Customer Reviews

High Citadel

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4 star:		(1)
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I read High Citadel about 17 years ago, but I remember it well because it was soo good. A plane crashes high in the Andes, but that's just the start of the action as the shaken survivors must resist attack, by improved means. Suspicion of a traitor in their midst grows. The story continues at a tremendous pace. This was the first Bagley book I read. In the next 3 years, I read all of them.

'High Citadel' established at an early stage what would become a common thread through Desmond Bagley's early thrillers (e.g 'Wyatt's Hurricane' and 'The Vivero Letter').

* A group of well-developed protagonists instead of a single hero.

* Circumstances forcing the protagonists into the middle of someone else's conflict.

* Extreme environmental conditions in additon to a defined "enemy".

* The group becoming separated from each other, forcing them to find their colleagues in addition to fighting the environment and their enemy.

Bagley brings these elements together superbly in what is a masterpiece of the genre. When a plane is forced down in the Andes, the passengers (a washed up pilot, two businessmen, an ex-president, his bodyguard and his niece, a school teacher, and two academics) are forced to battle altitude sickness, freezing temperatures, and a band of Communist geurillas blocking their descent. Through a combination of brains and brawn, can the passengers defeat the Communists and escape the mountain?

The best thing about this novel is that every character plays an important role. The pilot O'Hara seems cast in the traditional hero mould, but it's Dr Armstrong and Dr Willis with their medieval weapons, and Miss Ponsky and her archery skills, who really steal the show. The side-story involving Forester's quest is another highlight- he could almost be described as the true hero of the piece. In all, some very well-developed characters who each possess a skill or trait useful for getting the group off the mountain.

Most of the usual thriller cliches are present; bad guy Communists, character sacrifices himself to save the remainder, beautiful girl becomes love interest, and so on. But Bagley's thrillers have a bit more depth and realism to them, and the variety of great characters capture our interest from first page to last. This is one of Bagley's best books; highly recommended for all thriller fans.

Written some time ago now, I read this in my teens after my Dad handed it to me and said 'I couldn't put it down, read this'. Being a good son, I did as he asked. I'm glad I did.

A plan crashes high in the Andes, high enough that oxygen is a problem. People are dead and injured. People are _not_ who they say they are. Everyone has a past. Gathering people together, our intrepid hero gets the survivors down to a mining camp, where they discover the bridge is out. Conveniently, a convoy is on the other side. Shame they're there to kill a member of the party, and everyone else to avoid witnesses. What follows is one of the tensest, tightly scripted series of action sequences ever. Holed up on one side of the gorge, holding off the determined bridge builders with limited weapons and ammunition, including a homemade crossbow, built from materials snafled from the abandoned mining camp, the party get whittled away by disease, hunger and attrition. Their hopes rest on a small number who have voluntered to climb the other side of the mountain looking for help.

Buy this book.

In common with a couple of other reviewers, this book was my first meeting with Desmond Bagley. At that time Alistair Maclean was generally more popular, but "High Citadel" was probably better than Maclean's best. Most of Bagley's books are short of action, but this one wasn't. A pity that most of his books are not that good. The exceptions may be Running Blind, Freedom Trap and The Enemy. In common with Maclean and other authors, he tailed off towards the end. However, this remains a great introduction to anyone who hasn't read his other books.

I first read this book fifteen or so years ago and even then it was old (it was first published before I was born, in 1965). I recently came across the book in a charity shop and thought I'd have another read as I remember it being an exciting and enjoyable story.

It was - and is - and I was glad to read it again. Like many books written decades ago, parts seem a bit old-fashioned, such as the portrayal of women (one character, whose name we know, is often referred to as `the girl'). I also found it interesting to read a book written at the height of anti-communist feeling as the story has a thread running through it of trying to thwart a group of communists who are trying to take over a South American country; the communists are portrayed like animals, not humans, and they are the worst thing that can happen. The European view of communism just doesn't feel like that now and the portrayal seems a bit over-the-top.

What's great about this story is the variety of characters and the situation in which they find themselves - stranded high up a mountain after a plane crash and threatened by an armed group of communists. The way in which the motley group of plane passengers arm themselves to fight back is brilliant, as is the description of a group of three making their way across a mountain pass in appalling weather and with hopeless kit. There's a lot of action and excitement in this story which is always gripping.

I did feel that the author was less successful in characterisation. We meet a variety of different people and they are convincing but the way in which they change isn't always so. There is a rather stereotypical ridiculous American chap and there are a few plot events which feel a bit too unlikely (the theft of a fighter jet, for example) but overall I really enjoyed this story and felt it was a little out of the ordinary compared to lots of action books.

Desmond Bagley was a great writer of exciting down to earth adventure books where the heroes are ordinary people thrown into extraordinary situations.

In the book, the lead character is a down on his luck pilot drowning his sorrows in the bottle and trying to forget the traumas from the Korean war. He gets the chance to fly a group of people across the Andes but is forced to crash land the plane.

Turns out that there are outside forces wanting someone on the plane. The basis of the book is whether the group can hold off the people who want to kill the passenger.

It is a good and solid read from a master of the genre. Recommended as a great weekend read. Could have been made into a movie.

This was the first Bagley book I got my hands on, and I still get a thrill out of it every time. Stick a rag-tag group in a perilous situation and watch them struggle against impossible odds. If only more authors could write this well.