Maclean's later novels were nowhere near the quality of his early ones, and unfortunately 'Floodgate' is no exception. The heart-pounding action of his classic work is nowhere to be seen. Instead, the protagonists are reactive and passive, and seem to spend most of their time sitting around drinking schnapps. A key plot point involves our hero infiltrating the villians' organisation, largely reducing him to the role of observer. He just sits around and waits for the villians to make their move, then  overpowers them with little difficulty. No drama, no tension, no action.  In fact, although my copy of the book runs past 300 pages, very little of anything actually happens throughout most of the book. Most of the space is taken up with talking, planning, or endlessly repeating how catastrophic the result would be if the villian succeeded.

The problem with these sorts of 'catastrophic' threats is that there's no possibility of them being successful. In Maclean's early books, the threats were often targeted and specific: it's not the end of the world if the hero's ship is sunk in wartime, or gold is stolen, or secret plans fall to the Russians, or a killer remains undiscovered. The possibility of the villian getting away with it sets up the tension and excitement in these books, forcing the hero to push himself to the limit to defeat him. But there's almost no chance of Holland being flooded, or California falling into the ocean, or the Golden Gate Bridge being blown up. The tension just isn't there because we know the villians' threats could never be carried out.

If the boring, talky nature of the book weren't bad enough, it seems Maclean has gone back into 'Last Frontier' mode here. What little momentum the book has is stifled as characters lecture us on how terrible the war in Northern Ireland is, and the responsibility rests on our shoulders, and we can change it for the better, etc, etc. At least 'The Last Frontier' had some good action scenes to compensate....

In all, 'Floodgate' is yet another of his sub-par books from the late 70's and 80's, and a considerable disappointment.
Maclean's later novels were nowhere near the quality of his early ones, and unfortunately 'Floodgate' is no exception. The heart-pounding action of his classic work is nowhere to be seen. Instead, the protagonists are reactive and passive, and seem to spend most of their time sitting around drinking schnapps. A key plot point involves our hero infiltrating the villians' organisation, largely reducing him to the role of observer. He just sits around and waits for the villians to make their move, then  overpowers them with little difficulty. No drama, no tension, no action. In fact, although my copy of the book runs past 300 pages, very little of anything actually happens throughout most of the book. Most of the space is taken up with talking, planning, or endlessly repeating how catastrophic the result would be if the villian succeeded. The problem with these sorts of 'catastrophic' threats is that there's no possibility of them being successful. In Maclean's early books, the threats were often targeted and specific: it's not the end of the world if the hero's ship is sunk in wartime, or gold is stolen, or secret plans fall to the Russians, or a killer remains undiscovered. The possibility of the villian getting away with it sets up the tension and excitement in these books, forcing the hero to push himself to the limit to defeat him. But there's almost no chance of Holland being flooded, or California falling into the ocean, or the Golden Gate Bridge being blown up. The tension just isn't there because we know the villians' threats could never be carried out. If the boring, talky nature of the book weren't bad enough, it seems Maclean has gone back into 'Last Frontier' mode here. What little momentum the book has is stifled as characters lecture us on how terrible the war in Northern Ireland is, and the responsibility rests on our shoulders, and we can change it for the better, etc, etc. At least 'The Last Frontier' had some good action scenes to compensate.... In all, 'Floodgate' is yet another of his sub-par books from the late 70's and 80's, and a considerable disappointment.