Icebreaker
by John Gardner
John Gardner's Bond (book 3), James Bond Novels: Continuation Series (20), James Bond Novels (20)
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Bond reluctantly finds himself recruited into a dangerous mission involving an equally dangerous and treacherous alliance of agents from the CIA, the KGB, and Israel's Mossad. The team dubbed "Icebreaker" waste no time double crossing each other, as they try to root out the leader of the murderous National Socialist Action Army, Count Konrad von Gloda, a one time SS officer, who now perceives himself as the New Adolf Hitler.Tags
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Icebreaker by John Garnder is the third James Bond novel the author wrote, and published in 1983. Mr. Gardner was an English novelist, known for his Bond Books, as well as books featuring Sherlock Holmes’ nemesis, Professor Moriarty.
James Bond, agent 007, finds himself in the unenviable position of blindly going on a mission with agents from the CIA, Mossad, and KGB, together dubbed “Icebreaker”. The mission is to investigate the National Socialist Action Army (NSAA), a Neo-Nazi organization, assassinating diplomats and hoarding weapons in Finland.
The head of the NSAA is Count Konrad von Glöda, a former SS officer who thinks is the new Hitler. The goal is to show more bring on a new wave of fascism around the world.
This book, I think, is the best Bond book by John Gardner (this is the third one, and the third I’ve read by him). The action is exciting, Bond joins a multi-national black-ops team and is called upon to stop a Neo-Nazi organization with plenty of resources to worry even the strongest governments.
I found the theme of the solitary Bond trying to be a team player to be an interesting exploration of the character. Of course, the team is a bunch of spies and telling the truth is a foreign concept to them whether they’d like to or not.
Icebreaker contains betrayals upon betrayals which keeps the narrative fresh and exciting. Even the current girlfriend, Paula Vacker, is not who she seems, over and over again.
You can feel Bond’s frustration as he’s being thrown into the field with no one to trust. Except, maybe, Eric Carlsson who trains him how to drive in the Arctic.
The torture scene was very well done and powerful, Ian Fleming would have approved. Unlike other Bond books, this one only has two locations, and not too exotic –no location which Fleming would have liked to vacation at.
Even though, I’d love to go to Lapland one of these days.
Mr. Gardner wrote a book with a plot that is more subtle than anything Ian Fleming ever did, and it works. I’m sure he never thought that this book, whose plot is the rise of fascism, is more relevant today than its original release date. show less
Icebreaker by John Garnder is the third James Bond novel the author wrote, and published in 1983. Mr. Gardner was an English novelist, known for his Bond Books, as well as books featuring Sherlock Holmes’ nemesis, Professor Moriarty.
James Bond, agent 007, finds himself in the unenviable position of blindly going on a mission with agents from the CIA, Mossad, and KGB, together dubbed “Icebreaker”. The mission is to investigate the National Socialist Action Army (NSAA), a Neo-Nazi organization, assassinating diplomats and hoarding weapons in Finland.
The head of the NSAA is Count Konrad von Glöda, a former SS officer who thinks is the new Hitler. The goal is to show more bring on a new wave of fascism around the world.
This book, I think, is the best Bond book by John Gardner (this is the third one, and the third I’ve read by him). The action is exciting, Bond joins a multi-national black-ops team and is called upon to stop a Neo-Nazi organization with plenty of resources to worry even the strongest governments.
I found the theme of the solitary Bond trying to be a team player to be an interesting exploration of the character. Of course, the team is a bunch of spies and telling the truth is a foreign concept to them whether they’d like to or not.
Icebreaker contains betrayals upon betrayals which keeps the narrative fresh and exciting. Even the current girlfriend, Paula Vacker, is not who she seems, over and over again.
You can feel Bond’s frustration as he’s being thrown into the field with no one to trust. Except, maybe, Eric Carlsson who trains him how to drive in the Arctic.
The torture scene was very well done and powerful, Ian Fleming would have approved. Unlike other Bond books, this one only has two locations, and not too exotic –no location which Fleming would have liked to vacation at.
Even though, I’d love to go to Lapland one of these days.
