Where Eagles Dare [Import] [Paperback]

Alistair MacLean (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: HarperCollins; New e. edition (September 5, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 000722642X
• ISBN-13: 978-0007226429
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (47 customer reviews)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of my favorite MacLean's still a page turner, November 9, 2004

By 

Darren Harrison "DVD collector and reviewer" (Washington D.C.) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Where Eagles Dare (Adrenaline Classics) (Paperback)

Growing up in the UK my reading material was an eclectic mixture of Enid Blyton children's adventure novels, Ian Fleming and John Gardner espionage tales and Alistair MacLean wartime escapades. It was in this environment that my love for well crafted tales of suspense, adventure and espionage was fostered and nowhere is this more apparent than in the MacLean thriller WHERE EAGLES DARE.

Second among my favorite MacLean works (my all-time favorite being WHEN EIGHT BELLS TOLL) the storyline for WHERE EAGLES DARE was faithfully recreated for the 1960s movie with Richard Burton and Clint Eastwood (not surprising really since MacLean adapted his own novel for the screen).

A group of British Commando's along with an American Ranger parachute behind the German lines in World War 2. Their stated mission: the rescue of an American General who has been captured by the Nazi's and taken to a mountaintop fortress.

Of course like many I had seen the movie several times before finally settling down to read the book, but settle down I did and what a ride MacLean treated us to. The action is well described with white-knuckle realism and MacLean's complex and intricate plotting is both well structured and compelling. For those unfamiliar with either the book or the novel there is also a nice twist that to this day has me marveling at its pure ingenuity.

Okay so the dialogue may not be the best, but I for one do not read MacLean novels for their dialogue.

For adventure novels, MacLean is the master as much as Agatha Christie is the Queen of the whodunnit. I wish that the entire series of novels would be reprinted for a new generation to enjoy.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Just too unbelievable!, July 24, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Where Eagles Dare (Mass Market Paperback)

I have read Ice Station Zebra and the Guns of Navaronne, and enjoyed them both. But I found this book just too farfetched. The Allied agents wander aroung Gestapo headquarters barely running into any Germans, even thought the Germans know they are in the area. Those they happen to bump into come one at a time and are easily subdued, and tied up in too convenient hiding places. Could you imagine Russian spys wandering around CIA headquarters or US spies strolling down the hallways of KGB headquaters without being seen or noticed. The good points of the book are a plot that keeps you guessing on exactly what is going on. But I guess I expect better from MacLean. As for the previous complaint that Helicopters did not exist in WWII, the Germans developed the FW 61 Helicopter in 1937, which in 1938 maintened an altitude of 11,000 for 1 hour and 20 minutes. So in MacLeans defense, maybe his research was not that bad.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I read this 20+ years ago and still recommend it to friends!, December 3, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Where Eagles Dare (Mass Market Paperback)

This book falls under the category of one of my all time favorites (as does Alistair MacLean fall into the category of one of my favorite authors). I particularly enjoyed it as I was living in Germany and visited so many of the places mentioned -- it seemed real to me.