 Front and back cover from Fawcett Crest paperback edition | |
| Author | Alistair MacLean |
|---|---|
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | War novel |
| Publisher | Collins |
| Publication date | 1968 |
| Media type | Print (Hardcover) |
| Pages | 255 (1969 Fawcett paperback) |
| ISBN | NA |
| Preceded by | Where Eagles Dare |
| Followed by | Puppet on a Chain |
Force 10 from Navarone is a World War II novel by Scottish Alistair MacLean published in 1968. It is a sequel to MacLean's very popular 1957 The Guns of Navarone, but in terms of plot continuity chooses to follow the also popular 1961 film adaptation, such as including characters who were in the film but not in the book, although it dispenses with the film's major altered back-story.
Plot introduction
Force 10 From Navarone begins immediately after the events portrayed in The Guns of Navarone, with Captain Keith Mallory and Corporal Dusty Miller assigned on a new mission code-named "Force 10". Mallory and Miller return to Navarone to recruit their comrade Andrea Stavros (who stayed behind in the film, but not in the book). They are then joined by three young British Royal Marine Commandos, led by the brash Sergeant Reynolds, and are parachuted into Nazi-occupied frozen, war-torn Yugoslavia. There they attempt to aid the Yugoslav Partisans in their battle against the Nazi German occupiers and Chetnik collaborators. As usual with MacLean, all things are not quite what they seem, but action is focused on an attempt to demolish a strategically important bridge over the Neretva River in Bosnia and Herzegovina that is the key to a planned German offensive.
Literary significance & criticism
Force 10 From Navarone was commercially very successful, spending five months on the New York Times Bestseller List and being chosen as a Literary Guild Alternate Selection.
Film, TV or theatrical adaptations
The novel was adapted into the 1978 film Force 10 from Navarone, directed by Guy Hamilton and starring Robert Shaw, Harrison Ford, Barbara Bach, Edward Fox (actor) and Franco Nero. The book and the movie shared little other than title.
Works by Alistair MacLean | |
|---|---|
| Novels: | HMS Ulysses (1955) ♦ The Guns of Navarone (1957) ♦ South by Java Head (1957) ♦ The Last Frontier (1959) ♦ Night Without End (1959) ♦ Fear Is the Key (1961) ♦ The Dark Crusader (1961) ♦ The Golden Rendezvous (1962) ♦ The Satan Bug (1962) ♦ Ice Station Zebra (1963) ♦ When Eight Bells Toll (1966) ♦ Where Eagles Dare (1967) ♦ Force 10 From Navarone (1968) ♦ Puppet on a Chain (1969) ♦ Caravan to Vaccarès (1970) ♦ Bear Island (1971) ♦ The Way to Dusty Death (1973) ♦ Breakheart Pass (1974) ♦ Circus (1975) ♦ The Golden Gate (1976) ♦ Seawitch (1977) ♦ Goodbye California (1978) ♦ Athabasca (1980) ♦ River of Death (1981) ♦ Partisans (1982) ♦ Floodgate (1983) ♦ San Andreas (1984) ♦ Santorini (1986) |
| Short story collections: | The Lonely Sea (1985) |
| Non-fiction: | All about Lawrence of Arabia (1962) ♦ Alistair MacLean Introduces Scotland (1972) ♦ Captain Cook (1972) |
