Book Post 2
Jan. 8th, 2006 06:26 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
melwilBook 3: No Highway by Nevil Shute
"I've got to tell you what I know. If you don't turn back to England now and do what I say about the engine, we'll probably all be killed."
I never thought I'd gobble up a 1948 book about flight engineering. But then, considering my history with Nevil Shute, I really shouldn't be surprised.
Nevil Shute was the author of the first 'grown up' book I ever read - A Town Like Alice when I was nine. My love for that book is eternal, and has been added by a love of On The Beach, but I haven't really been able to get into some of Shute's other books.
Until this one. It tells the story of Theodore Honey; a quiet, unsociable man, widowed during the second world war and trying to bring up a young daughter. He's quite brilliant - not only in the area of fatigue in planes (which is the focus of the book) - but also in 'stranger' areas, such as 'spirit reading'. When he is sent off from England to Canada to examine a wreckage of a Reindeer plane, he discovers that he is flying in a rather unsafe version of the same plane. So he decides to ground it. Dramatically.
Nevil Shute's books, although technical, are all about the characters. Honey is joined by a strong group - from his young daughter, to the pilot of the plane, to the young air hostess and aging actress who both foster quiet affection from the man. The story is told by Dr. Dennis Scott - Honey's boss - which is one of the techniques I love about Nevil Shute books.
Although this wasn't a thriller or action novel by any stretch of the imagination - I found myself holding my breath during important meetings, and at key moments. I stayed up way later than intended to get it finished.
So on my scale of 1-5? A 4.5. I did put it down once or twice, but I really didn't want to - especaially towards the end.
Engines of our Ingenuity
Booklog 2003: No Highway
"I've got to tell you what I know. If you don't turn back to England now and do what I say about the engine, we'll probably all be killed."
I never thought I'd gobble up a 1948 book about flight engineering. But then, considering my history with Nevil Shute, I really shouldn't be surprised.
Nevil Shute was the author of the first 'grown up' book I ever read - A Town Like Alice when I was nine. My love for that book is eternal, and has been added by a love of On The Beach, but I haven't really been able to get into some of Shute's other books.
Until this one. It tells the story of Theodore Honey; a quiet, unsociable man, widowed during the second world war and trying to bring up a young daughter. He's quite brilliant - not only in the area of fatigue in planes (which is the focus of the book) - but also in 'stranger' areas, such as 'spirit reading'. When he is sent off from England to Canada to examine a wreckage of a Reindeer plane, he discovers that he is flying in a rather unsafe version of the same plane. So he decides to ground it. Dramatically.
Nevil Shute's books, although technical, are all about the characters. Honey is joined by a strong group - from his young daughter, to the pilot of the plane, to the young air hostess and aging actress who both foster quiet affection from the man. The story is told by Dr. Dennis Scott - Honey's boss - which is one of the techniques I love about Nevil Shute books.
Although this wasn't a thriller or action novel by any stretch of the imagination - I found myself holding my breath during important meetings, and at key moments. I stayed up way later than intended to get it finished.
So on my scale of 1-5? A 4.5. I did put it down once or twice, but I really didn't want to - especaially towards the end.
Engines of our Ingenuity
Booklog 2003: No Highway
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no subject
on 2006-01-08 03:20 am (UTC)no subject
on 2006-01-08 03:21 am (UTC)