Athabasca

If you want to know what Athabasca is about, check out the back cover, which grimly proclaims, "SABOTAGE!" in bright red letters. This is a tale of two oil facilities -- a pipeline in Prudhoe Bay, Alaska, and a tar sands facility in Fort McMurray, Alberta -- and the threats of sabotage they receive. Strangely enough, the Alaska threats come from Alberta, and vice versa. Jim Brady, an expert in the field of oil sabotage investigation, and his lieutenants, Dermott and Mackenzie, are convinced the threats are connected. They are determined to discover the truth at any cost, even as the body count rises and North America's quest for oil independence is threatened.

On the surface, this is a book seemingly designed to appeal to me. It's a show more cheesy 1970s thriller by Alistair MacLean (okay, it was published in 1980, but there was still enough 1970s influence), and as a bonus it's set in Canada. However, this is easily my least favourite MacLean, for a variety of reasons.

The first couple of chapters undermined my credulousness when the sabotage investigators, despite being oilmen, had to have the production process explained to them in excruciating expository dialogue, which can be paraphrased as follows:

"Gee, Bob, here I am at your tar sands facility in Fort McMurray, investigating a threat of sabotage. How does your processing plant work?"
"Well, Doug, I'm glad you asked! There are six steps to the process. Let me explain them in as much boring technical detail as possible."

The plot itself was also predictable in places, especially whenever the few women in the story showed up. This story was very much a man's world, with women reduced to the role of secretary, relentlessly cheerful glamour girl or damsel in distress. Granted, there was one scene where a woman played a fairly significant role in rescuing a man from danger, but that was the only really notable scene. As for the men, there were so many of them and they talked in such a similar manner that it was difficult to tell them apart. (Also, correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think Americans typically use the words "lift" or "queue".) And while I did want to find out what happened at the end, I can't say I particularly cared about whodunnit once they were revealed, if that makes any sense.

Were there any good points? Well, the second half really ratcheted up the action. Plenty of peril and fistfights to satisfy the action enthusiast. One scene in particular involving danger at the hands of oil field machinery had me laughing in a horrified manner and exclaiming aloud, "What an a**hole!" And it is kind of a timely book to read these days, given Canada's concerns about the tar sands and the environmental consequences of the extraction activities going on there. I am not sure how much the technical information presented in Athabasca has changed in the intervening decades, so at the very least this book has inspired me to read up on the oil patch and get some more up-to-date information.

Overall, this is not the book to start with if you've never tried MacLean, and if you're picking it up, you should REALLY like the subject matter or be in the mood for picking apart a book. show less

Athabasca - Alistair Maclean ****

Athabasca is mystery whodunit set in the wilds of the Alaskan Oilfields. Two very different oil companies are receiving threats of sabotage, yet no demands have been met. Enter Jim Brady enterprises to investigate. Jim and his 2 employees Mackenzie& Dermott are the kind of tough talking operatives you would expect to be sent to such a harsh environment.

Expect a proper mans book, with fighting, explosives and hard drinking galore. Many other reviews have criticised the slow movement of the plot, however, for me the pages flew by. All characters were rounded with the funny descriptions typical of Maclean.
When the action comes it is thick and fast, although a bit of an understanding of the oilfields would show more help. A number of times I had to Google images (draglines etc.). This is not a very suspenseful book, with some guilty parties glaringly obvious, but the novel flowed smoothly enough.

All in all a good read, not up there with his best but still worth a look. show less

I'm very disappointed. I didn't like this book at all. It was really boring and slow, much too much talking and not enough action. Everything seemed so theatrical and crazy, there were so many coincidences and lucky breaks, that I just kept rolling my eyes and couldn't wait to finish reading this book.

I didn't like any of the characters - to tell you the truth, to the very end I couldn't distinguishing two main heroes and even a so-called romance of one of them didn't help me. All those bad guys jumping from every corner were simply ridiculous. Generally, there were definitely too many people in this book, both bad and good, some of them appeared suddenly only to be shot and forgotten a second later. It was messy, annoying and I show more wouldn't recommend it to anybody.

From my blog: https://dominikasreadingchallenge.blogspot.com/2019/06/athabasca-by-alistair-mac... show less

An above average story of sabotage in the northernmost oil-bearing reaches of Alaska and Canada. Not the best by this author, but still an entertaining tale, worthy of a read.

Not MacLean's best but good nevertheless. The short length ensures that you can breeze through it in a few hours.

Subpar. Felt like a ghost writer handled this...

Exciting thriller