Enjoyable Hammond Innes thriller sets in London, Maldives and at sea. Underwater volcanoes create an island which is claimed by Maldives. Good stuff ( )

The Strode Venturer is a story about boardrooms, shipping vessels, and Indian Ocean intrigue. I appreciated how the author gives you enough information to draw you into unfamiliar territory yet not so much to leave you floundering in your ignorance of the realms described within. It's never boring, has enough action to keep you enthralled, and just a bit of personal relationships. This was my second read of a book by this author, but won't be the last. ( )

Hammond Innes published The Strode Venturer about the time I was reading Nordhoff and Hall's Bounty Trilogy. For some time thereafter, I would reread Nordhoff and Hall's novels on the Bounty every year (when I read them again a couple of years ago, I realized how much went past me as a youngster and how intricate and impressive the trilogy really was). I mention Nordhoff and Hall because The Strode Venturer is in the same tradition. Where Nordhoff and Hall, writing in the years after World War I, picked up on Melville's and Stevenson's adventures in isolated and unexplored oceans, Innes set his tale in the early 1960s and told of a seaman fighting against corrupt authority and tradition, while battling the most basic elements of nature, all in order not only just to survive but to triumph.

That is what happens in this story set mainly in the Indian Ocean, centered around the discovery and claim of a newly born volcanic island. The island is not only a redemption for Geoffrey Bailey, a retired naval commander whose life is in tatters, but for the people of Addu Atoll, who see in the island a means of regaining independence and the preservation of their traditional way of life.

Like Melville and Nordhoff and Hall, Innes' novels have a classic quality to them. Their stories only seem stronger and more appealing with the passage of time. Why? Because while Innes admits the presence of the modern world into his novels, the essence of them is about isolating men (and sometimes women) from the security of modernity and testing them against the raw forces of nature. Sometimes, it is the desert. More often, it is the sea. He belongs to a tradition of fiction stretching back to writers obsessed with the South Seas. Even further, you can see the influence of Defoe and Robinson Crusoe and, in another context, Moll Flanders. For unlike characters in other of Innes' novels I have read, the author seems to inhabit Bailey. Bailey, indeed, stands mostly by himself, here. Other characters only sweep into his narrative to escape once more like a visiting comet. Even, Ida, the sister of Peter Strode, who launches Bailey on his quest, appears only at the margins. And this while she is falling in love with Bailey. ( )

March, 1963. Looking back through my diary, as I begin this account of the strange means by which the prosperity of the company I now serve was founded, I find it difficult to realize that there was a time when I had never been to the Maldives, had scarcely ever heard of Addu Atoll. The island we now call Ran-a-Maari had only recently been born the night I flew into London from Singapore.

So begins this mid-20th century naval/boardroom adventure. Commander Geoffrey Bailey of the Royal Navy is at a crossroads in his life, poised to retire from his commission and return to England. A series of events sweeps him into the affairs of Strode Orient, the company that had taken over his father's shipping line three decades earlier. He can secure a position in the company by locating the wayward Strode brother whom he met several years earlier overseas. His search takes him to the Maldives, where he finds Peter Strode involved in a secret project with the citizens of Addu Atoll. Bailey follows Peter Strode into a dangerous, uncharted region of the Indian Ocean where he will discover the secret that Strode is so closely guarding. Bailey must also stand his ground against an opposing faction in the London boardroom of the Strode corporation. This proves to be nearly as dangerous as his ocean adventure.

This thriller is representative of the postcolonial era that saw the fragmentation of the former British empire into independent states. I'm not a frequent science fiction reader/viewer, but I did watch Star Trek regularly as a child. The section of the book in uncharted waters has a similar feel to a Star Trek episode, with shore parties stranded and in need of rescue. A transporter would have come in handy. Recommended for readers who enjoy vintage thrillers. ( )

Considering 21st century events such as tsunamis, earthquakes and particularly the "island" that recently appeared off the coast of Pakistan, this book turned out to be surprisingly topical. One of the Strode brothers discovered a newborn island in the Indian Ocean that is mostly formed of manganese. He plans to use his family shipping company to mine and export the ore for the benefit of the people of the Maldives. Meanwhile, back in London a boardroom war is waging. Innes' description of ships and ocean conditions are particularly knowledgable and interesting. After a somewhat slow start in London, the story picks up speed and fills with suspense and excitement. ( )