Read it and learn about naval warfare - and about him. Literary path with this brutal war novel. Officers' actions don't ring true there either.)īefore his writing started to follow recognizable patterns, Alistair MacLean forcibly carved out his own Member does - or, more precisely, doesn't do - when ordered to torpedo another ship in the convoy. One jarring example is what a top-notch crew

Occasionally, characters behave in hard-to-believe ways.

A reader unfamiliar with warships will have trouble following some of the descriptions and abbreviations.

The reader feeling as battered as the Ulysses crew.

Realistic though they may be, the seemingly endless series of blows that rain down on this convoy may leave.

While the ending certainly can't be called happy, the book does finish on a poignant, touching note.

Trouble from without and within the ship presents theĬommanding officers with many tough decisions.

Not every crew member is infallible or heroic.He gives a knowing look into the way WWII warships were made and operated.He lingers lovingly over the minutestĭetails of weather, battle strategy, personal character, and all the factors that build into a sprawling naval MacLean exerted all his writing skill in his very first novel.Īs, perhaps, does the seemingly unbeatable German battleship Tirpitz. Blizzards, U-boat torpedoes, and aerial bombardments surely await. Ulysses and itsĬrew to the limits of their legendary luck. Despite severe misgivings - as well as a recent mutinous uprising aboard their ship by desperate sailors -Īdmiral Tyndall, Captain Vallery, and Commander Turner must once again push the H.M.S.

But Russia,įighting the common German foe, urgently needs armaments, so the Royal Navy's top brass orders another convoy to Shepherding an Allied convoy through Arctic weather and German attacks is tantamount to suicide. To be uplifting as well as tragic, this story eloquently depicts warfare's senseless savagery.

MacLean had been part of two Arctic convoys aĭozen years earlier one can only hope they met a far better fate than the one described in this book. It traces the ill-starred voyage of a group of British warships escorting a shipment of tanks,Īmmunition, and oil along the Arctic route from the U.S. Ulysses draws heavily on MacLean's experiences in the Royal Navy during His earliest novel, written at a publisher's request after he'd won a short story competition the Ulysses - as I recently did for the first time (2010) - sharpens one's insight intoĪlistair MacLean. The writings and films of Alistair MacLean - H.M.S.

Hms ulysses by alistair maclean