being so rich in dialogue. (No girls, either, that I recall.)
I shall have to see what other delights lie underneath the dust in our local library.
* The Dale Brown of the 1960's?
** Well, sure, Communism is dead and the Cold War is over. Apart from that, okay?