19 replies to this topic

[coco1997]

I can't find this book anywhere and I've sort of got an idea of what happens, but I'd like to know more. Would anyone be willing to post a somewhat detailed summary of this book?

[doublenoughtspy]

http://en.wikipedia....breaker_(novel)

[spynovelfan]

http://commanderbond...=Story&SID=2754

[Jim]

Commies
Dead
Snow
Nazis
Madiera
Traitor
Snowplough
Ooh
Boom
Another traitor
More snow
More Nazis
Not a traitor after all
Yet more snow
Ice palace
Hang on - is he a traitor too?
Boom boom
Umm...
Don't understand it
Head hurts
Probably some more Nazis
Might as well have another traitor
Which we do
Or do we?
Snoggage.

[Tarl_Cabot]

Best torture since Casino Royale: a tied up and once again naked Bond being lowered into a frozen lake inside a large tent in mid winter. Yikes. Bond has balls of steel. This has now been officially confirmed.

I loved this book and I wanted it to be 1991's 3rd Dalton film.

[zencat]

Genius, Jim.

(Yes, TC, one of the great torture ideas/scenes.)

[Qwerty]

Definitely one of the better Gardner novels. The wikipedia and CBn's Looking Back... series links above should provide a pretty good teaser of what this one is about.


Although Jim's post above also provides an interesting look at its plot.

[K1Bond007]

Jim is pretty spot on. I would have thrown in a few more remarks about traitors and a gunshot sound effect at the end.

[HildebrandRarity]

I picked up an old beaten up copy at a used bookstore a couple of weeks ago and i'm on chapter 5.

Not bad at all...so far.

[sharpshooter]

Commies
Dead
Snow
Nazis
Madiera
Traitor
Snowplough
Ooh
Boom
Another traitor
More snow
More Nazis
Not a traitor after all
Yet more snow
Ice palace
Hang on - is he a traitor too?
Boom boom
Umm...
Don't understand it
Head hurts
Probably some more Nazis
Might as well have another traitor
Which we do
Or do we?
Snoggage.

[DavidJones]

In the penultimate chapter "Loose Ends", there is WAY too much exposition! My head hurt and it all barely sunk in.

Shame, because on the whole, I though Icebreaker was quite good.

Edited by DavidJones, 08 January 2010 - 03:25 PM.

[AMC Hornet]

Icebreaker remains one of my favorite Gardner Bonds, despite the fact that 007 rarely takes the initiative in this one. He is attacked, briefed, attacked, rebriefed, inserted, double-crossed, captured, rescued, recaptured, rescued again and debriefed, but he is almost never in control of the situation. Still, it was very well written and a great entry in the series.

I found this story and its structure reminiscent of the best of Alistair MacLean (Where Eagles Dare, for example - not the treatments fleshed out by Alistair MacNeil) and a great change of pace from the usual formula.

High Time to Kill (aka A Better Way to Die) had a similar structure, which made it (IMCO) the second best of Benson's canon. There's nothing like curling up in front of a crackling fire with a cup of hot cocao and reading about - or watching - someone else freeze his cojones off.

By all means, read Icebreaker and enjoy.

[Mr. Somerset]

I haven't read ICEBREAKER in 20 years, but I remember it being one of my favorite Gardner Bonds. I loved the torture scene as well.I always felt this one would have made a good Dalton film back in the day.

[Perry]

Jim summed up my 10 year old memories for this one, I really enjoyed the SAAB 900 TURBO with the Magnum or whatever the gun was hidden in the glove box and the snow-ploughs/snow-mobiles/snowiness of it all on the Fin-Rus border? I think thats it. The snowiness really shon through.

Although I did get a bit confused at the age of 12 reading it with all the double-cross/counter-cross goings on, it's said that it's no good if you fully understand a book.

I'm looking forward to reeading this one again.

Edited by Perry, 01 April 2011 - 12:14 AM.

[Jim]

Earlier post edited following a recent re-read

Commies
Dead
Snow
Nazis
Airports
Hotel rooms
Madiera
Airports
Hotel rooms
Traitor
Snowplough
Hotel rooms
Ooh
Hotel rooms
Boom
Another traitor
Hotel rooms
More snow
More Nazis
Not a traitor after all
Yet more snow
Ice palace
Hang on - is he a traitor too?
Boom boom
Umm...
Don't understand it
Head hurts
Probably some more Nazis
Might as well have another traitor
Which we do
Or do we?
Hotel rooms
Airports
Snoggage

Edited by Jim, 01 April 2011 - 07:46 AM.
Edited due to insufficient hotel rooms

[Jump James]

I am intrigued about this “snowplough” aspect.

That post made me laugh out loud Jim, marvelous. You can tell it’s a Friday.

[OmarB]

Icebreaker was the first JG Bond book I read, and loved it. Still in my top 5 Bond novels period (and that includes IF and all the others).

The snowplough scene on the snowed in side road was really thrilling, I'm glad people keep mentioning it. Loved the villain's ice fortress and Bond crossing empty open expanses of ice to get to safety when a gun could ring out from the treeline any moment. Lots of nail biting.

[Jump James]

Any chance of more reviews like this from Jim? Starting with Casino Royale.........

[Dustin]

Nice summary there, fine post.

While IB on closer inspection has some tremendous logic issues - and which of the Bonds, film and book, wouldn't have them? which thriller at all? - it's a perfect example of Gardner at the top of his Bond writing. The carefully measured action, the unusual setting and theme as well as the whole pace of the book all add up to one of the best reads in Bond IMO.

!POSSIBLE SPOILERS!

Perhaps often overlooked here: Gardner once more picks up on an original Fleming idea and gives it its own spin. Somewhere in his notes Fleming wrote down a situation where Bond must kill a fellow agent to remain under cover. Fleming apparently later changed this to the fate of Campbell in OHMSS, where Bond merely wished, Campbell had a death pill. In IB Bond is tortured by the CIA agent Tirpiz, who apparently was one of Gloda's men from the start.
Now we of course know as much as Bond, to us Tirpiz is either a traitor or some nazi who killed the real Tirpiz.

But what about Tirpiz?

If we think for a moment about it, Tirpiz can't be sure Bond isn't aware he's really working for the CIA. Later we learn that M was in on the ruse from the start, and supposedly Tirpiz was aware of this. So he would have no guarantee that M didn't fill in Bond on the details of the Icebreaker team, his own tripple play included. For Tirpiz the only safe solution would have been to keep Bond under water long enough to kill him and put the blame on the minions afterwards.

But then again that would have been a Brad Tirpiz adventure from the CIA blackops files.

[zencat]

Just re-read Icebreaker, Man, what a great book! I think I could make a case that this is the best of all the continuation novels, but I don't have the energy. But, yeah, I really, really enjoyed this book.