Mr. Gardner wrote a book with a plot that is more subtle than anything Ian Fleming ever did, and it works. I’m sure he never thought that this book, whose plot is the rise of fascism, is more relevant today than its original release date. show less
Bravo to Brilliance Audio and Audible for bringing a set of the John Gardner 007 series to audiobook. I greatly enjoyed revisiting “Icebreaker” and Simon Vance’s narration was (as always) first-rate. The plot that sees James Bond tackle a former SS officer neo-Nazi with dreams of a new Reich takes 007 to Finland and includes a thrilling encounter with a snowplow (villains are always searching for a new and inventive way to dispatch our hero) and a particularly brutal ice torture. “Icebreaker” also includes one of my favorite of the literary heroines in Paula Vacker, and a complete set of rounded secondary characters.
This has been a difficult book to read and I found difficult to follow. This. Much has the feeling of a Cold War spy thriller. That said it doesn’t have much in the way of new or even unique James Bond mythos themes or links. The initial premise is something quite interesting. The cross agency investigation had not previously been done before, and the idea of, working as part of a team when he is so much of a lone wolf could potentially have been very interesting. Couple that with the finish setting, and potentially this could’ve worked. There were some good set pieces, the snowplough sequence for example comes to mind. however, never really takes off and the idea of using bond against resurrected Nazis as opposed to standard Cold show more War henchman or Smosh seems sadly wasted as the moves on. This is an average. However, never really takes off and the idea of using bond against resurrected Nazis as opposed to standard Cold War henchman or Smosh seems sadly wasted as the moves on. This is an average espionage thriller in which bond seems to be going through the motions. I wouldn’t read it again and I think the only completist who wish to get to the end of , John Gardner bond should make a concerted effort to get hold of this and read it. show less
I've only read a few of John Gardner's Bond books, but this was my favorite so far.
(Spoiler, a little)
He did sort of over-do it with all the double-crossing. I think every character was undercover-undercover-undercover, which began to be a little tedious with each new reveal.
(Spoiler, a little)
He did sort of over-do it with all the double-crossing. I think every character was undercover-undercover-undercover, which began to be a little tedious with each new reveal.
Bond reluctantly finds himself recruited into a dangerous mission involving an equally dangerous and treacherous alliance of agents from the CIA, the KGB and Israel's Mossad. The team dubbed 'Icebreaker' waste no time double crossing each other, as they try to root out the leader of the murderous National Socialist Action Army, Count Konrad von Gloda, a one time SS officer, who now perceives himself as the New Adolf Hitler.
Not bad. Very close in style to the books by Ian Fleming. Reasonable story.
I remember reading some Bonds by Gardner as a teenager and this was probably the first one because of the name; in Finland it was named "Mission in Finland". (I can't remember the others, they were all the same.) It didn't leave a lasting impression but I guess it wasn't that bad, either. Just... average.
Hmm... I wonder was it this book whose author thanked Finns for getting his car out of a ditch, twice. The second time they were the border guards at the Russian border.
Hmm... I wonder was it this book whose author thanked Finns for getting his car out of a ditch, twice. The second time they were the border guards at the Russian border.
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When Ian Fleming died and there was talk of finding someone else to continue the James Bond series, it didn't seem to me that this would be very hard to do. The Bond books were amusing and reasonably inventive, but not inimitable. They had good details, a flashy threat, a pretty girl or two, a villain with delusions of grandeur and Bond himself, a smooth practitioner of elementary irony.
When show more Kingsley Amis, surely a competent novelist, wrote a rather boring Bond book, I was surprised. I could only suppose that he was overqualified for the job. Now, with ''Icebreaker,'' his third James Bond book, John Gardner is the established heir apparent. His second effort, ''License Renewed,'' made the best-seller list and he may be irrevocably launched.
But if Mr. Amis was overqualified, Mr. Gardner seems to me to be at the other end of the spectrum. Though he is described on the dust jacket of ''Icebreaker'' as ''one of Britain's most esteemed and successful thriller writers,'' his book strikes me as deficient in many of the basic requirements. I see now why Mr. Fleming is so hard to imitate: though his books were not brilliantly written, they were, like Bond himself, very smooth. What made them so easy to read was an almost complete absence of awkwardness. The illusion of unseriousness was seriously maintained.
Mr. Gardner, however, is all awkwardness. Every time I try to enter into his latest conspiracy we bump heads. It's one thing to accept an improbable plot and quite another to accept an improbable style. I'm willing to suspend my disbelief, but not my affection for the English language. I don't see why, when Mr. Gardner can learn all about the various weapons, machines and intelligence procedures he describes, he can't do a bit of basic research in ordinary narrative technique.
