This has many elements that make it a good Alistair MacLean thriller. A plane crash, hostile terrain, a medical man for a protagonist, a closed circle of suspects. I was shivering with cold just reading it. Most of the characters had a chance to play a key role in the story, even the women (as much as is possible in these older thrillers). It’s not top of my list for favourite MacLeans, but it’s definitely just outside the podium. ( )

Indeholder "1. Søndag kl 24.00 - mandag kl 01.00", "2. Mandag kl 01.00 - mandag kl 02.00", "3. Mandag kl 02.00 - mandag kl 03.00", "4. Mandag kl 09.30 - mandag kl 18.00", "5. Mandag kl 18.00 - mandag kl 19.00", "6. Mandag kl 19.00 - tirsdag kl 07.00", "7. Tirsdag kl 07.00 - tirsdag kl 24.00", "8. Onsdag kl 04.00 - onsdag kl 20.00", "9. Onsdag kl 20.00 - torsdag kl 16.00", "10. Torsdag kl 16.00 - fredag kl 18.00", "11. Fredag kl 18.00 - lørdag kl 12.15", "12. Lørdag kl 12.15 - lørdag kl 12.30".

Et flystyrt på indlandsisen. ??? ( )

Gripping tale of survival in a harsh environment, with some intrigue and "who-done-it?" mixed in, with quite good results.

Solid book by the author, and definitely recommended. ( )

So, this one just made me want to go get closer to my woodstove! Wow! BBRRRRRR!!!!! The horror of the realization of what was transpiring and where was truly unsettling....and as always, those cool-headed normal guys that suddenly find themselves embroiled in crisis and have to step up and become super heroes, endure unbelievable suffering to try to save the day. That is a quality that we all secretly aspire to be capable of, but truly question whether it would be so, if we were so unlucky to find ourselves in this story. I thoroughly enjoyed not being able to figure out who the villains were or why they were so persistent until brought out near the end. Oh well, this helped me keep my Maine woodstove going longer than normal into spring which saved me money on heating oil.....i kept stoking it while i finished the book, stuggling to stay warm! And while i do enjoy the adventure of these guys battling unbelievable odds to survive, the unbelievable part of it probably keeps me from giving a higher rating. And the ending of this was a bit of an abrupt brick wall...no time to decompress....it was just over! If i have made this sound unappealing, that is not my intent....i enjoyed it a lot....it was just a bit unsettling, not bad. Give it a whirl.....but keep a blanket nearby! ( )

Alistair MacLean was phenomenally successful as a writer of adventure stories. Starting in the late 1950s and then continuing throughout the 1960s and 1970s, he published at least one novel each year, and they all sold in huge numbers. Many of them were made into films (often featuring screenplays used by MacLean himself), including The Guns of Navaraone (and its woeful sequel, Force 10 from Navarone), Where Eagles Dare, Puppet on A Chain, When Eight Bells Toll, Ice Station Zebra and The Satan Bug.

[Night Without End] was one of his earlier books and displays a lot of the characteristics that were to become MacLean's trademarks - a fast, driving plot, resolute and virtually indestructible lead characters, and an ice-bound setting. Another MacLean trait to which this book can lay claim is the almost complete absence of female characters.

The novel opens with an airliner crashing in the Arctic Circle, fortunately coming down close to a research base undertaking a project as part of the United Nations International Geophysical Year (IGY) research programme. Members of the research team battle through the dreadful conditions to find the wreckage, and are able to rescue the survivors. The pilot of the plane was among those who died, though the rescuers see that he had actually been shot. As the survivors are brought back to the research camp, an apparent accident befalls the radio set which provides the only link with the outside world …

I read, and enjoyed, nearly all of MacLean's novels in my early teens back in the mid-1970s, one after another in that almost obsessive way that adolescent boys strive to complete a set. I was, therefore, intrigued when I saw a copy of this book going very cheaply while I was in Scotland on holiday, and thought it would be fun to read it again.

Sadly, it has not aged well. Naturally, more than fifty years since it was first published, the context seems wholly unfamiliar now, but I was struck by how stilted the dialogue was, and how two-dimensional the characters all were. Not one character demonstrates any hint of emotion or sentiment, and even Mason, the narrator-hero, lacks any empathetic traits. He does capture the setting very well - he always manages to convey arctic scenes very deftly - but the novel now seems to lack cohesion and plausibility. Ah well, I won't make that mistake again! ( )