Customer Reviews

Force 10 from Navarone

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I read _Force 10_ before I read _Guns_, and loved them both. They're genre pieces, and there are predictable elements of plot and character, but if you take that for granted, they fulfill your expectations very well. _Force 10_ lacks the classic, simple story of _Guns_, but has a wonderful combination of humor and action, as well as a truly stunning climax. There seems to have been some revisionist history between the publication of the first book and the sequel -- Dusty Miller is inexplicably altered (for the better) from an unbelievable, constantly drawling American to an elegant and unflappable Brit (a bit reminiscent of John Steed from the Avengers). There IS a woman in this book -- not Ripley, admittedly, but she does more than look pretty and get rescued (yeah, she does that too).

In "Force Ten from Navarone", author Alistair Maclean reunites us with the three main characters from "The Guns of Navarone" just after the completion of their desperate commando mission in the Greek Isles of the Second World War. However, there is no rest for the exhausted heroes, who are promptly launched on another mission by their boss in the British Special Operations Executive.

Reinforced by a group of young British Commandos, the new team is parachuted into Nazi-occupied Yugoslavia and right into the midst of a three way conflict between the Germans and several Yugoslav factions who are also engaged in a civil war. The team's mission is to traverse the war-torn country, navigating between the warring factions, and destroy a huge dam that is the key to a planned German offensive.

The heroes from Navarone are world-weary, and wary, warriors compared to the young and enthusiastic commandos with whom they are teamed, but all will have to pull together if they are to survive a series of betrayals and mishaps. Maclean has provided a typically twisted plot that produces surprises and suspense to the very end. Maclean's excellent and sardonic dialogue is matched with a good sense of place for war-torn Yugoslavia. This novel is infinitely more entertaining than the movie of the same title starring Harrison Ford and Robert Shaw, with which it shares not a whole lot more than a title.

This book is highly recommended to fans of Alistair Maclean, and to readers looking for an entertaining novel.

Unlike other reviewers, I found the plot confusing and unfocused.

I think MacLean rushed a first draft into print too soon.

Not recommended.

This is a strange book. The sequel novel ties in partly to the movie, with some of the characters, but pretty much sticks with the backstory and other information found in the Guns of Navarone.

As such, it is a bit on the problematic side, and definitely not anywhere as tense, exciting or well done.

I thought the original was a better book, this book seems to me to leaven on the first one too much. Overall it is a fine effort from the author, it keeps up a good pace and the facts are correct. If I had it over again I probably would have not read it and moved on to something else.

This is a great sequel to "The Guns of Navarone". Our threee original heros are back and better than ever. This book has everything, suspense,intrigue, and a nice twist at the end. If you like Maclean, you'll love this book. Defintely one of his best works.

Alistair Maclean is one of my favorite authors. His story lines are usually fairly realistic with lots of action and plenty of fun dialogue. This story, takes the cake... I loved the Guns of Navarone, so I thought a sequel would be great. Unfortunately, Alistair relied to much on the fact that this was a sequel and failed miserably in the areas of plot, dialogue, and realism. This book, if it had been realistic, might have been a really good book. However, I found myself thinking, "This isn't real. I can't picture that," the whole book!

If you're bored and have nothing to do, it's fine. But if you have a choice between this and something else, do the something else.

This book isn't really a sequel to MacLean's novel of "Guns of Navarone", but in actuality the book was written to continue the events in the film adaptation of "Guns".

It directly mentions characters and events who were in the film but not the novel.

For example:

-Miller is a Brit like in the film of "Guns", instead of an American like he was in the novel.

-Andrea was never called "Stavros" in the book of "Guns", but was in the movie. In "Force 10" he is called Andrea Stavros.

-At the begininning of the novel "Force 10", Andrea is with the girl Maria he ended up with in the film, the character Maria was not in the novel of Guns.

A few posters had expressed confusion in their comments about the differences between the two novels. Hope this explanation will clear it up.

Force 10 From Navarone is a pretty good sequel to the original Guns of Navarone. Actually, its a pretty good thriller novel in its own right. It combines, humor, action, suspense, intrigue, well drawn characters and a well thought out plot to result in a compulsive page turner.