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    North Star
    North Star
    North Star
    Audiobook10 hours

    North Star

    Written by Hammond Innes

    Narrated by Jack Hrkach

    4/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    North Star is an old rig, too old for the appalling weather in the North Sea. The massive environmental damage its destruction could cause would be unthinkable. Why would anyone think of sabotaging it?
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRecorded Books, Inc.
    Release dateOct 28, 2011
    ISBN9781461810940
    North Star
    Author

    Hammond Innes

    Hammond Innes (1913–1998) was the British author of over thirty novels, as well as children’s and travel books. Born Ralph Hammond Innes in Horsham, Sussex, he was educated at the Cranbrook School in Kent. He left in 1931 to work as a journalist at the Financial News. The Doppelganger, his first novel, was published in 1937. Innes served in the Royal Artillery in World War II, eventually rising to the rank of major. A number of his books were published during the war, including Wreckers Must Breathe (1940), The Trojan Horse (1940), and Attack Alarm (1941), which was based on his experiences as an anti-aircraft gunner during the Battle of Britain. Following his demobilization in 1946, Innes worked full-time as a writer, achieving a number of early successes. His novels are notable for their fine attention to accurate detail in descriptions of place, such as Air Bridge (1951), which is set at RAF stations during the Berlin Airlift. Innes’s protagonists were often not heroes in the typical sense, but ordinary men suddenly thrust into extreme situations by circumstance. Often, this involved being placed in a hostile environment—for example, the Arctic, the open sea, deserts—or unwittingly becoming involved in a larger conflict or conspiracy. Innes’s protagonists are forced to rely on their own wits rather than the weapons and gadgetry commonly used by thriller writers. An experienced yachtsman, his great love and understanding of the sea was reflected in many of his novels. Innes went on to produce books on a regular schedule of six months for travel and research followed by six months of writing. He continued to write until just before his death, his final novel being Delta Connection (1996). At his death, he left the bulk of his estate to the Association of Sea Training Organisations to enable others to experience sailing in the element he loved.

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    Reviews for North Star

    4/5

    21 ratings2 reviews

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    • 5/5
      North Star - Hammond Innes *****I have read a few Hammond Innes books over the past few years and always enjoyed them. I love the settings he chooses to write about (mostly the sea or icy locations) as he always manages to bring them to life for the reader. North Star is no exception, with the majority of the novel set against the backdrop of the Shetland Islands and North Sea.What is it about?Michael Randall is a man with a past, formerly an industrial activist he once witnessed an act of violence and now must decide on how to act. He resolves to leave his old way of life behind him and throws himself into the restoration of a recently wrecked trawler, however his old associates soon find him and in an attempt to apply pressure they makes things extremely awkward both inside and outside the law. Soon lives are at risk and decisions must be made. Michael Randall isn’t a particularly likeable person, he is a loner and often has a personality as changing as the weather that surrounds him, but he must face his demons and battle not just the enemy, but nature as well.What did I like?Innes is one of those writers that possess an ability to pack a lot of technical information into a book and yet not slow down the speed of the novel. It is obviously very well researched and although a lot of the technology used has since been eclipsed it really didn’t take anything away from the novel. Oddly enough I read this book while cruising through the North Sea, it made me realise just how brilliant his descriptions of nature really are, he can look at a wave and through his writing make the reader view it in a totally different light. The action when it comes is never over the top and nothing is sensationalised for the sake of a shock. What didn’t I like?I suppose my only issue with the book was that the content seems to have dated quite badly. We are no longer in a time of mass industrial action or in a time when people had to work or didn’t eat (at least in the UK). It appeared odd to me the reasons behind the various acts of sabotage, but a little bit of background reading made it mostly fall into place.Would I recommend? Definitely, this is my 3rd book by the author and I really can’t wait to get stuck into the next one. If you are a fan of action stories with a bit more depth than the normal offerings, you will love Innes.
    • 4/5
      I read Innes's The Wreck of the Mary Deare on 31 May 1998 and was so impressed by it that I thought I should read something more by him. This isnot as good a book as that, but it does have an exciting finish. It deals with an oil rig near the Shetland Islands, and is full of technical authenticity, as well as good descriptions of the Shetland area. The central character is not too admirable a man but one is yet hopeful he will suvive the awful storm which concludes the book. The book has good things to be said for it but it did not live up to my hopes.