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Qwerty is back with a look back at ICEBREAKER on the CBn main page.

Looking Back: Icebreaker John Gardner’s third James Bond novel

Thats another fine article on Gardner. Thank you Qwerty!
Although I never was fond of Gardners double/tripple crosses and found Bond not in an active role in this novel, it still is my favourite Gardner. Somehow he never again came nearer to Flemings style IMHO. Sadly, I must add!

One small thing: the final showdown takes place in Vantaa airport, Helsinki.

Not a favourite of mine. Nazis, snow, unmemorable characters, lifeless prose, *yawn*, why the heck am I not reading a Fleming instead? More twists than a breakdancing battle in 1984, but very little of interest, and virtually nothing of Fleming's Bond. Poor.

It does?

I just checked it out. Berkley International edition December 1983. Bond is still in Helsinki sleeping with Paula Vacker (Hotel Inter-Continental). Paula is sedated while Bond sleeps. Then Kolya wakes him and tells him to come along at gunpoint. To Vantaa airport where Glöda is about to leave Finland.

And yes, Loomis. Every time I read IB I miss something. It seems, Bond is lost or forgotten somewhere along the storyline. Or has lost every grain of initiative he ever had about the moment Rivke is "captured".

This post has been edited by Trident: 3 May 2005 - 16:56

Yup!

Icebreaker is by far my favourite Gardner novel. The MI6-CIA-KGB-Mossad cooperationwas a nice setup. Normaly I don´t like his famous double-crosses (in almost every Gardner bond there is a traitor) ... but this story got you hooked because you didn´t know whom to trust. That was a real "pageturner" for me. Just when you thought you had figured the situation out, everything changes again (because of new character-reveleations).

Doh! For all these years I've rememberd that as taking place in Heathrow. Maybe it's time for a re-read. Cheers, Sir Robert.

Actually Gardner's favorite is The Man From Barbarossa, not Icebreaker. It specifically states it on his website.

Because I've been asked many times I should declare that I think the best of my Bonds is The Man from Barbarossa: it was also Glidrose's favourite, but when we handed it to the American publishers they screamed in agony - "This isn't the mixture as before," they shrieked. Which was exactly what I was aiming for. - Gardner's website

My fault again. I put that under triva (I remember him naming ICE his favorite pre TMFB). I zapped it. Thanks K1Bond007.

Great write-up Devin. I actually wrote John Gardner after reading ICEBREAKER when it came out and got a letter back from him - very nice guy. I'm surprised that TMFB is his favorite.

Can I say what I think of this, or do people know John Gardner personally?

Mess. He's a traitor; no he isn't, she is; no she's not, this other guy is. And he's a Russian. Or is he? Yes he is. No he isn't he's Welsh (I may have given up at this point). Now she's a traitor too.

...or is she...?

A dire portent of things to come. "Neo Nazis, hotel rooms, inexplicable twists, madness" - a seven word review of the entire thirty-eight (or however many there were) Gardner books. If you want a model Gardner book, though, if you want instant Gardner experience - this is it.

I remember the double and triple crosses threw me when I first read Icebreaker in '83. Back then, a double cross seemed a cheap device in James Bond adventure (are you reading this, P&W). But after 13 more Gardner books in which double cross becomes the name of the game, I re-read Icebreaker and actually thought it worked best in this book.