Each character on board the Ulysses is faced by near-impossible tests of their physical and mental endurance from all sides. Maclean's masterstroke is to reframe all those conflicts within the immortal one of man vs. enemy, and almost every sailor story has man vs. Almost every war story has the conflict of man vs.

Maclean's use of tension and conflict defines the story. Despite the density of detail, it's highly readable and ruthlessly avoids Dickensian rambles of unnecessary exposition. It's actually somewhat stunning how dense a plot Maclean fits into 450-odd pages while maintaining the pace that he does. This is well balanced as well by brief windows of cold comfort and a few precious moments where both characters and readers are left in awe by what could best be described as the Battle of the Atlantic on Legendary mode. Though the story only covers roughly a week, the rising and falling action spikes up and down like rolling seas - effectively imparting the unpredictable and near-suicidal nature of their mission. His opening chapter with the ship's officers having to explain the crew's borderline mutinous state effectively sets the tone and atmosphere of both the WW2-era Royal Navy and a fighting boat held together only by frayed discipline. The plot of Ulysses is as lean and efficient as the ship in the center of the story. The pacing and structure are near-perfect. Now what is it you ask that makes this novel special? But before the ship can win a respite in the sunny Mediterranean, it must make one last run.

Escorting back to back to back convoys in subzero conditions, where the enemy can attack in force at any time has pushed the crew to the brink of mental and physical collapse. Ulysses is a ship desperately in need of a break. The core of the novel is directly drawn from Maclean's experiences serving on a Dido-class light cruiser on the Arctic Convoys to Murmansk of World War 2. I intend to lay out a brief case as to why I consider this to be a truly gifted and under-appreciated work. Ulysses was his debut novel and is considered by some to be his finest work.

Where Moby Dick focuses on the themes of obsession and revenge, Ulysses focuses on courage: the need for it, what it really is, and what it takes to find it.įor those of you who might not be familiar, Alistair Maclean was a somewhat famous novelist of the 1950s and 1960s who wrote a number of action/war novels that were turned into classic movies like Where Eagles Dare, The Guns of Navarone, and Ice Station Zebra. TL DR: It's kind of like Moby Dick mixed The Cruel Sea with tones and themes similar to Platoon.

Hms ulysses by alistair maclean