Before I begin this blog I must profusely apologise to all my readers because the last two of my blogs about Fear is the Key and Floodgate have numerous grammatical errors. Now I know this is not a good excuse but I had just done it in notepad and not feeling too well did not check on the spelling particularly. Also I always get caught between UK and USA English. I find that I have got so dependent on the computer for telling when there are spelling errors and grammar issues that I do not even look for errors if they are not highlighted. I am appalled at this bad habit and concerned about my writing skills. I am so impatient that I generally read into it only what I know is in my head while I have been typing. Now that I am back into Microsoft Word I shall hopefully make no mistakes.
I have seen the film ‘Ice Station Zebra’ a few times in the years between last and current reading of the book. I was surprised at how much of the book I had forgotten. The film was very much different from the book which I always find is better at the detailed descriptions. In this film there is a fair amount of change from the book. The book also has a lot of description of the submarine which would be very interesting to those who are into ships and submarines. I get impatient with these details as I think it holds up the story. The portrayal of the weather conditions in the artic are also very specific and enough to make one shiver even when sitting in the sunshine as I was doing while reading the book.
The main character of the book is Dr Carpenter while he had a couple more people accompanying him in the film, in the book he is alone and eventually gets all his support from the captain and crew of the submarine. Towards the end the film has confrontation with the Russian paratroopers which of course were never in the book. The suspense of the story is well maintained and titbits to information and explanations increase your curiosity while opening up the picture of the jigsaw of the story. The cold war and its related espionage is the central aspect of the plot. Something went wrong and the Drift Ice Station Zebra had a huge fire and some of the personnel there perished in it. It is up to Dr Carpenter to discover the truth about the fire and the murders of the personnel, one of whom is his brother. The incidents that take place in the submarine and threaten the lives of the crew while under the ice sheath is terrifying and makes us aware of the risks and hundred and one things that can go wrong in a submarine and it is even worse when they cannot surface if something goes wrong.
While I may lament the length of the descriptions and minute details that are prolific in this book and I am aware that this is a novel, where mostly things are going to end where the good will win over the evil, the details built the feeling of tremendous anxiety for the wellbeing of the submarine and the people who stood for the good. It made one keep reading to know what happens. Gripping is the word I am looking for, which is a must for a thriller in my world. I would recommend people read it and not get put off by all the talk of the submarines and artic landscape plus weather.
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