A man who has no talent for describing women, for example, should let them alone. Otherwise, he's guilty of unnecessarily tarnishing their image, which is a grave incivility. Mr. Gardner refers to a woman who possesses ''dark eyes in which a spirit of humor seemed to dance almost seductively.'' ''She was,'' Mr. Gardner says later on, ''at close proximity, a very lovely young woman.'' In an intimate scene, she ''returned from the bathroom looking like several million dollars.''
In conversation, Bond ''gives'' or ''signifies an affirmative,'' instead of saying yes. In a tense moment, he ''dripped acid from each word.'' People, including Bond's chief, the magisterially impassive M, ''snarl'' and ''snap.'' M even coughs, ''playing for time,'' while talking to Bond. Since he has sent for Bond in order to brief him, it's not clear why he should be playing for time, unless Mr. Gardner feels that everybody in a suspense novel has to engage, under all circumstances, in strategic delay. M is slipping in other ways: He asks the same question three times.
The figures of speech in ''Icebreaker'' remind me of the intelligent suggestion some critic made that all figures of speech be removed from language, on the ground that they inevitably debase it. For example: ''Set against Rivke and recent events, Paula appeared suddenly to have feet of melting wax.'' Also: ''Brad Tirpitz's eyes turned to broken glass.''
Even Bond is deteriorating. In his hotel, he is forever ''sweeping'' the room for listening devices, even though he knows that the switchboard too is tapped. Again, Mr. Gardner shows an indiscriminating use of a standard thriller device: Always sweep your room. At the moment of truth, Bond's pistol becomes stuck in the waistband of his trousers. The plot of ''Icebreaker'' is a muddle about a neo-Nazi party. Mr. Gardner has taken too seriously the stories about the duplicity of secret agents, and as a consequence people in the book keep changing sides. It's his favorite, almost his only plot device.
In one of the volumes of his autobiography, Peter Quennell tells an anecdote about Ian Fleming. While visiting him at his country house, Mr. Quennell was asked by Mrs. Fleming whether he was an early riser. When he said that he was, she asked him, if he should be inclined to go outside, not to disturb the dew on the spiderwebs on the lawn. Ian, she said, liked to look at them first thing when he awoke. He was a fastidious man, apparently, and Mr. Gardner ought to study him further. show less
When show more Kingsley Amis, surely a competent novelist, wrote a rather boring Bond book, I was surprised. I could only suppose that he was overqualified for the job. Now, with ''Icebreaker,'' his third James Bond book, John Gardner is the established heir apparent. His second effort, ''License Renewed,'' made the best-seller list and he may be irrevocably launched.
But if Mr. Amis was overqualified, Mr. Gardner seems to me to be at the other end of the spectrum. Though he is described on the dust jacket of ''Icebreaker'' as ''one of Britain's most esteemed and successful thriller writers,'' his book strikes me as deficient in many of the basic requirements. I see now why Mr. Fleming is so hard to imitate: though his books were not brilliantly written, they were, like Bond himself, very smooth. What made them so easy to read was an almost complete absence of awkwardness. The illusion of unseriousness was seriously maintained.
Mr. Gardner, however, is all awkwardness. Every time I try to enter into his latest conspiracy we bump heads. It's one thing to accept an improbable plot and quite another to accept an improbable style. I'm willing to suspend my disbelief, but not my affection for the English language. I don't see why, when Mr. Gardner can learn all about the various weapons, machines and intelligence procedures he describes, he can't do a bit of basic research in ordinary narrative technique.
A man who has no talent for describing women, for example, should let them alone. Otherwise, he's guilty of unnecessarily tarnishing their image, which is a grave incivility. Mr. Gardner refers to a woman who possesses ''dark eyes in which a spirit of humor seemed to dance almost seductively.'' ''She was,'' Mr. Gardner says later on, ''at close proximity, a very lovely young woman.'' In an intimate scene, she ''returned from the bathroom looking like several million dollars.''
In conversation, Bond ''gives'' or ''signifies an affirmative,'' instead of saying yes. In a tense moment, he ''dripped acid from each word.'' People, including Bond's chief, the magisterially impassive M, ''snarl'' and ''snap.'' M even coughs, ''playing for time,'' while talking to Bond. Since he has sent for Bond in order to brief him, it's not clear why he should be playing for time, unless Mr. Gardner feels that everybody in a suspense novel has to engage, under all circumstances, in strategic delay. M is slipping in other ways: He asks the same question three times.
