James Bond: Icebreaker

 

 

 

 

• Author: John Gardner
• Number of pages: 293
• Pages read: 71

This story is about a secret British agent named James Bond. He is an English spy with a "license to kill". The setting is in many different places, including Finland, Norway, and the United Kingdom.

 

 

Bond reluctantly finds himself recruited into a dangerous mission involving an equally dangerous and treacherous alliance of agents from the United States CIA, the Soviet KGB and the Israeli Mossad. The team, dubbed "Icebreaker", is supposed to work as one but wastes no time double-crossing each other. Their mission is to root-out the mysterious leader of a murderous and dangerous international terror syndicate known as the National Socialist Action Army (NSAA), which the author describes as a modern day neo-Nazi force whose awesome power has the world teetering on the brink of destruction.

 

Characters (So far):

 

James Bond, also known as Agent 007 ("double-'O'-seven"): the main character.

 

Count Konrad von Glöda: the NSAA's leader. The Count used to be known as Arne Tudeer, a one-time Nazi SS officer who now perceives himself as the new Adolf Hitler.  The Count is the mastermind behind a plan to bring-back fascism by targeting communist leaders and supporters around the world. The NSAA is essentially a new wave of fascism (an extreme right-wing, or "ultra conservative" political ideology) which is dedicated to the destruction of communism (an equally extreme, left-wing political ideology).

 

Paula Vacker: a frequent love-interest of Bond's that he frequently visits when in Helsinki, the capital of Finland.

 

Brad Tirpitz: a US member of the Icebreaker team and CIA agent.

 

M: Bond's boss and Head of Mi-6, the secret British government agency for which Bond works.

 

What I really enjoy about this book is that the characters all have something mysterious about them which I look forward to uncovering before the end of the book. Also, I like that the author uses very vivid language.  For example, Gardner describes the mountainous scenery in the background as Bond drives through Scandinavia. He also writes, "a pneumatic hiss" to describe how a submarine hatch closes, which brings to mind not just the sound it makes but the way it works and the power behind it. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who likes action and/or mystery, but especially to anyone who likes them in combination.