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A review by paul_cornelius
The Blue Ice by Hammond Innes
4.0
Having just finished a couple of Innes' early World War II novels, The Trojan Horse and Wreckers Must Breathe, what is most striking about The Blue Ice, Innes' fourth postwar novel, is how much of a leap the author has made as a writer between 1940-41 and 1948. Just before The Blue Ice, Innes had also published The Lonely Skier, perhaps best considered as his breakthrough novel. At any rate, in both books, the storytelling is not only tight, the pace and reveals of the plot are intense. It's clear that Innes has hit his stride and figured out an adventure/thriller formula that works. He would follow it for the most part for the rest of his life.
Here, the story is of Bill Gansert, whisked away from his job and intended early semi-retirement, to go on a mission to find George Farnell, who has disappeared into the frozen glaciers and mountains of Norway. This is largely Farnell's story, told indirectly by Gansert. And once again, Innes is borrowing from the pattern that established this technique in Conrad's Lord Jim, the ur-text of modern adventure fiction. Also present: the intimate coterie of fellow adventurers who gradually crack and reveal their cowardice, bravery, greed, lust, sadism, and madness. Gansert is literally at the center of a maelstrom of powerful personalities and lit up emotions intent on revenge or redemption.
Here, the story is of Bill Gansert, whisked away from his job and intended early semi-retirement, to go on a mission to find George Farnell, who has disappeared into the frozen glaciers and mountains of Norway. This is largely Farnell's story, told indirectly by Gansert. And once again, Innes is borrowing from the pattern that established this technique in Conrad's Lord Jim, the ur-text of modern adventure fiction. Also present: the intimate coterie of fellow adventurers who gradually crack and reveal their cowardice, bravery, greed, lust, sadism, and madness. Gansert is literally at the center of a maelstrom of powerful personalities and lit up emotions intent on revenge or redemption.