Night Without End

Hello everyone! Welcome, or welcome back to my blog. Today I am back with another book review. My last one was that of The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown; an action thriller. The book that I am going to review today is also an action thriller. But this one written by a very different author with a very different style, and is just as fun. It is yet another one of Alistair MacLean’s masterpieces – Night Without End.

About the Author:

Alistair MacLean was born in 1922 and was brought up in the Scottish Highlands. His father was a Scot minister. In 1941, when he was eighteen years old, he joined the Royal Navy. For two and a half years, he served aboard a cruiser; it later gave him the background and idea to write his first novel, an outstanding documentary of war at sea – the bestseller HMS Ulysses. After World War II, he applied for and received an English Honours degree at Glasgow University, after which he became a school master. In 1983, he was awarded a D.Litt. from the same university.

His writing skills landed him the title of one of the top-ten bestselling authors in the world, and the top selling Briton, by 1970. Currently he is recognized as one of the outstanding writers of the 20^th Century. His most popular novels The Guns of Navarone, Where Eagles Dare, Fear is the Key, and Ice Station Zebra have been turned into films. Apart from these, he wrote twenty-five bestsellers which have sold more than 30 million copies worldwide. Alistair MacLean died in 1987 at his home in Switzerland.

The Review:

A few people’s attention is caught by a sudden droning noise. It seemed to move about in circles over their head; getting louder as it came nearer, and then again fading into the blinding snowstorm. The sound was like that of a four-propeller luxury airplane. But surely, that cannot be. After all, what was a luxury airliner doing in a snowstorm 400 miles north of the Arctic Circle? The men inside the remote, half buried scientific station finally hear something decisive – a crash. It will be a Night Without End.

The head of the research team, Dr. Mason, decided to brave the blinding blizzard and go to the crash to rescue anyone who can be rescued. As he opened the trapdoor of his research station and headed out into the freezing atmosphere, his mind became clouded with questions. He hoped that when he reaches the plane, all his questions will be solved. He could not have been farther from the truth. For, his discoveries in the plane surprised him beyond words.

Dr. Mason rescued about ten people from the plane. He took them towards his station, and left them in the hands of one of his fellow mates. He decided to go back to the plane and salvage all he could. After all, even a few extra provisions of food help a lot in places where the temperature indoors seldom reach above freezing point. And not to mention that there were now about thirteen people surviving on rations made for three.

When Dr. Mason reached the plane, he entered and hunted around for anything that may come of use to them. There wasn’t anything much, and he soon turned his attention to looking for the cause of the crash of the plane. When he entered the cockpit, he found that the plane’s navigator was dead. His head was bashed in and his body was stuffed in one corner of his cubicle. He was wondering whether the man had been deliberately killed, when he found his answer. He saw that the pilot was lying dead on his seat; his head turned in a way which could not be natural; a bullet through his body.

When Dr. Mason reached his station, he found out that their radio set – their only way of contacting the outside world – had been ‘accidentally’ broken by one of the survivors. He now realised that someone from these people were desperate. Desperate to guard their secret and they would go to any lengths to do so.

Night Without End actually begins at a slow pace. The plot takes some time to get fully set up. It is a little descriptive and monotonous at the start, but when the real action begins, there is no turning back. The use of imagery in this book is excellent. You can almost feel the cold and the anxiety; the snow falling and the fear. And on top of it all, everything happens in a single night. This is a very good read for people who like reading action thrillers. The tale of these people surviving in temperatures forty degrees below zero, the discovery on the antagonist, and the final showdown, is definitely a must-read. The Night Without End fails to disappoint.

Outro:

So, I hope that all of this inspires you to choose Night Without End as your next read. I will keep posting many such reviews on the most interesting books. If you haven’t already checked out my other posts, please do so. Please subscribe to my blog. It’s fun, and it’s free and you will get notified each time I post something. If you liked this post, stay tuned for more; if you didn’t, still do the same. Who knows? Maybe you will like the next one. Au revoir!