While the scientists immediately turn to cannibalism, the Sealab sub – led by a German crew resembling that from Das Boot – predictably fumbles the rescue. But I have zero knowledge about this stuff and while I did by best to follow, there some things that were just hard for me to visualise. Drift ice Station Zebra, a British meteorological station built on an ice floe in the Arctic Sea, suffers a catastrophic oil fire; several of its men die, and their shelter and supplies are destroyed.

This is even more contrast vis a vis his admiring descriptions of Swanson’s infallible, placating and impeccable character. The plot has parallels to events from April 1959 concerning Discoverer 2, a missing experimental US Corona satellite capsule that inadvertently landed near Spitsbergen, Norway, in the Arctic Ocean on April 13. Ice Station Zebra, written by Alistair Maclean and published in 1963, is a classic mystery/thriller set on a submarine in the Arctic. When Soviet and British agents arrived to recover the film capsule, the scientists were caught in the crossfire.From Jon Gilbert's bibliographical archive of Ian Fleming, with his pencilled note and ownership signature. Maclean says he got much of the technical information of the novel from the book Nautilus 90 North by William Anderson. The main character is a little shifty, not quite what he seems, but won't let the reader--or other characters--in on the secret. The novel is referenced in the 19th episode of the second season of Perfect Strangers, Snow Way to Treat a Lady, Part 2. The movie adaptation of the novel is referenced in The Big Bang Theory Episode 23 of season 2 "The Monopolar Expedition".

Jedynym, ale znaczącym minusem produkcji (nie treści) jest dla mnie to, że przy superprodukcjach narracja pierwszoosobowa średnio sprawdza się, bo wprowadza spory zamęt. Each book leaves me with an experience, and more often than not, I end up sharing my opinions of the books. However, I also have to add that when the bad guy was 'revealed' at the end, it wasn't surprising, as I'd already pegged who the villain was - not necessarily because of anything particular I picked up on, but merely because I think I've seen enough movies, and read enough whodunit books, to be able to figure out with a fair amount of consistency who the bad guy is. Alistair Maclean’s strong point is his ability to evoke the tension and adrenalin of men facing seemingly impossible odds.I.6 agent is so clever, wouldn’t he have put the gun back without the firing pin, or somehow disabling the weapon so there was no fear of being shot during the big reveal? Carpenter realizes that not all is what it seems, and there may very well be murderers and espionage afoot!

Also, MacLean may have been influenced by press reports about the nuclear-powered submarine USS Skate visiting Ice Station Alpha, located on Ice Island T-3 in the Arctic, on 14 August 1958, as part of the International Geophysical Year (IGY) . In a strange way Ice Station Zebra has more in common with classic Christie mysteries like "Murder on the Orient Express" and "Ten Little Indians" then the bullet laced thrillers of our own day. A British doctor, Carpenter, arrives at the dock in Scotland where a nuclear submarine, the USS Dolphin, is preparing to sail. There aren’t many tools one can use when describing the inside of a Nuclear sub, or the wide desolate plains of the arctic.On board is Dr Carpenter, a mysterious Englishman, who is tasked with discovering what exactly occurred at the station. Every single glistening drop of bow spray can be seen as it comes pouring over the submarine's surface, caught by a camera strapped to the conning tower. Due to scheduling conflicts, the original cast was no longer available when filming began in the spring of 1967. What ensues is a mixture of submarine adventures (getting trapped beneath the thick arctic ice; danger of implosion when the vessel sinks to untested depths) and spy adventures (a race across the ice to locate the submarine; the discovery there's a saboteur among the survivors.

In 2006, the US National Reconnaissance Office declassified information stating that "an individual formerly possessing Corona access was the technical adviser to the movie" and admitted "the resemblance of the loss of the Discoverer II capsule, and its probable recovery by the Soviets" on Spitsbergen Island. The Gaelic Books Council (Comhairle nan Leabhraichean) is the lead organisation with responsibility for supporting Scottish Gaelic authors and publishers, and for raising the profile and reach of Scottish Gaelic books in Scotland and internationally. On arrival, they find the base almost burned to the ground and the scientists nearly dead from hypothermia. The novel was later very loosely adapted into the 1968 John Sturges film of the same name starring Rock Hudson. The book is a great read, but then I haven't found a single one of Maclean's books that I didn't enjoy.

The sabotage aboard the submarine that nearly resulted in its sinking is based on the loss of the Royal Navy's HMS Thetis in Liverpool Bay in 1939.