The figures of speech in ''Icebreaker'' remind me of the intelligent suggestion some critic made that all figures of speech be removed from language, on the ground that they inevitably debase it. For example: ''Set against Rivke and recent events, Paula appeared suddenly to have feet of melting wax.'' Also: ''Brad Tirpitz's eyes turned to broken glass.''
Even Bond is deteriorating. In his hotel, he is forever ''sweeping'' the room for listening devices, even though he knows that the switchboard too is tapped. Again, Mr. Gardner shows an indiscriminating use of a standard thriller device: Always sweep your room. At the moment of truth, Bond's pistol becomes stuck in the waistband of his trousers. The plot of ''Icebreaker'' is a muddle about a neo-Nazi party. Mr. Gardner has taken too seriously the stories about the duplicity of secret agents, and as a consequence people in the book keep changing sides. It's his favorite, almost his only plot device.
In one of the volumes of his autobiography, Peter Quennell tells an anecdote about Ian Fleming. While visiting him at his country house, Mr. Quennell was asked by Mrs. Fleming whether he was an early riser. When he said that he was, she asked him, if he should be inclined to go outside, not to disturb the dew on the spiderwebs on the lawn. Ian, she said, liked to look at them first thing when he awoke. He was a fastidious man, apparently, and Mr. Gardner ought to study him further. show less
added by DarrenHarrison
James Bond in Finland and Russia--for more of the same, just colder. This time Gardner's neo-Bond (who's less vividly characterized with every book) is sent by M to join three other agents--a CIA man, a KGB man, and beauteous Rivke of Israel's Mossad--in an action against the NSAA, a neo-Nazi group that has been responsible for heaps of recent terrorism. The plan? To catch the NSAA in the act show more of getting arms supplies . . . which are coming from Russia, of all places, near the Finno-Russian/Arctic-Circle border. But Bond suspects that the operation is not quite what it seems to be. First off, Rivke (not her real name) turns out to be the daughter of the old Finnish Nazi who's rumored to be the NSAA mastermind! Moreover, the KGB guy is clearly up to no good. And what about Bond's Helsinki girlfriend Paula: is she a neo-Nazi too? So it goes, with the requisite bursts of techno-violence (lethal snow-plows, snow-scooters, etc.), kidnaps, grenades, mild smirks of sex, double-crosses, triple-crosses (can Bond even trust M himself), and a final dollop of missile warfare. And though the formula is tired beyond belief, the scenery's nice, the pacing is competent--and the readership has proven to be uncommonly loyal. show less
added by DarrenHarrison
In Icebreaker, as indestructible as ever, Bond is back in another mission—a deadly assignment undertaken in cohort with Bond’s opposite numbers from the United States, the Soviet Union, and Israel in the desolate Arctic wastes of Lapland. Yet if resurgent fascism is the common enemy, who is really to be feared? Is it the breezy American or the voluptuous Israeli who is acting as a double show more agent? Are the Finns merely using Bond to break the KGB's stranglehold on their tenuous national autonomy? Never has Bond encountered such an unnervingly deceitful bunch of collaborators or been subjected to such a bewildering series of potentially lethal shocks. show less
added by DarrenHarrison
Author Information
68+ Works 9,147 Members
Awards and Honors
Distinctions
Series
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Common Knowledge
- Canonical title
- Icebreaker
- Original publication date
- 1983
- People/Characters
- James Bond; M; Paula Vacker; Rivke Ingber; Count Konrad Von Glöda; Brad Tirpitz (show all 7); Kolya Mosolov
- Important places
- Finland
- Dedication
- For Peter Janson-Smith
- First words
- The Military Trade Mission Complex of the Socialist People’s Republic of Libya is situated some fifteen kilometres south-east of Tripoli.
- Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)He woke around dawn, then drifted into sleep again. This time, as always when content, he dreamed of Royale-les-Eaux. As it had been.
- Original language
- English
- Disambiguation notice
- Q & Miss Moneypenny do not appear in this book.
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- 655
- Popularity
- 43,869
- Reviews
- 10
- Rating
- (3.18)
- Languages
- 7 — Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German, Norwegian (Bokmål), Spanish
- Media
- Paper, Audiobook, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 31
- ASINs
- 22
