PARTISANS While Tito’s rebel forces resist occupation, the Germans infiltrate and plan their destruction. PARTISANS Three Yugoslavs set out from Rome to relay the German battle plan - but their loyalties lie elsewhere. PARTISANS A dangerous journey with dangerous companions -where no one is who they seem -where the three find intrigue and betrayal around every corner...
--This text refers to the
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
Review
'A magnificent storyteller' Sunday Mirror 'The most successful British novelist of his time' Jack Higgins 'Alistar MacLean is one of the few people writing today who has a story to tell.' Daily Express
--This text refers to the
Paperback
edition.
About the Author
Alistair MacLean, the son of a Scots minister, was brought up in the Scottish Highlands. In 1941 he joined the Royal Navy. After the war he read English at Glasgow University and became a schoolmaster. The two and a half years he spent aboard a wartime cruiser were to give him the background for HMS Ulysses, his remarkably successful first novel, published in 1955. He is now recognized as one of the outstanding popular writers of the 20th century, the author of 29 worldwide bestsellers, many of which have been filmed.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Lots of Fun - A MacLean Classic,
By richard_t "richard_t" (Overseas) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Partisans (Hardcover)
MacLean delivers another fun adventure in this 1983 yarn about a World War II espionage mission. Pete Peterson and his motley crew of maybe-Chetniks maybe-Partisans cross Italy and Yugoslavia to deliver a message and unmask a double agent. The characters are MacLean classics: beautiful patrician women, evil assassins, stalwart companions, and a glib and brilliant hero. The plot meanders through the confusion of Yugoslavia's three-way civil war while under Italian and German occupation. A fun adventure, a light read, a real Alistair MacLean classic.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
A Plot That Goes Splat,
By
This review is from: Partisans (Hardcover)
"Partisans" is one of those disappointing adventure novels that build up a nice head of steam before crashing into a wall.
During World War II, a Yugoslavian agent under apparent German command takes a team of compatriots deep into his native country, where Italian, German, and their Cetnik "allies" watch each other as suspiciously as they do their Partisans foes. The agent, Petersen, has a message to deliver, though what that message is and who he has to deliver it to is a mystery. What makes "Partisans" enjoyable is the leisurely way it begins, with much circuitous banter and some dark doings on darkened city streets and aboard an Italian torpedo boat. You know Petersen can't be working for the Nazis, but what about those with him? Who can he trust? Who can we trust? One settles in expecting a variant of the commando tales MacLean famously presented in such books as "The Guns Of Navarone" and "Where Eagles Dare," though laced with a welcome sardonic edge courtesy of Petersen. Agreeing an attempted assassination against them was committed by amateurs, Petersen adds: "But the effect of an amateur bullet can be just as permanent as a professional one." Or take his impression of an Italian officer he meets: "He's reasonable, personable, smiling, open-faced, has a firm handshake and looks you straight in the eye - anyone can tell at once that he's a member of the criminal classes." As the novel goes on, you begin to realize it isn't going anywhere, that the banter is all you will get. The plot advances only because Petersen and his group keep getting captured by various forces who then leave them unharmed, which Petersen explains is part of his mysterious plan. A rotund pal drinks alcohol by the quart, while another keeps a strange, surly silence. A couple of women along for the trip call Petersen a "monster," then break into tears over such things as having to ride a pony over a mountain. More annoyingly, one never is able to work out what Petersen is up to until the end of the novel, at which point he explains it all to you and his comrades in such a roundabout way none of it makes much sense. Maybe he was having a poke at the au currant thrillers of the time. When "Partisans" was published in 1983, MacLean was struggling with a form of novel he helped popularize but which had been picked up by more sophisticated writers like Frederick Forsyth and Ken Follett, who jammed labyrinthine storylines into books twice as large as MacLean's. Of course, MacLean's simpler stories could be quite wonderful, too, but here we are handed a plot so convoluted no one could understand it. Even the flap jacket for the original hardcover describes a story with little resemblance to what's in the book. That's a shame, because "Partisans" has the makings of a good tale, with interesting characters and a charged background of multiple, conflicting loyalties running riot in an exotic locale. MacLean throws a lot of plates in the air, and you wonder how he is going to get them all down. Then he surprises you by letting them crash to the floor.
2.0 out of 5 stars
Forgettable in every way,
By
This review is from: Partisans (Mass Market Paperback)
While not quite plumbing the depths of the awful 'Goodbye California' or the boring 'Santorini', it's fair to say that 'Partisans' is one of Maclean's weakest books, and yet another example of his late-career decline. Despite returning to WW2, where some of his classic works were set, Maclean just cannot capture the magic this time around. Unlike his taut, fast-paced early thrillers, this a very loose, lightweight book that goes nowhere. It's the sort of book that's instantly forgettable; it's easy enough to read, but leaves no impression whatsoever once you've finished it. Years on, I still vividly remember the heart-pounding climaxes to 'The Satan Bug', or 'Fear Is The Key', or 'Puppet On A Chain'. But almost nothing sticks in my mind from 'Partisans', apart from an interesting torture scene involving a lethal injection, and the fact that everybody changes sides at least twice.
All the usual late-career Maclean flaws are here. The impossibly brave and capable hero Peter Petersen, the "heroines" who are actually utterly clueless damsels in distress, the clumsily handled "no-one is really who they seem" plot twists. Despite being set in wartime Yugoslavia, the book is very talky and slow moving, with almost no action at all. In fact, very little of interest happens at all throughout the book, it's mostly the characters trading one-liners and complaining about being left in the dark by Petersen. There's certainly no sense of the bigger picture of the fate of Yugoslavia and the progress of the war itself. 'Partisans' is not a "bad" book in the way 'Goodbye California' was, and it's readable enough. But it's nowhere near what Maclean was capable of, and will be a huge disappointment to fans of his early work. Newcomers should stick to his 50's and 60's stuff, and leave this one alone.
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