I'm very disappointed. I didn't like this book at all. It was really boring and slow, much too much talking and not enough action. Everything seemed so theatrical and crazy, there were so many coincidences and lucky breaks, that I just kept rolling my eyes and couldn't wait to finish reading this book.

I didn't like any of the characters - to tell you the truth, to the very end I couldn't distinguishing two main heroes and even a so-called romance of one of them didn't help me. All those bad guys jumping from every corner were simply ridiculous. Generally, there were definitely too many people in this book, both bad and good, some of them appeared suddenly only to be shot and forgotten a second later. It was messy, annoying and I wouldn't recommend it to anybody.

From my blog: https://dominikasreadingchallenge.blogspot.com/2019/06/athabasca-by-alistair-mac... ( )

Alaska, ca 1980
Geologiske processer har over lang tid skabt olieforekomster. I Athabasca udvindes olien fra tjæresand. Andre steder som fx Prudhoe Bay pumpes den op af undergrunden.
Jim Brady's firma undersøger sabotage i olieindustrien. Hans folk, George Dermott og Donald Mackenzie er store tunge mænd og meget erfarne. De bliver hyret af et olieselskab, der har fået en trussel om at deres olieproduktion vil blive stoppet kortvarigt. Deres rørledning er bygget af et byggefirma Alyeska og Dermott og Mackenzie spørger ind til sikkerhedsforholdene og sikkerhedschefen Bronowski, men synes ikke at den lokale chef Finlayson er samarbejdsvillig, så de smutter igen. Det sker med Jim Bradys fulde velsignelse for deres firma har nok at lave. De flyver videre til Fort McMurray, hvor man udvider olie af tjæresand.
Driftlederen Bill Reynolds er mere imødekommende og imponeret over at de er dukket op på fire timer og ikke fire dage. Han har fået en tilsvarende trussel og anlægget er så stort at det er plat umuligt at bevogte effektivt. De indlogerer sig på det lokale hotel, der er opkaldt efter Peter Pond (1739 - 1807), der kom gennem området i 1778 og beskrev det for første gang, inklusiv det at der kom en tjæreagtig væske op fra jorden nogle steder.
Tilbage i nutiden viser det sig at truslen mod Fort McMurray kom fra Prudhoe Bay og omvendt. Og truslerne er formuleret næsten ens, så de to sager hænger sammen på en eller anden måde. George Dermott og Donald Mackenzie beslutter sig for at Jim Brady hellere må blive inddraget og de tager også Finlayson til nåde igen. Jim Brady kommer til Fort McMurray. Han er smækfed og næsten så bred som han er høj. Han har sin kone og datter med. De bliver vist lidt rundt på den kæmpestore udvindingsfacilitet, der er bygget op helt uden tanke for sikkerhed og hvor de otte sikkerhedsfolk er helt uden chance for at forhindre en sabotør i at stoppe produktionen. De bruger ca 250000 tons tjæresand om dagen, så alt er indrettet på at flytte store mængder materiale hurtigt. Mens Brady og de to andre holder møde med F, kommer der en besked om at to ventiler er sprængt i pumpestation 4 på den store olierørledning, der er endnu større, kostbarere og umuligere at beskytte. Det er sabotage og to mænd på stationen er blevet dræbt. Jim Brady og de to andre tager afsted og mødes med Bronowski.

??? ( )

Subpar. Felt like a ghost writer handled this... ( )

An above average story of sabotage in the northernmost oil-bearing reaches of Alaska and Canada. Not the best by this author, but still an entertaining tale, worthy of a read. ( )

If you want to know what Athabasca is about, check out the back cover, which grimly proclaims, "SABOTAGE!" in bright red letters. This is a tale of two oil facilities -- a pipeline in Prudhoe Bay, Alaska, and a tar sands facility in Fort McMurray, Alberta -- and the threats of sabotage they receive. Strangely enough, the Alaska threats come from Alberta, and vice versa. Jim Brady, an expert in the field of oil sabotage investigation, and his lieutenants, Dermott and Mackenzie, are convinced the threats are connected. They are determined to discover the truth at any cost, even as the body count rises and North America's quest for oil independence is threatened.

On the surface, this is a book seemingly designed to appeal to me. It's a cheesy 1970s thriller by Alistair MacLean (okay, it was published in 1980, but there was still enough 1970s influence), and as a bonus it's set in Canada. However, this is easily my least favourite MacLean, for a variety of reasons.

The first couple of chapters undermined my credulousness when the sabotage investigators, despite being oilmen, had to have the production process explained to them in excruciating expository dialogue, which can be paraphrased as follows:

"Gee, Bob, here I am at your tar sands facility in Fort McMurray, investigating a threat of sabotage. How does your processing plant work?"
"Well, Doug, I'm glad you asked! There are six steps to the process. Let me explain them in as much boring technical detail as possible."

The plot itself was also predictable in places, especially whenever the few women in the story showed up. This story was very much a man's world, with women reduced to the role of secretary, relentlessly cheerful glamour girl or damsel in distress. Granted, there was one scene where a woman played a fairly significant role in rescuing a man from danger, but that was the only really notable scene. As for the men, there were so many of them and they talked in such a similar manner that it was difficult to tell them apart. (Also, correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think Americans typically use the words "lift" or "queue".) And while I did want to find out what happened at the end, I can't say I particularly cared about whodunnit once they were revealed, if that makes any sense.

Were there any good points? Well, the second half really ratcheted up the action. Plenty of peril and fistfights to satisfy the action enthusiast. One scene in particular involving danger at the hands of oil field machinery had me laughing in a horrified manner and exclaiming aloud, "What an a**hole!" And it is kind of a timely book to read these days, given Canada's concerns about the tar sands and the environmental consequences of the extraction activities going on there. I am not sure how much the technical information presented in Athabasca has changed in the intervening decades, so at the very least this book has inspired me to read up on the oil patch and get some more up-to-date information.

Overall, this is not the book to start with if you've never tried MacLean, and if you're picking it up, you should REALLY like the subject matter or be in the mood for picking apart a book. ( )