Daren
Less well known that its predecessor, Guns of Navarone this sequel starts off as the main characters reach the ship having left he fictional island. They are bundled off to Italy for a meeting with Jensen, who briefs them on their next mission - heading into Yugoslavia.
And so Mallory, Miller and Andrea are to parachute in to rescue a division of partisans who the Germans have trapped. Going with them are three younger marine commandos who somewhat predictably are the sacrificial lambs of this story.
This team are not the first to have been sent into Yugoslavia to help the Partisans, but somehow the Germans know when each team will arrive and have intercepted them, so these men are heading in knowing they will likely be captured.
Throughout the book the reader is left (much like the three marine commandos) at a disadvantage, where Mallory keeps much of the knowledge of the mission to himself. He knows more than we are all told and as such there is plenty of play on him making strange arbitrary looking decisions.
He is not the only one, as the Germans also know more about the team than they show, so there is lots of second guessing and moves, especially with the central characters in Bosnia of Maria a double agent and her blind singer brother whom she guides about for the entire book.
The book has lots of impossible odds, heroics, sacrifices and action throughout. While some distance from believable, it makes for an amusing enough read, despite it not really being my chosen genre. ( I was away and finished the book I had taken with me, so was reliant on finding something to read in a charity shop book selection.)
I did feel the plot was unnecessarily complicated, with perhaps a bit much suspension of belief as to the very long odds that aways came through.
3 stars
Less well known that its predecessor, Guns of Navarone this sequel starts off as the main characters reach the ship having left he fictional island. They are bundled off to Italy for a meeting with Jensen, who briefs them on their next mission - heading into Yugoslavia.
And so Mallory, Miller and Andrea are to parachute in to rescue a division of partisans who the Germans have trapped. Going with them are three younger marine commandos who somewhat predictably are the sacrificial lambs of this story.
This team are not the first to have been sent into Yugoslavia to help the Partisans, but somehow the Germans know when each team will arrive and have intercepted them, so these men are heading in knowing they will likely be captured.
Throughout the book the reader is left (much like the three marine commandos) at a disadvantage, where Mallory keeps much of the knowledge of the mission to himself. He knows more than we are all told and as such there is plenty of play on him making strange arbitrary looking decisions.
He is not the only one, as the Germans also know more about the team than they show, so there is lots of second guessing and moves, especially with the central characters in Bosnia of Maria a double agent and her blind singer brother whom she guides about for the entire book.
The book has lots of impossible odds, heroics, sacrifices and action throughout. While some distance from believable, it makes for an amusing enough read, despite it not really being my chosen genre. ( I was away and finished the book I had taken with me, so was reliant on finding something to read in a charity shop book selection.)
I did feel the plot was unnecessarily complicated, with perhaps a bit much suspension of belief as to the very long odds that aways came through.
3 stars