The Strode Venturer


I'm not sure that the plot hangs together - it seems to me unlikely that the discoveries made by Peter Strode will turn around the fortunes of the company, at a time of a decline in British shipping in general. This leaves a feeling at the end of the novel that it has been unconvincing, despite some excitement. Sep 19, Malcolm rated it liked it Shelves: The Strode Venturer shares many of the elements of Solomon's Seal , a failing shipping line operating in isolated territories, a feud between members of a family an exotic island setting and a group of people seeking to gain their independance form a government they see as oppressive.

The Strode Venturer was written first. H The Strode Venturer shares many of the elements of Solomon's Seal , a failing shipping line operating in isolated territories, a feud between members of a family an exotic island setting and a group of people seeking to gain their independance form a government they see as oppressive.

However, the parallels go further with the character of the drunken has-been ship's officer, who at a moment of crisis can once again rise to the occasion and take command, changing the direction of the events. Otherwise this novel follows the typical Hammonnd Innes formula: I was inclined therefore to see this as a little "been there, done that", but the description of the island is some of Innes' best writing and the abandoning of the mining crew on the island gives the novel the tension it needs.

Aug 01, Ian added it. The blurb at the front claims "this could be Innes' finest book yet. Utterly dull and boring until about two thirds of the way through, when for a few pages it becomes mildly interesting, only to return to dull and boring for the remainder of the book.

  1. Baile de Damas III - Las siete damas (Spanish Edition)!
  2. Mystery and Manners: Occasional Prose (FSG Classics).
  3. KIRKUS REVIEW.
  4. See a Problem?;

The problem is, Innes writes brilliantly about the sea, not so brilliantly about boardroom wrangles, takeover bids, etc Feb 08, Alan Bolton rated it liked it Shelves: I like almost everything by Hammond Innes! This one was one of his best! I loved the dual story of a board room tussle together with a huge sea adventure!

  1. Navigation menu.
  2. The Strode Venturer!
  3. The Vampire Hunters Daughter: Part IV: Divided?
  4. Simplify Social Media for Recruiting: A Step-by-Step Handbook for Implementing Social Media.
  5. radio plays drama,bbc,The Strode Venturer, by Hammond Innes, DIVERSITY website.
  6. THE STRODE VENTURER by Hammond Innes | Kirkus Reviews.
  7. The Strode Venturer by Hammond Innes (1965);

He writes stories exactly the way I like them! Sep 12, Margareth rated it liked it Shelves: Reasonable but not to his normal standard. Of personal interest - I spent a year on Gan in the Maldives.

Questions?

David Mckenzie rated it liked it Nov 29, Howard rated it it was amazing Aug 25, Dallas rated it liked it Apr 23, John Smyth rated it liked it Dec 30, Kate rated it liked it May 22, Brian rated it really liked it Jan 31, Darren rated it liked it Nov 16, Rob rated it liked it Oct 19, Grey rated it it was ok Jan 03, Philip S rated it really liked it Apr 12, Stuart Greig rated it really liked it Aug 04, Robert MacIver Watson rated it liked it Sep 07, Joe Smith rated it really liked it Jul 15, Bjorgvin Kemp rated it really liked it May 23, Sue Law rated it it was amazing Jan 07, Anthony rated it liked it Nov 24, Shawn rated it it was ok Jan 13, Mark Bradley rated it it was amazing Sep 29, Greg rated it really liked it Jun 05, Unsourced material may be challenged and removed.

December Learn how and when to remove this template message. Retrieved from " https: Articles lacking sources from December All articles lacking sources Pages to import images to Wikidata All stub articles.

Top Authors

Views Read Edit View history. This page was last edited on 12 July , at By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. There is the narrator, head wound and half-conscious, half-drowned, with no way of alerting the crew to his whereabouts, watching his one hope of safety burst into flames and burn.

THIS is the kind of scene Innes conceives and describes with tremendous power. All morning clouds had been building up to the south of us, great convoluting mushroom growths standing like stacks along the horizon and constantly changing shape. Shortly after lunch the northerly breeze died away. It became suddenly very humid, and standing in the doorway leading to the foredeck, I could see a great toppling mass of cloud leaning over us.

The sun vanished, huge raindrops fell singly, large as coins, and the surface of the sea began to dance as though struggling to reach up to the water still prisoned in the sky above. Lightning stabbed and instantaneous thunder clapped a great peal of noise onto the stillness; and then suddenly white water below the blackness of the cloud, a tooth-white line that grew broader and broader as it bore down on us until it stretched from horizon to horizon with the sea behind it all boiling.

Then the wind hit us with screaming force and the ship heeled. The RAF send out Shackleton airplanes to search the area but there is no sign of the island.

Hardback Editions

The Strode Venturer is a thriller by British author Hammond Innes published in Plot[edit]. Geoffrey Bailey returns to London, leaving behind a career in the . The Strode Venturer has ratings and 10 reviews. James said: The book equivalent of watching an old black and white movie with a good bottle of red wi.

The official assumption is that the same volcanic activity which raised this couple-of-mile-long stretch of seabed above the surface, has sunk it again and Peter and his labourers have drowned. Here, the completely different world of City firms and shareholder meetings are described with just as much thoroughness and attention to detail as the Indian Ocean scenes. You might not be entirely surprised to learn that, after days of looking, they find him and it.

Bestselling Series

Bailey, on board the Strode Venturer , had heard radio reports of the approach of a small flotilla of Adduan dhonis or native boats. In the final pages we learn that a Royal Navy ship is nearby and steaming directly for them and so it becomes a race to see whether Adduans or Brits will be first to land, raise a flag, and claim the island. The Navy arrive a few hours later, accept the situation, land a small party for security, then the Adduans get down to loading the manganese ore into their boats to tranship to the Strode Venturer… and Peter Strode?

Paperback Editions

His magnificent obsession finally fulfilled, his friends the Adduans in possession of this new land — he and Bailey go aboard the Royal Navy frigate… and sleep. And the final pages conclude the saga of the boardroom struggle which has been running in parallel with the foreign narrative for the length of the book — one of the most sustained and factually accurate descriptions of boardroom battles that I know of.

In other words, a business triumph! And nine months later they fly out to Singapore so she can smash a champagne bottle against the prows of a new Strode Venturer as she is launched. Innes characters all come across as more or less the same type of white middle-class professional men, often Army, Navy or merchant marine, sharing the same s, late-British Empire values. Practical men living in a practical world. An aspect of this is that in other thriller novels the protagonist is clever and has a plan — or multiple plans — which are shared with us or which we enjoy deducing — and this process of deduction is part of the pleasure of the text.

The Hour Of The Dragon by Robert E. Howard

They are not susceptible to reason or argument or change. This lack of conformity to modern thriller practice helps explain why The Strode Venturer is no longer in print and why I picked up my copy in a second-hand bookshop for just 10p. The sun was falling now towards the west and I stayed there, watching the sparkle of it on the water until it sank into the sea and the sky turned fiery red, a flaming furnace glow dyed purple at the edges.

Then, suddenly it was night… p.