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paul_cornelius's review against another edition
5.0
Some critics dismiss Hammond Innes' novels as being mere adventure tales, stories with no character development. This assessment is not only unfair, it's absolutely wrong. North Star provides ample evidence of that. In fact, you can see examples of strong character development in most of his other novels as well, excepting perhaps those written during the first years of World War II. What happens with his protagonist, here, Mike Randall, however, is a gradual maturing. From political nitwittery and childish indecision to moral commitment and decisiveness. That is the story of North Star. The background noise of political espionage and terrorism is just that, background noise. In this instance, Innes even foregoes his sometimes unfortunate tendency to inflict a tidy romantic ending on things, although such is alluded to as being just around the corner in the final page or two.
Also at work here: Randall is the clear hero of this story. There is no off centering of story advancement to someone other than the main narrator of things. Too, by 1972-74, Innes is becoming more and more concerned with nature conservancy and what might be termed by some today as environmentalism. In the future, that preoccupation would cloud some stories and make the books weaker. But here it is a tangible and workable part of the storyline, not intrusive, and, in fact, necessary for bringing Randall out of the bookish world of playing with ideas to experiencing the solid consequences of his actions, instead of his words and dreams. That Innes did this while endorsing the large scale buildup of Britain's North Sea oil industry is all the more impressive.
Also at work here: Randall is the clear hero of this story. There is no off centering of story advancement to someone other than the main narrator of things. Too, by 1972-74, Innes is becoming more and more concerned with nature conservancy and what might be termed by some today as environmentalism. In the future, that preoccupation would cloud some stories and make the books weaker. But here it is a tangible and workable part of the storyline, not intrusive, and, in fact, necessary for bringing Randall out of the bookish world of playing with ideas to experiencing the solid consequences of his actions, instead of his words and dreams. That Innes did this while endorsing the large scale buildup of Britain's North Sea oil industry is all the more impressive.
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